“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.
Reference
Lewis, M. A., & Petrone, R. (2010). “Although adolescence need not be violent…”: Preservice teachers’ connections between “adolescence” and literacy curriculum. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(5), 398–407.
Journal
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
no
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
Preservice Participants
- Post bachs (university based program)
- Undergraduates (university based program)
Preservice Sample Size
17
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
Data Analysis Tools
- coding to a prior categories
Researcher Positionality
- inside (staying their own students)
- Inside (studying their own practices)
Research Questions
What are secondary preservice literacy teachers’
conceptions of adolescence?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes
What connections do these preservice teachers
make between fictional adolescent characters
and their implied (Lewis & Finders, 2001) adolescent
students?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Unknown
How do their conceptions of adolescence and
connections between fictional adolescent characters
and implied adolescent students inform
their creation of curricular activities?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Unknown