Controversial Books in the Middle School: Can They Make a Difference?
The Stonewall riots, a series of violent conflicts between homosexuals and New York City police in 1969, marked the advent of the gay rights movement and led to a dramatic increase in gay and lesbian visibility. Efforts to acknowledge this movement were made by a number of groups including the American Library Association's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Round Table (American Library Association, 2006). This group, since 1971, has given an annual Stonewall Book Award honoring both fiction and nonfiction literature for exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered experience. Academia has formed departments or programs dedicated to lesbian and gay studies, and the general public has achieved a better understanding of sexual differences. Public schools, however, have continued to resist such acknowledgement, leaving homosexual students in middle and secondary schools unrecognized and often the targets of discrimination. Galley (1999) reported the results of a national survey that found 91% of homosexual students had encountered anti
‘And then on to the next school to mess things up’: deconstruction events in a preservice teacher’s field experience
Abstract In this analysis, events from a preservice teacher’s internship in a seventh-grade literacy classroom are explored using theories of deconstruction. Deconstruction is activated as both a lens through which to observe and a framework for understanding moments when binaries and other linguistic structures and shortcomings are illuminated as inadequate. In the discussion of deconstruction events and new understandings, the author explains the participant’s pushback on the expectation of dividing the personal and professional, her inclusion of voices and perspectives from outside the traditional literary canon, and her rejection of the expectation that preservice teachers will maintain the predetermined limits of the classroom. The paper concludes with implications for future research and teacher education, including a reconsideration of preservice teaching as an opportunity to destabilize inequitable power structures.
Youth with Disabilities: How Are They Doing? The First Comprehensive Report from the National Longitudinal Transition Study of Special Education Students.
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