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Book part
Publication date: 23 January 2017

Ross Collin

In this chapter, I consider arguments for aligning ELA with the demands of a soon-to-arrive knowledge economy. I ask how these arguments call ELA teachers to prepare students to…

Abstract

In this chapter, I consider arguments for aligning ELA with the demands of a soon-to-arrive knowledge economy. I ask how these arguments call ELA teachers to prepare students to work in an economy that values creativity, interpretation, and cutting-edge literacies – the stock-in-trade of ELA classes. Although these arguments have many strengths – they play down standardization and play up creativity – they rest on faulty assumptions about the number and distribution of high-skills jobs in the near future. Most people will not perform work that leverages creativity and cutting-edge knowledge. Given this reality, I ask how teachers of ELA teachers can take what’s good in the knowledge economy approach and adapt it so diverse students can acquire literacies that may help them succeed in and, perhaps, transform the economic field. This more viable approach to ELA calls teachers to teach not only economically valuable forms of reading and writing but also ways of critiquing and changing economies in line with democratic principles. I illustrate the latter approach to ELA instruction with a scenario activity for a unit on A Raisin in the Sun.

Details

Innovations in English Language Arts Teacher Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-050-9

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 November 2023

Kelli A. Rushek, Saba Khan Vlach and Tiphany Phan

Early career teachers (ECTs) of Color are key in making change, resisting racism and pushing back against white supremacy in K-12 education, specifically in English Language Arts …

Abstract

Purpose

Early career teachers (ECTs) of Color are key in making change, resisting racism and pushing back against white supremacy in K-12 education, specifically in English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. Through a narrative telling inquiry (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000) of Nora, an Asian American ELA ECT in the Midwest, and by drawing on Fisher’s (2011) Critical Integral Pedagogy of Fearlessness, this study aims to recognize the narrative power within teaching praxis as Nora stories herself toward becoming a critical pedagogue.

Design/methodology/approach

Using narrative inquiry methodology and methods (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000), the authors simultaneously considered the commonplace tenets of narrative inquiry – temporality, sociality and place – of the intertwined relationships of the participants and observers. The field texts included in the corpus of data include myriad tellings of Nora’s experiences in her initial years of teaching ELA. Data were analyzed in stages of parsing out narrative blocks and structures.

Findings

The findings indicate that Nora, as an ECT, went through recursive cycles of fear as conceptualized by Fisher (2011) – bravery, courageousness and being fear-less – of working toward radical love (Hooks, 2000) within her ELA instruction. The authors argue that Nora confronted her personal and professional fears as she strove to become a critical pedagogue in her ELA classroom.

Originality/value

Current scholarship portrays ECTs as lacking agency in their development and/or effectiveness in the classroom and little is said about Asian American ELA ECTs and critical instruction. The authors present Nora’s counter-narrative to make visible what is right with ELA ECTs, specifically teachers of Color, as they transform their fear into courage to fight for educational equity.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 22 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 23 January 2017

Cori McKenzie, Michael Macaluso and Kati Macaluso

The varying traditions, goals, paradigms, and discourses associated with English language arts (ELA) underscore the degree to which there is not one school subject English, but…

Abstract

The varying traditions, goals, paradigms, and discourses associated with English language arts (ELA) underscore the degree to which there is not one school subject English, but many “Englishes.” In a neoliberal context, where movements like standardization and accountability stake claims about what ELA should be and do in the world, teachers, especially beginning teachers, can struggle to navigate the tensions engendered by these many and contradictory “Englishes.” This chapter attends to this struggle and delineates a process by which English Educators might illustrate the field’s vast and ever-changing terrain and support beginning teachers as they locate themselves in ELA. In delineating this process, we argue that in order to see and navigate the field in a neoliberal era, ELA teachers should treat the field as a discursive construction, constantly re-constructed by the dynamic play of social, political, and economic discourses. We argue that in treating the field as a discursive construction and exploring and locating themselves within the terrain, ELA teachers, rather than feeling powerless in the face of neoliberal forces, can leverage these different discursive forces, and gain footing in their classrooms, schools, and extracurricular communities to navigate the coexistence of many “Englishes” and argue for their pedagogical choices.

Details

Innovations in English Language Arts Teacher Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-050-9

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 August 2022

Karoline Trepper, Alison Boardman and Antero Garcia

This paper aims to explore teachers’ shifts in pedagogy and practice as they implemented a project-based learning (PBL) approach to teaching English Language Arts (ELA) for the…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore teachers’ shifts in pedagogy and practice as they implemented a project-based learning (PBL) approach to teaching English Language Arts (ELA) for the first time.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors interviewed 10 ninth-grade ELA teachers in three schools after their first year enacting PBL. Initial codes were developed deductively from the interview questions and others emerged from the data. The authors also used memos to contextualize the interviews and triangulate findings.

