Journal of Literary Education is a refereed, peer reviewed, electronic journal for those interested in the study and development of Literary Education. Its readership comprises practitioners, teacher educators, librarians, researchers and both undergraduate and graduate students. Journal of Literary Education offers educators a forum for debate about this discipline from a broad perspective. General issues and special issues are published.

Call for Papers

CFP Good Practices in Literary Education

The classroom can be a safe place for students to not only talk back,

but to affirm their right to a place in the world

Linda Christensen

The fourth thematic issue of JLE focuses on Good Practices in Literary Education. It is undoubtedly true that teachers have not stopped searching for good, better or new practices, aspiring to enhance the literature instruction for their pupils. The search for good practices in literary education is as old as the teaching profession itself. It has always been a matter of importance for every in-service or apprentice teacher to find and employ methodologies to draw students into the territory of literature and to inspire a positive attitude toward reading; to combine theory with practice, seeking to encourage more active and meaningful encounters with literature; to create a learning environment in the classroom with each and every student at the very center of it. How and in what ways can teachers protect every child’s right to talk, think of and write about literature without being bored but gaining pleasure by the experience? How do teachers design and implement teaching approaches to literary texts that allow students to participate in the act of meaning-making as active and responsible readers? In what ways can students construct knowledge themselves rather than simply receive it from teachers? How can they be more confident to discover the “power of literature” (Scholes 1985), its multiple and various voices and to dwell in learning situations long enough to wonder?

We call for articles that focus on teaching strategies, lesson ideas and activities for the classroom that has demonstrated their effectiveness in literature-based instruction. We welcome contributions that highlight the mutually supportive ways in which theory and practice offer important options in the reading and teaching of literature; options that together can enliven, extend and deepen student’s encounters with literature, encouraging them to respond to literary texts in an active and enthusiastic way.

We invite papers related to the overall theme of the issue as described above. Potential research areas include, but are not restricted to:

• Research and empirical studies on different aspects of reading, responding to, and teaching of literary texts.
• Curricula, syllabi design units, project-based activities, strategies and instruction plans for literature.
• Communication and learning in reading/interpretative classroom communities
• The question of assessment: to grade or not to grade students’ papers.
• Mixed-media approaches to literature.
• Literary Education and Digital Culture / Teaching literature with digital tools.
• Teaching popular culture along with classic literature.
• Approaching, teaching or destabilizing the “canon” in literature.
• Creative writing projects and activities for the literary classroom.
• Teaching literary elements (characters, plot, setting, point of view, narrative techniques, etc.).
• Re-imagining and envisioning literature in the classroom.

Articles submitted before 30th April will have priority for th 4th issue.

References

Christensen, L. (2009). Teaching for Joy and Justice. Re-imagining the Language Arts Classroom. Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools Publications.

Langer, A.J. (2011). Envisioning Literature: Literary Understanding and Literature Instruction. Second Edition. New York and London: Teachers College Press.

Scholes, R. (1985). Textual Power: Literary Theory and the Teaching of English. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Tzina Kalogirou, Xavier Mínguez López and  Catalina Millán