Teaching the adventures of Huckleberry Finn: a meta-ethnographic study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how models of teaching literature, and literary theories could be used to provide lenses and alternative perspectives for analysing and interpreting a number of sources and studies focusing on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to inform instructional planning. The study used meta-ethnography, an approach to interpretive synthesis, to synthesise qualitative studies and sources for identifying second-order interpretations around recurring themes and concepts identified by the researcher. To enable interpretation across studies and sources, the researcher used models of teaching literature for developing surface third-order interpretations, and literary theories for generating deeper level third-order interpretations for instructional use.