Between Response and Interpretation: Ideological Becoming and Literacy Events in Critical Readings of Literature

Abstract

The study described in this article intended to discover how social processes can influence literary understandings and the development of critical readings of literature in the public space of a classroom. The author draws on Bakhtin's notion of “ideological becoming” to consider how dialogic exchanges focused on works of literature can support or subvert critical understandings. This cross‐case analysis illustrates how two women students changed their responses to a short story as they participated in postreading events in their literature class. The data suggest that one student whose initial response was critical of the status quo changed her thinking about the story and adopted a reading that reflected dominant ideologies. The results of this study suggest that literature teachers who introduce multiple perspectives need to have explicit strategies for supporting students' emerging critical perspectives.

Characterizing Johnnieruth: High-school students, “tomboy” characters, and ideological becoming

“…Personal, private understandings can shift in ways that encourage or silence the sympathetic or contrary voices of student readers who see the characters' experiences in a certain light. In some cases, those fictionalized experiences that individuals found internally persuasive may no longer be so (Pace, 2006). The verbal, written, or symbolic texts that students construct in small-group discussion are a configuration of the author's work that students construct.…”

“…The understandings that students develop are mediated not only by their personal beliefs and recollections of texts, but also by the tasks they are assigned (Beach, 2005;Pace, 2003;Sumara, 1996) and the ways that these tasks are completed (Pace, 2006;Smagorinsky, 2001). This reality suggests that developing critical perspectives through literature study depends somewhat on how post-reading activities are enacted and what versions of a text become privileged.…”

Turning Ideologies Inside Out: Developing Young Readers’ Empathy for Critical Voices in Narrative Fiction

“…The literary meaning-making process is multilayered. As Pace (2006) puts it, besides feeling, it involves thinking and critical responses, which we believe may also shape empathic responses. Indeed, our aim is to contribute to the understanding of the complexity of the process of empathy development through literary reading by showing the need to support it with literary knowledge that is intended to promote critical responses to texts.…”

Middle‐Grades Students' Understandings of What It Means to Read in a High‐Stakes Environment

“…I was unwilling to forsake the classroom conversation and my push for pleasure reading for the tyranny of test prep. I knew that thinking and learning were improved when authentic classroom discourse turned on students' thoughts, interests, and ideas (Hadjioannou, ; Pace, ; Townsend & Pace, ). I also knew that actively engaging students in talk was especially important for middle‐grades learners (National Middle School Association, ) in an ELA classroom: When students' voices were embraced and welcomed in the classroom, there was a positive effect on students' attitude toward reading (Galda & Beach, ; Hadjioannou, ; Van Horn, ) and reading achievement (Wilhelm, ).…”