Examining the College-Level Young Adult Literature Course for Pedagogical Approaches to LGBTQ and Gender-Variant Themes and Characters

• In Event: Roundtable Session 54
  In Roundtable Session: Traversing and Renegotiating Identity Borders: On the Presentation, Representation, and Re-Representation of Fluid Selves in Literature for Young People

Abstract

One place to start understanding how pre-service teachers learn about contemporary young adult literature, especially those works that feature LGBTQ and gender identity themes and characters, is through an examination of the young adult literature course--a course many pre-service teachers take as part of their teacher certification programs in the United States. This study employs queer pedagogy to explore the syllabi of 67 college-level young adult literature courses in order to address the question: ‘How do young adult literature courses incorporate the growing body of high quality young adult literature that features LGBTQ and gender variant themes and characters?’

Author

• Jacqueline Bach, Louisiana State University