Adolescents Learning About "Adolescence" in an Advanced Placement English Class

• 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

While recent scholarship articulates the need for teachers to revise stereotyped conceptions of adolescence, little research has focused on the impact of teaching youth directly about historically-situated views of adolescence. This qualitative study examines what happens when a teacher instructs students about adolescence as a cultural construct and guides them to apply this lens in their analysis of Salinger’s (1951) Holden. Through observations, analysis of writing, and interviews, the author argues that access to alternative discourses about adolescence invite youth into revised options for performing “adolescence.” The study highlights the alacrity with which youth recognize how popular culture and people in their lives rely on stereotyped views of youth; and the challenges in applying this lens to academic writing.

Author

• Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, Westfield State University