This article extends the conversation on English education as preparation for democratic participation. The author journeys through a cycle of action research, analyzing one classroom case study to improve her practice of curricular negotiation in a methods of teaching writing course.

The term "Latino" in this paper adopts a U.S. definition to refer to those persons born/living in the United States who are of Latin American ancestry. U.S. Latino literature is defined as literature that is originally composed mostly in English, but not exclusively, by authors of U.S. Latino background. Selections of Latino literature in the U.S.…

Language is more than a means of representing and communicating ideas. It is subject to one's values and beliefs about language and people. For this reason, it is also a means of constructing an identity, a place of belonging in a complex world. Various authors have set forth visions of young people constructing social places for themselves amid…

Sybil Wilson is a composite representation of an English teacher that typifies much of what most preservice English teachers have seen and experienced in U.S. classrooms. The authors' aim is to articulate textual frameworks often competing and unnamed in English curriculum (and evident in Sybil's classroom) and to argue for a particular reframing…

Evolution of the "old page", or written hardcopy texts, to the "new" (Kress, 2003), or electronic page, means that today's learners have experience with reading a variety of texts. Image, music, and electronic inscription (font, style, flash, and so on) are features of multimodal texts that many learners prefer to read and create. With the screen…

Provides personal narratives of four teachers regarding their work to create more democratic classrooms in urban settings. Explores the issues of authority and democracy in day-to-day teaching in the areas of (1) authority, democracy, and relationships; (2) formations; (3) authority and democracy in the writing workshop; and (4) reformations. (NH)

Examines the relationship between past ways of understanding what it has meant to teach and learn in English classrooms and the present movement toward change. Argues that the central purpose of working in relation to the past is to guard against participating in a 'presentism' that denies the past. (NH)

Articulates, through a critical analysis of Atlantic Canada's latest secondary English language arts curriculum documents, the expansion of traditionally understood conceptions of literacy to include information, media, and visual literacies. Examines the specific nature and extent to which technology and computer-mediated curricula are used to…

Reflects on the statement, "Literature should be removed from the center of the English curriculum and become part of the study of language that should be at the center." Tries to "clear the way" for students to write passionately about their lives and feelings and encourages students to explore their thinking through reading and writing. (SC)

Considers the arguments for seeing work rather than response as key to the poetic experience. Explains the development of such experience in the classroom. Notes that this is worth exploring not only in terms of literacy curriculum, but with respect to curriculum as a whole, since poetry is often invoked as an important resource for the…

Examines teaching practices in one English department. Investigates language of course syllabi for statement of goals, course reading, and course writing. Interviews faculty for observations about the texts, curriculum, and classroom practice. Suggests that, while university scholarship has moved beyond the New Criticism of the 1950s, university…

Reports on a survey that investigated significant differences within the English teacher community in terms of the beliefs and practices on key issues. Makes a contribution to a larger National Council of Teachers of English project to foster communication among disparate groups of English educators. (TB)

Tells the story of one English department's struggle over curriculum controversies and the implications of that struggle for the integrity of specific teachers' classroom curriculum and the literary education of their students. (TB)

Argues that the literal and cultural "text" of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) calls into question the entire project of teaching English at the secondary level in this country. Teases out the connection between the study of NAFTA and the study of text and what it might mean for the teaching of English in the next century. (TB)

Reflects on a research project conducted by two professionals in language arts instruction investigating the curriculum decisions and book selection among classroom teachers. Recounts the researchers' own attempt to make sense of new ideas in the field and the application and relevance of those ideas to classroom practice. (TB)