Literacy Lessons: The Convergence of Expectations, Practices, and Classroom Culture

Abstract

This paper examines the experiences that construct classroom culture in one sixth-grade language arts classroom and adolescent girls’ negotiation and responses to their experience as class members. Over the course of the year, data were collected through classroom observations, monthly videotapes of class, interviews with the girls as they viewed their participation in class, and a teacher interview. Emergent themes based on analysis of observations and interviews with the girls included the girls’ perceptions of their language arts experiences, their sense of themselves as students, being good, and boredom and disengagement. Findings revealed a classroom culture based primarily on procedures in which the purposes of literacy learning centered on the skills required for state-mandated testing. The girls’ responses to this classroom culture suggested that they were adopting an orientation to literacy similar to their teacher's, even as they expressed a desire for a more personally meaningful curriculum. They were often bored and developed ways to manage their disengagement to avoid trouble with the teacher. Implications for ongoing research are discussed. © 2002, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.