Teaching English in an age of literacy: A descriptive case study of teachers as curriculum decision-makers in an era of reform

In an era of wide-scale educational reform, classroom teachers may find themselves awkwardly positioned among multiple and conflicting expectations. A review of the history of English as a discipline and as a secondary school subject since the middle of the 20th century points to the secondary school English classroom as a site of particular disruption in response to recent policy changes. This dissertation examines the influences of results-based policy curriculum, increased external accountability, and a high-stakes literacy test on a group of Ontario secondary school English teachers working in grade 9 or 10 classrooms in a single Ontario school district during the spring school semester of 2004. This qualitative study examines ways in which teachers negotiate among paradigms and inside---outside influences in order to make classroom curricular decisions.; A collective case study included 5 focus groups and a purposive sample of 9 secondary school English teachers and it results in a snapshot look at teachers' work, decisions and responses to wide-scale reform. Teachers' responses to semi-structured interviews provide the primary data for analysis. Findings indicate that changes associated with mandated provincial polices are influencing teacher decision-making and interpersonal interactions. Teachers demonstrated both compliance and resistance to mandated policies, negotiating with policy curriculum in order to make space for a classroom curriculum that aligns with their own personal values, beliefs and conceptions of English as a school subject. The study also suggests that recent policy reforms may interact with deeply embedded historical and cultural factors both to impede the implementation of policy and to promote change in teachers' conceptualizations of the school subject.