Reflections on Our Journeys to Foregrounding Students’ Experiences Through Literature in a Pre-Service Teacher Education Programme

ABSTRACT

In this essay, four teacher educators explore their journeys towards foregrounding students’ lived experiences when teaching literature. Data about our teaching of literature in different contexts were generated through our personal reflective narratives and ensuing dialogic critical friend conversations. Inductive thematic analysis of the narratives revealed that in spite of our diverse initial teaching contexts and trajectories, we initially all taught in much the same teacher-centred way. We also came to the realisation, however, that over the years our informal conversations had played a role in our teaching, allowing us to move beyond our educations. Collaborative teaching relationships developed out of incidental corridor conversations and these have been instrumental in reshaping our teaching of literature, enabling us to make literary texts relevant to societal issues and the lived experiences of our students.

KEYWORDS:

• Teaching literature
• reflective narratives
• lived experiences
• collaborative conversations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bridget Campbell

Bridget Campbell is a pre-service teacher educator who has taught for many years. Her scholarship is grounded in her practice and she uses memory work and self-study in her research. The methodologies she employs in her research are narrative inquiry and arts-based methodologies. She enjoys collaborating with colleagues in her teaching and research endeavours.

Bonakele Mhlongo

Bonakele Mhlongo is Bonakele Mhlongo is a long-serving university pre-service language teacher. Her research interests stem from her vast experience of language teaching in different educational settings, and include the teaching of reading, literature and visual literacy. She facilitates bilingualism in the classroom workshops as part of her academic activities and is currently researching in this arena.

Bheki Mthembu

Bheki Mthembu is a lecturer at the University of KwaZulu Natal School of Education, specialising in English Language Education and literature. His research interests include Language Education, English Education Pedagogy and Curriculum Studies. He has many years of teaching experience in different educational phases.

Eugene Marais

Eugene Marais is a pre-service teacher educator and doctoral candidate at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He has taught in secondary school and was a Subject Advisor before becoming a lecturer to pre-service educators. His research focuses on using literary texts to advance Afrocentric textual analysis and how feedback to students develops their academic writing skills.