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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