Study & Scrutiny: Research on Young Adult Literature

Instructions:

R. Joseph Rodríguez — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

In these extraordinary times, we felt we would start this issue on censorship with a poem. Much that is going on in our country is cacaphony; Joseph R. Rodríguez' poem makes the noise more legible.

Introduction to Special Issue 6.1, Censorship and Young Adult Literature

Dani Kachorsky — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

For this special issue of Study and Scrutiny: Research on Young Adult Literature, we welcome guest editor, Dani Kachorski, who created the call and worked diligently to usher in the scholarship of educators and researchers from all contexts. At Dr. Kachorski’s suggestion, we opened up the journal to other scholarly genres and we are delighted to offer them here.

Teacher Use of Diverse Literature in Secondary English Language Arts Classrooms

Rosa Nam — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

This study examines teacher use of diverse literature in secondary classrooms across three districts in a metropolitan city in Texas. The survey data provides insight to teacher barriers to integrating diverse literature such as district mandates and ways teachers have been working to combat these issues.

Narrative of Deficit and Authentic Portrayals of Mental Illness and Cultural Sensitivities in Young Adult Literature

Elsie Lindy Olan, Kia Jane Richmond — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

This article sheds light on the narrative of deficit that often surrounds characters who have mental illness in young adult literary novels (YAL) and critiques the manner in which that narrative perpetuates the stigma of mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder. We focus on two 21st century young adult novels whose characters are accurately depicted as having mental illness and whose authors authentically share the characters’ successes and struggles as well as the impact of their mental illness symptoms on family, friends, and neighbors. Our aim is to analyze and critique these novels to inform researchers and authors of YAL about the danger of romanticizing stigma surrounding mental illness, which, through the descriptions of characters’ behaviors and language used by the authors (whether intentional or not), can perpetuate the narrative of deficit that is associated with characters with mental illness.

Preparing Preservice Teachers to Teach Young Adult Literature in Conservative Contexts

Megan M. Van Deventer — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

Requests to censor or ban young adult literature from K-12 classrooms and curricula have increased. Especially in conservative states and contexts, censorship challenges are systematic and unrelenting, with coordinated campaigns from administrators, parents, and other educational stakeholders. Therefore, English Education must prepare and empower preservice teachers to read, teach, and advocate for the inclusion of diverse young adult literature in their school communities. This article details the pedagogical design of a methods course that instructs preservice English teachers to strategically navigate and counter this conservative activism to protect adolescents’ access to young adult literature.

The War on Books

Abbey Bachmann , Aimee Tellez — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

With the nation’s attention toward the misguided attacks of nonexistent Critical Race Theory (CRT) in K-12 schools, books have become a target for removal. Recently, Katy ISD, an affluent suburban district in the Greater Houston area, canceled an upcoming author visit featuring Jerry Craft and his graphic novel New Kid after parents raised concerns regarding the book and what they deemed to be the promotion of CRT. This article explores the book banning controversy at Katy ISD as well as recommendations from the perspectives of a Katy ISD parent as well as a literacy scholar and veteran English teacher.

Banish the Bans

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

As the restriction of books in schools continues to rise in the U.S., the authors of this piece argue that teacher educators have an important and powerful role to play as they empower preservice and inservice teachers to advocate for book access and choice. Four actions for teacher educators to consider are recommended: 1) building background knowledge 2) modeling effective strategies 3) introducing pathways of advocacy 4) providing a community of support.

_*_{It should be noted that the authors of the article used alphabetical order as authors and wish to recognize all contributions as equal}.

Should I Teach This Text?

Lara Searcy, Brogan Spears, Karrine Ortiz, Kevin Shank, K. Emerson Foster — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

During a time when legislation stands in opposition to principles of academic freedom, educators need tools (e.g. text complexity rationales) to make their classroom a place that is inclusive. This article provides guidance on best practices for selecting, teaching, and using controversial, challenged, or banned texts in educational contexts. The authors demonstrate how they have used text rationales to answer, “Should I teach this text?” Using a Q&A approach, each contributor briefly discusses responses to provide rationale on how to support “the right to read” from a variety of perspectives-- professor, (graduate) student, classroom teacher, and parent.

The Hydra Nature of Book Banning and Censorship

Michelle Boyd Waters, Shelly K. Unsicker-Durham — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

In Fall of 2022 two researchers set out to explore both scholarly work on censorship and news articles via social media, to help gain a broader understanding of censorship and book banning trends. The following research question guided their research: What does this wave of book banning and censorship look like across the US? What they discovered is a kind of censorship-Hydra, an evolving beast posing an ever-present danger, one that will likely take the courage, collaboration, and ingenuity of educators everywhere. This article offers a snapshot of this current beast of book banning and censorship in the form of two annotated bibliographies—one focused on news reports and trends in social media—the other focused on academic searches of scholarly articles.

Fahrenheit 450

Zach Urquhart, Pearson Urquhart — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

In this article, we use what we are dubbing “Conversation through Poem” to explore the lived experiences of a father and his daughter, a young adult who has read many of the books that are frequently labeled controversial and banned in schools and libraries. We wrote a series of poems to reflect on how and to what degree reading controversial books has had positive or negative effects. With Parsons’ Reproduction Theory (1959) as a framework, our discussion and reflection through poetry suggests that rather than indoctrinating young people, reading “controversial” books leads to an understanding an openness, as well as showing the need for the voice of young adults in the very conversations surrounding banned books.

A Review of Defending Frequently Challenged Young Adult Books, Teaching Banned Books, and Books Under Fire

Terri Suico — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

This in-depth review of three of Pat R. Scales’ books provides summaries of the books as well as insight regarding their value for educators and librarians given the current issues surrounding censorship.

Banned and Challenged

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

Reviews with rationales for four challenged trade books that deserve a place in our libraries, classrooms, and in the hands of our students: New Kid by Jerry Craft, Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison, Attack of the Black Rectangles by Amy Sarig King, and You Can’t Say That!an anthology edited by Leonard S. Marcus.

“Focus Always on the Child.” A Conversation with Pat Scales

Terri Suico — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

Pat Scales, the former chair of the America Library Association’s Intellectual Free Committee and freedom to read expert, shares her insights on the uptick of book challenges and bans. She also provides ideas on how educators and librarians can address and combat censorship in a proactive way.

Teacher Round Table

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0500

Study and Scrutiny has focused on the publication of critical and empirical studies surrounding the scholarship and critical merits of Young Adult Literature. Because other journals provide a space for pedagogical practices concerning YA, the editors have intentionally shied away from explaining to teachers how to teach a particular title in a particular way. Still, the intention of the journal has been, in part, to support the learning of secondary students as readers and the classroom practices of their teachers. Teacher Round Table hopes to serve as a space to open the conversation surrounding YA literature, its critical merits, and ways that the research might serve teachers as they make curriculum choices about both texts and strategies. The idea is to bring teachers, as intellectuals, into conversation surrounding the scholarship of a featured study.

For this round table, five secondary teachers joined Shelly Unsicker-Durham via Zoom to focus on Ashely Dallacqua’s article “Reading When the World Is on Fire: Teaching with Comics and Other Multimodal Text Sets” from S & S Issue: 6.1. Jason DeHart, special editor, invited three of his Tennessee colleagues and Shelly invited two of hers from Oklahoma, for a conversation that included graphic novels, classroom instruction, and censorship. Words and images provided by the teachers, along with the following conversation, have been edited for clarity, style, and organization.