A PRACTITIONER INQUIRY TO EXAMINE TEXT SELECTION PRACTICES FOR SECONDARY STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

Abstract

Approximately 25% of young adult literature incorporates a character with a disability. (Koss & Teale, 2009) I interpret this issue with a critical literacy theory lens, which involves the analysis of various texts to determine whether there are any discriminatory underpinnings within. It considers the social and political opinions of authors as well. I collected qualitative data in the form of informal and semi-structured interviews, as well as observations, to promote a deeper understanding of curricular representation of children with learning disabilities. Interviews were conducted after school, in the teacher’s classroom. This location choice provided an opportunity for teachers to physically disclose the various resources that they discussed during their interviews. I asked educators a series of questions regarding text selection for students with learning disabilities. After conducting the study, I learned that middle school English Language Arts teachers are permitted to select texts for whole-class instruction. Yet, they must undergo an approval process, which includes a committee of school administrators, teachers, and parents. Classroom teachers are also permitted to build their classroom libraries for silent sustained reading (SSR) time, which is scheduled to occur multiple times per week, typically after a student’s lunch period. These teachers are able to curate their classroom libraries, and children are also granted the autonomy to decide upon texts that they would like to read. Ultimately, upon analyzing the protagonists in the selected texts, this study further suggests there is a lack of representation of students with learning disabilities in young adult literature. This is a national social justice issue in the field of education, specifically for students that never see themselves proportionally represented within the literature selected for them by administrators and teachers.