Description
Book SynopsisIn this groundbreaking book, Eric Toshalis explores student resistance through a variety of perspectives, arguing that oppositional behaviors can be not only instructive butproductive. All too often treated as a matter of compliance, student resistance can also be understood as a form of engagement, as young people confront and negotiate newidentities in the classroom environment. The focus of teachers’ efforts, Toshalis says, should not be about “managing” adolescents but about learning how to read their behavior and respond to it in developmentally productive, culturally responsive, and democratically enriching ways.
Noting that the research literature is scattered across fields, Toshalis draws on four domains of inquiry: theoretical, psychological, political, and pedagogical. The result is a resource that can help teachers address this pervasive classroom challenge in ways that enhance student agency, motivation, engagement, and academic achievement.
The coauthor of
Understanding Youth: Adolescent Development for Educators (Harvard Education Press, 2006), Toshalis blends accessible explanations of theory and research with vignettes of interactions among educators and students. In
Make Me!, Toshalis helps teachers perceive possibility, rather than pathology, in student resistance.
Table of ContentsCONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
Why Examine Resistance? 1
PART I
UNDERSTANDING RESISTANCE THEORETICALLY
Vignette: Determined 17
CHAPTER 2
"Making Trouble Makes It Worse"
Theories of Social Reproduction 19
CHAPTER 3
"You're Not the Boss of Me"
Resistance Theory 41
PART II
UNDERSTANDING RESISTANCE PSYCHOLOGICALLY
Vignette: School Is Not His Thing 91
CHAPTER 4
"This Should Be Different"
Cognition and Imagination at the Foundation of Resistance 63
CHAPTER 5
"Why Should I Try?"
The Motivations That Drive Opposition 93
Vignette: Super Busy 121
CHAPTER 6
"What? I Wasn't Listening"
The Passive No of Disengagement 123
Vignette: I'm Done 147
CHAPTER 7
"That's Not Fair!"
Why Indignation Is Better Than Resignation 149
PART III
UNDERSTANDING RESISTANCE POLITICALLY
Vignette: Sick of It 173
CHAPTER 8
"I'm Not Skipping Class--You Are"
Socioeconomic Reasons for Resisting School 175
Vignette: It's Not About the Pencil 201
CHAPTER 9
"You Don't Even Know Me"
Identity and Opposition in the Classroom 203
Vignette: Be Respectful 221
CHAPTER 10
"Don't Make Me Assimilate"
Authenticity, Resistance, and Racism 223
PART IV
UNDERSTANDING RESISTANCE PEDAGOGICALLY
Vignette: Back Off! 251
CHAPTER 11
"How Was I Supposed to Know?"
Misreading Students' Relational Needs 253
Vignette: Panther Points 275
CHAPTER 12
"Is It My Fault?"
How We Provoke Resistance in the Classroom 277
CHAPTER 13
Conclusion
Resistance Is Hope 299
Notes 311
Acknowledgments 341
About the Author 345
Index 347
