Other Worlds: Literature and Stories as Gateways

While the blog focus of this blog is pedagogy, and has been unpacking the arguments contained in “Pedagogy and Education for Life”, you might not be aware that I’ve written a number of other books. These include some on literacy and literature. One of my early books was ‘Other Worlds: The Endless Possibilities of Literature’ (T.H. Cairney, Heinemann: Portsmouth New Hampshire, 1990). I’ve been revisiting my literature book recently, as I grapple with an interesting new book about Critical Theory, (C. Watkin, ‘Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture’, Zondervan Academic: 2022). Don’t stop reading just yet! I’m writing about this book somewhere else.

In this post, I want to try to explain the connection ‘Biblical Critical Theory’ and my thoughts on pedagogy and education. While Watkins book was the catalyst for me focussing again on ‘Story’, I want to look closely at the power of literature to challenge, influence and even transform us. This of course has connections to Chapter 7 in ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life’ in a chapter titled ‘Storytelling and Life’.

 

Watkins book has also made me revisit the work of Stanley Hauerwas, Oliver O’Donovan, and Charles Taylor who all get mentions in my pedagogy book. So, what are the connections between the more practical book I wrote about literature almost 30 years before my pedagogy book.

 

Flooding the classroom with books

 

Let’s skip back to the 1980s and 90s! At this time, I was fascinated with literature as a young teacher, even though I was not from a family where the value and joy of literature was modelled for me. But early in my teaching career (in the 1970s) at a difficult school in Western Sydney, I discovered how important literature could be for my students. I set about making reading and story-making central to my teaching program. These early classes in the 1970s had many students (35-40) who struggled to read, and who had little interest in literature. My solution was to flood my classroom with books. As I did this, I sought ways to encourage my students not only to read, but to gain a love of reading. 

While doing a Masters degree part-time (in my ‘spare time’) and later my PhD in the 1980s, I came upon the work of Charles Taylor who understood the power of story to change lives. I had learnt very early in my teaching career, that even difficult and disinterested children could be ‘captured’ by the power of story. Watkins work has pushed me to reflect even more on why this is so.

 

Going on Journeys

 As I taught my children in those early classes, I began to see stories had the ability to ‘take’ readers on journeys to places, times and experiences, and that these had the power to touch their hearts and minds. Charles Taylor was one of the writers who helped move me towards a deeper understanding of how we are affected by literature. His work on what he called “social imaginaries” was influential. These he argued lead us to imagine and reflect on our lived experiences as we read, and can even legitimise or explain much about ourselves and help shape hopes and desires.

I began to observe as a teacher for the first time, how the imagination of my students was creating frameworks that helped them to engage, understand and imagine their world through the stories, myths, dreams, and hopes they encountered through the characters in literature. For these children in quite difficult communities and families, literature was helping them to encounter ‘other worlds’ as I flooded the classroom with books. Their reading began to create rich contexts which had the potential to change and shape their lives. This of course, included what they believed, as well as their hopes, dreams and fears in life.

 

So, what did I learn from these experiences?

Another writer helped me on my way to a deeper understanding of what was going on. Why was my approach having such a profound impact on their lives? Anthony Esolen (‘Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child’), put his finger on one of the most fundamental insights. That is, “… imagination, memory and knowledge are not incompatible but related”. This might seem obvious, but as I read Esolen’s work along with others, I began to see connections with what I had observed in my classrooms in Western Sydney over 30 years ago. As I flooded my classroom with books, read to them regularly to enthuse them about story, and gave them access in the classroom to an ever-changing library of books that had appeal to them, I saw amazing changes as students were given access to ‘Other Worlds’ for the first time. This post has been a taster, I will return to the topic in future posts as I broaden my discussion on the things I learnt with my students.

 

Key References

 

1. Trevor Cairney, ‘Pedagogy and Education for Life: A Christian Reframing of Teaching, Learning and Formation’, Cascade, 2017, p. 122.

2. Trevor Cairney, 'Other Worlds: The Endless Possibilities of Literature', Heinemann, 1990.

3. Anthony Esolen, ‘Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child’. Wilmington, DE: 2010.

4. Chris Watkin, ‘Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture’, Zondervan Academic: 2022.