Toward Justice: Illuminating Inequities in Urban Education Literacy "Reforms"

• In Event: 65.046 - Language as an Act of Critical Education

Abstract

This paper presents the relevant findings of two studies using the same population of teachers (n=38) in a large, urban district. One study utilized critical discourse analysis to examine over 5, 897 teacher reflections while the other utilized qualitative methods to consider teaching artifacts, debriefs, observations, and interviews. While these concurrent inquiries were generally focused on the lives and experiences of novice teaches working in the context of urban classrooms, significant data and findings were framed around this construct of mandated literacy reform models. The cases from these two inquiries facilitate a larger critique and analysis of scripted reform literacy curriculum and their impact on teachers, learning, and learners. Implications for novice teachers, administrators, and teacher educators will be discussed.

Authors

• Kara M. Kavanagh, James Madison University

• Teresa R. Fisher-Ari, Georgia State University