Contradictory Representations of Teaching and Learning Literature (original) (raw)

Focusing on three literature teachers who have lived with and through the changing representations of the discipline, this paper, an examination of the nature of inquiry in literature education, describes the multiple realities that such teachers must negotiate for themselves and their students. The paper discusses conceptions of reflective inquiry; the content and processes of inquiry; and kinds of inquiry, such as autobiographical inquiry, curriculum inquiry, pedagogical inquiry, and inquiry of possibility. The paper concludes with three essential principles that summarize the formulations, processes, and outcomes of the inquiry: (1) although practice as product is the observable act, teaching, as these teachers demonstrated, is a process; (2) working within the school culture may not determine, but does affect, teaAlers ' images of possible and desirable teaching and learning; and (3) one common