Abstract
Emotional and interpretive responses to three short stories were noted in two study populations of similar age: Qatari students in a post-highschool foundation program preparing to attend branch campuses of western universities located in Qatar, and American students, many of Mexican-American heritage, from a small college in a rural setting in South Texas. It has long been thought that reading literature from a foreign culture confers educational value on the reader; in this investigation the nature of that ‘value’ was placed under study. Written responses to quiz questions or assignments were used as data; responses critical of or affirming of character, setting, plot, and literary tropes were particularly noted. Our data show that readings from an author whose culture was similar to the reader’s created interest and urged both intellectual and affective types of understanding, such as remembering, grieving, healing, forgiving, and feeling pride. Readings from ‘classic’ literature presented in historical context strongly enabled critical discussion among students in a multicultural setting, since the author’s absence from the scene ‘allows’ free conversation about his or her work without fear of insulting the author’s culture. Readings by contemporary writers from outside the reader’s culture, or ‘multicultural literature’, may cause some readers to shy away from the challenge of understanding another culture or to voice stereotypes instead of seeking ideas. Readings from outsider cultures, however, and the affective distancing of ‘othering’, enable the well-prepared educator and student to discuss how culture patterns our lives.
Highlights
The current study was conceived as a result of observing students in Qatar and in a rural South Texas public university as they read three short stories and discussed how culture was encoded in their readings
Each group read the same three short stories: a contemporary story whose characters and plot were comfortably familiar to South Texas students; a contemporary story whose characters and plot were comfortably familiar to Gulf Arab students; and a work of canonical western literature written, set, and presented by the instructors as having occurred in the distant past
Engagement, not merely the threat of a poor grade, is important for readers’ success in their literature courses among students for whom reading, for one reason or another, is seen as a negative experience
Summary
The current study was conceived as a result of observing students in Qatar and in a rural South Texas public university as they read three short stories and discussed how culture was encoded in their readings. Students’ written reactions to insideculture ideas versus outside-culture ideas were coded. This essay examines three general education/preparatory literature classrooms – one in the United States and two in Qatar – as they readied entry-level students for their more advanced university courses. Western-style multiculturalism is a longtime part of US students’ and teachers’ classroom preparation, and the questions which govern this essay are: Downs, C. Comparing South Texas and Qatari readers’ responses to short stories from three cultures. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives, 11(2). http://lthe.zu.ac.ae
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