Queering the Victorian Nursery: Laura Richards’s “My Japanese Fan”

This essay suggests a queer reading of the poem “My Japanese Fan” by American children’s writer Laura Richards. Published in 1890, the poem stands out as conspicuously queer even today. While describing a Japanese figure of ambiguous gender, the poem outlines for its young readers terms for defining sexual identity that lie outside mainstream binary thinking; that it does so without any attempt at establishing gender hierarchy is remarkable. In so doing, the poem destabilizes clearly demarcated, binary notions of sex and gender in favour of indeterminacy and ambivalence, characteristics that inform queer theory. Thus, the poem complicates traditional views of sexuality in Victorian America, and joins a significant body of Richards’s resistant poetry, further demonstrating the subversive potential of children’s literature. The following discussion offers a close and contextual reading of the poem and attempts to account both for its positive portraiture of gender queerness in the Victorian nursery, as well as for its invisibility in criticism before now.     

“My Mom Tells Me I Should Follow the Rules,That’s Why They Have Those Rules”: Perceptions of Parental Advice Giving Among Mexican-Heritage Adolescents

Relatively little research has examined the ways in which immigrant Latino parents can effectively support their adolescent children’s schooling. To address this gap, we conducted in-depth interviews with 32 Mexican-heritage 9th graders. Students identified parents’ advice giving as the most salient form of involvement. Parental advice emphasized the importance of persisting in school, avoiding hardship as experienced by parents, and exhibiting social competence in relationships with peers and teachers. Parental advice giving was transmitted most effectively in the context of parent–child closeness. The findings form a basis for fostering effective and sustainable parent–school partnerships.     

My Understanding of Wordsworth’s‘Immortality’in His“Ode:Intimation of Immortality”

William Wordsworth was the representative of the British "Lake poets" In his poems he aimed at simplicity and purity of the language,fighting against the conventional forms of the 18th century poetry.He transformed his observation of the landscape into the revelation of the beauty of nature in poetry,and thus expressed his nature philosophy.In this article the author briefly analyses the organization of his poem: "Ode: Intimation of Immortality" and mainly elaborates her understanding of the poet’s na-ture-philosophy in four points:(a) Man is sensitive to all natural influences in childhood.(b) Nature has a moral and spiritual sig-nificance and helps the poet understand the mystery of human life.(c) Life is but a stage.(d) All good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.     

“I Think About It All The Time”: A 12-Year-Old Girl’s Internal Crisis With Racism and the Effects on her Mental Health

I conducted an ethnographic study, situated within the conceptual framework of Critical Race Theory, which illustrates one child’s experiences with racism. The study was conducted in an urban after-school program, and explores issues of racism in both the school and community settings. Utilizing the storytelling aspect of Critical Race Theory, I explore the racial experiences of a 12-year-old African-American girl, and the dichotomous emotions of sadness and anger that emerge. I describe the risk to this child’s emotional well-being, and suggest a need within the mental health field to create a framework to deal with the trauma caused by racism. Amy L. Masko is affiliated with the Grand Valley State University. She is a professor of English Education, preparing pre-service teachers to teach elementary literacy. Dr. Masko’s research interests are in urban education, after school programs, and multicultural education. She is also an educational consultant in the area of diversity in education and literacy education. Address correspondence to Amy L. Masko, Grand Valley State University, 221 Lake Huron Hall Allendale, MI 49401; e-mail: maskoa@gvsu.edu     

“It’s All Shiny and There’s No Pollution”: Barbapapa’s Ark,Environmental Influences

The environmental picture book Barbapapa’s Ark was published in 1974. I was keeping a parent-observer record of my two children at the time. The book had a strong influence on them from ages three to six, moving them to query pollution and hunting, in book and environment, and as adults, becoming committed activists for the environment. Young children are routinely underestimated. Learning about the environment and conservation can begin well before formal education.     

“It’s My Place”: Student Perspectives on Urban School Effectiveness

This study investigated how graduates of an urban alternative school understood, interpreted, and compared their experiences in previous schools that they considered ineffective with their experiences at an effective alternative school. This study found that students find those schools effective that create or allow spaces where they can be empowered, leading to a sense of place. Students’ ownership or affinity to school spaces that lead them to refer to school as “my place” derived from school practices that were instrumental in promoting a sense of identification, commitment, integration, and alliances among students and faculty at the school. Based on the findings of the study, this article argues that for urban schools to be effective for students at risk, they not only need to focus on caring relationships and diverse learning experiences, they also need to create the space to foster a sense of “my place” for students.     

