“Looking Back I Can See” Literate Tensions and Changes: A Veteran Teacher’s Cross-Contextual Analysis of His Literate Life

This article details the results of a survey project that seeks to understand the factors that influence teachers’ decisions about instructional texts in the English classroom. The survey, delivered to 339 teachers in a western state where the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have been adopted, asked teachers to identify influential factors in these decisions, to discuss challenges they face in selecting texts, and to speculate about the possible influence of the CCSS on these decisions. The results indicate that teachers attempt to make careful decisions about texts, weighing curricular factors as well as student needs and interests. However, teachers make these decisions in complicated contexts where resources are tight, and practices such as whole-class novel study make these decisions difficult to make well. These results suggest that teacher educators evaluate traditional practices such as the whole-class novel to improve educational practice in English classrooms.