A study investigated the effect of the stated objectives of remedial reading programs on the objectives and teaching practices of classroom reading instructors. Interviews were conducted with nine reading teachers in two highly structured college reading programs. Each operated with a set curriculum, set materials, and prewritten tests, but the stated purposes of the two programs differed widely: one existed to prepare students to become independent college learners; the other existed solely to prepare students to pass a reading test required for graduation. Results revealed that the teachers embraced their own personal philosophies and taught according to them no matter what the circumstances or purposes. Teachers with traditional beliefs tended to teach with lectures and direct guidance, certain that there is a correct answer to questions and desiring that their students reach that answer. Teachers with iconoclastic beliefs used social settings and indirect guidance to provide opportunities their students might choose to pursue, and believed that what is correct for individual students in one circumstance may be incorrect in another. A set of three continua were developed with each pole of each continuum corresponding to traditional or iconoclastic views which appeared to encompass the views of the participants. A comparison of these continua as a whole reinforced the view that teachers will teach according to their own beliefs no matter how tightly controlled the program. (KEH)