Reading Religiously
How do Jews and others make sense of religious texts, especially in ancient languages, and especially in school settings? And how do they think about the work of making sense of those texts?How does religious understanding of language and text change the activity of reading? And what can those situated in literacy learn from these contexts?
Professor Ziva Hassenfeld's research agenda seeks to understand the teaching and learning of texts in educational contexts that embody a religious attitude where written text is primary, and humans have an intrinsic drive to make meaning and interpret signs. What does reading look like in these classrooms? What are students taught matters? How does decoding fit in? What, if any, are the limits of interpretation? How are texts discussed? How is composition imagined? What becomes of authorial intent? What counts as comprehension?