Metamorphosis Hurts: Resistant Students and Myths of Transformation

In labeling students who seem unengaged or defiant in class as “resistant,” teachers may not always be imaginative or thorough enough in thinking about the reasons for this student stance. Though resistance may be a useful concept for such students because teachers see it as something that can be both active and passive, one problem with the label of “resistant student” is that it often implies a binary relationship with the teacher. Yet the roots of student resistance may not be in the teacher but in anxieties and fears that are often inherent in the literacy classroom. If teachers cannot envision what students may be resisting and why, it is impossible to move beyond a classroom tug‐of‐war to actually engage such students in learning.