War in the Classroom:A Qualitative Model for the English Literature Classroom

This disseration, War in the Classroom: A Qualitative Model for the English Literature Curriculum shows how war and trauma – past and present – are a pervasive presence in pupils’ lives. This book proposes how secondary school teachers can overcome their anxieties about discussing sensitive topics such as war in the classroom. Rather than ignore these, it is important for the teacher to foreground these calamities and connect them to canonical and non-canonical multimodal literature in their classrooms. This disseration outlines how the forces in society, politics, and science aim to establish calm control in and of the conflicting world we live in. Each of these force fields seek out schools, as they are one of the last strongholds of collective memory and bastion of shared culture that can affect this. This book shows how teachers can empower themselves vis-à-vis the force fields’ influence by accepting the central role they play in maintaining and preserving society’s collective cultural memory. Teachers have an obligation to overcome their anxiety to act and engage with humanity’s violent past and present. This disseration will help them to do so. Though its focus is on English literature, this book is also valid for teachers of other subjects, such as Dutch, French, and German language and literature, and to a lesser extent history and social sciences. It is an answer to the widespread and urgent call for value-driven education. This book shows how current curricula can be reshaped in such a way that they accommodate and incorporate the concerns and demands of society, science, and politics. It shows that English literature, part of a larger English language and culture curriculum at secondary schools in the Netherlands, and war narratives specifically, is an appropriate platform to addressing the wider social, political, and scientific picture, involving current global conflicts. This dissertation suggests a multimodal approach to literature in the classroom and analyses poetry, prose, movies, and blogs; chronologically tracing art that has sprung from the ashes of the major wars of the 20th and 21st centuries, World Wars I and II, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, and the War on Terror. Doing so broadens the required curricula extensively, moving beyond the remit of what is required of modern language and literature teachers in the Netherlands. However, this book shows that a different, more creative and expansive design of the (language) curriculum is urgently needed, to rise up to the increasing demands upon teachers, and the challenge of involving society’s pressing issues of citizenship at schools, as well as being forerunner to the general curricular overhaul in the Netherlands. This book is aimed to function as a flywheel to achieve this. It suggests an extensive re-draft of the English language curriculum, emphasising the importance and strengthening the position of literature and literature education in schools. Ultimately, the broad range of literary classroom interventions this dissertation describes culminates in a qualitative literary model for the English literature curriculum, as formulated in the conclusion. This is meant to serve as a guideline for the teacher-reader of this book in their ambition to design their own literary interventions. This book aims to motivate teachers to explore similar pathways, such as taking students on excursions to Ypres, venturing away from Owen to more diverse, non-canonical war poetry in the classroom (chapter 2), moving beyond Anne Frank’s diary and visiting Bergen-Belsen with pupils (chapter 3), or as inspiration to putting Vietnam War Movies on the curriculum in troublesome classes (chapter 4), or even inviting a veteran to the classroom (chapter 5)

A CONTACT ZONE (A STORY FROM AN ENGLISH LITERATURE CLASSROOM IN PADANG)

This article explores my role as an English literature teacher working within the globalizing pressures of the Western knowledge invested in the IR 4.0. It partially takes the form of an autobiographical narrative in which I reconstruct moments that have shaped my professional identity. I apply storytelling not only as a way to speak back‘ to the hierarchical structure of power perpetuated in English (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin, 1989; Parr, 2010) but also a way to speak back to my own habitual practices as a teacher in a university in Padang. Switching between English, Bahasa Indonesia and Minang, my account reveals my efforts to give meaning to my work. It concerns, rather, how English constitutes our worldproviding us with a heightened awareness of language in the contact zone‘ (Pratt, 1991), where we can use language without being ruthlessly subject to it. This has meant negotiating a pathway between the imperialist baggage of English, the nationalist project of Bahasa Indonesia, and the values of community and belonging associated with Minang language. Rather than offering a conclusion, my story remains open, revealing my continuous attempts to allow the young people in my care to understand themselves- who they are and who they will become?Keywords: autobiographical narrative, a contact zone, storytelling, to speak bac

INTEGRATION OF FACEBOOK MESSENGER IN THE ENGLISH LITERATURE CLASSROOM: LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate learners’ attitudes and perceptions toward the integration of online discussion forum via Facebook Messenger into the EFL/ literature classroom.  Methodology: For this research, a convenience sampling method was used to collect 45 samples through a questionnaire to gauge learners’ attitudes and perceptions of using the online discussion forum for learning the literature from those who are incorporated for group discussions on the course’s prescribed novel, Lord of the Flies. The research data was analyzed for descriptive statistics using SPSS version 20. Main Findings: The results of the experimental study revealed that the respondents’ positive attitudes towards the integration of ODF (Overall Mean = 4.03, SD = 0.84) and perceptions on the effects of online discussion forum on learning the novel were revealed (Overall Mean = 3.99, SD = 0.87). Thus, this study proposes an online discussion forum as an invaluable element to enhance the teaching of the literature component in the EFL classroom. Applications: This study proposes ODF as an invaluable element to enhance the teaching of the literature component in the EFL/ ESL classroom based on the learners’ positive attitudes and perceptions. It is conducted at the University of Anbar in Iraq. Undergraduate EFL learners who were enrolled in the English language course at the Department of English, College of Education for Humanities participated in the study. It can be used by literary students, from universities and other literary centers. Novelty: Industrial revolution 4.0 requires a shift from face-to-face lecture approach to a technology-enhanced environment whereby learners can take responsibility for their own learning through collaboration, critical discussion, and negotiation. Taking up this challenge, online discussion forum (ODF) via Facebook Messenger was first introduced into the EFL literature classroom at the University of Anbar, Iraq to replace the predominantly used traditional approach

