Review of Engaging with Multicultural YA Literature in the Secondary Classroom: Critical Approaches for Critical Educators Edited by Ricki Ginsberg and Wendy J
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Journal of Language and Literacy Education Vol. 17 Issue 1—Spring 2021 Review of Engaging with Multicultural YA Literature in the Secondary Classroom: Critical Approaches for Critical Educators Edited by Ricki Ginsberg and Wendy J. Glenn Reviewer: Caleb Chandler University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia Ginsberg, R., & Glenn, W. J. (2019). Engaging with multicultural YA literature in the secondary classroom: Critical approaches for critical educators. Routledge. ISBN: 9780367147228 1 Journal of Language and Literacy Education Vol. 17 Issue 1—Spring 2021 “Explicitly teaching students to understand In each chapter, scholars provide us with pertinent reading as a tool for justice and liberation can information regarding the approach with which they open opportunities for civic engagement and will use to ground their examination of the Book and using literacy as a tool to address inequity” instructional practices (e.g., critical race theory, (Kaplan & Garcia, 2019, p. 183). queer theory, critical comparative content analysis, Overview of the Book and more). From there, each author applies these approaches to a designated young adult novel, When reading Engaging with Multicultural YA offering a lens through which teachers and students Literature in the Secondary Classroom, the quote can read the text. To conclude each chapter, authors above remained a theme throughout that Ginsberg describe critical literacy activities that teachers and Glenn, the editors of the collection, highlight in might pair with their chosen Book. GinsBerg and their assemBling of this book. In a nation founded Glenn note that these descriptions are not meant to on and entrenched with the “imperialist [W]hite provide a scripted means of implementing these supremacist capitalist patriarchy,” as hooks (2009) pedagogies but should serve as a guide that teachers would call it (p. 8), we are forever in need of tools can adjust for their own students. Following each that address inequity, particularly in our schools. As chapter, the authors list supplemental, related texts GinsBerg and Glenn underscore in the introduction, that teachers might also use, include in their liBrary, puBlic schools in the United States are Becoming and suggest to students. increasingly diverse while our nation becomes increasingly bifurcated. We owe our K-12 students In the continued review below, I will provide a (and ourselves) critical approaches that promote a summary of each chapter and then offer a brief more equitaBle world. analysis of the collection. Prior to delving into the chapter summaries, it is imperative to note that To do so, we can turn to young adult novels and GinsBerg and Glenn do not organiZe the chapters By accompanying critical pedagogies. Until recently, topic or theme to provide a more intersectional teachers selected mostly canonical, traditional reading experience. Following their lead in this novels for their instruction that featured review, I also move through these chapter predominantly White, cisgender, straight, middle summaries sequentially and do not group them by class characters, largely due to discomfort topic or theme. There is much to be learned from addressing multicultural aspects in young adult this text, and while each chapter can be read novels (Ginsberg & Glenn, 2019). As more teachers individually, I encourage readers to read through the begin centering books that feature diverse voices, collection and make connections across the teachers should simultaneously pair them with chapters, as well. critical pedagogies to foster a more equitaBle education, and thus a more equitable world. Discussion of the Chapters Therefore, Ginsberg and Glenn provide their audience, particularly teachers and teacher The first chapter in the edited book offers readers educators, with a noteworthy text that highlights a texts and critical literacy practices that address the number of necessary voices, an array of notion of meritocracy. Specifically, Jennifer Buehler multicultural titles, and creative, justice-oriented uses positioning theory and American Street (Zoboi, pedagogical strategies. 