Unforgetting the History of Elementary Composition in US Schools 1900-1950

• In Event: Examining the Politics of Curriculum and its Influence

Abstract

This study investigates how elementary writing curriculum, instruction, and assessment was presented in US schools in the first half of the 20th century. Multiple primary artifacts from a variety of sources were examined and coded using a non-linear approach, and relationships among codes were gathered and continuously revised into larger central themes to demonstrate how the sociocultural context of the interwar years supported both traditional and progressive approaches to instruction. It notes consistencies and changes that occurred, and how some gradually adapted to become enduring practices still in use today. It provides a foundation for studying future elementary writing instruction reforms.

Author

• Joan M. Taylor, University of Nevada - Reno