By Marie LeJeune, Ph.D. & Tracy Smiles, Ph.D., Western Oregon University
Again we draw upon our framework that “reflects a mixture of our past experiences as literacy teachers, teacher researchers, and teacher educators, and our current perspectives on literary and pedagogical theories and how they might play out in practice.” Our framework revolves around three main aspects of the literacy invitation — the texts we choose, the literary theories we employ and ground our work within, and the actual pedagogical strategies and methods we engage in with students. This week we consider a new context for invitations — working with students in out of schooled spaces such as after school book groups, literacy clubs, and collaborative research.
This week’s blog focuses on Marie’s past work with a voluntary, after school book group for girls at the high school where she taught. Students met weekly over a semester, to read and discuss young adult literature related to issues of body image and embodied identity. All literature was self-selected by the group of girls and Marie drew on her past work with literature circles (Short, Harste & Burke, 1996) in her classroom to guide her role in the book group and with the girls.
THE INVITATION:
The Theory: Critical Literacy and Reader Response Theory. Marie also drew on previous work in literacy research on adolescents’ experiences in out-of-school book groups and literature discussions (Alvermann, Young, Green, & Wisenbaker, 1999; Moje, 2002). Of primary concern for Marie was investigating participants’ experiences in a student-led after school book group as well as the ways in which their gendered identities were performed and reformed as they read young adult literature that dealt with complex issues of the body.
The Texts: Girls read six novels together over a 12-week period. This week’s blog focuses on the girls’ readings and discussions of Patricia McCormick’s Sold (2006). Set in a rural village of Nepal, Sold is the story of young Lakshmi, whose stepfather sells her into prostitution and her struggle to endure the horrors she faces within an Indian brothel. Told in short, poetic vignettes, the novel alternates between disturbing issues and images of the sex trade, while also portraying the protagonist’s resilient spirit, endurance, and hope.
The Pedagogy: The girls’ book group was inspired by professional tensions and questions Marie grappled with as a secondary teacher who believed strongly in the value of young adult literature, yet taught in a school with a mandated reading list. She noticed many girls who loved to read young adult literature outside of class and found herself discussing these books with girls frequently after school. The creation of the book group was inspired by the following pedagogical wonderings:
- What possibilities would a student-led book group present for girls to explore reading and discussing literature they chose?
- Could young adult literature offer girls a venue for exploring notions about their bodies as well as the ways bodies are represented in the literature itself?
- Might a girls-only book group offer spaces for young women to critique limited notions of femininity and the female body in various texts they encounter in the world?
Mediation: Below is a short excerpt from a book group discussion of Sold. This excerpt illustrates the girls’ discussion of the health and hygiene practices discussed in the novel. The discussion reveals a lack of knowledge about both birth control and STD prevention that initially surprised Marie, as all of the girls in the book group were in at least the 10th grade and had all taken a mandatory health class the year before, which included units on sex education. What the transcript doesn’t provide is the large tension Marie felt as the discussion unfolded, not because of the sensitive content, but because she had attempted to continuously position herself as a member of the book group, and not as the adult leader. Suddenly, she felt like the adult expert who was quite concerned by the girls’ lack of information about such crucial issues related to their bodies. (Marie is designated as “Ms. L” in the transcript, the name girls referred to her as.)
- Sydney: She washes herself on her birthday. And that’s just like a sponge bath. I mean even in the brothel, they just kind of wipe themselves afterwards.
- Desiree: Ooh, ooh, ooh, that is disgusting when you think about that. Your body not being washed after all of that.
- Sydney: Yeah, they wipe themselves thinking that will help with the disease.
- Desiree: I was thinking about that, I mean would that even help prevent the disease? Just wiping themselves afterwards?
(Silence. All girls look to Ms. L for an answer.)
- Ms. L: Oh no, I mean of course not, but they don’t really have knowledge about STDs or anything like that.
- Sydney: Yeah, the doctor comes, but they don’t really understand what any of what he does is or what it’s for.
- Ms. L: Oh yeah, that’s right. I remember thinking that as I was reading at first, how does no one get pregnant, but then you find out that the doctor comes and gives them shots of birth control.
- Desiree: I didn’t even know that existed.
- Ms. L: That what existed?
- Desiree: Shots of birth control.
- Ms. L: Oh yeah. It does. And then they get shots to keep the sickness away.
- Maria: Yeah, what would that be?
- Ms. L: Does anyone have an idea? (Silence). Well, it’s probably something like penicillin that could help treat some STDs, but it’s not like it can treat everything. I mean some STDs aren’t curable.
- Sydney: Yeah, like that one lady she had that cough and she had to get kicked out. And the other girl got a virus…
- Desiree: Yeah, the incurable virus. Which was what, maybe HIV?
PERSPECTIVES ON CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PRACTICE AND REFLECTION:
This is one short example of how Marie experienced tension in her own role within the context of book group. Initially, she sought to investigate girls’ experiences with a response-based pedagogy. Quickly, she also found herself grappling with her own experience and positioning within the book group. Although she attempted to be just another member of the group, she often realized that she was looked to as the “adult expert,” especially on issues related to gender and embodied experiences. Short et al. (1999) discuss the roles that teachers might take on within discussion-based pedagogies, including teacher as participant, teacher as active listener, and teacher as facilitator. We wonder:
- Can, we as teachers and/or researchers, ever be “just a participant” when we work with young people?
When students pose difficult questions related to the texts we provide, what is our role in providing possible answers? - How should we position ourselves — but also how might students position us — in pedagogies that are ideally presented as student-centered?
- How do we negotiate our own personal and professional tensions over our roles within both classroom and out of school spaces?
We titled this month of Mondays “Invitation and Negotiation” to reflect our belief that we need others to think and inquire with us in order to sustain us as learners and educators (Short & Burke, 1991). This month we invite you to reflect on and share what informs your choices as teachers and teacher educators in the texts you choose to share with students, your agendas for doing so, and the challenges you’ve faced and the tensions you continue to grapple with.
Alvermann, D.E., Young, J.P., Green, C., Wisenbaker, J.M. (1999). Adolescents’ perceptions and negotiations of literacy practices in after-school read and talk clubs. American Educational Research Journal, 36 (2), 221-264.
McCormick, P. (2006). Sold. New York: Hyperion.
Moje, E.B. (2002). Re-framing adolescent literacy research for new times: Studying youth as a resource. Reading Research and Instruction, 41, 211-264.
Short, K. & Burke, C. (1991). Creating curriculum: Teachers and students as a community of learners. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Short, K. & Harste, J. w/Burke, C. (1996). Creating classrooms for authors and inquirers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Short, K., Kaufman, G., Kaser, S., Kahn, L.H., Crawford, K.M. (1999). Teacher watching: Examining teacher talk in literature circles. Language Arts, 76(5), 377-385.
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- Themes: Marie LeJeune, Tracy Smiles
- Descriptors: Debates & Trends, Student Connections, WOW Currents