Beliefs, representations and knowledge of expert teachers in reading the classics in Secondary Education

Abstract

The aim of this case study is to explore the beliefs, representations and knowledge of secondary school teachers, considered to be experts in reading the classics, one of the most debated issues in the teaching of literature, due to the low rates of reading these works among adolescents. For this purpose, six teachers with more than ten years’ experience, philologists and with a doctoral thesis were interviewed. A focus group was also created. To analyse the data, both the interviews and the discussion group were coded with the help of Nvivo software, which resulted in a system of categories. Subsequently, this information was analysed from an interpretative-hermeneutic perspective. The results show that the reading of the classics is problematic for teachers, as in most cases there is a contrast between what they want and what they feel obliged to do because of the opposition between their self-beliefs and their hetero-beliefs.