Reading lessons in Guinea, France, and the United States: Local meanings or global culture?

Comparative Education Review

Volumn 48, Issue 3, 2004, Pages 229-252

  Anderson Levitt, Kathryn M ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 14544296167     PISSN: 00104086     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/421178     Document Type: Review

References (95)

1. Gerald K. LeTendre, David P. Baker, Motoko Akiba, Brian Goesling, and Alex Wiseman, "Teachers' Work: Institutional Isomorphism and Cultural Variation in the U.S., Germany and Japan," Educational Researcher 30 (August/September 2001): 3-15; Lorin W. Anderson, "The Classroom Environment Study: Teaching for Learning," Comparative Education Review 31 (February 1987): 69-87; Lorin W. Anderson, Doris W. Ryan, and Bernard J. Shapiro, The IEA Classroom Environment Study (New York: Pergamon, 1989).
2. Gerald K. LeTendre, David P. Baker, Motoko Akiba, Brian Goesling, and Alex Wiseman, "Teachers' Work: Institutional Isomorphism and Cultural Variation in the U.S., Germany and Japan," Educational Researcher 30 (August/September 2001): 3-15; Lorin W. Anderson, "The Classroom Environment Study: Teaching for Learning," Comparative Education Review 31 (February 1987): 69-87; Lorin W. Anderson, Doris W. Ryan, and Bernard J. Shapiro, The IEA Classroom Environment Study (New York: Pergamon, 1989).
3. Gerald K. LeTendre, David P. Baker, Motoko Akiba, Brian Goesling, and Alex Wiseman, "Teachers' Work: Institutional Isomorphism and Cultural Variation in the U.S., Germany and Japan," Educational Researcher 30 (August/September 2001): 3-15; Lorin W. Anderson, "The Classroom Environment Study: Teaching for Learning," Comparative Education Review 31 (February 1987): 69-87; Lorin W. Anderson, Doris W. Ryan, and Bernard J. Shapiro, The IEA Classroom Environment Study (New York: Pergamon, 1989).
4. The label "world culture theory" is the most transparent label for the school of thought exemplified by John Boll, Francisco O. Ramirez, and John W. Meyer, "Explaining the Origins and Expansion of Mass Education," in New Approaches to Comparative Education, ed. Philip G. Altbach and Gail Paradise Kelly (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986). The phrase "world culture" comes from Francisco O. Ramirez, Yasemin Soysal, and Suzanne Shanahan, "The Changing Logic of Political Citizenship: Cross-National Acquisition of Women's Suffrage Rights, 1890 to 1990," American Sociological Review 62 (1997): 735-45.
5. The label "world culture theory" is the most transparent label for the school of thought exemplified by John Boll, Francisco O. Ramirez, and John W. Meyer, "Explaining the Origins and Expansion of Mass Education," in New Approaches to Comparative Education, ed. Philip G. Altbach and Gail Paradise Kelly (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986). The phrase "world culture" comes from Francisco O. Ramirez, Yasemin Soysal, and Suzanne Shanahan, "The Changing Logic of Political Citizenship: Cross-National Acquisition of Women's Suffrage Rights, 1890 to 1990," American Sociological Review 62 (1997): 735-45.
6. LeTendre et al.
7. Robin Alexander, Culture and Pedagogy; International Comparisons in Primary Education (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000).
8. Joseph J. Tobin, David Y. H. Wu, and Dana H. Davidson, Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989). Other studies illustrating national cultural differences in teaching practice include George D. Spindler and Louise Spindler, "Cultural Dialogue and Schooling in Schoenhausen and Roseville: A Comparative Analysis," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 18 (March 1987): 1-16; Lynn Paine and Liping Ma, "Teachers Working Together: A Dialogue on Organizational and Cultural Perspectives of Chinese Teachers," International Journal of Educational Research 88 (1993): 675-97; and Nobuo K. Shimahara and Akira Sakai, Learning to Teach in Two Cultures: Japan and the United States (New York: Garland, 1995).
