"I Also Like It That People Care About Me." Children's Dialogues on Values, Emotions and Feelings in Dialogic Literary Gatherings

• Published in: Journal of language, identity, and education Vol. 23; no. 1; pp. 34 - 48
• Main Authors: Khalfaoui-Larrañaga, Andrea, Alvarez, Pilar, Gutiérrez-Esteban, Prudencia, Flecha, Ramón
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Routledge 02-01-2024; Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Classrooms; Dialogue; Elementary education; Elementary school students; Elementary schools; Emotions; Everyday life; literacy development; Literature; Social interaction; Social values; Spain
• ISSN: 1534-8458; 1532-7701
• DOI: 10.1080/15348458.2021.1956318

This study explores the dialogues about social values, emotions and feelings that emerge during the implementation of dialogic literary gatherings (DLG). DLG is a classroom-based program grounded in the dialogic reading of classic books. Ten DLG sessions with fourth-grade students (n = 126) were implemented in five elementary schools in Spain. The analysis of dialogues that took place in selected DLG sessions reveals that students discuss a range of topics related to social values, emotions or feelings and that they relate these topics to different domains in their daily life (classroom experiences, relationships with their family or peers, etc.). The results suggest that the interactive environment surrounding classic books that is created in DLG allows students to address themes that matter to them, thus providing the students with valuable opportunities to increase their social and emotional awareness.