Forms of engagement: the ethical significance of literacy teaching

Abstract

This interpretive study proposes a framework with which to explore the ethical significance of classroom-based literacy practices. Overly narrow views of literature as a source of role models or moral precepts take insufficient account of the complexity of text and experience. Through analyses of telling examples from student writing and discussion in response to literature, the occurrence and interaction of six forms of ethical engagement are documented: judging, distancing, empathizing, affiliating, disclosing and resisting. The study concludes that ethical matters are interwoven with the socially accomplished, situated work of engaging with literature and with specific pedagogical structures.

Keywords:

• Ethics
• Literacy Education
• Moral education
• Multicultural education
• Response to literature

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the teachers and students who participated so generously in this study for their insight, dedication, patience, confidence in me and willingness to read and comment on data analyses and manuscript drafts. I would also like to thank Alison Cook-Sather, Paul Connolly, Rob Goldberg, Howard Lesnick, Kristine Lewis, Christine Woyshner, Richard Smith and the anonymous reviewers of Ethics and Education for giving me guidance, critique and encouragement at various stages of the writing process.