9. Joseph J. Tobin, David Y. H. Wu, and Dana H. Davidson, Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989). Other studies illustrating national cultural differences in teaching practice include George D. Spindler and Louise Spindler, "Cultural Dialogue and Schooling in Schoenhausen and Roseville: A Comparative Analysis," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 18 (March 1987): 1-16; Lynn Paine and Liping Ma, "Teachers Working Together: A Dialogue on Organizational and Cultural Perspectives of Chinese Teachers," International Journal of Educational Research 88 (1993): 675-97; and Nobuo K. Shimahara and Akira Sakai, Learning to Teach in Two Cultures: Japan and the United States (New York: Garland, 1995).
10. Joseph J. Tobin, David Y. H. Wu, and Dana H. Davidson, Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989). Other studies illustrating national cultural differences in teaching practice include George D. Spindler and Louise Spindler, "Cultural Dialogue and Schooling in Schoenhausen and Roseville: A Comparative Analysis," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 18 (March 1987): 1-16; Lynn Paine and Liping Ma, "Teachers Working Together: A Dialogue on Organizational and Cultural Perspectives of Chinese Teachers," International Journal of Educational Research 88 (1993): 675-97; and Nobuo K. Shimahara and Akira Sakai, Learning to Teach in Two Cultures: Japan and the United States (New York: Garland, 1995).
11. Joseph J. Tobin, David Y. H. Wu, and Dana H. Davidson, Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989). Other studies illustrating national cultural differences in teaching practice include George D. Spindler and Louise Spindler, "Cultural Dialogue and Schooling in Schoenhausen and Roseville: A Comparative Analysis," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 18 (March 1987): 1-16; Lynn Paine and Liping Ma, "Teachers Working Together: A Dialogue on Organizational and Cultural Perspectives of Chinese Teachers," International Journal of Educational Research 88 (1993): 675-97; and Nobuo K. Shimahara and Akira Sakai, Learning to Teach in Two Cultures: Japan and the United States (New York: Garland, 1995).
12. To use a phrase from LeTendre et al., p. 5.
13. As suggested for the case of middle-school math and science lessons by Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt, "Teaching Culture as National and Transnational: A Response to 'Teachers' Work,'" Educational Researcher 31 (2002): 19-21.
14. As of 1997, 87.6 percent of the relevant age group around the world (60. 4 percent in the least developed countries) attended primary school (United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2000 [New York: Oxford University Press, 2000], pp. 196-97).
15. Francisco O. Ramirez and John Boli, "The Political Construction of Mass Schooling: European Origins and Worldwide Institutionalization," Sociology of Education 60 (1987): 2-17, 8.
16. Alexander. The comparison of Germany and the United States in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) also shows that the West is not a monolith.
17. Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt, Teaching Cultures: Cultural Knowledge for Teaching First Grade in France and the United States (Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press, 2002).
18. Alpha Mamadou Diallo, "L'évaluation de l'éducation pour tous à l'an 2000: Rapport du pays: Guinée," UNESCO, Paris, http://www2.unesco.org/wef/countryreports/guinea/contents.html#.
19. Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt and Ntal-I'Mbirwa Alimasi, "Are Pedagogical Ideals Embraced or Imposed? The Case of Reading Instruction in the Republic of Guinea," in Policy as Practice, ed. Margaret Sutton and Bradley Levinson (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 2001); Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt and Boubacar Bayero Diallo, "Teaching by the Book in Guinea," in Local Meanings, Global Schooling: Anthropology and World Culture Theory, ed. Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
20. Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt and Ntal-I'Mbirwa Alimasi, "Are Pedagogical Ideals Embraced or Imposed? The Case of Reading Instruction in the Republic of Guinea," in Policy as Practice, ed. Margaret Sutton and Bradley Levinson (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 2001); Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt and Boubacar Bayero Diallo, "Teaching by the Book in Guinea," in Local Meanings, Global Schooling: Anthropology and World Culture Theory, ed. Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
21. Joseph J. Tobin, "Method and Meaning in Comparative Classroom Ethnography," in Learning from Comparing, vol. 1, Contexts, Classrooms and Outcomes, ed. Robin Alexander, Patricia Broadfoot, and David Phillips (Wallingford, UK: Symposium Books, 1999).
