Identifying the History and Logic of Negative, Ambivalent, and Positive Responses to Literature: A Case-Study Analysis of Cultural Models

Abstract

This paper begins with the assumption that the interpretive practices people acquire in social worlds often transfer to their stances toward and interpretations of worlds encountered in literature (Beach, Thein, & Parks, 2007). The goal of this paper is to identify the history and logic behind one student's negative, ambivalent, and positive responses to classroom texts. This paper joins socio-cultural theories of response to literature (Galda & Beach, 2001) with theories of identity (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 2002) and cultural models (Gee, 1999) to understand the social and cultural history that this student, Molly, drew upon in her interpretations of texts. More specifically, this paper examines Molly's interpretations of her lived-worlds and the worlds of texts that she read outside of class as locations for investigating social and cultural practices that were relevant to her. This paper develops a case study that looks closely at the cultural models (Gee, 1996, 1999, 2004) that Molly drew upon in her interpretations of her lived-worlds and worlds of texts she read outside of class in order to better understand how social and cultural practices and beliefs mediated her responses to classroom literature. Findings from this study suggest that teaching students to identify, acknowledge, and value the stances that they bring with them to the classroom, while at the same time teaching them to understand the usefulness of other theories for interpreting texts, has the potential to engage students in more critical and thorough interpretations of literature.

Boys, Books, and Boredom: A Case of Three High School Boys and Their Encounters With Literacy

“…Yet somehow that engagement is persistently difficult to translate into engagement with school-sanctioned texts. Thein's (2009) work points to similarities between the research that she has conducted with girls and their reading practices both inside and outside of schools. Specifically, in one study Thein found that Molly, an 11th-grade student, although a good student, was rarely engaged in school literature and was often disengaged because she read for different purposes outside of class than she did in school.…”

"It tells about the street life"

“…Amanda Thein (2009) also sought to understand the connection between students' out-of-school literacies and classroom learning. In a case study, Thein (2009) documented how a White high school student, Molly, responded to school-sanctioned texts through the lens of her out-of-school literacies; describing how Molly's out-ofschool reading centered around "'confessional' (Greer, 2004) popular fiction and nonfiction that divulges the true stories (or seemingly true stories) of people struggling with unpredictable and uncontrollable difficulties in their lives" (p. 294).…”

“…Amanda Thein (2009) also sought to understand the connection between students' out-of-school literacies and classroom learning. In a case study, Thein (2009) documented how a White high school student, Molly, responded to school-sanctioned texts through the lens of her out-of-school literacies; describing how Molly's out-ofschool reading centered around "'confessional' (Greer, 2004) popular fiction and nonfiction that divulges the true stories (or seemingly true stories) of people struggling with unpredictable and uncontrollable difficulties in their lives" (p. 294). Since what Molly chose to read outside of school aligned with Molly's cultural models, defined as "more or less conscious conceptions of themselves as actors in socially and culturally constructed worlds" (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998, p. 40), Molly relied upon her cultural models to judge and assess the worth of books assigned to her in class.…”

“…In this way, Thein's (2009) work helps to make clear connections between the messages girls receive about being girls and the kinds of out-of-school reading practices they engage in as part of their cultural models. In an ethnographic, qualitative case study, Thein (2009) found that a working-class White girl named Molly chose texts that aligned with her cultural models. Specifically, she "chose texts that were highly character driven, focusing on the struggles of individuals…" (p. 287-288).…”

“…Much like Sanford (2006) and Williams (2007), Thein (2009) suggests that we "teach students to understand their own lived worlds as ideological, social and cultural spaces that are laden with cultural [gendered] models as opposed to universal norms and beliefs" (p. 306).…”