Understanding educational action via analysis of the subjects taught: The example of two educational sequences in secondary school literature
French instruction programs in Quebec secondary school (2005/2009) prescribe a list of literary notions to be taught. However, which subjects are actually taught under the heading of “literature,” and how they are connected with the in-class reading of literary texts, remains unknown. We therefore conducted a study to be able to describe these literature-related teaching practices. More specifically, we filmed educational sequences in secondary school literature classes and analyzed them by producing synopses (Schneuwly and Dolz, 2009) in order to shed light on the subjects taught. In describing two examples of teaching practices related to poetry, we show how teachers’ working context, the tasks they assign to students, the educational approaches they choose, and their knowledge of literature all impact the way they connect literary knowledge with specific work on literary texts. In conclusion, we underline three observations based on our analyses, and identify a few avenues to explore in the research on literature education.