The Heartstopper Project

Results from a Collaborative Research Project in the Secondary EFL Classroom

Abstract

This article focuses on the collaboration between Lena, a secondary teacher, and Nikola, a researcher and lecturer at the Zurich University of Education. Together they designed and carried out the Heartstopper Project. The main aim of the project was to work with the TV series Heartstopper in an elective module with 9^th grade students. The project was set up as an exploratory study and we collected and analyzed several kinds of data:  a questionnaire, group interviews, observation notes, products from the students. Our research aimed on the one hand to explore how the secondary students responded to Heartstopper and the topic of diversity as well as how this helped to enhance their series_serial literacy. On the other hand, we focused on what we as teachers and researchers could derive from this project.