Acts of Resistance: Subversive Teaching in the English Language Arts Classroom

267 Pages·2020·7.263 MB·

by  Jeanne Dyches (editor), Brandon Sams (editor), Ashley S. Boyd (editor)

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR
ACTS OF RESISTANCE
Subversive Teaching in the English Language Arts Classroom
“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, alter-
native 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 under-
stand 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 opportu-
nity 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
ACTS OF
RESISTANCE

ACTS OF
RESISTANCE

Subversive Teaching in the
English Language Arts Classroom
edited by
JEANNE DYCHES, BRANDON SAMS,
AND ASHLEY S. BOYD
Copyright © 2020 | Myers Education Press, LLC
Published by Myers Education Press, LLC
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13-digit ISBN 978-1-9755-0330-7 (hard cover)
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For our professors at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, including
Drs. Jim Trier, Lynda Stone, Jocelyn Glazier, Dana Griffin, George Noblit,
Dana Thompson Dorsey, and Madeleine Grumet, who brought us together
and inspired our own thinking, teaching, and scholarship.

CONTENTS
Preface xii
Introduction: What Is Subversive Disciplinary Literacy? 1
Jeanne Dyches, Brandon Sams, and Ashley S. Boyd
1. Black Words Matter: 7
Bending Literary Close Reading Toward Justice
Scott Storm
2. Arguing for Empathy: 22
Subverting the Teaching of Argumentation
Crystal Sogar and Melanie Shoffner
3. “Well, I Took It There”: 36
Subversive Teaching to (Disrupt) the Test
Leah Panther and Selena Hughes
4. Inquiry Ignites! 51
Pushing Back Against Traditional Literacy Instruction
Jill Stedronsky and Kristen Hawley Turner
5. “Climb Into Their Skin”: 65
Whiteness and the Subversion of Perspective
Anna Mae Tempus and Carey Applegate
6. Amplifying Teacher Voices Through Instagram: 79
Subversive Teaching Meets the 21st Century
Michelle M. Falter and Megan DuVarney Forbes
7. Making a “Safe” and Subversive Space for 95
Students’ Lives Through Open Mic
Caroline T. Clark and Jill M. Williams