Stepping Through the Sliding Glass Door to Connect with Katniss and Auggie: How Literature Spurs Praxis

Less than two weeks after the Parkland school shooting in Florida, Mashable journalist, Chris Taylor, wrote, 

“For days we've been amazed as the survivors of the Parkland massacre have repeatedly spoken truth to power…But should we be so surprised? This is exactly the response we should expect from a generation brought up on dystopian YA novels in which downtrodden teens rise up.” (Taylor, 2018, p.1.)

His words suggest kids are relating to literary protagonists (like Katniss Everdeen from the popular Hunger Games trilogy) who in turn, inspire them to think critically about established practices and policies and to act when they perceive real-world situations to be similarly unjust.

It is precisely the change-provoking impact of students’ emotional connections to characters in literature that Johnson, Koss, and Martinez (2018) argue in a recent issue of The Reading Teacher is not only possible but crucial; when readers experience empathy for characters in books, they are able to imagine how the characters feel and to think deeply about how those feelings function as catalysts for influential action. Johnson et al. (2018) root their argument in the thinking of African American children’s literature expert, Rudine Sims Bishop, and renowned philosopher and humanitarian, Paulo Freire. Specifically, Bishop’s (1990) metaphor of literature as a sliding glass door through which readers pass into alternate worlds is combined with Freire’s (1970) concept of praxis, or the process of continuous critical thinking, action and reflection. Upon this sturdy theoretical foundation, Johnson and colleagues posit that when readers are matched with texts through which they are able to establish deep emotional bonds, they emerge transformed and empowered to act as agents of change capable of transforming their world.

As evidence of the transformative power of literature, Johnson and colleagues provided the example of a fifth-grade boy who relayed to researchers that after reading Palacio’s (2012) Wonder, he made the conscious effort to look a man who was missing an arm directly in the eyes and smile- an encounter the boy claimed he would have previously avoided. In order to promote the kind of deep critical thinking about texts that in turn, empowers students to act, Johnson, Koss and Martinez (2018) underscore the importance of knowing one’s readers and available texts well. Specifically, they recommend educators, 

“thoughtfully consider their readers and the characters they meet in the books placed in their hands” and “ensure that emotional connections become fodder for classroom discussions and offer opportunities for students to act on their response” (Johnson et al., 2018, p.576).

In closing, Johnson et al. (2018) offer the hashtag #EmpowerTheReader, as they encourage us all to nurture students’ transformative potential through literature.

Bishop, R.S. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives, 6(3), ix-xi.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum.

Johnson, N. J., Koss, M.D., & Martinez, M. (2018). Through the sliding glass door: #EmpowerTheReader. The Reading Teacher, 71(5), 569-577.

Palacio, R.J. (2012). Wonder. New York, NY: Knopf.

Taylor, C. (2018, February 23). Teens on fire: Of course the 'Hunger Games' generation knows how to fight the NRA. Retrieved March 06, 2018, from https://mashable.com/2018/02/23/parkland-hunger-games-dystopia/#nCce2KLBBOqk