[etni] (no subject)
- From: Gail Mann <gail@xxxxxxxx>
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 11:37:53 +0200
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Bar-Ilan University
Faculty of Humanities
Department of English
Ramat-Gan, 52900, Israel
Tel: 972-3-531-8236
January 25, 2004
Dear English Teacher,
If you are an experienced teacher of upper level English classes in
high school
If you believe that literature is important to our understanding of
ourselves and our world
If you find yourself frustrated teaching literature to high school
students thinking only about the “bagrut”
If you’d like to consider working toward an MA or a PhD in English
that would put you in a position to have a wider influence on the way
literature is taught in Israel
then we want to talk to you! If you’d like to invigorate your teaching
and improve your ability to communicate your excitement to your
students (by taking courses for “hishtalmut morim” if not as part of
a degree program), let us tell you about our new program in the
English Department at Bar-Ilan University.
We want to foster a productive dialogue between High School English
departments and the English Department at Bar-Ilan.
We want to assist you in your own intellectual and professional
development by updating you on new perspectives in the study of
literature, broadening your knowledge of literary texts, and deepening
your understanding of how these texts work in the world.
We invite you to come to Bar-Ilan and join a community of teachers,
future teachers, teacher trainers, and advanced graduate students
dedicated to finding ways of making literature work in our schools for
increased understanding and mutual tolerance.
Initiated by Professor Ellen Spolsky, a literary theorist with a
special interest in cognitive theory, and Professor Susan Handelman, a
literary theorist with a special interest in learning and teaching,
the English Department at Bar-Ilan University is now recruiting
students for the second cycle of our special program dedicated to
literature and pedagogy, in which we explore the two contradictory
faces of education: the transmission of cultural knowledge and the
questioning of received wisdom.
Together we are building a co-teaching program called
Teaching the Conflicts through Literary Texts
Literary studies today are concerned with many kinds of conflicts:
conflicts over how to interpret and teach texts, about the role of
literature in the curriculum, and especially about the role of
literary study in the understanding of social, gender, cultural, and
political conflicts. For example, Shakespeare’s TWELFTH NIGHT
displays gender conflicts, Mark Twain’s HUCKLEBERRY FINN displays race
conflict, Joyce’s EVELINE displays religious conflicts. Instead of
skirting these difficult issues, we want to find a way of letting
students enter the debates, and by extension, understand better the
debates which are all around them in Israeli society, and that they
will very soon have to deal with as adults.
The challenge is to exploit the positive potential of conflict. Are
there better ways than we now have to teach students to disagree and
yet listen to others? To adjudicate between competing arguments, to
make informed choices on points of contention, and to compose their
own arguments in a convincing manner? Our answer is yes: through the
proper study of literary texts, and a study of the debates about them.
Though our aim is not to teach specific methods of teaching, there are
profound ramifications for teaching methods in the material we will
study. We will give you the tools to rethink and develop your own
teaching, and to appreciate the importance of your work in Israeli
society.
If you’d like to hear more about our program, and perhaps become
involved in it, drop me a line by e-mail spolske@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx or
leave a message with your telephone number at 03-531-8273. I can also
put you in touch with some of the students already in the program.
An open-house day and a meeting of prospective students will be held
at Bar-Ilan on Wednesday 10 March 2004. You will be welcome to come
early and sit in on a class or two, and/or attend the meeting at 5:30
(in the Feldman Building, Rm 102) at which we will discuss the
program, give details of the requirements, and answer your questions.
Refreshments will be served.
Ellen Spolsky
Professor of English
Bar-Ilan University
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