Becoming Badass: Teaching Katz’s “Ways of the Badass” using the Breaking Bad Television Series

Becoming badass is a phenomenological process where meaningful social interactions develop one’s sense of authority over others. Some of the key features of this process, according to Katz, include an ability to transcend moral injunctions, ability to intimate aggression, an inability to be influenced by others, development and display of an ominous character, a strong disregard for self-preservation, and the development of an alien identity. The main character in the Breaking Bad television series is used as a conduit to exemplify these key elements of becoming badass. Examples from the series illustrate the sensual appeal of criminal involvement from the perspective of the one doing crime.     

“Don’t Sell Me the Enemy’s Literature”: A Self-Study of Teaching Literature in Politically Fraught Contexts

This article describes a self-study pursuant to a clash between a lecturer and a student concerning the teaching of literature in a politically fraught context. The learning group is composed of Arab and Jewish teachers at a college in northern Israel. The work read by the group expresses a Palestinian perspective. The incident, discussed with reference to the concepts of ethical reading and in-between space, is explained against the background of the lecturer’s professional views and the complexity of teaching literature in a polarized and conflicted society. Analysis of the incident, accompanied by a look at the professional literature, reveals the lecturer’s blind spots as well as the complexity of the situation in which she was acting. Details of the case and the process of its interpretation may serve to enrich the perspectives of literature teacher educators who believe in ethical reading and in constructing an in-between space in their lessons, providing them with insights regarding teaching in contexts fraught with cultural tensions.     

“They Think They Know What’s Best for Me”: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Experience of Inclusion and Support in High School for Vision-impaired Students with Albinism

The challenges of social inclusion and access to the curriculum facing students with visual impairment in schools are well documented. The refreshed UK Vision Strategy (2013 UK Vision Strategy. (2013). Outcome 3. Retrieved from http://www.vision2020uk.org.uk/UKVisionstrategy/page.asp?section=289&sectionTitle=Outcome+3 [Google Scholar]) seeks to improve education for students with vision impairment. In order to do this, it is important to understand how students with visual impairment experience education. This study used interpretative phenomenological analysis to examine and understand the way in which two vision-impaired students with albinism experienced inclusion and support in high school. The students, aged 16 and 15, had approximately 10% functional vision, stable from birth and had a record of additional support needs at their respective schools. They were interviewed using a simple schedule of open questions to explore their perceptions of inclusion and of using low-vision aids in school. The two main themes that emerged from the interviews were experiencing low vision in school and experiencing additional support in school. A negative cycle of inclusion was identified based on the students’ internalised feelings of difference. Discrepancy was identified between the low-vision aid priorities identified by experts and those identified by students. Recommendations are made to address these issues.     

“Bad Talk” Made Good: Language Variety in Four Caribbean British Children’s Poets

This article looks at how four British-based poets born in the Caribbean exploit the rich language repertoire available to them in their work for children and young people. Following initial consideration of questions of definition and terminology, poetry collections by James Berry, John Agard, Grace Nichols and Valerie Bloom are discussed, with a focus on the interplay and creative tension between the different varieties of Caribbean creoles (“Bad Talk”) and standard English evident in their work. Variation both between the four poets’ usage and within each individual poet’s work is considered, and a trend over time towards the inclusion of fewer creole-influenced poems is noted. These and other issues, such as the labelling of the four poets’ work as ‘performance poetry’ and the nature of the poets’ contribution to British children’s literature, are considered in the conclusion.     

“We Have a Great Task Ahead of Us!”: Child-Hate in Roald Dahl’s The Witches

The depictions of cruel witches in Roald Dahl’s novel The Witches echo the cruel, abusive measures taken by adults in the historical treatment of children. The concept of child-hatred, described by Lloyd Demause and other critics, is an effective lens through which to view the hyperbolized hatred of children described in The Witches. However, Dahl’s text deals with more than just the explicit hatred of children. In fact, in its characterization of Grandmamma as an adult that truly values the state of childhood, and in Dahl’s narrative treatment of both his child protagonist and his child audience, Dahl’s text counters the notion that we have progressed to a culture that values and, at times, sacralizes the child. The Witches presents to readers the possibility that child-hatred is not some now-defunct phenomenon, but rather an extant danger in the historical present of childhood, a danger made ever more threatening by its ability to hide under a mask of benevolence. With the many instances of both child-protection and child-hatred that pervade The Witches, the text serves as an apt illustration of the ambivalence inherent in many works of children’s literature, which has been a central concern for scholars of children’s texts for decades.     

