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Abstract
In this study, I examine the various discourses that influence and inhabit the field of young adult literature in English teacher education. Data was collected from participants who with the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the National Council of Teachers of English (The ALAN Review) in 2017-2018 (Volumes 44(2)-46(1)), and were teacher educators working in language and literacy education with preservice teachers and young adult (YA) literature (YAL). Participants submitted course syllabi that were then analyzed to create an understanding of how YAL fit into teacher education now to be able to then think about the future of the field with this foundational knowledge in place. The study is organized into three manuscripts. In the first manuscript, I draw upon the literary theories of Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (1895-1975) to understand how authoritative and internally persuasive discourses dictate the objectives and goals of YAL and adolescent literature courses in teacher education, and how an understanding of how a pedagogy of YAL is being developed now can provide a foundation for the field to build upon in future years. In the second manuscript, I use Bakhtins concepts to unpack the double-voiced nature of these YAL course syllabi and related materials as they reflect both the authoritative discourses in education seeking a centripetal standard as well as where the internally persuasive discourses of individual professors centrifugally resist and pull away from that. Suggestions are given on how teachers subscribing to an engaged dialogic pedagogy (Fecho, Falter, & Hong, 2016) can choose more student-centered practices in their YAL courses.In the third manuscript, I analyze the syllabi of YAL methods courses in preservice English teacher education to explain the methods used to share a snapshot of the field currently. Findings are organized into sections that explain what is being done in the YAL methods courses now, what is being read, what is being created, produced, and assessed, and finally what is missing from these courses. Discussion then addresses how the knowledge gained from this study can be used as a foundation for future development of the YAL methods course in coming years.