CFP 2025: Teaching Children’s Literature and Reading for Fun at University

2024-11-21
Monographic issue: Teaching Children’s Literature and Reading for Fun at University

 

Guest editors Mariona Graell Martín, Maria Pujol Valls, UIC (Universitat Internacional de Catalunya)

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to a collection of articles showcasing the latest trends in teaching children’s literature and fostering a love of reading at the university level.

At a moment when educators, librarians, researchers and policymakers are very interested in the effects of recreational reading on children, it is reasonable to question whether pre-service teachers and other literature mediators are keen readers themselves. Research in Australia, Chile, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the UK and USA has shown that pre-service and in-service teachers are not regular readers, and they are not often focused on the joy of reading when teaching reading skills. But if they read for pleasure, share their reading tastes and literary experiences and value the aesthetic reader profile, they are better able to inspire children to read and to create reading communities (Chambers 1993, Cremin 2020, Granado 2014, Merga 2016, Muñoz et al. 2022, Skaar, Elvebakk & Nilssen 2018): “Teachers who model recreational reading can foster a love of reading in their students” (Tichenor et al. 2021, p. 1).

As a consequence, it is worth reflecting on how programmes on children’s literature at university level can develop positive attitudes towards reading so students keep and share this intrinsic motivation throughout their life. This monographic issue is an opportunity for sharing approaches, tools and solutions to addressing these challenges.

We are inviting papers related to encouraging the joy of reading books in future teachers and other reading mediators. We are especially interested in papers that deal with one or more of the themes listed below.

1) Reading habits of pre-service teachers, in-service teachers and other literature mediators.

2) Students’ experiences of reading books for young people and adults.

3) Recreational reading in programmes on children’s literature.

4) Teaching methods, practices and tools to promote reading for fun in children’s literature courses.

5) Strategies for students’ active engagement in children’s literature classes.

6) Designing reading lists, syllabi and assignments.

7) Assessment in children’s literature courses.

8) Teaching and including children’s literature in other disciplines (e.g. education, library sciences, literature, humanities, history, sociology, design, visual arts, dramatic art, sciences).

9) Institutional possibilities and limitations in encouraging the knowledge on children’s literature, reading for pleasure and reading communities.

10) Recreational reading and children’s literature teaching in local, national or global frameworks, guidelines and standards.

 

Deadline for submissions: articles submitted by 30 May 2025 will be given priority for the December 2025 issue.

Submission and further information: https://turia.uv.es/index.php/JLE/index

If you prefer to deliver an article for the miscellaneous section, we recommend that you check our Author guidelines.

References

Chambers, A. (1993). Tell me. Thimble Press.

Cremin, T. (2020). Reading for Pleasure: challenges and opportunities. In J. Davison & C. Daly (Eds.), Debates in English Teaching (92–102). Routledge.

Granado, C. (2014). Teachers as readers: A study of the reading habits of future teachers/El docente como lector: Estudio de los hábitos lectores de futuros docentes. Cultura y Educación 26 (1), 44–70.

Merga, M. K. (2016). “I don’t know if she likes reading”: Are teachers perceived to be keen readers, and how is this determined? English in Education, 50 (3), 255–269.

Muñoz, C., Arriaza, V., Acuña Luongo, N. & Valenzuela, J. (2022). Chilean preservice teachers and reading: a first look of a complex relationship. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 45 (2), 265–280.

Skaar, H., Elvebakk, L. & Nilssen, J. H. (2018). Literature in decline? Differences in pre-service and in-service primary school teachers' reading experiences. Teaching and Teacher Education 69, 312–323.

Tichenor, M., Piechura, K. & Heins, E. (2021). Motivating Preservice Teachers to Read for Fun. Srate Journal 30 (1), 1–5.