22. Michael S. Knapp and associates, Teaching for Meaning in High-Poverty Classrooms (New York: Teachers College Press, 1995); Michael Pressley, Richard L. Allington, Ruth Wharton-McDonald, Cathy Collins Block, and Lesley Mandel Morrow, Learning to Read: Lessons from Exemplary First-Grade Classrooms (New York: Guilford, 2001); Barbara M. Taylor, David P. Pearson, Kathleen Clark, and Sharon Walpole, "Effective Schools and Accomplished Teachers: Lessons about Primary-Grade Reading Instruction in Low-Income Schools," Elementary School Journal 101 (November 2000): 121-65.
23. Michael S. Knapp and associates, Teaching for Meaning in High-Poverty Classrooms (New York: Teachers College Press, 1995); Michael Pressley, Richard L. Allington, Ruth Wharton-McDonald, Cathy Collins Block, and Lesley Mandel Morrow, Learning to Read: Lessons from Exemplary First-Grade Classrooms (New York: Guilford, 2001); Barbara M. Taylor, David P. Pearson, Kathleen Clark, and Sharon Walpole, "Effective Schools and Accomplished Teachers: Lessons about Primary-Grade Reading Instruction in Low-Income Schools," Elementary School Journal 101 (November 2000): 121-65.
24. Michael S. Knapp and associates, Teaching for Meaning in High-Poverty Classrooms (New York: Teachers College Press, 1995); Michael Pressley, Richard L. Allington, Ruth Wharton-McDonald, Cathy Collins Block, and Lesley Mandel Morrow, Learning to Read: Lessons from Exemplary First-Grade Classrooms (New York: Guilford, 2001); Barbara M. Taylor, David P. Pearson, Kathleen Clark, and Sharon Walpole, "Effective Schools and Accomplished Teachers: Lessons about Primary-Grade Reading Instruction in Low-Income Schools," Elementary School Journal 101 (November 2000): 121-65.
25. Richard L. Allington, Sherry Guice, Nancy Michelson, Kim Baker, and Shouming Li, "Literature-Based Curriculum in High-Poverty Schools," in The First R: Every Child's Right to Read, ed. Michael F. Graves, Paul van den Brock, and Barbara M. Taylor (New York: Teachers College Press, 1996); James V. Hoffman, Sarah J. McCarthey, Bonnie Elliott, Debra L. Bayles, Debra P. Price, Angela Ferree, and Judy A. Abbott, "The Literature-Based Basais in First-Grade Classrooms: Savior, Satan, or Same-Old, Same-Old?" Reading Research Quarterly 33 (April-June 1998): 68-197; Knapp and associates. Other well-detailed studies of actual reading instruction must be interpreted with caution because they describe exemplary teachers, such as Taylor et al.; and Karin L. Dahl, Patricia L Schrarer, Lora L. Lawson, and Patricia R. Grogan ("Phonics Instruction and Student Achievement in Whole Language First-Grade Classrooms," Reading Research Quarterly 34 [1999]: 312-41) or because they describe teachers in the midst of reform, as does Glennellen Pace ("Stories of Teacher-Initiated Change from Traditional to Whole-Language Literacy Instruction," Elementary School Journal 92 [March 1992]: 461-76).
