30.079 - Exploring Sexuality and Gender in English Language Arts Classrooms: Creating Opportunities for Challenging Heteronormativity

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Drawing on four ethnographic studies of urban and suburban schools, the papers in this symposium discuss the teaching and learning of literary texts that provide opportunities for exploring gendered and sexualized dimensions of personhood in middle and high school English language arts contexts. Moving beyond arguments for inclusion of representations beyond heteronormativity, we seek to understand the (im)possibilities for challenging what Atkinson and DePalma (2009) call heterosexual hegemony through pedagogy and the language arts (across the) curriculum. Specifically, the papers explore the exclusion of desire in classroom discussions and writing, the use of argumentation in understanding The Laramie Project, the tensions in reading graphic novel representations of Rapuzel, and the affordances and constraints of three approaches to LGBTQ-inclusive curricula.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Writing and Literacies

Chair

• Ryan Schey, The Ohio State University - Columbus

Papers

• Desire and Gender in Classroom Discourses and Writing in the English Language Arts Classroom - John Edward Brady, The Ohio State University

• Resisting the Single Narrative: Using Argumentation to Create Complexity - Eileen Buescher, The Ohio State University

• Wondering About Rapunzel: Feminist Fairy Tales Explored With Seventh-Grade Readers - Ashley Kaye Dallacqua, The University of New Mexico

• Affordances and Constraints of Three Approaches to LGBTQ-Inclusive Curricula in a Secondary Language Arts Classroom - Ryan Schey, The Ohio State University - Columbus

Discussant

• Stephanie Anne Shelton, The University of Alabama