Complements or Conflicts: Conceptions of Discussion and Multicultural Literature in a Teachers-as-Readers Discussion Group

Abstract

We examine the effectiveness of a teachers-as-readers discussion group in achieving its two major goals: suggesting how teachers can use multicultural literature to foster an ethical respect for others and engaging teachers in conversations about multicultural literature that challenge the patterns of discourse that prevail in school discussions of literature. Teachers of diverse backgrounds from urban elementary schools joined us for monthly meetings in which we discussed multicultural literature. The teachers also wrote in response to a journal prompt we provided. The analyses of the teachers' writing and the discussions suggest that although the group was successful in engaging teachers in discussions that challenge the patterns of discourse that typify school discussions of literature, that success may have come at the expense of achieving the goal of demonstrating that multicultural literature can foster an ethical respect for others. Our study has caused us to reexamine the assumptions with which we began our work, for it suggests that goals we once thought to be complementary may, at least to some extent, stand in conflict.