| Students' perspectives on their high school reading experiences can provide great insight into the long term influence literature has in the lives of adolescents; however, students' voices are seldom prioritized in the current research and in the conversations about curriculum and educational policy. This dissertation presents and analyzes the narratives of high school students nearing graduation as they reflect on the texts and social practices of English. The conceptual framework of this study is informed by Louise Rosenblatt's transactional theory and Mikhail Bakhtin's belief that an individual's interaction with literature inspires rethinking and reevaluation of the reader's "inconclusive present.";Drawing on the methodologies of practitioner inquiry and narrative inquiry, I undertook this study with my own former students. Data collection was centered on a multi-phase design involving interviews with thirty high school seniors. I conducted the interviews in three phases, starting with an initial individual interview. The second phase included small group interviews. For the third phase, I selected ten students to participate in another in-depth interview. These interviews formed the basis for the case studies presented in this dissertation.;As participants discussed their experiences with literature and with the complex and multifaceted social practices of high school English, their narratives highlighted three main findings: (1) students' engagement with literature shaped their view of their academic and social identities, (2) students' engagement with the curriculum and with the social practices of English catalyzed emotional responses that affected students' self-perception, (3) students' reading of culturally diverse literature revealed their variant perspectives on race and culture, even when the social practices of English and the enactment of the curriculum did not foster deeper exploration of those variant perspectives. Students' narratives illuminated unexpected, far-reaching consequences of the ways they came to see themselves as a result of their perceived successes and challenges in their engagements with literature, consequences that have been largely unaddressed by teachers and researchers. This study illustrates the power -- for students, teachers, and the broader educational community -- of inviting and honoring students' voices as an integral part of curricular conversations. |
