Constructions of youth and responses to problematic authors: examining ELA teachers’ choices to select or avoid Sherman Alexie

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine how teachers’ constructions of youth inform their text selections, particularly as they relate to a problematic author.Design/methodology/approachAs part of a larger, national study, the authors use interview data from 18 participants – 9 who still teach and 9 who no longer teach Alexie – to consider how teachers’ constructions of youth play roles in their decisions to teach or avoid complex and controversial authors and topics, specifically the work and life of Sherman Alexie in the #MeToo era.FindingsFindings suggest teachers who constructed youth through asset-based frameworks – as complex and capable – were likely to keep teaching Alexie or have conversations about the #MeToo movement. Teachers who constructed students in deficit ways, as “not ready,” harkened back to Lesko’s (2012) critique, and were more likely to either remove Alexie from the curriculum entirely or engage students in conversations about the text only, leaving Alexie’s life out of the classroom.Originality/valueBuilding on Lesko’s work on constructions of adolescence and its intersection with Petrone et al.’s youth lens and Critical Youth Studies (e.g., Petrone and Lewis, 2021), this study describes the ways in which teachers’ views of students served as rationales for their teaching decisions around whether, if or how to include the works and life of Sherman Alexie.