"To Be Careful With People and Words": Youth of Color Analyze Culturally Diverse Young Adult Literature

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: Promoting Social Justice and Equity in Language and Literacy Learning

Abstract

This poster session explores how youth respond to culturally diverse young adult literature across their educational and lived experiences via a critical book club. Data included interviews, memos, reflections, annotated copies of book club texts, and audio recordings of book club meetings. Using Paris and Alim’s (2014) conception of culturally sustaining pedagogies, I found that youth responded to culturally diverse literature across their lived and educational experiences. Specifically, youth responded to these texts through their (1) past raced, classed, and gendered educational and lived experiences and (2) possible future educational and lived experiences. This research has implications for literacy research and curricula, as it addresses the need to center the literary, educational, and lived experiences of youth in our classrooms.

Author

• Mary L Neville, Michigan State University