Is It Too Late to Get a Program Change?: The Role of Oppositionality in Secondary English Education

Perhaps the most compelling pedagogical problem for both beginning and experienced teachers alike is the issue of how to respond to adolescent language and behavior that falls outside expected boundaries. In this essay, Philion suggests that oppositional adolescent language and behavior is result of adolescent attempts to challenge power systems in the classroom and to make the systems more livable, and notes that critical reading of this oppositional narrative can shift perspectives and have the potential to produce positive, substantial changes within the power system. While there are several strategies for working with oppositional discourse, narrative storytelling, he advocates, enhances not only an awareness of the roots of oppositionality, but also one’s own role in the creation of disadvantageous educational conditions. Samples from one of his student’s journals illustrate the reflective and transformative power of storytelling.