SUNY series, Identities in the Classroom – serie

Helps people working with youth think in new ways about the relationships between work, love, and identity and how these interact within the socio-political processes of class, race, gender, and sexuality.Where "Something Catches:" Work, Love, and Identity in Youth is a qualitative study of Latina and Latino youth. Youths from different regions of Puerto Rico and with a range of interests are interviewed about work, love, community, alternatives, and the support that they have been given. Using an innovative framework, a psychology of identity is explored by incorporating an analysis of the cultural, historical, and political context. The text includes documentary photographs.

Offers a lucidly written analysis of the complex and provocative terrain of lesbian literary and cultural theory.Theorizing lesbian, Kathleen Martindale writes, is like embarking on terra incognita. In this book, Martindale offers her lucidly written analysis as a guide through the complex and provocative terrain of lesbian literary and cultural theory.Using the publication of Adrienne Rich's Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence and the outbreak of the American sex wars as a starting point, Martindale traces the emergence of lesbian postmodernism and how lesbian-feminism changed from a popular to an un/popular culture and from a political vanguard into a cultural neo-avant garde.Martindale analyzes the theoretical implications of "creative" texts such as the graphic art and cultural commentary of Alison Bechdel and Diane DiMassa. She experiments in autobiography by Joan Nestle, and deconstructed lesbian genre fiction by Sarah Schulman to determine how these texts elaborate contemporary theoretical issues. These texts, she argues, are widely available and could be considered as postmodernist rewritings and revisions of the most characteristic and preferred lesbian-feminist modes of cultural expression.Her analysis raises poignant questions about how lesbians read, what they read, and what counts as lesbian theory. She concludes with a discussion of the status of queer pedagogy in academic institutions and what measures need to be taken to promote and safeguard its existence in what are often homophobic educational settings.

Minority scholars offer a critical and often radical rethinking of fundamental questions concerning identity, politics, and difference/s as these inform educational theory and practice.In this volume, minority scholars in the humanities and the social sciences, working within what are often profoundly hostile contexts, speak about their efforts to disrupt and transform business as usual in the Academy. Theirs is a critical, and often radical rethinking of fundamental questions concerning identity, politics, and difference/s as these inform education theory and practice.

An alternative pedagogical perspective toward the education of Black children is explored through the narratives of five African Canadian women teachers.Taking Back Control is a ground-breaking investigation of the world and consciousness of five African Canadian women teachers. Their rich, textured narratives explore the contradictions in North American and "Western" education and the need for alternative standpoints and transformative strategies. Their engaged vision is presented as a means to discuss the limitations and possibilities of oppositional "minority" teacher standpoints in the mainstream, as well as alternative pedagogical strategies. Henry also discusses the literacy strategies employed in creating an environment in which African Canadian pupils can develop literacy skills and critically understand their identities as people of African heritage in North American society. She raises important issues for thinking about teaching from critical, informed, anti-racist perspectives.

Examines the practices of life history, ethnographic fieldwork, and interpretation of women's narratives, ultimately asserting the importance of self-reflexivity for feminist methodology.Under the Sign of Hope examines the practices of life history, ethnographic fieldwork, and interpretation of women's narratives, ultimately asserting the importance of self-reflexivity for feminist methodology. Bloom takes the stance that what is critical to research is an ability to analyze the complexities of researcher-participant relationships and the limitations of narrative interpretation.

A fascinating ethnographic study of a high school in Toronto, with surprising insights into how these adolescents identify themselves in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality."At one point I thought of myself as a Black person and that limits me because as a Black person there are things that I am suppose[d] to be. So I had to shed that. I am not just Black. I am a woman, and that limits me as well. [But,]…if I think that I am limited then I don't dare risk anything or try to do anything. So 'bust' being Black and 'bust' being a woman…." - Margaret, a student at Maple HeightsElusive Culture is a fascinating ethnographic study of youth engaged in a passionate quest for identity in global times. It explores questions of identity and culture at a Toronto high school, a space wherein teachers and students alike shift and slide in relation to the policies and practices of anti-racism, multiculturalism, and the competing discourses of identity. Drawing on personal observations, conversations with students and teachers, experimental work in drama, use of video, and student writings, Yon develops a complex view of identity and culture, one attuned to the ambivalent and contradictory processes of everyday life.