The Impact of Analyzing Young Adult Literature for Racial Identity / Social Justice Orientation with Interdisciplinary Students

ABSTRACT

Research suggests that students need authenticity by welcoming their stories, even causing tension and discomfort with complex topics, encouraging discussion, and questioning. Our study explores undergraduates’ open-ended reflections on using young adult literature to challenge dominant, deficit perspectives about themselves and others, which is not yet the norm but more common in high school settings. We explored how students questioned their implicit biases and assumptions toward a more critically aware identity through a holistic qualitative case study. Our analysis of students’ open-ended reflections produced three major themes: (a) Importance of Diverse Books and Analysis; (b) Books as an Impetus for a Change in Thinking and Awareness of Self; and (c) Lingering Tensions and Ongoing Resistance. Although many students expressed a change in thinking, there were still instances that reflected resistance.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical literacy
• disrupting stereotypes
• undergraduate english
• young adult literature

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachelle S. Savitz

Rachelle S. Savitz, PhD, is an assistant professor of adolescent literacy at Clemson University. She is the recipient of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researcher’s Jerry Johns Promising Researcher Award and the Early Career Literacy Scholar Award from the American Reading Forum. Her research interests and publications include focus on inquiry-based learning, analysis and use of young adult literature, teacher self-efficacy, and culturally sustaining pedagogy. She has coauthored Teaching Hope and Resilience for Students Experiencing Trauma: Creating Safe and Nurturing Classrooms for Learning with Drs. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey and has publications in Teaching and Teaching Education, Literacy Research and Instruction, and Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.

Leslie Roberts

Leslie Roberts, PhD, is an assistant professor of reading in the Department of Curriculum, Foundations, and Reading in the College of Education at Georgia Southern University – Armstrong Campus in Savannah, Georgia. Having been a middle school ELA teacher for five years, she realized how important intrinsic motivation was for her students’ success in reading. Her research focuses on reading motivation for students across grade levels, content areas, and ability levels through the use of discussion and book clubs. For this research, she was awarded the J. Estill Alexander Future Leaders in Literacy award for outstanding dissertation from the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER). Her research also spans into the areas of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy with teachers in K-16, the use of young adult literature to promote social-emotional learning in the classroom, and the use of discussion with reading to promote motivation and an increased value of reading.

Daniel Stockwell

Daniel Stockwell was a high school English language arts teacher in South Carolina. While teaching night courses in a college of education at a nearby university, Daniel realized how much he enjoyed working with preservice teachers. Now, he is a Ph.D. candidate in the Literacy, Language, and Culture program at Clemson University and plans to continue researching with and teaching preservice teachers after completing his dissertation. Daniel’s research interests include critical literacy, disciplinary literacy, and social justice pedagogies.