What Happens in a Literature Classroom? A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Perspective

Abstract

This paper presents a simplified perspective of classroom teaching and learning informed by hermeneutic phenomenology where teachers and students interact in suggested processes of interpretation, conceptualisation and actualisation. This paper is based on the premise that it is important to first understand the dynamics of teacher and student interaction within the classroom before successful implementation of policy and curriculum can take place. This perspective was used in a case study that explored how two A-level classes in an urban comprehensive state school in England engaged with and actualised English Literature as a subject. Literature lessons were observed for one week after which the respective literature teachers and three students from each class were interviewed while documentary analysis was carried out to identify how curriculum and policy makers conceptualise English Literature. The use of this perspective facilitated comparisons and revealed distinct differences between how policy makers, teachers and students interpreted, conceptualised and actualised the subject. Thus, an understanding of the classroom as drawn from a hermeneutic phenomenological perspective can illuminate how teachers and students engage with the syllabus which could then inform the construction of policies, curricula and syllabi that include a perspective of how they may be actualised.