Dynamics of teachers' aesthetic engagement with children's literature: a dissertation

460 Pages·2001·6.8 MB·English

by  Griffith, Susan C.

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The Dynamics ofTeachers' Aesthetic Engagement
With Children's Literature
A DISSERTATION
submitted by
Susan C. Griffith
In partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the
degree of
Doctor ofPhilosophy
LESLEY UNIVERSITY
October 2001

Abstract
This research study seeks to bring the missing voices ofteachers into the
conversation about teaching and learning children's literature at the college level.
Grounded in an empirical base that affirms a need for this perspective, the study
investigates and describes the dimensions, patterns and variations that constitute the
dynamics ofengagement that characterize teachers' experiences with children's literature
as aesthetic experiences of adult reading.
Based in Rosenblatt's (1938, 1978) articulation of reader response theory, the
investigation focuses on two distinct sets ofexperiences ofeleven middle school teachers
oflanguage arts: 1) critical incidents, or contemplated readings ofchildren's literature;
and 2) think alouds, or initial readings ofchildren's literature. The ensuing exploration
follows the teachers' own sense of significance through the data to create twelve critical
incident portraits and a three component narrative description ofthe think aloud process.
Csikszentmihalyi's and Robinson's (1990) model of aesthetic experience and
Appleyard's (1991) conception ofthe purposes of adult fiction reading guide the analysis
ofthese verbal reports. The resulting delineation describes dimensions, points of
engagement, purposes, goals and reasons for reading that comprise the dynamics of
aesthetic engagement particular to teachers reading children's books.
The teachers' experiences with children's books are complex, fluid, vital and
varied. They perceive a dichotomy between personal and professional purposes in
reading, see children's literature as a shared literature and prefer to make meaning of
literamre through affinity. Their aesthetic experiences are richer when their instructional
perspectives are integrated with the perceptual, intellectual, emotional and imaginal