Education Commons^™

Using Literature In Learning Contexts To Address Contentious Issues Of Difference, Culture, Power, And Privilege In The Classroom, Susan M. Holloway

Education Publications

Fictional literature provides a vehicle for students to discuss power issues and thus achieve a better understanding of identity politics and systemic barriers that shape people‟s lives. This paper examines the use of fiction to explore difficult issues such as race, gender, culture, power, and privilege, and ways to promote these kinds of discussions amongst teacher candidates. The kinds of ethical dilemmas often posed in works of fiction complicate what our notion of power is, who produces it, and how it is disseminated or regulated. My argument characterizes the kinds of subtle and more explicit rhetoric used by teacher candidates …