Using Young Adult Literature to Work through Wobble Moments in Teacher Education: Literary Response Groups to Enhance Reflection and Understanding

This volume offers a novel approach to exploring how literary response groups can be used as part of teacher education programs to help preservice teachers navigate "wobble" moments.

Focusing uniquely on the potential of young adult literature (YAL), the text draws on the first-hand experiences of teacher candidates and uses a range of well-known books to demonstrate how narrative-based inquiry and analysis of fictional depictions of teaching and learning can support reflection on a range of common challenges. The volume presents how YAL literary response groups are shown to enhance participants’ ability to reflect on practice, build resilience, and develop deeper understanding of pedagogical principles by offering a shared dialogical space. These insights ultimately contribute to teacher education program improvement by enhancing teacher candidates’ understanding of pedagogy.

This text will benefit researchers, doctoral students, and academics in the fields of teaching, teacher mentoring, and teacher education more specifically. Those interested in literature studies and young adult literature (YAL) more broadly will also benefit from this volume.

Dawan Coombs is Associate Professor of English at Brigham Young University, USA and the Brigham Young University Coordinator of Secondary Education.

Jon Ostenson is Associate Professor of English at Brigham Young University, USA, and currently serves as Director of the University Writing Program.