Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5067-0019 : Susan M. Holloway

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2011

Publication Title

Brock Education: A Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Volume

20

Issue

2

First Page

25

Last Page

42

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Ontario secondary school English teachers make choices about which literature to teach in their courses. This will be done in order to more deeply understand why many secondary school teachers may or may not encourage students to read contemporary, social issue texts. This paper uses a critical sociology of schooling theoretical perspective to critique the study's findings. We examine the relation between policies and practice, the issue of resources and structural barriers, and how decisions are made around literary text choices. Some themes that emerged out of the interviews focus on a range of views expressed about personal agency, literary canons, gender, sexual orientation, and racism as central issues that shape text selection. We conclude by arguing for the need for policy to support individual teachers to take risks in their professional ability to select and teach contemporary social issues texts to high school students in all disciplines.

DOI

10.26522/brocked.v20i2.168

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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