Escaping Social Injustices: Changemaking Escape Rooms for Human Rights in the Literature Classroom

Escape rooms have been used in STEM classrooms, but there is little evidence of successful implementation of escape rooms in humanities courses in higher learning. This paper examines the experience of adapting escape rooms for the education setting in literature. To do so, two new components in the learning process were incorporated: (a) students are required to create their own escape rooms, thus increasing the stakes and the level of ownership; they are not only responsible for their own learning, but they also need to teach others; and, (b) students are required to explore a human rights violation or social injustices in their escape rooms, making civic engagement an end goal of the project. Participants in their escape room come out of the experience learning something about social change and being called to action.

“Bloometizing” the EFL Literature Classroom through a Dialogic Model: A Barometer for Academic Change

On the 21st century scent of educational development, ‘dialogism’ hogs the limelight of leading academics, mapping ergo a stiff stronghold for active learning pedagogies. Regarding the field of literature more sensibly considered in English as Foreign Language (EFL) context, the plea for embracing interactive talks reverberates discernably in the air, yet, engaging practices are still an overlooked real-world praxis. Given this reality, the current paper endeavours to endorse the implementation of a new dialogic model that extrapolates its foundation-stone techniques from both of Bakhtin’s (1983) discursive dialogues and Socratic argumentations. The pertinent problematics in this study is to investigate the effect of this model on enhancing learners’ higher-order critical thinking skills (HOTSs). To fulfil this target, the researcher has embarked on an Experimental Study based on a pre/post-testing, carried on painstakingly with second-year EFL students at Oran2 University, Algeria. Substantially, after appraising the treatment results through SPSS, the study reveals that adopting such a dialogic model is a robust sinew for “Bloometizing” EFL literature classroom, namely by stimulating and revitalizing the learners’ cognitive reasoning potentials at a very high complexity. Besides, in-class interactions help the students build empathy with literary texts and strengthen their analytical strategies. From this vantage point, the paper, finally, hopes that teachers adopt this dialogic model as a fitting instructional capstone to bringing literature back to life before the learners’ eyes and to add the ‘wow’ factor inside literature classrooms.

World Literature in the World?

Criticized for being too Euro- and Americentric, world literature scholarship tends to center on the American implications of this shortcoming, with little discussion of world literature beyond these centers. This paper thus addresses the function of world literature beyond these centers, particularly in the lingua franca of global business: English. Drawing from my experience in the United Arab Emirates, I argue that because students in the region come from places with fraught colonial histories, migrant, Anglophone literature is critical in the world literature classroom because it allows them to see their own experiences articulated in the global literary vernacular. Using Mohja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf as an example, I show how its transnational scope addresses both the hegemonic, Euro-American gaze, but also the students’. Thus, Anglophone literature is not necessarily the extension of an imperialist project or a flattening of differences; rather, it becomes an articulation of them.

From the Margins to the Center

Self-publishing is a topic not typically discussed in the literature classroom, yet it can provide an opportunity to highlight voices and works from the margins, think critically about the publishing methods, and promote the study of the book as a cultural artifact. This article provides a case study on using special collections materials to teach undergraduates about self-published American literature. It includes suggestions about how to find and select materials, details about facilitating a discussion and a hands-on activity on the topic, and recommendations for adapting these ideas for other teaching contexts.

“Bloometizing” the EFL Literature Classroom through a Dialogic Model: A Barometer for Academic Change

On the 21st century scent of educational development, ‘dialogism’ hogs the limelight of leading ‎‎academics, mapping ergo a stiff stronghold for active learning pedagogies. ‎Regarding the field of literature more sensibly considered in English as Foreign Language (EFL) ‎‎context, the plea for embracing interactive talks reverberates discernably in the air, yet, engaging ‎‎practices are still an overlooked real-world praxis. Given this reality, the current paper ‎endeavours ‎to endorse the implementation of a new dialogic model that extrapolates its foundation-‎stone ‎techniques from both of Bakhtin’s (1983) discursive dialogues and Socratic argumentations. The ‎pertinent ‎problematics in this study is to investigate the effect of this model on enhancing ‎learners’ higher-order critical thinking skills (HOTSs). To fulfil this target, the researcher has ‎embarked on an ‎Experimental Study based on a pre/post-testing, carried on painstakingly with ‎second-year EFL students ‎at Oran2 University, Algeria. Substantially, after appraising the ‎treatment results through SPSS, the ‎study reveals that adopting such a dialogic model is a robust ‎sinew for “Bloometizing” EFL ‎literature classroom, namely by stimulating and revitalizing the ‎learners’ cognitive reasoning potentials at ‎a very high complexity. Besides, in-class interactions ‎help the students build empathy with ‎literary texts and strengthen their analytical strategies. ‎From this vantage point, the paper, finally, hopes that teachers adopt this dialogic model as a ‎fitting instructional capstone to bringing literature ‎back to life before the learners’ eyes and to add ‎the ‘wow’ factor inside literature classrooms.‎

“The Quickening Virtue”: Reiterating the Work of the Literary Text

This article pursues the reiteration of reading as a practice that circumscribes the work of the literary text. In doing so, it responds to particular assertions made in Kate Highman’s “Close(d) Reading and the ‘Potential Space’ of the Literature Classroom.” More pertinently, though, it seeks to reposition the value of reading as a vital attribute in engaging with the humanities and emphasizes that analyzing and the interpreting of the text is the practice indisputably central to the humanistic endeavor. The discussion reiterates that any ways in and through the text are available only by reading, making it necessary to encourage and inculcate it as a central objective so that the work of the text, in accordance with Attridge’s qualification of it, remains productive. Finally, it argues that situating this critical practice as a deliberate objective within the teaching of literature must be reprioritized as a matter of urgency.