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The Dog as an Unaware Pedagogical Agent in a School Reading Course.
- Source :
-
Anthrozoös . Dec2023, Vol. 36 Issue 6, p1013-1024. 12p. - Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- In this study, we observed pupils reading to a dog in a school reading course and asked: How can the pedagogic rituals of schooling explain the dog's role as a non-judgmental listener? In a qualitative case-study design, video observation was conducted over seven months in a Norwegian primary school to observe year-three pupils' (average age 8 years) reading experiences with a dog as part of their ordinary reading instruction course. The dog was a male, 10-year-old standard poodle. The children's school and their socioeconomic status (SES) were average for Norway. Fourteen children participated, four girls and ten boys, with a total of 112 reading sessions with the dog. Interviews and online data supplemented the observations. A narrative analysis found three main categories of the reading sessions: opening sequence, reading sequence, and concluding sequence. To report our findings in this paper, we present a typical narrative informed by the three categories. We conclude that the role of the dog as a non-judgmental listener in a school reading course can be explained by an invisible pedagogy ritualizing the sessions: The ritual assigns the dog a unique educational role in the school setting as a hybrid between animal and human; an unaware pedagogical agent. When reading to the dog, the instructional intention is reinterpreted as a game of pretense that is potentially enjoyable for the pupils and reduces stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 08927936
- Volume :
- 36
- Issue :
- 6
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Anthrozoƶs
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 173489757
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2023.2232657