2017) to explore how the characters explore power, social locations, and moral choices as they pursue 2 Journal of Language and Literacy Education Vol. 17 Issue 1—Spring 2021 the American Dream. Buehler pairs this theoretical World, students might then analyze how framework and text with drama-based activities, like neoliberalism affects their own lives. role-playing, to help students Become attuned to the ways in which individuals’ identities--first the Emily Wender summariZes Yaqui Delgado Wants to characters in American Street and then their own-- Kick Your Ass (Medina, 2013) and describes a are impacted by opportunities they were (or were theoretical concept in film theory known as not) afforded based on their position in various dominant and oppositional gazes in chapter 4. sociocultural circumstances. Focusing mainly on the dominant gaze, Wender uses the visual of a window frame to help students Patricia E. Enciso, Nithya Sivashanakar, and Sarah see how the dominant gaze emphasizes and Bradford Fletcher also suggest drama pedagogies in subjugates certain ways of knowing and being-- chapter 2 to help students analyze how social attributes in line with the dominant gaze fall inside divisions form, specifically between races. Using a the frame while all others are on the outside. theory of social minds to engage with Out of Wender suggests starting with the topic of teenagers Darkness (Perez, 2015), the authors argue that to illuminate how the dominant gaZe affects fictional social minds help us understand how teenagers’ lives. From there, students can begin fictional worlds operate. As students use drama using the window frame to analyze the dominant pedagogies while reading Out of Darkness, this work gaze in Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. By can translate to their own lives, understanding how engaging with this concept via the novel, students social minds are formed in the real world. Inevitably, will gain a keener sense of how dominant gaZes this involves examining social divisions. Dramatic operate in the world, as well. inquiries based on the novel, like circle readings and creating word carpets (i.e., emBodied dialogue), help In chapter 5, Cammie Kim Lin reminds us that students understand the depth of hate and injustice, “multicultural” often describes spaces where people potentially inspiring acts of love and justice. of multiple cultures come together, But the term can also describe individuals who are of multiple After a brief discussion of neoliberalism in Chapter cultures, specifically multiple races or ethnicities. 3, Sean P. Connors and Roberta Seelinger Trites She calls upon the characters in Little & Lion introduce an accessible framework alongside (Colbert, 2017) to discuss mixed youth and create a Marcelo in the Real World (Stork, 2009) to help theoretical approach she names an alloy identity them understand how neoliBeralism operates in lens, an approach that would value both identities their own lives. The novel includes “superspecial without aiming to see them as separate parts. To individuals” who can accomplish great things help students develop the alloy identity lens, Kim against all odds (Connors & Trites, 2019, p. 33). To Lin first suggests having students read supplemental analyze neoliberalism and “superspecial individuals,” texts that highlight the experiences of mixed people. the authors suggest having students consider how After engaging with these texts, students might then the characters experience various institutions in the turn to Little & Lion to refine their theory of the novel, whether the text accounts for identity alloy lens. Kim Lin, then, reminds readers of a point markers (e.g., race, class, gender, sexual orientation, that is evident throughout her chapter: Providing etc.), and how the characters experience success opportunities for students to theoriZe--about life (i.e., as a result of individual or collective efforts). By using literature--is an imperative aspect of teaching. applying this framework to Marcelo in the Real 3 Journal of Language and Literacy Education Vol. 17 Issue 1—Spring 2021 From there, Ricki Ginsberg draws on Gloria In chapter 8, Alyssa Chrisman and Mollie V. Anzaldúa in chapter 6 to discuss how teachers and Blackburn respond to the lack of intersectional students might use If I Ever Get Out of Here LGBTQ curriculum in schools, as well as the (Gansworth, 2013) to examine borders, borderlands, problematic “it gets Better” discourses that permeate and spaces between. GinsBerg reminds readers that the queer community. Using Ahmed’s borders are more than physical spaces, but they also conceptualization of happiness (2010), they analyze might relate to one’s race, language, gender, how happiness is more difficult for Aaron, a queer sexuality, emotions, age, and more. While reading character in More Happy than Not (Silvera, 2015), the book, students can interrogate the broader because of the privileges he is not afforded. In two notion of borders--both what they limit and afford-- separate applications of Ahmed’s theory, Chrisman in the text and their own lives. Ginsberg provides and Blackburn explain how teachers might use thought-provoking activities in the chapter to help concepts like conditional happiness and proximity teachers and students do just this. In addition to to happiness to examine Aaron’s experiences in reading If I Ever Get Out of Here, she recommends More Happy than Not. With each