58.027 - Reading Literature—Reading Worlds: The Equity Opportunity

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium takes up equity challenges and offers theory and empirical findings about the possibilities that teaching literature in ways that are expansive and pedagogically founded on generative theory can enhance opportunity to learn, particularly for those most under-served in our schools. The symposium addresses how literature opens opportunities for helping students engage in democratic debate, interrogate difference along multiple dimensions, and wrestle with complexity. The authors argue that equity goals should not be limited to purely practical outcomes, but equally to reflective thinking and willingness to engage with conflicting ideas that even such practical outcomes as college attendance, etc. require. Each paper draws from different theoretical framing to interrogate possibilities of socializing literary reasoning and pedagogical implications.

Sub Unit

• Division C - Learning and Instruction / Division C - Section 1b: Humanities, Social Sciences, Fine Arts

Chair

• Valerie Kinloch, University of Pittsburgh

Papers

• Reading Widely, Reading Deeply: The Equity Challenge - Peter Smagorinsky, University of Georgia

• Literature, Identity, and Opportunity to Learn - Carol D. Lee, Northwestern University

• Reframing Thematic Interpretation to Support Students' Literary Reading - Sarah Levine, Stanford University

Discussant

• Valerie Kinloch, University of Pittsburgh