Mother As Donor,Hero or Villain: New Sides of The Mother’s Image in Sergey Sedov’s “Fairy Tales About Mums”

A new model of society in post-Soviet Russia introduced novel family patterns to everyday life as well as to children’s literature, with traditional parent and children’s functions becoming subject to rethinking. The tendency to reconsider parental functions can be observed in texts from different genres, but it appears most overtly in modern fairy tales which, on the one hand, link modernity with the national folkloric code but, on the other, aim to overcome the code. Unlike many contemporary Russian authors for children, who leave little narrative space for parents, Sergey Sedov makes the mother central to his “Fairy Tales About Mums.” He describes various situations in which this figure regains the depth and comprehensiveness of a Jungian Great Mother Archetype. The author combines different fairy tales, cultural stereotypes and literary themes to create the image of a new mother who possesses various roles, some of which place her in opposition to the gender stereotype of patriarchal Russian folklore. This article uses structural, typological and motive methods of analysis to trace the transformation of the mother’s image from the traditional folktale canon to determine its activity-related and axiological aspects and to analyse various manifestations of the mother in terms of the tales’ semantic and aesthetic integrity.     

A Review of Atlanta’s “FUBU”: On Power

This media review focuses on one of Atlanta's episodes entitled "FUBU." The episode is utilized as a proxy to provide a critique of American society and its power relations in everyday life. Atlanta and its writers use television as their vehicle to create critical and constructive discourse in spaces that they would otherwise not be able to physically occupy. Out of this, the hope is that this discourse leads to healthier interaction in the educational spaces facilitated by educators with an understanding of the social forces at play.     

Virtuous Vampires and Voluptuous Vamps: Romance Conventions Reconsidered in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” Series

It is presumed that readers of Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ enjoy the sexual tension between Bella and Edward; a tension that remains unresolved until the couple are married. This very traditional solution to the couple’s carnal desires is just one of many ways in which the novels adhere to the conventions of romance writing for young people. Readers know what to expect and their expectations are satisfied. Fans, however, claim that Meyer’s books offer them something that other texts do not. By comparing the ‘Twilight’ series with the conventions for adult romances, teen romances and children’s literature more generally, I demonstrate that Meyer is combining conventions from related, but slightly different, genres. The result valorises certain beliefs which run counter to both those promoted by conservative Christian activists and those endorsed by the liberal, feminist left.     

“I Do This for All of the Reasons America Doesn't Want Me To”: The Organic Pedagogies of Black Male Instructors

ABSTRACT

This article examines the teaching philosophies of Black male teachers of Black male students in manhood development classes in a district-wide program in Oakland, California. Drawing on observations and instructor interview data, we explore the teachers’ histories, teaching philosophies, and the trajectory of their racial-educational understandings. We utilize Gramsci's (1971 Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci: Hoare, Q. & Smith, G. N. (Eds.). (Hoare, Q. & Smith, G. N., trans.) New York, NY: International.  [Google Scholar]) theory of the organic intellectual, Mills’ (1997 Mills, C. W. (1997). The racial contract. Cornell, NY: Cornell University Press. [Google Scholar]) and Leonardo's (2013 Leonardo, Z. (2013). The story of schooling: Critical race theory and the educational racial contract. Discourse: Studies in the cultural politics of education, 34, 599–610. doi: 10.1080/01596306.2013.822624[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) theories of the subperson and substudent, and Dumas’ (2014 Dumas, M. J. (2014). “Losing an arm”: Schooling as a site of Black suffering. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 17(1), 1–29. doi: 10.1080/13613324.2013.850412 [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) notion of Black suffering to theorize the ways that race comes into play in the teaching of African American male students. We find that racialization and re-humanization are key to instructors’ teaching, and we identify two key aspects of their teaching philosophies: (1) Humanization/Love and (2) Reciprocity.     

“Why Can't We Just Have Sex?”: An Analysis of Anonymous Questions About Sex Asked by Ninth Graders

During the high school years, most young people in the United States receive school-based sexuality education, but there is little research on what they want to know about sex and sexuality but may be afraid to ask. This study is a content analysis of anonymous questions about sex (N = 645) asked by ninth-grade students from the greater Los Angeles area. A sample of predominantly lower-income and Latino/a students submitted anonymous questions before participating in sexuality education. Results show that young people are eager to understand how to use birth control and prevent pregnancy, have misinformation about sex and sexuality, and are misinformed on many topics. Results are discussed in light of what educators and others can do to help young people develop a safe, healthy sex life.     

Learning From “Thinkers”: Parent Epistemological Understanding Predicts Individual Differences in Children’s Judgments About Reasoners

Four-, 5-, and 6-year olds (N = 102) observed agents perform a reasoning task that required gathering hidden evidence. An agent who made sound inferences was contrasted with an agent who made either unsound inferences (UI; failed to base conclusion on gathered evidence) or guesses (failed to gather evidence). Four-year olds attributed knowledge to all agents and endorsed their conclusions widely. However, 5- and 6-year olds’ knowledge attributions were mitigated by UI, and 6-year olds neither attributed knowledge to a guesser nor endorsed his conclusions. Notably, parents’ tendency to make evaluativist epistemological judgments—which place value in evidence as a basis for belief—predicted children’s reluctance to learn from and credit knowledge to poor reasoners. Parents’ evaluativist judgments also predicted children’s selective learning about object functions.