PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS' CONCEPTIONS OF LITERARY EDUCATION - A CASE STUDY

Few studies focus on pre-service teachers' conceptions of literary reading and how these might shape and influence their educational practices. Understanding such conceptions is relevant for i) the impact they may have on the training of readers; ii) the reassessment of pre-service teachers training; iii) the design of training programmes specifically tailored for their needs. Bearing that in mind, we present the findings from an empirical study concerning pre-service teachers' conceptions of literary reading and their implications for teaching practices in Primary Education. We used a qualitative approach, within a multiple case study framework. The participants were 4 pre-service teachers in their second year of a Master of Teaching (Early Childhood Education and Primary Education), enrolled in Supervised Teaching Practice (STP) in a Polytechnic Institute, in Portugal. The following Instruments were used to gather data: i) their lesson plans, during a nine-week period of training, focusing on the domain of Literary Education (as defined in the Programme and Curricular Goals of Portuguese in Basic Education); ii) a written report they produced at the end of their training. A content analysis of the lesson plans and reports was performed, and categories were generated a priori and a posteriori concerning several dimensions: i) the importance these pre-service teachers attached to literary reading; ii) the aspects of literary reading they valued the most; iii) the texts they considered more adequate to fulfil their goals and iv) the reasons behind their choices. As far as their lesson plans were concerned, we concluded that: i) most of these pre-service teachers considered literary reading relevant for increasing pupils' reading motivation, emphasizing the role of picturebooks as quality aesthetic objects to enhance children's imagination and creativity; ii) some of the important paratextual features of picturebooks were underestimated in their lesson plans and held a peripheral place in their conceptions of literary reading, mainly due to the relevance they gave to the acquisition of knowledge, rather than to reading for pleasure; iii) narratives were privileged, while few lesson plans contemplated poetry; iv) they mainly used print texts rather than texts displayed on screens; v) one of their main concerns was to achieve the goals established in the curricular document they had to follow. The data collected from the written reports delivered at the end of their training revealed that: i) their own reading practices had an impact on their lesson plans, namely on the criteria used for choosing texts, mostly narrative ones; ii) they considered that literary education played a key role in fostering children's learning, enabling them to experience emotions that nurtured the development of social relationships and increased their enthusiasm for recreational reading; iii) they emphasized the importance of print texts for an affective literary reading experience. Longitudinal studies, targeting pre-service teachers, may be relevant for a deeper understanding of their conceptions of literary reading and their potential consequences in future educational practices which might contribute to the training of readers. Research at an international level is needed in order to promote a wider debate about the role of literary education within the context of supervised teaching practices in Primary Education.