Troubling Transformative Multicultural Literature Pedagogy: Four Teachers’ Efforts Toward Moving Students Beyond the Rhetoric of Change

• In Event: Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: Learning and Teaching About Race, Social Justice, and Global Citizenship Through the Use of Literature

Abstract

Teachers are expected to diversify their literary curricula, yet little knowledge is available about effective instructional practices for teaching multicultural literature. This paper addresses the need for empirically-based research that investigates the effectiveness of a transformative pedagogy for teaching multicultural literature. This paper details a design-based study of four teachers’ efforts toward developing instructional strategies that encourage transformative responses to multicultural literature. The paper focuses on findings related to the use of “perspective-taking” for encouraging students’ consideration of alternative perspectives and values stances. This study suggests that perspective-taking proves problematic when viewed by students as a rhetorical strategy. Based on these findings, this presentation offers suggestions for developing an authentic approach to perspective-taking.

Author

• Amanda Haertling Thein, University of Iowa