Findings

Teachers described embracing new, expansive approaches to teaching ELA as they shifted from focusing on skills to big questions, and from literary analysis to “real-world” writing and assessment. These data illuminated three tensions around “traditional” versus PBL approaches to ELA: What counts as ELA? What counts as student success? And is PBL for everyone?

Originality/value

Few studies have explored teacher perceptions of PBL in secondary ELA classrooms. This paper uniquely illuminates some pathways for addressing the tension between “traditional” and PBL approaches. The authors call for deliberate, ongoing and gradualistic approaches to engaging in PBL routines that support educators to make meaningful shifts in instruction.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 September 2016

Kati Macaluso, Cori McKenzie, Jennifer VanDerHeide and Michael Macaluso

The purpose of this paper is to describe a pedagogical innovation – a matrix construction exercise – intended to help pre-service teachers (PTs) navigate the multiple and…

1917

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe a pedagogical innovation – a matrix construction exercise – intended to help pre-service teachers (PTs) navigate the multiple and oftentimes competing discourses that shape the school subject English Language Arts (ELA).

Design/methodology/approach

To explore the various ways the PTs drew on the discursively constructed paradigms of ELA throughout their teacher preparation program, researchers (themselves teacher educators) conducted an intertextual analysis (Prior, 1995) of PTs’ classroom texts and interview transcripts.

Findings

The intertextual analysis suggested that PTs possessed knowledge of and investment in a range of discourses, which they used to anchor their own pedagogical and curricular decision-making and to anticipate the leanings and ideologies of other stakeholders in ELA. Although the organizational schema of the matrix proved helpful from an orientation standpoint, it also may have disguised the productive tensions between particular discourses for some PTs.

Originality/value

Although scholars have long noted the plurality of the school subject English and some studies on innovations in teacher education allude to the difficulties that teachers encounter as they navigate the multiple purposes of ELA, there is little scholarship that considers how pre-service and beginning teachers might best navigate that incoherence and unwieldiness. This study, which contextualizes and explores a pedagogical innovation in an English methods class designed to help PTs navigate the many “Englishes”, attempts to fill this gap. The findings suggest that teacher preparation in ELA would do well to conceive of pedagogical innovations in teacher education that allow teachers to grapple with, rather than solve, the uncertainty and unfinalizability of the discipline.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 15 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

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Article
Publication date: 27 January 2022

Michelle Kwok

Although English Language Arts (ELA) teachers have historically been expected to take the lead in literacy training, the domain of ELA has yet come to terms with what holds it…

Abstract

Purpose

Although English Language Arts (ELA) teachers have historically been expected to take the lead in literacy training, the domain of ELA has yet come to terms with what holds it together as a discipline. Within this conundrum, the author studied one group of ELA teacher leaders who led a professional development (PD) aimed at training teachers in disciplinary writing instruction. This study aims to explore the differences in perspectives between what constitutes disciplinarity for ELA teachers and teachers in other content areas.

Design/methodology/approach

Over the course of two years, the author observed the PD, taking extensive field notes, collecting artifacts and conducting interviews. The author engaged in constant comparative analysis of the data throughout this time, open coding within each data source and then triangulating the data to support the author’s finding.

Findings

Whereas the ELA teacher leaders seemed to focus on general aspects of writing, teachers from the other content areas shared discipline-specific understandings about writing. The teachers and teacher leaders, however, did not explicitly discuss these differences in how they conceptualized writing instruction; rather, this tension was revealed through the author’s analysis of the data.

Originality/value

The findings of this study illustrate how a vague definition of writing in English and of disciplinary literacy has come to bear on one PD of writing. This study recommends future research to continue to develop clear epistemologies, purposes and literate practices of the disciplines related to ELA.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 January 2022

Britnie Delinger Kane, K.C. Keene and Sarah Reynolds

The purpose of this study is to understand how preservice teachers (PTs) learn about disciplinary literacy in English language arts (ELA). In mathematics and writing, research has…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand how preservice teachers (PTs) learn about disciplinary literacy in English language arts (ELA). In mathematics and writing, research has found that teachers’ participation in disciplinary work can support their understanding of domain-specific inquiry, problem-solving and argumentation.

Design/methodology/approach

This exploratory, qualitative case study of an English methods course extends that work into ELA, asking how PTs’ participation in collaborative literary reasoning (CLR) influences their understanding of ELA as a discipline and their instructional planning processes.

Findings

Findings indicate that CLR supported PTs to define ELA as a collaborative discipline in which multiple interpretations of literature are valued; to name specific disciplinary literacy practices; to identify a focus and purpose for teachers’ design and revision of lesson plans; and to inform their thinking about text selection and complexity.

