Why won't they learn? : a contrastive study of literature teaching in two Cape Town high school classrooms

Dyer, Dorothy

Why won't they learn? : a contrastive study of literature teaching in two Cape Town high school classrooms

Master Thesis

2007

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Centre for Applied Language and Literacy Studies and Services in Africa

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

Literature is included as part of most English curricula around the world. South Africa is no exception, and students are expected to study novels, poetry and plays as part of their school language curriculum. There are many debates about the best way to teach these texts in the classroom. However what is often overlooked is that reading literature, like reading anything, is primarily a social activity, and as such has been 'learned'. The way we respond to literature depends on the social activities, attitudes and behaviours -what can be called the practices -of our social grouping that holds value for us. What many teachers hold as the 'right' way of reading and responding literature reflects their commitment and participation in a particular set of practices, whereas students come to class from backgrounds that are different from theirs, and with different commitments. This thesis uses a case-study, ethnographic approach to study two teachers' English classrooms in a working class high school to in order to examine how practices around literature were negotiated between teachers and students who came from working class backgrounds. Despite differences in personality and beliefs, both teachers in the study approached literature study in a limited way -the way that examinations prescribe -viewing the text as a given that had to be mediated for the students so that they were able to 'get the message'. The students in both classes were generally unruly, or passive, with about less than half the class focusing on the lesson at anyone time. This may partly be ascribed to this limited approach to literature. However this approach has been used more successfully in other schools, and I argue that the reason for the 'failure' of these lessons lay beyond the classroom walls. Working class students who want to perform adequately at school have to, in some ways, give up something of the values and beliefs of their backgrounds, and develop a new set of understandings of who they are, a new identity that incorporates these practices. It is unlikely that this investment is going to be made without some reward or fulfilment. In the classes in this study, students had no motivation to join this new literature club that might even affect their participation in other domains. They did enough to get by, to pass through the lessons and exams, but were engaged in very little real meaning making in the classroom. Literature study remained a foreign and sometimes puzzling requirement for examination purposes.

Description

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-75).

Keywords

Applied Language Studies

Reference:

Collections

Masters

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