Charge to the Group 

 

What is the role of literature in English education? 

 

Traditionally, literature has been viewed as the center of English studies, but some emerging conceptions of English education emphasize multimodal literacies, technology, workplace literacies, and other concepts that may (or may not) de-emphasize the role of literature.  What is the value of literature for English education in the 21st century?  How should the subject “literature” be defined in the context of English teacher education?  What are new directions for research in this area?  What is the relationship between “literature” and “literacy?”  What is the relationship between high-stakes testing and the teaching of literature?  What are promising practices in the area of literature education?  How might we best communicate to policy makers and stakeholders about this issue?

 

Directions for writing the group report:

 

1.    Your statement should describe your strand’s beliefs

(or position or understandings or guiding principles)

about your topic.  As in 2005, the hope is that the CEE

Executive Committee can then adopt the statement as CEE’s

position on the issue and publish it on the CEE web site.

2.    Most of the 2005 statements consist of a list of

beliefs or positions, with elaboration for each one.  For

example, the strand on methods courses included such items

as “Instruction that addresses the teaching of English

language arts emphasizes that teaching and learning are

social practices influenced by specific contexts” and

“Instruction that addresses the teaching of English

language arts enables teacher candidates to articulate

rationales for pedagogical choices.”  You can find all the

2005 statements here:

 http://www.ncte.org/groups/cee/positions.

3.    Please do include a bibliography with your statement.

 In 2005, some groups supplied a list of references for

each belief or principle, while others did a single list

 for the entire statement.

4.    These statements may well be the foundation for

publications beyond the position statement.  Michael Moore

(English Education) is interested in seeing articles that

evolve out of the strands.  Also, “white papers” that

treat the strand topics in more detail might be submitted

to the new CEE web editors for publication.

5.    When you submit your statement to me, would you please

include a brief memo listing any actions your strand would

like to see taken by CEE.  For example, the doctoral

program strand has a number of specific suggestions that

will require action by the CEE chair and executive

committee and the NCTE staff.

6.    The statements are due to me by the end of July.  Dawn

and I intend to edit them for consistency before they are

put up on the web.