Acts of Resistance

"(T)his text supplies a much-needed collection of voices from the field who are seeking socially just, anti-oppressive futures. For teacher educators looking for examples that illustrate critical theory and reflect diverse teacher perspectives, this text contributes important examples and powerful stories."

“ELA teachers—now more than ever—are faced with awful decisions in the current context of teaching: Should they do what is best for their students or what will allow them to keep working with students? Dyches, Sams, and Boyd emphatically say, “Both” and I agree the way forward in ELA instruction is to be subversive, to be acutely aware of the dominant discourses and work constantly to help students write themselves into the discussions, texts, and narratives of their multi-faceted and complex lives. These editors and authors provide just what the profession needs at just the right time.”

Christian Z. Goering, Ph.D. University of Arkansas Professor, English Education Chair, English Language Arts Teacher Educators

“How else to abandon the status quo of generations of inequitable schooling than through subversion? By giving voice to silenced topics, advocating for crafty, alternative assessments, and showcasing the ways these changes ignite their students into lovers of language and advocates in the world, teachers in this book dignify and insist upon the ethics of subversion in the English classroom.”

Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, Ph.D., Professor & Coordinator of English Education, Westfield State University

“Acts of Resistance: Subversive Teaching in the English Language Arts Classroom is timely, thoughtful, and important. Now, more than ever, we need subversive English language arts teachers—public intellectuals and professionals who deeply understand their discipline and know how to use that disciplinary knowledge to engage students in critical, transformative learning. Together, the narratives featured in this book offer a complex, compelling, and accessible picture of what it means to be subversive and to enact change”

Amanda Haertling Thein, Ph.D., University of Iowa Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Graduate Programs Professor

“The portraits in this collection highlight teachers, curriculum, and pedagogy that enact subversive teaching—a critical stance in classrooms that promotes opportunity for all students. Situated within our current era of external mandates that are increasingly aimed at standardizing instruction, this text pushes the field to consider what possibilities exist for generative action and agency in ELA classrooms today.”

Heidi Hallman, Ph.D., University of Kansas Professor

Preface

Introduction: What Is Subversive Disciplinary Literacy?
Jeanne Dyches, Brandon Sams, and Ashley S. Boyd

1. Black Words Matter: Bending Literary Close Reading Toward Justice
Scott Storm

2. Arguing for Empathy: Subverting the Teaching of Argumentation
Crystal Sogar and Melanie Shoffner

3. “Well, I Took It There”: Subversive Teaching to (Disrupt) the Test
Leah Panther and Selena Hughes

4. Inquiry Ignites! Pushing Back Against Traditional Literacy Instruction
Jill Stedronsky and Kristen Hawley Turner

5. “Climb Into Their Skin”: Whiteness and the Subversion of Perspective
Anna Mae Tempus and Carey Applegate

6. Amplifying Teacher Voices Through Instagram: Subversive Teaching Meets the 21st Century
Michelle M. Falter and Megan DuVarney Forbes

7. Making a “Safe” and Subversive Space for Students’ Lives Through Open Mic
Caroline T. Clark and Jill M. Williams

8. The Responsible Change Project: Subverting the Standardized English Language Arts Curriculum
Heather Coffey and Steve Fulton

9. Disability as Pedagogy: Vulnerability as a Social Justice Tool
Katie Roquemore

10. Gender Bending the Curriculum: Queer Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare in High School
Ryan Burns and Janine Boiselle

11. Interrupting “Single Stories”: Using Socially Just Media Texts to Teach Rhetorical Analysis
Lori Garcia and Michael Manderino

12. Can We Talk?: Promoting Anti-Oppressive Futures for Girls of Color Through a Social Justice Enrichment Program
Dorothy E. Hines, Jemimah Young, Rossina Zamora Liu, and Diana Wandix-White

13. Subverting Curricula and Assessment Design by Using Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices: My Culturally Responsive World Literature Course
Kristen R. Strom

14. “Why Can’t They Test Us on This?” A Framework for Transforming Intensive Reading Instruction
Amanda Lacy and Angela M. Kohnen

15. Reading The Odyssey Today: Subversive Outsiders, Stances, and Journeys
April Zongker McNary and R. Joseph Rodríguez

16. Revolutionizing the Canon: Repositioning Texts During Politically Tumultuous Times
Katie Aquino and Gena Khodos

17. The Case of Courtenay: Subversive Resistance in English Teacher Evaluation
Meghan A. Kessler and Angela L. Masters

About the Authors

Index

Jeanne Dyches

Dr. Jeanne Dyches (she/her), an associate professor at Iowa State University, researches the relationship between curriculum, racial literacies, and antiracist teaching practices. Specifically, she works to understand how teachers and students resist limitations of their curriculum in order to engage antiracist, emancipatory, and joyful secondary literacy instruction. A former high school English teacher and literacy coach, Dr. Dyches has won awards for her teaching on both the secondary and post-secondary levels. The American Educational Research Association, American Reading Forum, Society of Professors of Education, and Iowa Academy of Education have recognized Dr. Dyches’ research and scholarly contributions to the field of education. Dr. Dyches has published in many journals, including Harvard Educational Review, Journal of Teacher Education, English Journal, and Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.

Brandon Sams

Brandon Sams is an assistant professor of English education at Iowa State University. His work has recently been published in English Teaching: Practice and Critique, The ALAN Review, Changing English, and The Journal of Language and Literacy Education.

Ashley S. Boyd

Ashley S. Boyd (she/her) is an associate professor of English/English Education at Washington State University, where she teaches graduate courses on critical theories and anti-oppressive pedagogies and undergraduate courses on Young Adult Literature and Methods for Teaching English. A former secondary English-language arts teacher, Ashley’s scholarship examines practicing teachers’ social justice pedagogies and their critical content knowledge; explores how young adult literature is an avenue for cultivating students’ critical literacies; and investigates how students select, organize, and implement social action projects. Her books, including Social Justice Literacies in the English Classroom: Teaching Practice in Action, analyze and amplify how teachers subvert traditional classroom curriculum to advance equity and justice. She is co-author of Reading for Action: Engaging Youth in Social Justice through Young Adult Literature, and she has also published in the Journal of Teacher Education, English Education, and The ALAN Review.