“…That is, despite that virtually all teachers across studies made adjustments to their instructional approaches (e.g., Brooks & Frankel, 2018; Leko et al, 2015; Troyer, 2019), the pre‐determined nature of some of these programs, and issues of surveillance related to their use, sometimes restricted teachers' agency or ability to respond to students' needs (e.g., Bippert & Harmon, 2017; Patterson et al, 2010). In one recent study included in our review, a teacher raised critical questions about her RI curriculum and then, together with a university researcher, conducted an examination of oppressive racialized ideologies evident in her mandated Fountas & Pinnell instructional materials (Thomas & Dyches, 2019). In an earlier study, Patterson et al (2010) reported that despite strong support from district and school administrators, teachers articulated serious concerns about the constraints of the mandated reading class that conflicted with their identities and experiences as ELA teachers and associated beliefs about literacy instruction:Many teachers were critical of the literacy course for not emphasizing student reading enough.…”
“…That is, despite that virtually all teachers across studies made adjustments to their instructional approaches (e.g., Brooks & Frankel, 2018; Leko et al, 2015; Troyer, 2019), the pre‐determined nature of some of these programs, and issues of surveillance related to their use, sometimes restricted teachers' agency or ability to respond to students' needs (e.g., Bippert & Harmon, 2017; Patterson et al, 2010). In one recent study included in our review, a teacher raised critical questions about her RI curriculum and then, together with a university researcher, conducted an examination of oppressive racialized ideologies evident in her mandated Fountas & Pinnell instructional materials (Thomas & Dyches, 2019). In an earlier study, Patterson et al (2010) reported that despite strong support from district and school administrators, teachers articulated serious concerns about the constraints of the mandated reading class that conflicted with their identities and experiences as ELA teachers and associated beliefs about literacy instruction:Many teachers were critical of the literacy course for not emphasizing student reading enough.…”
“…And ensuring diversity is not enough – we should also examine how characters and people are represented in texts. One study of the texts used in a popular literacy intervention found that in 70% of the fiction, people of color were depicted in ways that could be characterized as inferior, whereas white characters were more often characterized in positive ways (Thomas & Dyches, 2019).…”
Much of the attention given to literacy, of late, has focused on ensuring that students can read, without consideration to what they are given to read. Kristin Conradi Smith & Elfrieda H. Hiebert discuss four general aspects of the texts used in elementary classrooms – text complexity, text type (narrative versus informational), text format (paper versus screen), and diversity of people presented in the text. They review recent research on each of these text characteristics and then make suggestions for how to apply the research in the classroom.
“…Although this literature has been focused primarily on teachers, it is likely that these biases exist among all education stakeholders, including principals, parents and caregivers, policymakers, curriculum developers, and researchers. For example, a recent critical content analysis of a subset of books and lesson scripts in the Fountas and Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention revealed that 70% of the fiction and 20% of the nonfiction presented Black and Brown people as inferior, deviant, and helpless, compared to White people being represented as heroic, determined, innovative, and successful in 30% of fiction and 100% of nonfiction material (Thomas & Dyches, 2019). Recognizing that the overwhelming majority of teachers in U.S. public schools identify as White (while over half of the students do not) and that many reported not feeling competent about working with students from different race, ethnic, and language backgrounds or growing up in poverty and low‐income households (Lindo & Lim, 2020), teachers’ insistence that every child can learn is no small matter.…”
Section: Insist That All Children Can Learnmentioning
If the science of reading is the solution, then why are so many Black and Brown children not reading well in school? Reconciling the science with the lived experiences of children who are vulnerable to poor academic achievement in school may be requisite to unlocking the transformative innovation needed to ensure that every child can read and succeed in school.
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