Penn GSE students in Jen McLaughlin Cahill’s course on YA literature, media, and culture welcomed ninth-grade students from Science Leadership Academy at Beeber into their classroom.
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On an October afternoon, a classroom at Penn’s Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE) welcomed ninth-grade students from Science Leadership Academy at Beeber (SLA Beeber) into their classroom. The middle-school students were not there as visitors but, rather, as intellectual collaborators. They were there to discuss Ibi Zoboi’s “Pride,” a remix of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” set in modern-day New York City, with graduate students in lecturer in educational practice Jen McLaughlin Cahill’s course, “Young Adult Literature, Media, and Culture.”
Penn GSE lecturer Jen McLaughlin Cahill (left) and SLA Beeber educator Njemele Anderson.
(Image: Steve Bining)
The collaboration began months earlier, when Cahill and SLA Beeber educator Njemele Anderson—an award-winning teacher who works with Cahill on several Philadelphia Writing Project (PhilWP) research/practice initiatives—realized they were both planning to teach YA literature in the fall. Anderson shared her plan to teach “Pride,” so Cahill added the novel to her Penn GSE course syllabus. They saw an opportunity to collaborate and bring high school students and graduate students together to read, analyze, and discuss the novel.
“I want my students to view themselves as intellectuals with the ability to engage in intellectual work with anyone,” says Anderson, “and what better way than to collaborate with graduate students?”
One of Cahill’s course objectives is to center the audience of young adult literature and to expand the understanding of youth literacies. From her perspective, bringing the two classes together provided an opportunity for her students to engage directly with the book’s intended audience.
“My collaboration with Anderson integrates these course goals, while simultaneously providing a meaningful experience for Philadelphia youth to share their brilliance with graduate students and see themselves as future educators and Penn GSE students by playing a central role in a graduate-level literature course,” Cahill says.
“My students were grateful for the experience,” says Anderson. “They loved hearing the thoughts of the graduate students and valued being able to share their own perspectives.”
For the Penn GSE students, it was a reminder of what sets the School apart: a focus not just on theory but also on practice, partnership, and purpose. Students don’t just learn about youth literacies; they engage with youth directly. They don’t just study educational equity; they help build it.
“I really enjoyed this opportunity to read [“Pride”], which is an adaptation of an already established, considered-canonical, English-language text,” says LaDonna Marrero, a student in Penn GSE’s Education, Culture, and Society program. “I feel like it’s very important that we can see ourselves reflected in texts like these and also use them as ways to see other people’s experiences, and then we get to come together from different backgrounds, from different contexts, and discuss the book.”
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