By the Book and Behind-the-Glass: Teacher Self-Regulation in One Reading Intervention

This paper presents the voices of Reading Recovery teachers in order to examine their self-regulation in that context. Foucault’s constructs of hierarchical observation, normalization of judgment, and technologies of self are used to explore how self-regulated stances are created and sustained and to explore the way self-regulation operates within a community in which particular ways of acting, interacting, believing, and teaching are valued. Sixteen Reading Recovery teachers were interviewed about their teaching and learning experiences. Findings suggest that while teacher self-regulation in Reading Recovery imposes particular limits, these limits provide both opportunities for professional growth and collective learning while contributing to the sustainability of the Reading Recovery Program.