26. Richard L. Allington, Sherry Guice, Nancy Michelson, Kim Baker, and Shouming Li, "Literature-Based Curriculum in High-Poverty Schools," in The First R: Every Child's Right to Read, ed. Michael F. Graves, Paul van den Brock, and Barbara M. Taylor (New York: Teachers College Press, 1996); James V. Hoffman, Sarah J. McCarthey, Bonnie Elliott, Debra L. Bayles, Debra P. Price, Angela Ferree, and Judy A. Abbott, "The Literature-Based Basais in First-Grade Classrooms: Savior, Satan, or Same-Old, Same-Old?" Reading Research Quarterly 33 (April-June 1998): 68-197; Knapp and associates. Other well-detailed studies of actual reading instruction must be interpreted with caution because they describe exemplary teachers, such as Taylor et al.; and Karin L. Dahl, Patricia L Schrarer, Lora L. Lawson, and Patricia R. Grogan ("Phonics Instruction and Student Achievement in Whole Language First-Grade Classrooms," Reading Research Quarterly 34 [1999]: 312-41) or because they describe teachers in the midst of reform, as does Glennellen Pace ("Stories of Teacher-Initiated Change from Traditional to Whole-Language Literacy Instruction," Elementary School Journal 92 [March 1992]: 461-76).
27. Richard L. Allington, Sherry Guice, Nancy Michelson, Kim Baker, and Shouming Li, "Literature-Based Curriculum in High-Poverty Schools," in The First R: Every Child's Right to Read, ed. Michael F. Graves, Paul van den Brock, and Barbara M. Taylor (New York: Teachers College Press, 1996); James V. Hoffman, Sarah J. McCarthey, Bonnie Elliott, Debra L. Bayles, Debra P. Price, Angela Ferree, and Judy A. Abbott, "The Literature-Based Basais in First-Grade Classrooms: Savior, Satan, or Same-Old, Same-Old?" Reading Research Quarterly 33 (April-June 1998): 68-197; Knapp and associates. Other well-detailed studies of actual reading instruction must be interpreted with caution because they describe exemplary teachers, such as Taylor et al.; and Karin L. Dahl, Patricia L Schrarer, Lora L. Lawson, and Patricia R. Grogan ("Phonics Instruction and Student Achievement in Whole Language First-Grade Classrooms," Reading Research Quarterly 34 [1999]: 312-41) or because they describe teachers in the midst of reform, as does Glennellen Pace ("Stories of Teacher-Initiated Change from Traditional to Whole-Language Literacy Instruction," Elementary School Journal 92 [March 1992]: 461-76).
28. Richard L. Allington, Sherry Guice, Nancy Michelson, Kim Baker, and Shouming Li, "Literature-Based Curriculum in High-Poverty Schools," in The First R: Every Child's Right to Read, ed. Michael F. Graves, Paul van den Brock, and Barbara M. Taylor (New York: Teachers College Press, 1996); James V. Hoffman, Sarah J. McCarthey, Bonnie Elliott, Debra L. Bayles, Debra P. Price, Angela Ferree, and Judy A. Abbott, "The Literature-Based Basais in First-Grade Classrooms: Savior, Satan, or Same-Old, Same-Old?" Reading Research Quarterly 33 (April-June 1998): 68-197; Knapp and associates. Other well-detailed studies of actual reading instruction must be interpreted with caution because they describe exemplary teachers, such as Taylor et al.; and Karin L. Dahl, Patricia L Schrarer, Lora L. Lawson, and Patricia R. Grogan ("Phonics Instruction and Student Achievement in Whole Language First-Grade Classrooms," Reading Research Quarterly 34 [1999]: 312-41) or because they describe teachers in the midst of reform, as does Glennellen Pace ("Stories of Teacher-Initiated Change from Traditional to Whole-Language Literacy Instruction," Elementary School Journal 92 [March 1992]: 461-76).
29. Dolores Durkin, "Is There a Match between What Elementary Teachers Do and What Basal Reader Manuals Recommend?" Reading Teacher 37 (1984): 734-44; Steven A. Stahl, Jean Osborn, and David P. Pearson, "Six Teachers in Their Classrooms: A Closer Look at Beginning Reading Instruction," Technical Report no. 606 (Center for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994); Steven A. Stahl, Joan R. Pagnucco, and C. W. Suttles, "First Graders' Reading and Writing Instruction in Traditional and Process-Oriented Classes," Journal of Educational Research 89 (January-February 1996): 131-44; and Pressley et al.
