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Highway to Reform: The Coupling of District Reading Policy and Instructional Practice

Item

Title
Highway to Reform: The Coupling of District Reading Policy and Instructional Practice
Abstract/Description
This article presents findings on teachers’ implementation of a reading reform in an urban school district. Findings are based in observation, interview, and document data related to 12 elementary teachers’ responses to a new reading program, the Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop. Utilizing coupling theory and the concept of routines, the paper presents a nuanced portrayal of classroom-level policy implementation. The paper depicts mini-lessons, independent reading, conferencing, and instructional materials as building blocks of the new reading program, and I expose the intensity of messaging on each of these elements. I use Qualitative Comparative Analysis to analyze teachers’ routines for reading instruction and show that independent reading was a common foundational step in teachers’ workshop routines. This analytic technique answers questions about the combinations of conditions resulting in mini-lesson instruction. This paper extends the research on the implementation of instructional policy and has implications for policymakers, administrators, and teachers.
Author/creator
Woulfin, Sarah L.
Date
2015
In publication
Journal of Educational Change
Volume
16
Issue
4
Pages
535-557
Resource type
en Research/Scholarly Media
Resource status/form
en Published Text
Scholarship genre
en Empirical
Keywords
coupling theory
educational infrastructure
QCA
qualitative methods
reading instruction
Language
en
Open access/full-text available
en Yes
Peer reviewed
en Yes
ISSN
1573-1812
DOI
10.1007/s10833-015-9261-5
URL
Official Publisher's Webpage (Springer Link)
Full-text PDF Shared by Publisher (Springer Nature via ResearchGate)
Citation
Woulfin, S. L. (2015). Highway to Reform: The Coupling of District Reading Policy and Instructional Practice. Journal of Educational Change, 16(4), 535–557. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-015-9261-5
Cited in
The Theory and Practice of Democracy and Community
Abbreviation
J Educ Change
Item sets
Handbook Chapter 6 Citations

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