Historical Traditions and Critical Perspectives: An Exploration of the Textual and Pedagogical Choices of Four Language Arts Teachers in an Urban, Diverse Secondary School
Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: Even as current critical research in the teaching of English calls for a widening of traditional secondary texts and curricula choices, the presence of certain district, local, and state policies continue to permeate classrooms in extensive and oppressive ways that have limited the literature, the instructional strategies, and the autonomy that teachers bring into educational spaces. This qualitative study examines the pedagogical choices of four secondary language arts teachers within the framework of both historical and critical perspectives on the teaching of literature and within the realities of a high-stakes, evaluative teaching environment. Utilizing participatory action research (PAR) and collaborative inquiry, this community-based research at a highly diverse, urban high school in the southwest examines the text selection of four practicing language arts teachers. It analyzes whether the pedagogical choices of these teachers align with the holistic goals of critical literacy or return to more historically traditional forms of literature instruction. Ultimately, this study seeks to add to scholarship within research and theory in the teaching of English by exploring how current secondary teachers choose and approach a variety of texts within a larger trajectory of shifting frameworks and methods for secondary literature instruction.
Author: Annmarie L. Sheahan
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2968734741