Classrooms As the Construction Site for Literacy
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
REWRITING WRITING: CLASSROOMS AS THE CONSTRUCTION SITE FOR LITERACY BY HAENY S. YOON DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Anne Haas Dyson, Chair Professor Violet J. Harris Assistant Professor Christina P. DeNicolo Assistant Professor Adrienne Lo Abstract Schooling in these contemporary times is a highly contested issue, launching many reform efforts aimed at improving the state of schools. Amidst growing concerns over the quality of schools, there have been numerous efforts to standardize teaching and learning through the implementation of scripted curricula, increased attention towards testing data, and a focus on decontextualized basic skills. More specifically, these efforts at standardizing the practice of teaching work to narrow conceptions and ideologies related to language development and literacy practices, especially marginalizing children from diverse, cultural communities. This dissertation raises questions about scripting teacher practice through curricular and assessment tools. This project investigates the negotiation that takes place as teachers and students interact with each other, using curriculum as a mediating tool. In this 4-month ethnographic study of a group of kindergarten teachers, the interpretation of curriculum and the agency of teachers and students is examined within two spaces: teacher collaboration meetings and writing events in the classroom. Specifically, the project seeks to answer the following research questions: How do teachers construct their beliefs about literacy in collaborative spaces? How do teachers interpret and enact the mandated, literacy curriculum (the official curriculum)? How do teachers and students construct the enacted literacy curriculum together? Thus, by analyzing the interactions inside and outside of the classroom, this work describes the ways that curriculum is translated and transformed. Data for this study centers around three kindergarten teachers as they worked through the goals and ideologies of curriculum as well as those tools used to assess the ii development of children. Additionally, this study features a kindergarten classroom where literacy practices were interpreted and re-interpreted as children interacted with their teacher, their peers, and the curricular materials. By describing these interactions, the project sought to illustrate the agency of teachers and students as they opened up narrow ideologies of language development. By observing and highlighting the writing possibilities of children, this study shows the need to challenge assessments used to define children’s literacy potential, the need to open up the bounded literacy curriculum, and the need to broaden the definitions of literacy attributed to children. Ultimately, this study advocates for flexible and “permeable” (Dyson, 1993) curriculum, allowing teachers to make space for children’s literacy practices, which are situated and contextual. Thus, instead of looking to outsiders and non-practitioners in the development of standardized, literacy curriculum and its corresponding professional development, teachers need space to make decisions on instruction, grounded in the work of the children in their classrooms. iii To all my teachers, past and present, for allowing me the space to grow. iv Acknowledgements This project symbolizes the end of a journey where many people have made their mark. I would like to thank Dr. Anne Haas Dyson for her guidance, feedback, encouragement, and support for my work. I have learned so much about thoughtful, qualitative research from her words, her work, and her time. More importantly, I experienced the warmth of her character, kindness, humor, and charm – the intangibles that I can only hope will rub off on me someday. I thank my committee members for being such an integral part of my growth as a scholar. Dr. Violet Harris encouraged me to pursue my doctorate when I was still a young teacher trying to find my way. Her scholarship and insights have truly influenced me throughout my experiences as a teacher, teacher collaborator, and a graduate student. Dr. Christina DeNicolo continues to be one of the best examples of grace and intellect; she showed me what it meant to be smart and kind at the same time. Dr. Adrienne Lo constantly challenged me to think outside the box and deepened my understanding of ethnography – both in and out of the education realm. I would like to thank all the people who have been cheering me on in the course of this journey, assisting me when I needed a hand, and providing me with perspective when I felt overwhelmed. First, I want to thank Linda Sims, a dear friend and colleague who was so generous in many ways, revised and edited multiple drafts of my work, and made me the best cookies on earth to get me through the days. Phil Wilder, Susan Gregson, and Catherine Hunter have been colleagues, “writing buddies”, and friends. I want to thank the rest of my colleagues who worked on the Teacher Collaborator Project at the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities: Julia Johnson-Burke, Brad v Thompson, Carol Casbeer, Anne Butler, Tysza Gandha, Kassie Patton, Karla Moller, and Lisa Monda-Amaya who have endured my triumphs and complaints. We have done great work together, and I admire each of them for their dedication to children, teachers, and schools. I, also, want to thank all the educators that I worked with in Champaign-Urbana. I am inspired by those who continue to honor the creativity and imagination of children despite regulated times. The children and teachers whose classrooms I became a part of always kept me grounded and focused on what really matters. I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all my graduate school buddies I met along the way. I could not have done this without the insights of these smart people who pushed the limitations of my own thinking but also knew how to help me have a good time along the way. I will sorely miss the coffee shop chats, the trivia nights, the long dinners, the T.V. nights, the study sessions, and the many things we did to “wind down”. I want to thank my Advanced Qualitative Research class – it was an honor to walk this road together with them. This dissertation is truly the fruit of their labor. I want to thank all my loyal friends outside of academia who celebrated milestones with me and kept me grounded. All of them have made my life a little bit brighter by helping me see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you to my parents who have supported me throughout all the monumental moments of my life, including this one. I could not have accomplished any of this without them. Finally, I thank God for giving me this opportunity to do this work, to meet lifelong friends, and to feel incredibly blessed. I believe that our lives are enriched by the people we cross paths with, and I could not have asked for better people who crossed my path. They are all truly gifts from above, specially placed in my life’s journey. vi Table of Contents Preface ............................................................................................................................ viii CHAPTER 1: Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 2: Literature Review: Building a Theoretical Frame ...................................... 9 CHAPTER 3: Methods .................................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER 4: Scripting the Practice of Teaching: Ordering Teaching and Learning ..... 73 CHAPTER 5: Reordering the Scripts: Negotiating Order in Collaborative Spaces ...... 112 CHAPTER 6: Disordering the Scripts: Writing Practices in Classroom Spaces ........... 146 CHAPTER 7: Re-writing the Scripts: Summary and Implications for Further Research ......................................................................................................................... 182 References ...................................................................................................................... 196 vii Preface I started my teaching career as a 4th grade teacher – wide-eyed, overzealous, and still under the assumption that children didn’t know anything, that they were sponges that soaked up all the knowledge that I was going to give them. My first year of teaching and the 6 years that followed became more of an education for me than it was for my students as I began an ongoing process of dispelling this “banking” (Freire, 1970) notion of learning. As I was trying to navigate my way around school, I quickly learned that teaching required much more than having the right methods. Teaching was more complicated than simply making lesson plans with a hook, objectives, resources, and assessments. Furthermore, I was in a classroom where, arguably, the children knew more about certain things than I did. They came with experiences that were so different from my own – children of divorce trying to navigate the idea of two homes, homeless children who were trying to deal with having no home, families with incarcerated or absent fathers, students stuck in the middle of bitter custody battles—and the list went on and on. Consequently, some of these children were much more wise and versed in the ways of the world than I ever was or could be in my first year out of