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How the Genre and Work of Poetry Are Represented By HOW THE GENRE AND WORK OF POETRY ARE REPRESENTED BY TENTH GRADE LITERATURE ANTHOLOGIES by Stephanie Kane-Mainier B.A., University of Pittsburgh, 1994 M.A.T., University of Pittsburgh, 1995 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the School of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2015 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF EDUCATION This dissertation was presented by Stephanie Kane-Mainier It was defended on May 13, 2015 and approved by David Bartholomae, Ph.D., Professor, Department of English Linda Kucan, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Instruction and Learning Vivian Mihalakis, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, Learning Research & Development Center Dissertation Advisor: Anthony Petrosky, Ed.D., Professor, Departments of English and Instruction and Learning and Associate Dean, School of Education ii Copyright © by Stephanie Kane-Mainier 2015 iii HOW THE GENRE AND WORK OF POETRY ARE REPRESENTED BY TENTH GRADE LITERATURE ANTHOLOGIES Stephanie Kane-Mainier, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2015 This research addresses gaps within the study of textbooks for secondary English language arts and within the study of poetry by examining the ways in which the work and genre of poetry are represented by the “big three” tenth grade literature anthologies. Drawing from Dewey (1910, 1938), Yoakam (1932), Doyle (1983), and conceptions of authentic tasks from Brown, Collins, and Duguid (1989), this study used the tasks and texts included in the anthologies to deconstruct the dominant discourses about what counts as poetry, who counts as poets, and what counts as the work of poetry. Employing document analysis, specifically both quantitative and qualitative content analysis, data collection and analysis were conducted in three phases. Phase one examined the space allotted to the genre of poetry. Phase two examined demographic characteristics of the included poems and poets (n=128), and phase three analyzed the included tasks (n=1763) for the genre of poetry and the included poems. The findings from this study suggest that though textbooks have increased in overall size to over 1200 pages, the space allotted to poetry is just one-tenth of those many pages, and poems themselves comprised only 4% of those pages and made-up one-fifth to one-third of all text selections, a 30% drop from previous studies. Included poems were more likely to have been written or published in the early 20th or middle 20th century and written by poets who were most likely between 61 and 80 years iv of age, deceased, male, white, or North American. They were also more likely to be a combination of these characteristics. The findings about the tasks suggest that textbooks represent the work within the genre in limited and limiting ways. With the overwhelming emphasis on closed questions or questions treated as closed - even if they are text-based - and tasks asking students to recall/paraphrase or analyze/interpret in narrowed ways, the indication to students and teachers seems to be that the work of poetry is to read a poem and answer recitation questions. The implications of these findings for teaching and learning, educational institutions, publishers, and future research are also discussed. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .............................................................................................................................. XVIII 1.0 INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY ........................................ 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1.2 WHY TEXTBOOKS? ......................................................................................... 2 1.3 WHY POETRY? .................................................................................................. 4 1.3.1 Why Poetry Matters ..................................................................................... 5 1.3.2 Anxiety and Uncertainty .............................................................................. 7 1.3.3 Poetry Outside School................................................................................. 12 1.3.4 Limited Attention by Researchers ............................................................. 17 1.3.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 18 1.4 THE NEED FOR THE STUDY ....................................................................... 18 1.5 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY ........................................................................ 19 2.0 REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE ............................................................ 22 2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 22 2.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: ACADEMIC TASKS ............................ 22 2.3 TEXTBOOK USE BY TEACHERS ................................................................ 26 2.4 TEXTS AND TASKS IN TEXTBOOKS ......................................................... 41 2.4.1 Lynch and Evans (1963) and Applebee (1991) ......................................... 42 vi 2.4.2 The Literature from 1991 to the Present .................................................. 52 2.4.2.1 The texts. .............................................................................................. 55 2.4.2.2 The tasks. ............................................................................................. 62 2.4.3 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 67 2.5 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 68 3.0 RESEARCH METHODS AND DESIGN ................................................................ 69 3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 69 3.2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: DOCUMENT ANALYSIS ..................... 70 3.3 SAMPLE ............................................................................................................. 73 3.3.1 The Literature Anthologies ........................................................................ 73 3.3.2 Poems, Poets, and Tasks ............................................................................. 74 3.4 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS ....................................................... 75 3.4.1 Phase One: Space Allocations ................................................................... 75 3.4.2 Phase Two: Poems and Poets ..................................................................... 76 3.4.2.1 Poem date. ............................................................................................ 78 3.4.2.2 Poem form or type............................................................................... 78 3.4.2.3 Poet age and status. ............................................................................. 79 3.4.2.4 Poet gender. ......................................................................................... 79 3.4.2.5 Poet race/ethnicity. .............................................................................. 79 3.4.2.6 Poet place of origin, residency, or identification. ............................. 80 3.4.2.7 Poet literary period, school, or movement. ....................................... 80 3.4.2.8 Poem topic. ........................................................................................... 81 3.4.2.9 Conclusion............................................................................................ 81 vii 3.4.3 Phase Three: Tasks .................................................................................... 82 3.4.3.1 Task connectivity................................................................................. 83 3.4.3.2 Task type. ............................................................................................. 84 3.4.3.3 Kind of task.......................................................................................... 87 3.4.3.4 Poetry content. ..................................................................................... 88 3.4.3.5 Conclusion............................................................................................ 93 3.5 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY .................................................................... 94 3.6 LIMITATIONS AND DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ....................... 95 4.0 PHASE ONE FINDINGS: ALLOCATIONS OF SPACE ..................................... 98 4.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 98 4.2 PAGE AND TEXT SELECTION ALLOCATIONS .................................... 101 4.3 POEMS, POETS, AND TASKS ..................................................................... 110 4.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 112 5.0 PHASE TWO FINDINGS: POEMS AND POETS ............................................... 113 5.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 113 5.2 POEM TYPES, FORMS, OR GENRES........................................................ 114 5.3 POEM DATE OF PUBLICATION OR COMPOSITION .......................... 115 5.4 POET AGE AND STATUS............................................................................. 117 5.5 POET GENDER .............................................................................................
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