This research study seeks to bring the missing voices of teachers into the conversation about teaching and learning children's literature at the college level. Grounded in an empirical base that affirms a need for this perspective, the study investigates and describes the dimensions, patterns and variations that constitute the dynamics of engagement that characterize teachers' experiences with children's literature as aesthetic experiences of adult reading.;Based in Rosenblatt's (1938, 1978) articulation of reader response theory, the investigation focuses on two distinct sets of experiences of eleven middle school teachers of language arts: (1) critical incidents, or contemplated readings of children's literature; and (2) think alouds, or initial readings of children's literature. The ensuing exploration follows the teachers' own sense of significance through the data to create twelve critical incident portraits and a three component narrative description of the think aloud process. Csikszentmihalyi's and Robinson's (1990) model of aesthetic experience and Appleyard's (1991) conception of the purposes of adult fiction reading guide the analysis of these verbal reports. The resulting delineation describes dimensions, points of engagement, purposes, goals and reasons for reading that comprise the dynamics of aesthetic engagement particular to teachers reading children's books.;The teachers' experiences with children's books are complex, fluid, vital and varied. They perceive a dichotomy between personal and professional purposes in reading, see children's literature as a shared literature and prefer to make meaning of literature through affinity. Their aesthetic experiences are richer when their instructional perspectives are integrated with the perceptual, intellectual, emotional and imaginal dimensions that may also be part of aesthetic experience. Even as expert readers, they still benefit from external attention in their experiences with children's literature, particularly when faced with challenges arising from dissonance.;This study of the dynamics of teachers' aesthetic engagement with children's books offers a broader, more refined framework for understanding the aesthetic reading fostered in children's literature courses at the college level. In so doing, it emphasizes the importance of reframing the perceived dichotomy between professional and personal reasons for reading children's literature and raises questions related to teachers' capacities to delve more deeply into children's literature.
展开▼
