(Im)Possibilities of Teaching Justice Through Literature: Exploring High School Students’ Concepts of Social Inequity in the Transition to Common Core State Standards

• In Event: Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: Using Multimodal Methods to Unpack Teaching and Learning Perspectives

Abstract

This study examines high school students’ understandings of the American Dream as a means to discuss equity issues. In the transition to CCSS, presenters use English texts to explore possibilities of teaching equity. Aesthetic inquiry and new literacy studies are major theoretical frameworks. Thirty-one students showed three major different understandings of the American Dream in their reflection writing, class discussions, and other activities: 1) Confirming existing beliefs of liberal individualism, 2) Being exposed to equity but keeping existing beliefs, and 3) Examining multiple perspectives. Challenges still exist to bring diverse perspectives into the inquiry in unjust practices. English teachers and teacher educators will have a chance to explore effective learning-teaching strategies to develop justice-oriented units in the era of CCSS.

Authors

• Seungho Moon, Oklahoma State University - Stillwater

• Allisyn Mills, Stillwater High School