Pre-Service Educators Re-imagining Teaching through YAL Book Clubs

• In Event: Re-envisioning YA Book Clubs as a Culturally Sustaining Literacy Method for Transforming Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Objectives
This study examined the experiences of 11 preservice teachers reading young adult literature (YAL) in book clubs in a methods course and considered the following research questions: What do pre-service teachers learn and how do they respond to reading YAL? How does the experience of reading YA novels in book clubs inform how they may approach teaching reading in the secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classroom?

Perspectives
Culturally sustaining pedagogies (CSP) served as the framework for this study. Alim and Paris (2017) argue that CSP fosters “linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism” within schools to support social transformation (p. 1). CSP draws from Ladson-Billings’ (1995) culturally relevant pedagogies, to go beyond representation and sustain these practices in the classroom. Using CSP to design YAL book clubs can offer benefits to all students regardless of cultural background, while providing exposure to diverse texts, cultures, and characters. Reading culturally relevant literature provides opportunities for educators to use CSP practices by encouraging discussions of various critical topics raised in the books that can be considered difficult for educators to discuss.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
This qualitative study utilized ethnographic methods. The researcher was the instructor of record and collected data after the course ended. Data were analyzed with two cycles of coding using both deductive and inductive approaches. While keeping initial research questions in mind, they remained open to concepts that emerged from the data and created new codes as they reviewed all data.

Data Sources
Data from 1) eleven audio-recorded and transcribed individual interviews and 2) student book club assignments were analyzed for this study. Participants were interviewed about their perspectives and insights as educators and students while reading a culturally relevant YA book for their book club project in their methods course.

Findings
Findings revealed that 1) participants benefited from the book club and believed that secondary students would benefit from reading YAL. Participants shared they related to characters and felt that students in the secondary classroom could connect to them as well. 2) Participants also communicated hesitations about how to teach culturally relevant YAL based on the lack of focused instruction about YAL in their teacher preparation program. Along with the political climate surrounding diverse texts, educators are urged to read culturally relevant texts, but little support is given on how to navigate the political contexts of the classroom.

Significance
This study contributes to research on ELA teacher preparation by providing pedagogical insight on how to mindfully facilitate book clubs that support reading and teaching culturally relevant literature in the classroom. One implication of this study is that teacher preparation programs need to offer more instructional support for preservice teachers on how to teach culturally relevant YAL. While preservice educators might learn about CSP, research indicates that when teacher preparation also focuses on understanding YAL, it can further enhance and support learning, teaching, and research-based practices that benefit youth in the classroom, (Elliott-Johns, 2017). Support for a specialized focus on teaching YAL remains a need for preservice teachers.

Author

• Sandra Saco, Arizona State University