Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
English Education
Volume
43
Issue
3
Publisher
National Council of Teachers of English
Publication Date
2011
First Page
263
Last Page
293
Abstract
This longitudinal case study follows one high school English teacher’s path of concept development over a two-year period encompassing her student teaching and first year of full-time teaching, both at the same rural school in the southeastern United States. The authors use a sociocultural theoretical framework emerging from the work of Vygotsky to focus on the construction of activity settings and the ways in which settings help to shape concept development. In particular, the analysis finds the teacher drawing on apparently inconsistent pedagogical traditions and their associated mediational tools: one centered on a teacher’s authoritarian control of the curriculum and adherence to formal properties of texts and one centered on students’ interests and their agency in learning.
Recommended Citation
Smagorinsky, P., Wilson, A. A., & Moore, C. (2011). Teaching grammar and writing: A beginning teacher’s dilemma. English Education, 43(3), 263-293.