Originality/value

This work highlights the potential of collaborative literary reasoning to support PTs’ learning about disciplinary literacy instruction.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 21 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 17 September 2018

Carl A. Young, Nicolette Filson and Rachael Debnam-O’Dea

Purpose – To examine the potential social media has for increasing pre-service English language arts (ELA) teachers’ language interest, awareness, and content knowledge by…

Abstract

Structured Abstract

Purpose – To examine the potential social media has for increasing pre-service English language arts (ELA) teachers’ language interest, awareness, and content knowledge by engaging them in an ongoing collaborative effort to seek out, make observation about, and highlight contemporary examples of language, literacy, and culture in action in global media using Twitter as a platform.

Design – The research design was qualitative and included a thematic analysis of Twitter posts from the pre-service teacher participants during the semester, informal feedback about the experience during the semester, and written reflections at the end of the semester. Students worked independently on the assignment throughout the semester, outside of a few brief, and informal check-ins during class by the instructor. At the end of the semester, students completed an open-ended survey to reflect on their experiences with and takeaways from participating in this Twitter-based language exploration activity. The theoretical frameworks that were foundational to the study included the technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework (Koehler & Mishra, 2008) and Andrews’ (2006) criteria for language exploration and awareness.

Findings – The findings of this qualitative study indicate that engaging pre-service teachers in an ongoing collaborative effort to promote language, literacy, and culture via social media has great potential in terms of students increasing not only their knowledge of language and language awareness, but also their TPACK overall. Specific examples of how participants responded to the experience are provided.

Practical Implications – This study contributes to the literature on the potential impact of social media on content area learning and teacher preparation by providing concrete, research-based suggestions for how both English teacher educators and middle and secondary ELA teachers can engage in collaborative efforts to learn more about, expand definitions of, and promote aspects related to ELA content, like language awareness, variety, and dialect. It includes recommendations for both teacher educators and middle and secondary ELA teachers to expand their notions for defining and teaching aspects of language that go beyond a narrow focus on grammar and to consider ways that social media and digital literacies can enhance these efforts.

Details

Best Practices in Teaching Digital Literacies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78754-434-5

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 October 2023

Cathy A.R. Brant and Ross Stanger

In this article, the authors, a university elementary social studies methods faculty member and a district social studies supervisor, discuss the creation of sustained…

Abstract

Purpose

In this article, the authors, a university elementary social studies methods faculty member and a district social studies supervisor, discuss the creation of sustained professional development (PD) for elementary teachers on integrated social studies instruction.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors detail the development of a PD sequence that included two 45-minute whole-group PD sessions and two days of individual and small-group school-day coaching for each school in the district. The ultimate goal of this PD was to provide the classroom teachers with the pedagogical content knowledge to meaningfully integrate social studies and English language arts (ELA) in their classrooms.

Findings

The collaboration between the university faculty member and the district administrator allowed for the development of meaningful, sustained PD for the classroom teachers.

Originality/value

This work has implications related to the development of PD to integrate social studies and ELA for university faculty working with teachers in school-based settings and for school administrators seeking to provide more PD for their teachers.

Details

Social Studies Research and Practice, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1933-5415

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 August 2022

Mary Neville and Rick Marlatt

This paper aims to examine the reading of a book-length fiction or non-fiction text in one disciplinary literacy (DL) teacher education course. This paper considers how the…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the reading of a book-length fiction or non-fiction text in one disciplinary literacy (DL) teacher education course. This paper considers how the assignment may help pre- and in-service teachers understand literacy as multifaceted and connected within and beyond their content areas (Moje, 2015). The research explores how reading a book-length text may help support DL, equity-oriented curricula that consider literacy as empowerment and connected to lived and communal experiences (González et al., 2005; Muhammad, 2020).

Design/methodology/approach

This work is grounded in a qualitative, humanizing methodology and thematic analysis approach (Braun and Clarke, 2006; Paris and Winn, 2014). This approach examines student work in one DL course, considering how teachers within and beyond English language arts (ELA) respond to the task of reading a book-length text.

Findings

First, the assignment offered space for participants to redefine literacy as empowerment and enjoyment. Second, the assignment helped participants connect literacy within and beyond their content areas and to see literacy as active and interdisciplinary. Third, the assignment includes clear limitations for a DL approach, particularly when participants focus mainly on connections to their content area. This sometimes obfuscated participants’ enjoyment of reading.

Originality/value

The study offers a new perspective on a task that is often seen as specifically “ELA”: reading a book-length text. This project offers space for ELA educators to consider literacy from a DL, equity-oriented framework focused on enjoyment in literature within and beyond ELA classrooms.

Details

English Teaching: Practice & Critique, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1175-8708

Keywords

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