Description
What are the stories our preservice Primary teachers love and want to share with their future classes? This presentation reports on a research project that surveyed final year postgraduate and undergraduate students in Primary English Specialisation units based on Children’s Literature. Participants from the Masters of Teaching (Primary) and Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Education (Primary) identified the childhood books they love, their favourite authors and illustrators, and the many texts they want to teach. Their positive views about reading children’s literature acknowledged the importance of reading for pleasure and highlighted their stated desire to make a difference for their students.
In the context of an increasingly prescriptive, regulated and standards-driven educational environment, the pressures of meeting mandated literacy teaching requirements weigh heavily. Preservice teachers’ enjoyment can be influenced by factors of performativity and measurement. In this case, the data revealed their “love” of stories, a valuing of the emotional and relational aspects of teaching English, and a commitment to share diverse voices in their classrooms.
There are pedagogical implications to consider from this research about guiding our emergent practitioners in their knowledge of stories and the voices heard in classrooms. They want to empower their students’ imaginations and to have an impact by showing “children how fun reading and writing can be”. These future Primary teachers aspire to model their personal enjoyment of stories as “teacher read alouds bring so much joy to students” and because they “share in the experience with them in different worlds and different characters”.
| Period | 3 Jul 2023 |
|---|---|
| Event title | AATE/ALEA National Conference 2023 : Action Impact |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Canberra , Australia, Australian Capital TerritoryShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | National |