Reading the Word and the World: Articulating Popular Culture Through Classical Literature in Brazil

• In Event: Dialogic Literary Gatherings: Improving Literacy Standing on the Shoulders of Classic Readings

Abstract

1. Objectives
This paper addresses the following research questions: How does participants’ ‘reading of the world’ is connected to the ‘reading of the word’ when they discuss pieces of classical literature in DLG? How does such link help articulating popular culture and erudite culture in the learning process? How does such articulation promote transformation of those participants’ understanding of the world and of academic learning?

2. Theoretical framework
Brazil still has quite important rates of inequality regarding education. In PISA 2013, the country was ranked on 58th place among the 65 participating countries. Poor proficiency in reading is one of the worrisome elements of the Brazilian educational system. Aiming to contribute to reverse such situation and promote quality education and social justice for vulnerable groups, some Brazilian schools have started to implement DLG as a successful action in reading and literacy development. The Dialogic Literary Gatherings is a dialogic reading practice of classical universal literature created by Flecha (Giner, 2011) and widespread in different countries. Guided by the dialogical learning, DLG promotes what Freire and Macedo (1987) indicated as the effective link between ‘reading the world’ and ‘reading the word’; it also stimulates dialogicity (Bakhtin, 1981) while supporting literacy learning (Soler, 2004).

3. Methods
The study was conducted at four Brazilian public schools where the DLG are performed. Specifically, the data was collected in two pre-primary and primary classrooms and in two adult classrooms. All the research was designed and developed according to the Communicative Methodology of rResearch (Gómez, Puigvert, & Flecha, 2011).

4. Data sources
Data was collected with semi-structured interviews conducted with participants from the 4 different Dialogic Literary Gatherings, one in each school, and therefore involving pre- primary and primary education students as well as adult participants.

5. Results
Preliminary results inform that discussion in the DLG fosters the interaction between the ‘reading of the world’ and the ‘reading of the world’ in DLG. Particularly a) the participants perceive that they make sense of the words in the text through their own cultural worlds, this indicating interaction between popular culture and erudite culture, b) teachers and students recognize that they all make meaning of the texts thanks to the contributions of each other which are always welcome to be expressed using one’s ‘ways with words’, c) the participants perceive that the Dialogic Literary Gatherings expand their ability to understand the world and their own life, as well as d) DLG expand participants’ opportunities for academic learning.

6. Scientific significance
DLG challenges the opposition between popular culture and erudite culture, and in so doing between dialogue and instrumental learning, and humanistic education and school effectiveness. In the DLG dialogue and learning are elements that come together in support of social justice. Future research may explore the impact of combining ‘the reading of the word’ and that of the world upon the richness of the interpretations of classical literature and on raising the achievement on national reading tests.

Authors

• Roseli Rodrigue de Mello, University of Sao Carlos

• Adriana C. Marigo, University of Sao Carlos

• Raquel Moreira, Federal University of Sao Carlos

• Rosimara Silva Correia, Universidade Federal de São Carlos