Teaching Literature: the Oxford Education Research Group Project

Abstract

This paper* describes the Oxford Education Research Group Project into the teaching of English Literature. The Project arose out of a number of conversations that were held between Oxfordshire English teachers and specialists from different disciplines within the University. What emerged from these conversations was the strong sense that while virtually all of the teachers gave a very high priority to literature in their English lessons, a considerable number were seriously concerned about their effectiveness in dealing with literature in the classroom. They were thoughtful about the nature of the objectives they were pursuing: was their job, for instance, to initiate children into the stylistic complexities of the Great Tradition, or was it something wider, more amorphous, something to do with the pupil's emotional development as an adolescent moving towards adulthood? If the latter, then how does the reading of appropriately chosen literature affect emotional development? Then there were, predictably, practical issues: the dilemma as to whether to use class texts or private readers, whether to teach literature within a thematic context or not, the effect of examinations, the problems of having children of widely different ability and maturity within the same class, of large classes and shortage of money. Some of these issues were of a general practical kind that no research project could (at least directly) resolve, but there did seem enough genuine interest both in the schools and in the University to mount a collaborative enquiry into literature teaching under the aegis of the Oxford Educational Research Group. The project, which is only in its initial stages, falls into two parts: a period of investigation into literature teaching that will pinpoint a number of issues that might repay study in the second, action research, phase of the enquiry. Thus it is intended in the first phase