"מועדון הספרים של לוינסקי": סיפורה של קהילה לומדת

The article presents an interpretive qualitative phenomenological study that examines The Levinsky Book Club as a learning or interpretive community in light of the events taking place in it and from the perspective of its participants. An interpretive community is defined as an institutional space within which meaning is sought – i.e., intention is sought – and within which it is also determined. The study followed over the course of six years the activities of a book club operating within a college of education by means of 36 observations, 19 interviews, and the researcher's journal. The study participants were ten literature lecturers, teacher educators who are regular participants in the club. The study's theoretical foundations address reading as an activity located between the personal and social; book clubs; and examination of approaches to the concepts "interpretation" and "interpretive community". The findings indicate that in the eyes of the literature department lecturers, the club functions as an interpretive community. It is a place for friendship, reading and thinking about it, and for the participants' professional development. It engenders a shared language and a common literary repertoire, and at the same time facilitates an encounter with diverse ways of thinking and interpretive practices as a source of inspiration and a foundation for creating new knowledge.