Teachers applying emotional and holistic literature pedagogy
Submitted by:
Merja Kauppinen
Abstract:
Emotional identification and empathized reading are elements of social-emotional development and wellbeing in the context of early childhood and primary school education (McCreary & Marchant, 2017). Hands-on experiences of empathized reading allow teachers to engage in holistic literature education (Kauppinen et al., 2020). This study considers teachers as meaning-makers of fiction and focuses on the emotional processes in a reading community. The research questions are next: 1) What features characterize empathized reading in the interactive reading process of teachers? 2) What sort of pedagogical applications did the teachers lead from their own experiences of empathized reading processes?
Nine early childhood and primary school teachers took part in the ©StoRE in-service education , which aimed to use literature in reading and writing pedagogy in innovative ways (Aerila & Kauppinen, 2021). Three sessions involved different literature assignments and genres - a novel, a fairy tale and poetry – but progressed according to the same order. The interactive poetry therapy model (McCarty Hynes & Hynes-Berry, 2012) with four phases were applied in the interactive reading process, namely identification, catharsis, insight, and integration. The data of the current study is collected from the reading process of the novel. It concerns 13 teacher group’s dialogues under the novel, which were formed in the guided reading according to the phases of interactive poetry therapy model. The dialogues were analyzed via qualitative, data-based content analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2013).
Empathized reading implied in three levels in the interactive reading process of the teachers: story level (immersive elements concerning a plot, main characteristics and perspective choices); individual level (expressed emotions under the texts); and communal level (emotional, meaningful themes aroused by and via the group dialogues). Several ideas of holistic literature pedagogy were expressed: Issues of closeness, caring and care are the most crucial elements in book talk. In the immersive book talk, the teacher is able to express the same feelings as children and sympathize their experiences. Emotional interactive reading process offers a way to strong emotional experience and close encounter. Literate meaning making (writing, drawing, multimodal expressing) under the reading experience and returning to the (textual) product in a group enhance meaningful reading. The meaning of mother tongue becomes evident to express inner, emotional stances of oneself in book talk. The results indicate that the teachers used the group’s dialogues to reflect freely on their own experiences and emotions. Many-sided elements of emotional, holistic literature education were formed under the empathized reading process by the teachers.
Keywords: holistic literature education, empathized reading, poetry therapy, in-service teacher education
References
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