Reading About Us Together: Empowering Preservice Teachers to Carry Out Inclusive Pedagogic Practices

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Consciousness Through Teacher Education

Abstract

This study explores the potential of multicultural young adult literature to support a social justice teacher education curriculum. The author designed and implemented a children and young adult literature course with the following specialized theme: listening to the stories of youths with marginalized identities. The study sought to inquire into ways in which reading multicultural young adult literature together with embracing critical pedagogy and critical literacy could lead preservice teachers to engage with issues related to social injustices and examine their own positions in relation to those of others. This paper also discusses the potential for adopting the concept of intersectionality to help preservice teachers narrate their emerging identities and the complicated understanding of their differences.

Author

• Soo Bin Jang, St. Mary's College of Maryland