Representation and Value in Comics: Seeing and Sharing Your Own Story in a 10th-Grade English Language Arts Classroom

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Between the Panels: The Power and Possibilities of Co-Constructing Comics Research

Abstract

This paper explores how comics come to be valued (and not) and positioned in classroom spaces. We focus on a seven-week unit that explored various interpretations of the afterlife through multiple texts, including the comic Lowriders to the Center of the Earth. Within the linguistically, culturally, and racially varied context of this study, we understand that “diverse classrooms demand multiple pedagogies” (Seglem & Garcia, 2018, p. 58). As teacher and researcher, we were particularly interested in our work with Lowriders because of the connections students made to its racial, cultural, and linguistic representations and the many different ways students positioned the comic.

Authors

• Ashley Kaye Dallacqua, The University of New Mexico

• Annmarie Sheahan, Western Washington University