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In this essay, four teacher educators explore their journeys towards foregrounding students' lived experiences when teaching literature. Data about our teaching of literature in different contexts were generated through our personal reflective narratives and ensuing dialogic critical friend conversations. Inductive thematic analysis of the narratives revealed that in spite of our diverse initial teaching contexts and trajectories, we initially all taught in much the same teacher-centred way. We also came to the realisation, however, that over the years our informal conversations had played a role in our teaching, allowing us to move beyond our educations. Collaborative teaching relationships developed out of incidental corridor conversations and these have been instrumental in reshaping our teaching of literature, enabling us to make literary texts relevant to societal issues and the lived experiences of our students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching effects on many aspects of our everyday lives. Changes have also been apparent in the field of teaching since most teaching now has to be carried out online. Despite its drawbacks, this forced change to online instruction and learning has helped me reflect on my teaching. Based on my experience teaching literature at a university in Hong Kong, this article aims to highlight the lessons learned from the transformation caused by the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of online learning and other software-powered technologies is on the rise in the United States, encouraged financially and politically by governmental and commercial entities. Specifically, online courses are gaining ground in K–12 public schools, schools which often purchase from third-party providers. After a decade in the New York City Department of Education as an English teacher and schools official responsible for a large-scale online learning programme, the author asks the question: How does the use of software-powered technologies like online learning affect the teaching of literature? In pursuit of this question, the author draws on concept from the field of software studies while adapting qualitative methods from multimodal studies to examine precisely how the nature of software (and the ideologies of those who create and sell it) are subtly influencing the teaching of literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]