30. Dolores Durkin, "Is There a Match between What Elementary Teachers Do and What Basal Reader Manuals Recommend?" Reading Teacher 37 (1984): 734-44; Steven A. Stahl, Jean Osborn, and David P. Pearson, "Six Teachers in Their Classrooms: A Closer Look at Beginning Reading Instruction," Technical Report no. 606 (Center for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994); Steven A. Stahl, Joan R. Pagnucco, and C. W. Suttles, "First Graders' Reading and Writing Instruction in Traditional and Process-Oriented Classes," Journal of Educational Research 89 (January-February 1996): 131-44; and Pressley et al.
31. Dolores Durkin, "Is There a Match between What Elementary Teachers Do and What Basal Reader Manuals Recommend?" Reading Teacher 37 (1984): 734-44; Steven A. Stahl, Jean Osborn, and David P. Pearson, "Six Teachers in Their Classrooms: A Closer Look at Beginning Reading Instruction," Technical Report no. 606 (Center for the Study of Reading, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1994); Steven A. Stahl, Joan R. Pagnucco, and C. W. Suttles, "First Graders' Reading and Writing Instruction in Traditional and Process-Oriented Classes," Journal of Educational Research 89 (January-February 1996): 131-44; and Pressley et al.
32. Another problem is that the comparison of France to Guinea, which draws from two sequential studies, confounds country with decade of observations to some extent. I have attempted to compensate for this flaw through check-up observations in France in the 1990s and, in the case of Guinea, by reconstructing earlier reading instruction through interviews and through reference to fieldnotes from a study conducted for other purposes in 1994.
33. Thus, the TIMSS 1999 Video Study equates a "lesson" with "a single eighth-grade mathematics class... in its entirety," which lasted from 29 to 119 minutes (Karen Bogard Giwin, James Hiebert, Jennifer K. Jacobs, Hilary Hollingsworth, and Ronald Gallimore, "Are There National Patterns of Teaching? Evidence from the TIMSS 1999 Video Study" [unpublished manuscript, 2003], p. 9). Alexander's comparative study likewise focused on what he called 166 individual primary-school lessons ([n. 4 above], p. 276). Anderson, Ryan, and Shapiro (n. 1 above) focused their observations on secondary school math and science classroom "lessons," which ranged in duration from 36 to 50 minutes.
34. Republic of Guinea, Programmes de l'enseignement élémentaire, Ire et 2e années (Conakry: Institut National de Recherche et d'Action Pédagogique, no date) p. 53.
35. LeTendre et al. (n. 1 above); Anderson (n. 1 above); Anderson, Ryan, and Shapiro (n. l above); Giwin et al.
36. One large-scale study conducted in the 1980s found reading groups in 90 percent of U.S. first grades (James M. McPartland, J. Robert Coldiron, and Jomills Henry Braddock II, School Structures and Classroom Practices in Elementary, Middle and Secondary Schools, Report no. 14 [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Research Center for Research on Elementary and Middle Schools, 1987]; see also Rebecca Barr and Robert Dreeben, How Schools Work [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983]; and Aaron M. Pallas, Doris R. Entwisle, Karl L. Alexander, and M. Francis Stluka, "Ability-Group Effects: Instructional, Social, or Institutional?" Sociology of Education 67 [January 1994]: 27-46.) A recent nationwide study of kindergarten through third-grade classes found that students still averaged 38 minutes per day in small groups, with 30 minutes per day in whole-class instruction, and 18 minutes per day doing independent reading (Taylor et al., p. 144). Alexander illustrates the use of small groups in English as well as U.S. primary schools.
