Elementary Teachers' Perceptions and Enactment of Autonomy From Prescribed Pacing Guides

• In Event: Autonomy, Inclusion, and Fostering Participation: Voice and Agency in Curriculum Policy

Abstract

Pacing guides have become a commonplace mechanism by which the curricular standardization dictated by high-stakes testing in American public education has been enforced in classrooms. One way teachers have circumvented the confines of these documents is by exercising autonomy with their implementation. We utilize self-determination theory and a constructivist conceptualization of autonomy to explore elementary teachers’ perceptions and enactment of autonomy in a large, urban U.S. school district with prescribed pacing guides. Findings reveal teachers’ autonomous practices descriptively differed based on their varied perceptions of autonomy in their practice. We present teachers’ own descriptions of these perceptions and practices and their implications. We also consider potential meanings of these findings for the education of culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Authors

• Vonna Hemmler, Amherst College

• Allison W. Kenney, RMC Research Corporation

• Susan Dulong Langley, University of Connecticut

• Elizabeth Jean Gubbins, University of Connecticut

• Carolyn M. Callahan, University of Virginia