Research in the Teaching of English - Volume 28, Issue 4, 1994

This essay describes some of the primary features of educational criticism, an arts-based approach to qualitative inquiry. We first examine the aims of this approach, focusing on its potential to heighten our perceptions of the classroom. We next discuss four dimensions of educational criticism: descriptive (intended to vividly render the qualities that constitute an educational performance or product); interpretative (represented in the conceptual frameworks that allow critics to account for the attributes and patterns of interaction they have observed); normative (involving a process of articulating those values that inform conceptions of goodness within a given domain); and thematic (concerned with the utility of extracting some type of general understanding, image, principle, or lesson that transcends the particular of an individual case). Finally, we address questions of rigor as they apply to educational criticism and other forms of qualitative research. Specifically, we identify three criteria (consensual validation, structural corroboration, and referential adequacy) appropriate for assessing the credibility of such work. In suggesting criticism as one potential model for educational inquiry, we hope to encourage those researchers who seek to create compelling and richly textured accounts of current classroom practice.

Yes, education is a national issue, but it is also a danger. When I look all these books about how to teach, I have the impression that children are being used as fodder for testing, that the aim is not to educate them, but to bring them up as if they were frogs or guinea pigs for psychologists. This is dreadful. Poor young people! What they have to go through because of these books! They are trained like performing animals. (Unamuno, 1993, p.42)

There are two things I cannot stand: pedagogy and sociology. The former must be replaced by art and the latter by history. (Unamuno, 1993, p. 42)

This study examined how 6 low-income children developed alphabetic knowledge in two different instructional settings, skills-based and whole language. Three learners from each setting were matched on their level of literacy experience at the beginning of kindergarten and on their level of achievement at the end of first grade. They were observed twice a week in their regular kindergarten and first grade classroom contexts. All 6 children learned alphabetic concepts and skills necessary for successful reading and writing, and the pattern of acquisition was similar across the two year period in both instructional settings despite differences in the pace of the children’s acquisition of alphabetic knowledge. The learners in the skills-based classroom acquired alphabetic knowledge primarily through reading basals and writing from teacher prompts. The children in the whole language classroom acquired the same knowledge reading self-selected literature and writing texts with self-selected topics. Both instructional settings provided explicit phonics instruction (albeit contextualized differently), and both settings provided time for children to read self-selected books and to write. These common components may be necessary in beginning literacy instructional programs.

Editor’s Note: Selected, annotated bibliographies of research in the teaching of English appear in the May and December issues of RTE. In general, the items selected for inclusion in each bibliography are drawn from the dissertation abstracts in DAI and from articles or books published from July to December preceding the May issue and from January to June preceding the December issue. Annotations of items from DAI are based on the abstracts; annotations of other items are based on the full texts of those items.

We ask readers to call our attention to published research we may have overlooked inadvertently or to notify us of newly published books containing research in the areas covered by the bibliography for possible inclusion in the review. Please direct questions or comments to Richard L. Larson, 30 Greenridge Ave., 5-H, White Plains, NY 10605-1237.