The Purpose of Teaching Young Adult Literature in Secondary Education: Focus on Poverty, Gender and Sexuality

Darshana Chakrabarty

Abstract


Although Young Adult literature has been around for quite some time, it has never been viewed or considered to be fit to teach in a classroom setting, as it was poles apart from classics. Young Adult Literature deals with current social, economic, political as well as personal issues relating to and addressing a particular group of people, the young adults. Taking the themes ‘Poverty and Privilege’ and ‘Gender and Sexuality’, this article discusses the purpose of Young Adult Literature in school curriculum and the methods of teaching them to students to spread awareness and help in shaping conscious citizens of the world. The themes and issues of the books ‘The House on Mango Street’, ‘Hey Kiddo’, ‘If You Could Be Mine’ and ‘Some Assembly Required: The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen’ and the reason for teaching them in schools are explored in detail in the hope of shedding light on the darker aspects of life.


Keywords


young adult literature, gender, sexuality, poverty, privilege, teaching, school, classroom, secondary education

Full Text:

PDF

References


Adichie, C. N. (2009, July). The danger of a single story. Retrieved from TEDGlobal 2009: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story

Andrews, A. (2014). Some Assembly Required: The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen. Simon and Schuster.

Banks, W. P. (2009). Literacy, Sexuality, and the Value(s) of Queer Young Adult Literatures. English Journal, Vol. 98(4), 33-36.

Cisneros, S. (2013). The House on Mango Street. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

D. Gallo, S. H. (2005). From Hinton to Hamlet: Building bridges between Young Adult Literature and Classics. Westport: Greenwood Press.

Farizan, S. (2014). If You Could be Mine. Algonquin Books.

Freire, P. (1996, Dec). Paulo Freire - An Incredible Conversation. https://youtu.be/aFWjnkFypFA. (Literacy.org, Interviewer)

Greenbaum, V. (1994). Literature out of the Closet: Bringing Gay and Lesbian Texts and Subtexts out in HighSchool English. The English Journal, Vol. 83, No. 5, 71-74.

Hill, C., & Darragh, J. (2017). Is Poverty the Result of Poor Decisions? What Young Adult Literature Contributes to the Conversation. In J. A. Hayn, & J. S. Kaplan, Teaching Young Adult Literature Today: Insights, Considerations, and Perspectives for the Classroom Teacher (pp. 85-100). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Krosoczka, J. (2019, Aug 31). Jarrett J. Krosoczka on "Hey, Kiddo" | 2019 National Book Festival. 2019 National Book Festival. (R. Fahle, Interviewer) PBS Books. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/hMv087H7Dxs

Krosoczka, J. J. (2018). Hey Kiddo. Scholastic Inc.

Langer, J. (1995). Envisioning literature: Literary understanding and literature instruction. New York: Teachers College Press.

Mitchell, D. (2002). Young Adult Literature. NCTE Cyberbrief. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/shared/footer1.shtml

Petrone et al, R. (2014). The Youth Lens: Analyzing Adolescence/ts in Literary Texts. Journal of Literacy Research vol 46 (4), 506-533.

Renzi et al, L. (2017). Crossing Boundaries: Exploring the Fluidity of Sexuality and Gender in Young Adult Literature. In J. A. Hayn, & J. S. Kaplan, Teaching Young Adult Literature Today: Insights, Considerations, and Perspectives for the Classroom Teacher (pp. 101-122). Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Santoli, S. P., & Wagner, M. E. (2004). Promoting Young Adult Literature: The Other. American Secondary Educa, Vol.33(1).

Sieben, N., & Wallowitz, L. (2009). 'Watch What You Teach’: A First-Year Teacher Refuses to Play It Safe. English Journal, Vol. 98(4), 44-49.

Steffel, S., & Renzi-Kenner, L. (2009). Breaking Down the Last Taboo: LGBT Young Adult Literature in the Preservice Classroom. Language Arts Journal of Michigan, 24(2), 29-36.

Stover, L. T., Bach, J., & Carver, C. J. (2017). Activism, Service-Learning, Social Awareness, and Young Adult Literature. Teaching Young Adult Literature Today: Insights, Considerations, and Perspectives for the Classroom Teacher, 175-190.

Wilson, N. S., & Kelly, M. J. (2017). Avid Readers in High School: Are They Reading for Pleasure? In J. A. Hayn, & J. S. Kaplan, Teaching Young Adult Literature Today: Insights, Considerations, and Perspectives for the Classroom Teacher (pp. 65-79). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Wolk, S. (2013). Reading Democracy: Exploring Ideas That Matter with Middle Grade and Young Adult Literature. English Journal, Vol103(2), 45–51.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.35308/ijelr.v2i2.2366

Refbacks



Copyright (c) 2020 International Journal of Education, Language, and Religion

p-ISSN : 2721-429X
e-ISSN : 2721-4273

Published by Language Center of Universitas Teuku Umar
Website : http://jurnal.utu.ac.id/IJELR
Email    : ijelr@utu.ac.id

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.