“Although Adolescence Need Not Be Violent…”: Preservice Teachers' Connections Between “Adolescence” and Literacy Curriculum

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a study that examined how and why a group of pre‐service secondary literacy teachers conceptualized and created various curricular activities involving young adult literary texts as part of their work for a teacher education course on teaching literature. Specifically, this article examines the systems of reasoning about the concept of adolescence that undergirded and rationalized these pre‐service literacy teachers' curricular activities. Excerpts of the pre‐service teachers' rationales and sample activities are presented here to illustrate how these pre‐service teachers perceived adolescence as primarily a time of identity formation, especially one fraught with danger, and literacy curriculum, particularly the study of young adult literary texts, as a vehicle to help their future students traverse this tumultuous time. In presenting these findings, this article argues for secondary literacy teachers and literacy teacher educators to rethink and complicate their normalized assumptions of adolescence and secondary students. تفيد هذه المقالة نتائج دراسة فحصت كيف ولماذا مجموعة من معلمي معرفة القراءة والكتابة في الثانوية ما قبل الخدمة صوروا وخلقوا أنشطة منهاجية متنوعة انضمت فيها نصوص الأدب للمراهقين كجزء من عملهم لحصة تعليم الأدب للمعلمين. وتصف هذه المقالة على وجه الخصوص أنظمة التفكير حول مفهوم المراهقة الذي دعم ووجه أنشطة المنهاج الدراسي لدى المعلمين ما قبل الخدمة. وقد تم تقديم ملتقطات من أمثلة أنشطة المعلمين ما قبل الخدمة ومبادئهم هنا لتبيين كيف تخيل هؤلاء المعلمين ما قبل الخدمة فكرة المراهقة كفترة تشكيل الهوية لا سيما فترة مليئة بالخطر ومنهاج معرفة القراءة والكتابة الدراسي بخاصة دراسة نصوص الأدب للمراهقين كوسيلة لتساعد طلابهم المستقبلين في تجاوز هذه الفترة المضطربة. وبوساطة تقديم هذه النتائج تحتج هذه المقالة بإعادة التفكير من قبل معلمي معرفة القراءة والكتابة في الثانوية وكذلك أساتذتهم وبتعقيد افتراضاتهم المعتاد عليها تجاه المراهقة وطلاب الثانوية. 本文报告一项研究之结果，该研究考查一群职前中学读写文化教师，在他们修读教师教育课程中的文学教学时，是如何概念化及创作各种涉及青年成人文学文本的课程活动，以及其背后之原因是什么。具体来说，本文探讨这些职前读写文化教师所制作及合理化的课程活动，是基于怎样的推理系统来考虑青春期这个概念。本文展示这些职前教师的理论依据及课程活动实例的摘录，以说明这些职前教师如何把青春期这个概念理解为主要是一个身份认同的形成期，尤其是一个充满危险的时期；如何把青年成人文学的学习，理解为帮助他们的未来学生跨越这个多变的时期的载体。通过展示这研究的结果，本文作者认为，中学读写文化教师及读写文化教师教育工作者，须重新思考他们对青春期及中学生这两个概念的规范化假设，并须对其有更深刻的认识。 Cet article rapporte les résultats d'une étude qui a examiné comment et pourquoi un groupe de professeurs du second degré en formation initiale ont conçu et créé différentes activités d'un programme comportant des textes de littérature de jeunesse pour adolescents en tant que composante d'un cours de formation des maîtres sur l'enseignement de la littérature. Plus précisément, cet article examine les types de raisonnement relatifs au concept d'adolescence sous‐jacent qui constituait la trame rationnelle des activités du programme de ces professeurs de littératie. On présente ici des extraits des raisonnements des professeurs et des exemples d'activités pour montrer comment des enseignants en formation initiale perçoivent l'adolescence en premier comme une période de formation de l'identité, principalement co...

Using YA Literature to Help Preservice Teachers Deal With Bullying and Suicide

“…Young adult literature explores issues relevant to adolescents' lives; therefore, reading this type of literature can facilitate thoughtful conversations with PSTs about the future adolescents they will be teaching (Lewis & Petrone, ; Mason, ). Furthermore, Lewis and Petrone () and Mason () have found that young adult literature helps PSTs consider the issues present in adolescents' lives and the obstacles adolescents might face in schools.…”

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“…Taking a social-constructivist stance on adolescents helps teachers be critical of the ways in which institutions such as media, government, and education fashion teenagers in a deficit stance in ways that other views of adolescence cannot. This is important because, as Lewis and Petrone (2010) These questions allowed my students to reflect on their own belief systems prior to reading and responding to academic literature on the same topic. Students brought these responses to class, and we used them as a basis for a general discussion around their own perceptions of teens.…”

“…Some researchers have found that preservice teachers hold potentially negative dominant conceptions of adolescence (Lewis & Petrone, 2010;Petrone & Lewis, 2012) that include coming-of-age narratives around identity formation, deficit views, and discourse that sees adolescence as a dangerous and tumultuous time, thus serving to distance or other themselves from their future students. However, I found that when my students were given space to carefully examine their own beliefs, academic texts that offer alternative viewpoints, and examples of adolescence in popular culture-as well as to explore how these play out in young adult literature-they, for the most part, were able to move beyond negative conceptions of adolescence.…”

Tensions in Teaching Adolescence/ts: Analyzing Resistances In A Young Adult Literature Course

“…Teacher perceptions about adolescence also influence curricular designs for literary texts. Lewis and Petrone () showed how preservice teachers in their study view adolescence as an especially critical period for shaping identity as well as a stage potent with risks tied to youths’ life choices about peer pressure and experimentation with harmful substances. As a result, when shaping curriculum for their future students, these teachers desire texts they think will engage their class based on student connections to fictional protagonists.…”