Review: Using Young Adult Literature to Work Through Wobble Moments in Teacher Education

In lieu of an abstract: Dawan Coombs and Jon Ostenson offer a compelling contribution to the interdisciplinary nexus between literature and pedagogy in Using Young Adult Literature to Work Through Wobble Moments in Teacher Education: Literary Response Groups to Enhance Reflection and Understanding. Their monograph is built around the rich pedagogical concept of “wobble”, described as a space of uncertainty that emerges when teachers confront misalignments between their professional values and real-world classroom practice. This concept, grounded in poststructuralism, challenges the binary of confidence and failure. Instead of pathologizing doubt, it treats disequilibrium as generative. Wobble, then, becomes a site for identity negotiation, a threshold space in which new pedagogical selves are imagined and tested (5). Here, the authors’ central endeavor is to explore how dialogue – with peers, texts, and personal teaching identities – can support preservice and novice teachers in navigating these formative and often challenging moments by engaging with YA literature.