This multiple case study traced how secondary preservice social studies teachers grappled with understanding race/racism in their reading of the novel, All American Boys. Participants, all self-identified as white, consisted of two cohorts of students who attended a large midwestern university and were enrolled in an advanced social studies…

The benefits of using literature in second or foreign language teaching have been re-gaining attention and recognition in recent years. With the aim of exploring possible pedagogical approaches and teacher perceptions, this study investigates four reading programmes implemented by experienced teachers in Chinse secondary schools. Different young…

The purpose of this collective case study was to explore the impact of using young adult literature in a content area literacy course to leverage the development of professional identities in preservice agriculture teachers (n= 4). Empirical studies of the literacy-based experiences and professional development of agricultural education majors are…

Singular efforts in PK-12 settings to instill a social justice mindset will not achieve the same outcomes as social justice education infused throughout content area instruction. In collaboration with 10th-grade teachers, we developed and implemented a biblioguidance curriculum to develop students' social justice and content area competency.…

There has been an increase in research regarding the use of virtual platforms as a means of collaboration between middle level learners and preservice teachers. However, little attention has been given to the role of asynchronous collaborations in the form of virtual literature discussions and the preservice teacher experience. Through a…

In this study, the authors explored a selection of middle-grade multimodal novels in order to push back against prior scholarship that tended to dismiss images in novels as mere decorations, visual reiterations of informational ready provided through written language (Godfrey, 2012). Inspired by the notion that the format of the middle-grade novel…

In this article, three English Language Arts teachers draw on their teaching experiences of addressing sexual violence in assigned young adult literature. The authors use their experiences to guide a series of suggestions for other teachers who wish to teach these texts in their own classes. First, the authors offer suggestions for legitimizing…

Scholars have hypothesized that historical fiction books are more a product of the author, author's nuanced world view, and the time period in which they were written than of the events and period depicted. This content analysis research examined how American historical fiction authors represented the Civil War and how the events of September…

In order to better understand how young adult literature (YAL) is used in secondary English teacher education, this study examines course syllabi submitted by researchers recently published in "The ALAN Review." Using a framework built on Bakhtin's work, this article analyzes course objectives and goals for inherent social discourses to…

Purpose: Though the benefits of social-emotional competence (SEC) are well-recognized, measuring it and designing appropriately matched interventions remains elusive and methodologically challenging. This paper shares formative research designed to uncover the SEC of one secondary school health teacher's students and to help her make…

Using theories of positioning, emotion, and power as a lens, this study explores the lived experiences of a reader labeled as struggling who was enrolled in four different course contexts: traditional high school English, high school remedial reading, high school Young Adult Literature, and college English. Interview data suggests the participant…

Among the many factors contributing to the historical lack of reading gains of our Black male students is the absence of texts accurately and authentically representing African American characters in today's schools. In addition, well-meaning educators are not adept in identifying and selecting these types of texts in order to provide African…

This study examines the historical representation of the Black Freedom Movement within nonfiction trade books intended for children and adolescent readers.

This research used an inductive qualitative method to examine how adolescents participated in online literature discussion, with limited guidance from adults, through a summer reading program. Using a New Literacies framework, the authors considered that literacy is social and collaborative and that adolescents often engage in such literacy…

The purpose of this case study was to investigate how an English language arts teacher used young adult literature to help English language learners improve English and literacy comprehension. Through the lens of Anzaldua's (2007) "borderlands", and Rolon-Dow's (2005) "critical care", the authors analyze the case study…