Why Literature Matters in Preparing for a Global Future
OER 22/17 CSL - Cultivating Cosmopolitan Virtues through Critical, Aesthetic and Ethical Engagements with Literature
“The challenge for Literature educators, then, is to consider how literary texts can provide an important launchpad to developing metacognitive understandings of values. One of the most common questions teachers ask in Literature classrooms has to do with analysing characters and how they develop in relation to social situations. When examining how characters negotiate ethical dilemmas in fictional worlds, how they navigate social systems and conventions, and how sociopolitical values influence behavior and attitudes, students are in effect observing the nature of identity formation. Teachers can then have students extend such analysis to reflecting on the nature of values and the formation of identities in their own society. In this way, the literary text becomes the catalyst to critical examinations of values and identity construction.”
Excerpt from Choo, S. S., Chua, B. L., & Yeo, D. (2022). The challenge of cultivating national and cosmopolitan identities through Literature: Insights from Singapore schools. Reading Research Quarterly, 57(2), 707-728.
Project Team
Co-PI: Dr Dennis Yeo, ELL, NIE
Co-PI: Associate Professor Chua Bee Leng, TEUP, NIE
Project Description
Project Implications
- Values of empathy, openness and persuasion were key values emphasised in the teaching of Literature.
- Top three objectives of Literature education centered on appreciating the literary elements of texts, encouraging personal response, and fostering a sense of empathy for others.
- Cultivating a sense of national belonging was least prioritised in contrast to developing global awareness and engaging with universal concerns through literature.
- Opportunities to integrate aesthetic questions with critical and ethical questions occurred when units were designed around ethical issues.
- The design and implementation of Literature units related to national belonging, such as explorations of race and identity, raised greater awareness of discrimination although this may not necessarily lead to prosocial behaviour of all students and teachers’ facilitation of empathy is crucial.
Resources
Project website: https://sites.google.com/g.nie.edu.sg/21ccliterature/home
Featured in the Press: Not just the study of Shakespeare, literature helps students understand global issues: NIE study, Straits Times: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/parenting-education/not-just-the-study-of-shakespeare-literature-helps-students-understand
Selected Talks: Choo, S. S. (2021, July). Reading and Writing from the Viewpoint of Ethics. Keynote talk at 3rd Singapore Literature Conference, organized by Poetry Festival, Singapore: https://www.suzannechoo.com/videos
Selected Book, Book Chapters and Journal Articles:
Nah, D., & Choo, S. S. (2023). Examining students' critical-ethical interruptions of racial discourse in Singapore Literature classrooms. In Masood A. R., & Lu, N. T. C. (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Literature and Social Justice(PP. 1-17). Routledge.
Choo, S. S. (2023). Doing justice to the other: Developing cosmopolitan dispositions through critical-ethical pedagogies. In Kerkhoff, S. N. & Spires, H. A. (Eds.), Critical perspectives on global literacies: Bridging research and practice (PP. 91-105). Routledge.
Choo, S. S., Chua, B. L., & Yeo, D. (2022). The challenge of cultivating national and cosmopolitan identities through Literature: Insights from Singapore schools. Reading Research Quarterly, 57(2), 707-728.
Choo, S. S. (2021). Teaching ethics through literature: The significance of Ethical Criticism in a global age (PP. 178). Routledge.
Choo, S. S. (2021). Cultivating cosmopolitan dispositions through Literature: Examples from Singapore schools. In Alviar-Martin, T. & Baildon, M. C. (Eds.), Research on Global Citizenship Education in Asia. Information Age Publishing.
Yeo, D., Ang, A., & Choo, S. S. (Eds.). (2020). The world, the text and the classroom: Teaching Literature in Singapore secondary schools. Singapore: Pearson.
Choo, S. S. (2020). Developing cosmopolitan habits through dispositional routines. English Journal, 109(4), 107-108.
Choo, S. S. (2019). World-seeing and world-making: The role of aesthetic education in cultivating citizens of the world. In Peterson, A., Stahl, G., & Soong, H. (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Citizenship and Education. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
Choo, S. S. (2018). The need for cosmopolitan literacy in a global age: Implications for teaching literature. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 62(1), 7-12.
Selected Professional Articles:
SingTeach, 2021, "Cultivating Cosmopolitan Virtues through Literature" https://singteach.nie.edu.sg/2021/07/19/cultivating-cosmopolitan-virtues-through-literature/
Choo, S. S., Yeo, D., & Chua, B. L. (2021). A National Survey of Literature Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices (NIE Research Brief Series No. 21-006). Singapore: National Institute of Education. https://repository.nie.edu.sg/entities/publication/cf7fbb32-33b8-4cb9-9382-9c6c71dccfdc/details
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