This study looks at the ways in which middle schooling initiatives (particularly notions
such as 'authentic pedagogy') are impacting on teachers' pedagogic choices and
practices especially in the area of literacy teaching. There has been no research to
date which explores the linkages between curriculum/school reform such as proposed
in middle schooling initiatives and choices/practices demonstrated by teachers caught
up in this initiative in particular schools. My research attempts to theorise the
connection between crucial features of middle school reform, teacher decisions and
practices in the classroom and their impact on students' own learning/adolescent
literacies. I assume that if the reform is to have continuity and to contribute to higher
levels of adolescent engagement and deep learning, it needs to support and facilitate
certain kinds of decisions and practices in the school and classroom environments.
Where I find evidence of engagement, sustained/substantial conversation across
lessons, within lessons and 'deep learning' in transdisciplinary work by students, then it
is fair to say that middle schooling is working for students and teachers. Where I find
little or no evidence of these things, then it is necessary to apply a critical and
constructive reading of reform initiatives. This critical and constructive reading
attempts to outline the necessary and sufficient conditions which must be in place in
schools if middle schooling is to thrive and to make the difference in young peoples'
school lives it claims to make. My research is a contribution to the sustained and
substantial conversation that is so necessary to middle schooling reform.
Many previous studies surrounding middle schooling have remained at the level of
"description". These commentaries either support or oppose the reform initiative. In
making a commitment to move beyond description, generated by participant
observation and ethnographic conversations, to also involve extensive D/discourse
analysis (Gee, 1999; Bernstein, 1990) of pedagogic practice, this thesis sought to
develop an awareness of the notion of authentic literacy pedagogy through close
analysis of pedagogic choice enacted in three middle school homerooms. A further
significance lies in the perspectives that it offers on adolescent literacies.
The data collected raised questions about the "actual" impact of the middle school
reform initiative at one school, Riverside', how this approach to schooling for young
adolescents impacts on the way that teachers and students construct literacies; and
whether or not these constructions are mindful of the range of those "private" and
"public" literacies found in the multiple life-worlds of adolescents (Phelps, 1998). It
challenges some "myths" about literacy pedagogic transformation linked to middle
schooling, as well as, highlights those factors, both physical and intrinsic, that impact
on reform initiatives and change.
Acknowledgement of the need to engage in a theorisation of adolescent literacies that
moves beyond the current narrow macro-level D/discourse agenda, which focuses on
the "public" school-based literacies, also emerged. This highlights those tensions that
exist between the macro, meso and micro educational environments when considering
what it means to be "literate" for young adolescents.
The study also highlights those disjunctions and tensions found within the progressivist
middle school approach. As a result there are a number of implications that emerge.
These are linked to the preparation of pre-service teachers; a concern for the
physical/material landscape of middle schools; the establishment of Learning Circles as
critical in creating the "ferment of change"; the need to continue theorising the notion -
adolescent literacies; the need to link professional learning for teachers to those
phases of pedagogic change highlighted as part of the reform process; as well as an
acknowledgement of the importance of the need to support the development of more
authentic pedagogies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218586 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Faulkner, Val, N/A |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Val Faulkner |
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