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Mccormick’s sociocultural model of teaching literature and the English literature 12 integrated resource package

University of British Columbia

This study uses the principles of case study methods to test the validity of Kathleen McCormick's 1994 sociocultural model of teaching literature, which is outlined in The Culture of Reading and the Teaching of Literature. Through an analysis of the British Columbia English Literature 12 Integrated Resource Package curriculum document from the perspective of McCormick's model the study gives examples of how the curriculum document is and is not compatible with her model, how activities in the document might be adapted to correspond with McCormick's sociocultural approach and how this analysis reveals strengths and weaknesses of both the curriculum document and the model itself. The study reveals that while many of the rationale statements and prescribed learning outcomes could be adapted to accommodate McCormick's model, those relating to the influence of social and historical contexts of production of the text, the text as a site for multiple meanings and the centrality of student response are best represented. The principles of McCormick's model not represented are those relating to the context of a text's reception, the constructed nature of a reader's response and of the curriculum, and the naturalizing influence of ideology on a reader's response. The study also examines how McCormick's model might be applied to two texts in the curriculum. It goes on to suggest that the application of McCormick's model to this curriculum document has revealed the strengths of her model to be the inclusion of the principles of a sociocultural approach to literature not found in the IR: those principles illustrated by her use of the concepts of reader and text having literary or general repertoires that do or do not match. These are 1. the context of a text's reception, 2. the constructed nature of the text, the reader's response and the curriculum, and 3. the naturalizing influence of ideology on a reader's response to the text. The study recommends further examination of the practical application of McCormick's model and its principles to the literature classroom.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-06-12

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/9110

Language and Literacy Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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