Source: Worlds, M. & Miller, H. (2019). Miles Morales: Spider-Man and reimagining the canon for racial justice. English Journal, 108 (4), 43-50. Gist: The authors argue that racial hierarchies and oppression in the English classroom will continue as long as teachers continue to hold the literary canon as the standard for what must be taught. They conclude that "reimagining the canon with books like Miles Morales: Spider-Man can begin to splinter the racial hierarchy that reigns over English curricula. What is sacred: When left unchallenged, the canon is a weapon of the colonial project, which perpetuates Eurocentrism and violence against people of color (Durand and Jimenez-Garcia) English language arts classrooms must be sites to name, challenge, and ultimately dismantle oppressive systems. Connection to current/future work: The EDSE 428, which is my secondary English/language arts methods course, was able to have conversations around ...
Connecting Random Readings to the Courses I Teach