In this article, Carmel Hinchion and Jennifer Hennessy reflect on a project
undertaken by the Ubuntu Network in partnership with pre-service English
teachers and their lecturers at the University of Limerick. The project was set
in the context of an English pedagogy course as part of the undergraduate
initial teacher education (ITE) programme where student English teachers
prepare for teaching in post-primary classrooms. Their article focuses on a
literature unit where ‘culturally salient’ texts were chosen to promote, not
only a reading of the word but of the world (Freire, 1970). A culturally
salient text, as understood by Kress (1995), is one that allows us to ask
questions about its significance in its own cultural domain and for other
cultures. Drawing on the metaphor of a ‘reconstitutive mirroring experience’
(O’Loughlin, 2009), literature acts as a reflexive and reflective medium in
shaping a world view
