ABSTRACT

This paper presents data from an Australian high school classroom, investigating how students and their teacher negotiate readings of literature in order to arrive at meanings that are valued by subject English, as well as understood by the students. Subject English acts a vital agent for the transmission of both literacy and literary knowledge in English-speaking countries, and students which do not share the cultural and social orientations valued by the subject and its texts have the potential to be disadvantaged. However, I argue that this clash of socio-cultural perspectives may be positively viewed as an advantage for democratic education, as it allows students’ critical understanding of their world to be challenged, for teachers to include student perspectives, and for students to be empowered to participate in institutional discourses. Implications for teacher practice and educational theory are discussed.

摘要

本文展示了来自澳大利亚高中课堂的数据，调查学生和他们的老师如何协商阅读文学作品，以达到学科英语重视并为学生所理解的含义。英语学科在英语国家中扮演着读写和文学知识传播的重要角色，与该学科及其文本所重视的文化和社会取向不同的学生有可能处于不利地位。然而，我认为这种社会文化观点的冲突可以被积极地视为民主教育的一个优势，因为它允许学生对他们世界的批判性理解受到挑战，教师可以纳入学生的观点，并赋予学生权力参与制度性话语。