Textual space and its importance to school ethos and cultural pedagogy

This paper theoretically demonstrates the potential of textual space in making an important contribution to school ethos and cultural pedagogy. It demonstrates how culturally-inclusive (representational) textual space can be expanded throughout the school and could contribute to social justice and decolonisation efforts beyond the English Literature classroom. This is increasingly important in an age of culturally and politically securitised schooling, where government control exercised at the macro-level (colonial/neoliberal education policy) and micro-level (teaching and learning; the enactment of the formal curriculum) reproduces cultural inequality. This paper therefore argues for textual space in the English Literature classroom to be appropriated as a representational, dialogical, historical and connected space (in opposition to neoliberalism’s decontextualising and atomising agenda) for real-world political action and the democratisation of cultural production within the wider school environment

Teaching Literary Reading for Transfer: Hugging and Bridging Designed

As researchers are looking for different strategies to reform on a straightforwardly presented instruction in the English literature classroom, the specific ends of teaching literature for transfer are sometimes neglected. That does not mean transfer is not valid in a literature course, but teachers should design a course persistently and systematically enough to foster transfer. This study revisits the hugging-bridging framework to explore the instructor methods in a literary reading course and suggests creative writing as a hub of teaching transfer. Main focus would be given to the design of hugging in class reading instruction and bridging in transferable task of writing. Though effective transfer is decided by students’ familiarity with the knowledge and proficiency in using certain knowledge, learning for transfer could be conducive to shaping a routine problem- minded concept for learners

Reading the Word and the World through Graphic Novels: A Graphic Portrayal of Young Adult Literacy Development in a Ninth Grade English Literature Classroom

This study presents a view of reading instruction based on investigating motivation and engagement related to adolescent literacy practices through graphic novels. A case study utilizing the graphic novels grounded in the theoretical approach of critical literacy demonstrated increases in motivation toward reading from a more critical social lens. Participants in this case study were chosen from a set of ninth grade literature classes in a rural high school. The students were placed as a result of the random selection of heterogeneously mixed student abilities providing a rich mix of perspectives and motivational levels among the students. Allowing students to view character experiences in graphic novels through both graphic and traditional text opened possibilities for opportunities in improving reading comprehension by increasing motivation and engagement. A change from traditional viewpoints that focus on mastery of skills to a critical view about text has the potential to allow adolescent students to question, to challenge, and to seek the unknown which in turn motivates this same learner to read. The primary findings include: (1) a positive connection between student attitudes toward reading and their engagement with text; (2) the reaction of students to elements of popular culture that included graphic novels created a bridge to traditional literature and improved student relationships with reading standard text; (3) challenging students to view text whether from a traditional standpoint or through the medium of sequential comic art supported the students\u27 ability to redefine reading from critical perspectives; (4) critical readings of traditional text and graphic novels gave voice to the students as direct agents of their own learning particularly as it related to real-world social issues; and (5) student motivation toward independent and academic reading was improved by teacher passion and commitment to the understanding and connection of text and graphics to the literature formats. Further study is recommended in the areas of the impact of the teacher on student motivation. Additional study is recommended related to the use of popular culture to enhance learning and motivation

The construction of shared Malaysian identity in the upper secondary English literature classroom

In Malaysia, ethnic and cultural tension and conflicts have escalated in the past 5 years bringing undesirable impacts on the nation’s economy and, most importantly, on inter-ethnic relationships. In line with the government’s 1Malaysia effort to produce a more integrated society, this study proposes the need to construct a shared Malaysian identity, starting from the classroom, which is facilitated by teachers through the use of Malaysian short stories. This proposition, amidst the differences in cultural, religious and beliefs systems, aims to close the ethnic and cultural divide and cultivate widespread inter and intra cultural awareness. The study is grounded in the notion of hybridity in the Third Space espoused by Bhabha (1994) and ameliorated and geared towards the classroom context by the works of Gutiérrez (1999, 2004, 2008). The inquiry was designed using primarily qualitative research instruments employing non-participant classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with 7 English Language teachers, and group interviews with 6 groups of students from 4 different schools in Kuala Lumpur. A one-day workshop was also conducted with the 7 teachers to introduce new Malaysian short stories and also for the purpose of sharing experiences in teaching literature in English. This data source was then supported by secondary quantitative data derived from self-completion questionnaires administered to the students of the teachers involved in this study. The findings from the analyses of the results show various attitudes, beliefs and teaching and practices in the English language classroom in response to the notion of constructing a shared identity in the Third Space. The notion of the hidden curriculum is also investigated to determine how it can be usefully theorized towards identity construction in the classroom. On the one hand, students mainly accepted the shared identity concept as a basis for classroom practice, whilst teachers had a range of views about this idea. In the conclusion, the thesis explores the implications of the classroom practices adopted by the teachers in this study as part of the process of constructing a shared Malaysian identity. It also examines the plausibility of and barriers to creating an awareness of the Third Space through the use of narratives produced by local writers, both as a medium for developing the skills to access the Third Space and also as the container of messages about Malaysian society and identity. Finally, this study suggests the way forward for realizing the country’s aspiration of a unified society and becoming a full-fledged developed country, which can possibly start in the classrooms

Hypertext and the act of reading and learning : a study of the use of hypertext on the web in the secondary school english literature classroom

Bibliography: leaves 81-89