The Gradual Release of the Canonical Grasp: Exercises in Excavation

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 1:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: (Re)Imagining Literacy Practices for Preservice Teachers (Table 24)

Abstract

Disrupting the canon of Eurocentric literature in secondary ELA curriculum is needed in teacher education programs in order to push back against white hegemony. Drawing on sociocultural theory, namely Vygotskian perspectives on literacy instruction, we interrogate the metaphor of the “grasp” that the canon has on the ELA community. We examine the epistemological shifts and evolutions between a preservice ELA teacher and an ELA teacher educator in a two-year study that focused on developing culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining critical literacy instruction. We found that releasing ourselves from the canonical grasp involved reframing these novels as literary artifacts, which was imperative in disrupting our own whiteness and critical curriculum writing surrounding themes of present-day racism and (in)justice.

Authors

• Kelli Ann Rushek, Miami University (OH)

• Elli MacDowell, Olentangy Local Schools