Recent Research in Young Adult Literature: Three Predominant Strands of Study

[...]as Jacobs writes, Rosenblatt indicates in 1978 that an aesthetic response to literature can help the reader participate in a lived-through experience, thus creating a higher level of engagement and interaction. [...]the reader is more likely to become engaged if the affective areas of engagement and checking for understanding are addressed. [...]the third reason is the ever-present need for students to think beyond specific school or classroom instances of violence and examine the effects of the heterosexism and homophobia present in our own lives and the institutions with which we are associated. [...]the other four librarians were much more open to and familiar with the aforementioned outreach opportunities. [...]while Meixner believes the course did provide her students with an experience that will make them better advocates for their LGBTQ students, and while she contends that engaging in this action research project is crucial to their developing social consciousness and political agency, how both of these events ultimately affect their teaching remains to be seen. [...]as the author remarks, only "bad girls" in this era of quiet conformity allowed their passion to overcome their common sense and permit young men to violate their privates. Students also need to read their own life stories, casting a critical eye on their own ideologies and how their lives in schools, churches, and families, as well as their encounters with the media and other public and private institutions, shaped who they are and what they hoped to accomplish as teachers. [...]while Meixner believes the course did provide her students with an experience that will make them better advocates for their LGBTQ students, and while she contends that engaging in this action research project is crucial to their developing social consciousness and political agency, how both of these events ultimately affect their teaching remains to be seen.