It is impossible to ignore the enduring and sweeping popularity of young adult novels (YA) written with a dystopian, or even apocalyptic, outlook. Series such as Th e Hunger Games, Th e Maze Runner, and Divergent present dark and boding worlds of amplifi ed terror and societal collapse, and their vulnerable protagonists must answer constant environmental, social, and political challenges, or risk starvation, injury, and various forms of pain and suff ering. More frequently than not, the tensions of the dystopian YA universe turn to the natural world, one of sustenance and renewal, for resolution. Th e continued popularity of dystopian fi ction written expressly for young adult readers requires critical examination, as teachers must prepare themselves to deal with the questions raised by these texts. Th e trend toward the dystopian seems like rather a bleak expression of political and social hopelessness, but it does off er certain insights into what young readers want from the world around them. Much of the appeal of the dystopian comes from imagining not just problems, but how to solve them. Th e ingenuity and resourcefulness displayed in dystopian YA novels is not only appealing, but becomes a bold and ultimately optimistic statement on the need for environmental and social sustainability. Th e optimal incorporation of dystopian YA into the English as a foreign language (EFL) curriculum relies on the preparation of instruction as understood by Wolfgang Klafki in a mode and format that feels fresh and encourages student-led engagement, genuine multimodality, and an organic progression from the closed circle of the classroom to the open arena of adult civilization.
With increased focus on grade school teachers as subject professionals as background, this article articulates and explores some of the challenges and responsibilities that disciplinary scholars of school subjects in a teacher education context face. Using narrative and phenomenological approaches to document analysis as well as qualitative analysis of empirical data from 16 university teacher educators, this article explores ways in which conflict between two teacher education cultures, the old and the ‘new’, can be managed productively to the benefit of teacher students in this new professional paradigm. The article illuminates some of the key conflicts rising from the ‘universitization’ of teacher education (Hudson, 2017), and also some of the ways in which divergent university cultures can support one another, within the context of teacher education in Norway but also with Nordic and international relevance.
This chapter provides specific examples of how current English teaching practices can further engage what can be seen as an interpretative and creative link between comprehension, opinion formation, and language production. Based on awareness of English Language Teaching (ELT) trends in Nordic textbooks and national curricula, with particular respect to curricular developments and trends in Norway and in other Nordic countries, the authors propose specific changes to the subject contents of English education to better prepare future teachers for the exciting prospects of integrating multiliteracy in their lessons through a new emphasis on criticality. To this effect, this chapter provides a new practical model that can help streamline the sprawling interdisciplinarity of critical theory into a manageable and readily applicable context for working with literature during English lessons.
Young adult fiction; interpretative community; critical reading; teacher autonomy; ENG01-04
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