Expanding Perspectives

Veteran English Teacher Dr. Katelyn Ferguson has taught many iterations of an American Literature class through the years. Living in different parts of the United States and abroad also prompted her to re-think the ways in which she teaches the subject.

“It was important to me to teach a version of the class that articulated the voices of women and indigenous writers and to examine texts that explore the plural nature of American culture, which has many different subcultures and identities,” explains Kate.

American Narratives, the upper-level elective introduced last fall, was born from that vision. The yearlong course explores the stories Americans tell about what it means to be American, centering the voices of indigenous and female-identifying authors, responses to political upheaval and war, stories that interrogate and seek to heal historical harm, and stories from American-identified writers who also belong to other cultures.

“One of the delights about teaching this class at Miss Hall’s, and this year in particular, was that there were 11 students from seven different countries in the class,” Kate adds. “That caused me to re-think my assumptions about what students know about American History and American storytelling. I also enjoyed hearing what they think of American culture and listening to the other cultural contexts they bring to the story.”

The class dug into writing by Zitkála-Šá, a Yankton Dakota author from the turn of the 20th Century, and into writing by contemporary authors such as Louise Erdich. They read Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and many shorter texts in between. “The students really like texts that center women and girls,” Kate notes. “They can see themselves in those stories, even when the authors weren’t writing in contemporary contexts, and they find those stories relevant.”

This year’s class also explored how certain words and stories have been used to injure and create division, and they discussed the capacity that language has to build connection and bring joy. Because 2024 was also an election year in the United States, they looked at how candidates running for political office draw on, adapt, or reject traditional narratives of what it means to be American in their campaign rhetoric.

Kate, who joined MHS in 2023, bringing more than a decade teaching at independent schools, often sees her role in the classroom as that of a facilitator of conversation.

“I like students to be leading the discussion as much as possible, and I hope they feel like I give them the tools to feel empowered to do that,” she adds. “I’m there to fill in gaps or reflect the conversation back to them, and the students do an amazing job. They are well prepared, ask great questions, and want to learn from others’ ideas. I am impressed with the ways they draw each other out.”