37. One large-scale study conducted in the 1980s found reading groups in 90 percent of U.S. first grades (James M. McPartland, J. Robert Coldiron, and Jomills Henry Braddock II, School Structures and Classroom Practices in Elementary, Middle and Secondary Schools, Report no. 14 [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Research Center for Research on Elementary and Middle Schools, 1987]; see also Rebecca Barr and Robert Dreeben, How Schools Work [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983]; and Aaron M. Pallas, Doris R. Entwisle, Karl L. Alexander, and M. Francis Stluka, "Ability-Group Effects: Instructional, Social, or Institutional?" Sociology of Education 67 [January 1994]: 27-46.) A recent nationwide study of kindergarten through third-grade classes found that students still averaged 38 minutes per day in small groups, with 30 minutes per day in whole-class instruction, and 18 minutes per day doing independent reading (Taylor et al., p. 144). Alexander illustrates the use of small groups in English as well as U.S. primary schools.
38. One large-scale study conducted in the 1980s found reading groups in 90 percent of U.S. first grades (James M. McPartland, J. Robert Coldiron, and Jomills Henry Braddock II, School Structures and Classroom Practices in Elementary, Middle and Secondary Schools, Report no. 14 [Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Research Center for Research on Elementary and Middle Schools, 1987]; see also Rebecca Barr and Robert Dreeben, How Schools Work [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983]; and Aaron M. Pallas, Doris R. Entwisle, Karl L. Alexander, and M. Francis Stluka, "Ability-Group Effects: Instructional, Social, or Institutional?" Sociology of Education 67 [January 1994]: 27-46.) A recent nationwide study of kindergarten through third-grade classes found that students still averaged 38 minutes per day in small groups, with 30 minutes per day in whole-class instruction, and 18 minutes per day doing independent reading (Taylor et al., p. 144). Alexander illustrates the use of small groups in English as well as U.S. primary schools.
39. Anderson-Levitt, Teaching Cultures (n. 11 above).
40. I am not sure whether the consensus covers the entire globe, but in a very general way, the mixed method seems to apply in many different countries with different writing systems. Quranic teachers in Morocco now incorporate phonics teaching alongside visual memorization of words; see Daniel A. Wagner, Literacy, Culture, and Development: Becoming Literate in Morocco (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 47. Although Chinese is written with ideographs that convey meaning rather than sounds, it is sometimes transcribed phonetically into the Roman alphabet (pinyin), and in Taiwan teachers use a syllabary to introduce reading. Japanese, although written with ideographs borrowed from the Chinese system, relies heavily on syllabaries for instructing new readers; see Harold W. Stevenson, James W. Stigler, G. William Lucker, and Shin-ying Lee, "Reading Disabilities: The Case of Chinese, Japanese and English," Child Development 33 (October 1982): 1164-81, 1167.
41. I am not sure whether the consensus covers the entire globe, but in a very general way, the mixed method seems to apply in many different countries with different writing systems. Quranic teachers in Morocco now incorporate phonics teaching alongside visual memorization of words; see Daniel A. Wagner, Literacy, Culture, and Development: Becoming Literate in Morocco (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 47. Although Chinese is written with ideographs that convey meaning rather than sounds, it is sometimes transcribed phonetically into the Roman alphabet (pinyin), and in Taiwan teachers use a syllabary to introduce reading. Japanese, although written with ideographs borrowed from the Chinese system, relies heavily on syllabaries for instructing new readers; see Harold W. Stevenson, James W. Stigler, G. William Lucker, and Shin-ying Lee, "Reading Disabilities: The Case of Chinese, Japanese and English," Child Development 33 (October 1982): 1164-81, 1167.
42. For example, Frank Smith in Reading without Nonsense (New York: Teachers College Press, 1978) argues that "a teacher would do well NOT to... ensure that phonic skills are learned and used" (p. 138).
43. Rudolf Flesch, Why Johnny Can't Read (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955). Similarly, André Inizan advocated a strictly code-based method in France (Le temps d'apprendre à lire, rev. ed. [New York: Armand Colin, 1985]).
