Individual, Historical, and Critical Contexts: Investigating the Text Selection Practices of Four New Mexican Language Arts Teachers

Abstract

This chapter centers the investigation and findings of a participatory action research (PAR) study designed and implemented by four language arts teachers in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Using collaborative inquiry as a means of interrogating personal text selection practices for diverse groups of Albuquerque students, the teachers involved in this study came to understand their text selection as an ongoing struggle among historical traditions in the teaching of English, current critical perspectives within that field, and their own early experiences with literature. The findings of this PAR study emphasize the importance of using community-based research as a means of exercising teacher intellectual autonomy as well as the responsibility of practicing language arts teachers to investigate and reflect on text selection.