This case study follows a teacher candidate through her semester of student teaching English in a suburban high school in the U.S. Southeast. The study is part of a line of inquiry that investigates the factors that contribute to teachers' development of "concepts" to guide their instruction. In particular, this research focuses on…

This longitudinal case study follows one high school English teacher's path of concept development over a two-year period encompassing her student teaching and first year of full-time teaching, both at the same rural school in the southeastern United States. The authors use a sociocultural theoretical framework emerging from the work of Vygotsky…

Portes and Smagorinsky examine the degree to which stable schools and authoritarian instruction accommodate the needs of learners exhibiting difference, with special attention to Spanish-speaking English Language Learners in a Southern setting. They find that the influx of immigrant students in Southern schools lays bare the normative…

In this article, the authors try to extend the complex and provocative conversations at the Conference on English Education Summit. They argue on several critical programmatic issues, including the need for greater program coherence, the continuing dilemma of the gulf between schools and universities, and both the promise and the problems of…

In this article we report a study of a teacher, Jimmy, making the transition from his university teacher education program to his first job. We explore what we characterize as tensions between traditions in his effort to develop a conception to inform his teaching of high school English. These tensions are rooted in conceptions of teaching that…

In this paper the authors focus on one early-career teacher, co-author Natalie Gibson, whose initial teaching experiences were mediated by educational settings shaped by these different and often conflicting traditions. Their study of Natalie's early-career trajectory is concerned with understanding her effort to develop a conception of…

Explores how a new teacher's identity was affected when she attempted to enact a student-centered, i.e., liberal, pedagogy in a school district that was in the process of introducing a heavily scripted language arts curriculum tied to district standardized tests. Concludes that the frustration that the teacher felt was that the curriculum took…

Focuses on one elementary school teacher during the Language Arts lessons of her student teaching, and focuses on a single conflict she had with the values of the school. Suggests alternative approaches emphasizing the importance of creating settings that support teachers who wish to teach in ways that their school structures discourage. (SC)

Studies the ways in which three graduate students applied theoretical and pedagogical tools in a collaborative independent study course. Concludes that the students' use of research tools was more consistent with the teacher's understanding of profitable uses than was their appropriation of the conceptual tools advanced in the course readings. (TB)

Examines ethical problems that face teachers in the selection of literature and the experiences students have with it. Discusses ironic texts about social issues, didactic texts written from a particular cultural perspective, and "representative" texts intended to depict the experiences of a particular group of people. (SR)

Explains how learning the benefits of doing classroom research during student teaching can give aspiring practitioners an opportunity to appreciate the benefits of classroom investigation and gain knowledge of research methods. Proposes that such investigations be undertaken as a collaborative venture between a student teacher and a cooperating…