ABSTRACT
More and more educators are recognizing that teaching and learning English literature in ways that challenge oppression requires changing what people read. Teaching and learning against oppression requires asking different kinds of questions when reading literature. The classics are not inherently oppressive: They can be useful in an anti-oppressive lesson if teachers ask questions about the ways they reinforce the privilege of only certain experiences and perspectives. People examine images in popular culture and in educational research of White English teachers crossing racial divides with their students of color. For teachers of English literature, the debate within Asian American studies suggests that anti-oppressive education involves several things: It involves reading various literatures that tell a range of different stories, examining how any piece of literature tells only certain stories and how different stories have different implications. And it involves learning the literature and interpretations that matter in society.
