ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: PASSIONS AND POSSIBILITIES: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF TEACHING ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL Suzanne Rachel Borenzweig Doctor of Philosophy, 2009 Dissertation Directed By: Professor Francine Hultgren Department of Education Policy Studies This study explores the lived experiences of Advanced Placement English teachers in public school high school. Max van Manen’s methodology for hermeneutic phenomenological research establishes the framework for the inquiry. The writings of Heidegger, Gadamer, and Greene provide philosophical grounding throughout the research process. The work of curricular theorists elucidates possibilities for understanding the experiences of Advanced Placement English teachers, as I address the question: "What is it like to teach Advanced Placement English while caught in the tension between teaching and testing?" Six Advanced Placement teachers engage with the researcher in conversations about being with students in the Advanced Placement English classroom. The teachers also reflect on their practice through a series of shared journal entries. The teachers, five women and one man, range in age from 25 to 45 years, and have between 2 and 10 years experience teaching Advanced Placement English. The phenomenological text constructed from conversations and written reflections brings forth aspects of the experience of dwelling aright in the Zone of Between in AP English teaching: between teaching and testing, high school and college, and childhood and adulthood. The teachers approach their work as master-craftspeople in the classroom-workshop, passing on to their student-apprentices the proper use of tools in the art and craft of reading, writing, thinking, and test-taking in the AP English classroom. As teachers prepare students for the College Board exam, they also embrace, question, and innovate around aspects of the test. The teachers use the exam as a foundation for courage and encouragement, confidence and passion building, and creative ways-of-being with students. The study suggests a need for Advanced Placement teachers to participate in the development of curriculum, to retain the autonomy to teach from the self, and to be trusted to provide students with meaningful experiences in the art and craft of literature study. The study also reveals the importance of widening the narrow definition of student achievement to include more than test scores. Finally, the study recommends an inquiry- based project approach to assessment to expand the notion of teaching with passion for possibility in the Advanced Placement English classroom. PASSIONS AND POSSIBILITIES: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF TEACHING ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL By Suzanne Rachel Borenzweig Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2009 Advisory Committee: Professor Francine Hultgren, Advisor and Chair Professor Barbara Bass Professor Steven Selden Professor Wayne Slater Professor Linda Valli © Copyright by Suzanne Rachel Borenzweig 2009 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For opening-the-way to phenomenology and to the things themselves, with patience and com-passion, I thank Francine Hultgren. For being insightful and giving readers, I thank my dissertation committee: Barbara Bass, Steven Selden, Wayne Slater, and Linda Valli. For being passionate teachers and eloquent conversants, I thank Amanda, Amy, James, Katherine, Lisa, and Tina. For being intrepid and generous colleagues, I thank Vic Caroscio, Ginny Macnemar, Jennifer Lloyd, Diane Deming, David Mullaney, and Laura Cocozzella Griffiths. For being supportive and understanding principals, I thank Ed Shirley for the early encouragement, and Sylvia Morrison for seeing me through to the end. For preparing me for my life’s work and for a lifetime of state certification, I thank Ted Sizer, Joe McDonald, and Sharon Lloyd Clark. For leading-the-way, cheer-leading, and all-around good cheer, I thank Linda Massey and Linda DeLaYsla, my sisters-in-dissertation from the varsity squad. For hosting the first reunion of my teaching self and my writing self, I am forever indebted to Myra McLarey and the Bard Institute for Writing and Thinking. For making the green sparks fly, I thank Cynthia Livingston, Larry Hays, and the Bardistas. For being my midwestern homegirls on the eastern homefront, I thank Sandy Laurie and Ele Weiss Donnarumma. For raising-me-up to be a reader and a writer, I thank my parents. For keeping-me- grounded as a writer and a teacher, I thank Debby and Colin. Finally, for the passions, the possibilities, and the wide open spaces, I thank Alex and Nicholas. Same team. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following authors and publishers: “To Look at Any Thing,” from The Living Seed by John Moffitt, Copyright© 1961, 1989. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin; “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” from Collected Poems by James Wright, Copyright© 1971 by James Wright. Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press; “The Red Wheelbarrow” from Collected Poems: 1909-1939, Volume I, by William Carlos Williams, Copyright©1938 by New Directions Publishing. Reprinted by permission of New Directions; “Introduction to Poetry” from Sailing Alone Around the Room, by Billy Collins, Copyright©2001 by Random House. Reprinted by permission of The University of Arkansas Press; “Ars Poetica” from Collected Poems 1917-1882, by Archibald iii MacLeish, ©1985. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin; “Sea of Faith” from Sea of Faith by John Brehm, Copyright© 2004 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Reprinted courtesy of The University of Wisconsin Press; “Little Gidding” and “Burnt Norton” from Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot, Copyright©1942 and renewed 1970 by Esme Valerie Eliot. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company; “What Have I Learned” and “Axe Handles” from Axe Handles: Poems by Gary Snyder, Copyright© 2005. Reprinted by permission of Counterpoint; 2007 AP English Language and Composition Exam, Copyright© 2008, The College Board. Reproduced with permission. 1994 AP English Literature and Composition: Free-Response Scoring Guide with Multiple-Choice Section, Copyright© 1995/2008, The College Board. Reproduced with permission. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: STANZAS AND SCANTRONS—OPENING SPACES OF PASSIONS AND POSSIBILITIES.................................................................................... 1 Appreciating “This Stuff”............................................................................................ 1 Turning to the Test ............................................................................................... 3 Turning to the Tension ......................................................................................... 4 The Call of the Horizon ............................................................................................... 6 Finding the Far Horizon ....................................................................................... 6 Advancing Toward the Horizon ........................................................................... 8 Meeting the Horizon of the Other ........................................................................ 9 Defining the Horizon.......................................................................................... 10 Fusing the Horizons............................................................................................ 12 Taking the Big Step ................................................................................................... 12 Stepping Up........................................................................................................ 13 Stepping in the Right Direction.......................................................................... 14 Teaching the Student Teacher ............................................................................ 15 Taking the AP Challenge.................................................................................... 17 Being Practical: The Writer-Scholar as Teacher ....................................................... 20 Choosing Plan B................................................................................................. 20 Taking the Road Less Traveled.......................................................................... 21 Teaching with Love and Passion ............................................................................... 23 Testing With Care............................................................................................... 24 A Passion for Choice and Creativity .................................................................. 26 Pedagogical Passion .................................................................................... 27 Textual Passion ........................................................................................... 29 Storying the Phenomenon.......................................................................................... 31 Making Explicit/Seeking Meaning..................................................................... 32 Constructing the Phenomenological Text .......................................................... 33 CHAPTER TWO: DWELLING IN THE TEACHING OF ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH ........................................................................................................................