Abstract

This study investigated the relationships between five junior high school teachers’ personal approaches to literature and their teaching of literature. Each teacher was interviewed eight times and observed while teaching literature eight times. Data comprised of field notes, transcriptions of audiotapes, and a variety of written artifacts were used to prepare individual case studies. The case studies revealed that the teachers’ personal approaches to literature included an emphasis on vicarious involvement. The case studies further revealed that the teachers’ use of the knowledge present in their personal approaches to literature is limited by a “school” approach to literature which consists of a focus on comprehension and the learning of literary terms and concepts and which is supported by state-mandated achievement tests. The conclusions suggest that pedagogically useful knowledge exists in these five teachers’ personal approaches to literature but that institutional constraints and the teachers’ lack of a theoretical framework for literary studies prevent it from being utilized.