Laura-Lee Kearns

The Construction of "Illiterate" and "Literate" Youth: The Effects of High-Stakes Standardized Literacy Testing.

High-stakes standardized literacy testing is not neutral and continues to build upon the legacy of dominant power relations in the state in its ability to sort, select and rank students and ultimately produce and name some youth as illiterate in contrast to an ideal white, male, literate citizen. I trace the effects of high-stakes standardized testing by using the voices of 16 youth who failed the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) to illustrate how the ‘illiterate youth’ revealed to students, schools, and communities by this test is culturally and socially constructed. In an age where multiple literacies are more and more valued, standardized literacy testing acts as a form of social control projected upon the ‘adolescent’ body that has historically been deemed ‘other’ or ‘deficient.’ Just as colonized subjects needed to be ‘civilized,’ so youth now need to acquire a state defined literacy in a competitive and fast paced learning environment. This article helps to demonstrate how power operates on marginalized youth through standardized literacy testing that is being used transnationally.

Pre-Service Educators and Anti-Oppressive Pedagogy: Interrupting and Challenging LGBTQ Oppression in Schools.

There are increasing calls for pre-service educators to be responsive and responsible for anti-homophobic education. This research builds on the ongoing efforts to integrate Positive Space training in our two-year Bachelor of Education programme. We found through a series of focus group and individual interviews that pre-service teachers were aware of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queering/Questioning (LGBTQ) oppression, witnessed it in schools, employed a range of strategies, but also experienced challenges due to power dynamics in schools, and may not have recognised the power of their interruptions. Our findings suggest that Positive Space training is valuable and necessary and needs to continue to be explicitly embedded in core courses so that all pre-service teachers, regardless of their discipline, develop the skills and attitudes necessary to be advocates for LGBTQ individuals.