Co-Construction of beliefs regarding literature during the senior class – a project report

Abstract

In a literary didactical and educational sociological way, this empirical examination attempts to answer the question how students in senior classes of academic high schools (16–19 years) acquire and maintain notions and beliefs concerning literature. We assume that advanced-level German teaching at school has a huge impact on the realisation of these notions with regards to literature. Thus, this study focuses on how beliefs are alternatingly co-constructed. Our results underline the great influence of teachers in forming the beliefs about reading and literature of their students. They show the strong interdependence between teachers’ beliefs regarding reading and literature, the way teachers conduct class-talks in literature lessons and the emergence of students’ beliefs regarding literature in a decisive phase of growing up.