Purpose: This paper aims to examine how a collaborative narrative inquiry focused on cultivating critical English Language Arts (ELA) pedagogies supported teacher agency, or "the capacity of actors to critically shape their own responsiveness to problematic situations" (Emirbayer and Mische, 1998, p. 971). Design/methodology/approach:…

Critical thinking is an essential skill for learners and teachers alike. Therefore, it is essential that educators be given practical strategies for improving their critical thinking skills as well as methods to effectively provide critical thinking skills to their students. The "Handbook of Research on Critical Thinking and Teacher Education…

This essay has been one of the hardest professionally to write as it documents some very personal and professional soul-searching that involved myself, many of my colleagues, and the students in our department over the span of four years. When I first presented our initial reform attempts at the 2010 CEA in San Antonio, much of this paper was…

The study of the history of the English language can help students become aware of major issues in several academic fields, including history, literature, political science, anthropology, communication, economics, the Arts, and, of course, languages and linguistics. Even though instructors may not have an especially broad background in the…

Discusses the importance of a curriculum planning policy which considers student diversity and is accountable to the student, the profession, and society. (RB)

Defends English instruction against the current trend of integrating such classes into humanities programs, arguing for the uniqueness and unpredictability of all experience and the human capacity to recreate, share, and evaluate experience as is taught in English. (Author/RB)

Offers guidelines for preparing and using audiovisual materials, showing how four rules were applied to the construction of videotape curriculum materials for grammar instruction at the City University of New York. (RL)

Describes a statement of guidelines and goals developed for Boise State University's (BSU) basic writing course. Includes an account of local conditions at BSU, a copy of the statement itself with commentary on its seven competencies, a description of how the document was developed through a collaborative process, and the effects of that…

Looks back at the author's 1972 essay and responds to it now, helping readers place it within an historical context in order to learn about the genesis of his ideas then and his reflections now. Suggests that students do have authority, through their unique and at times vast understandings from their own experiences of language, of literature, and…

Offers some reflections on the professional commitments of undergraduate English and argues the need for establishing clearly defined educational goals. (RB)

Indicates how the province of English has changed in recent years, using a dialogue between Socrates and an English professor to dramatize the point. (RB)

The Commission Four report, one of a series of conference reports of the National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE), is concerned with the developing language needs of the whole younger generation from preschool to adult life. (RB)

Examines the impulses that led to the curriculum reform movements in the United States and Britain during the 1950s and 1960s. (RB)

Critically examines the theoretical and practical considerations involved in the setting up of a humanities interdisciplinary curriculum with a strong English component. (RB)