Affective responses to literature: removing barriers to literary analysis through social and emotional learning in English education

Thesis

Literary analysis in English education often requires student engagement with emotionally challenging themes (Hébert, 2002; McTigue, Douglass, Wright, Hodges, and Franks, 2015). Students distressed by such content may disengage from learning, negatively impacting their analysis and attainment (Neal, 2021). For students with prior experience of the themes portrayed in texts, this is of particular concern (Moore and Begoray, 2017). Therefore, this practitioner research project explored how students’ emotional engagement with Shakespeare’s (1597/2015) Romeo and Juliet impacted literary analysis. I collaborated with the school counsellor to develop an intervention that leveraged social and emotional learning strategies (SEL) to promote student engagement with the characters’ emotions and motivations.

Data were collected via lesson observations and reviewing written work. These show that student empathetic and affective responses to the text increased throughout the intervention: written responses became increasingly nuanced; and students linked personal experiences to the text in class discussions, the civility of which increased. Consequently, students exhibited greater personal engagement with the text, indicative of enhanced analysis (Britzman, 1998; McLean Davie and Buzacott, 2022).

Authors: Naegeli-Evans, P

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-jbnnmk6q5
• Type of award: MSc taught course
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Literature; Literary analysis; LT; LT2024; English; Learning strategies; SEL
• Subjects: Literature; Learning strategies; Education