Two way conversation: The interplay of cultural models and teacher practices in the high school literature classroom.

Abstract

Seven high school literature teachers were studied to determine how their cultural models of literature affected their teaching practices. Participants were interviewed and observed to determine whether they primarily viewed literature as having fixed meaning which must be extracted by the reader or whether reader interaction with literature created new meaning. Those teachers who viewed literature primarily as having fixed meaning elicited less meaning-making from their students. They also viewed themselves as having less control over their teaching setting.