44. Rudolf Flesch, Why Johnny Can't Read (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1955). Similarly, André Inizan advocated a strictly code-based method in France (Le temps d'apprendre à lire, rev. ed. [New York: Armand Colin, 1985]).
45. For example, Roger Chartier, Dominique Julia, and Marie-Madeleine Compère, L'éducation en France du XVIe au XVIIe siècle (Paris: Société d'Édition d'Enseignement Supérieur, 1976); Charles C. Fries, Reading and Linguistics (New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1962). Likewise, I was told that in some Quranic schools in Guinea today, novices learned to sound out the Arabic words but not to read for meaning.
46. For example, Roger Chartier, Dominique Julia, and Marie-Madeleine Compère, L'éducation en France du XVIe au XVIIe siècle (Paris: Société d'Édition d'Enseignement Supérieur, 1976); Charles C. Fries, Reading and Linguistics (New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1962). Likewise, I was told that in some Quranic schools in Guinea today, novices learned to sound out the Arabic words but not to read for meaning.
47. Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, "Cycle des apprentissages fondamentaux - cycle 2," Le Bulletin Officiel, no. 14 hors série (February 14, 2002), http://www.education.gouv.fr/bo/2002/hsl/default.htm. Earlier official instructions gave the same message, e.g., Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, École élémentaire: Programmes et instructions (Paris: Centre National de Documentation Pédagogique, 1985), pp. 23-24. All translations from French are my own.
48. Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, "Cycle des apprentissages fondamentaux - cycle 2," Le Bulletin Officiel, no. 14 hors série (February 14, 2002), http://www.education.gouv.fr/bo/2002/hsl/default.htm. Earlier official instructions gave the same message, e.g., Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, École élémentaire: Programmes et instructions (Paris: Centre National de Documentation Pédagogique, 1985), pp. 23-24. All translations from French are my own.
49. In 34 first-grade classes taught by 30 different teachers, all within a 20-kilometer radius, four teachers chose to use no commercial text at all, and the other 26 used 12 different published readers (Anderson-Levitt, Teaching Cultures, p. 118). For portraits of teachers in France, see also Alexander (n. 4 above); and Patricia Broadfoot, "Institutional Dependence and Autonomy: English and French Teachers in the Classroom," Prospects 15 (1985): 263-71.
50. In 34 first-grade classes taught by 30 different teachers, all within a 20-kilometer radius, four teachers chose to use no commercial text at all, and the other 26 used 12 different published readers (Anderson-Levitt, Teaching Cultures, p. 118). For portraits of teachers in France, see also Alexander (n. 4 above); and Patricia Broadfoot, "Institutional Dependence and Autonomy: English and French Teachers in the Classroom," Prospects 15 (1985): 263-71.
51. Anderson-Levitt, Teaching Cultures.
52. See ibid., pp. 122-23, for a description of the lesson.
53. Republic of Guinea (n. 20 above), p. 51.
54. The history of Guinean reading instruction reported here has been reconstructed from firsthand accounts from participants and from Ibrahima Bah-Lalya, An Analysis of Educational Reforms in Post-Independence Guinea: 1958-1985 (doctoral diss., Florida State University, 1991); M. Lamarana Petty Diallo, "Enjeux et avatars de l'enseignement du Français en République de Guinée: Contexte historique, aspects pédagogiques, et perspectives de rénovation" (doctoral thesis in education, University of Bordeaux II, Sciences de l'Éducation, 1991); Aly Bandara Doukouré, Une réforme éducative dans le contexte d'une économie en transition: Le cas de la Guinée (1984-1996) (Washington, D.C., Institute for International Research/USAID, 1997, mimeographed report); Henri Kourouma, "Une étude de l'enseignement en langues nationales dans la République de Guinée" (unpublished manuscript); Claude Rivière, "Les investissement éducatifs en République de Guinée," Cahiers d'études africaines, no. 20 (1965), pp. 618-34. For details on the history, see Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt, "Ambivalences: La transformation d'une rénovation pédagogique dans un contexte post-colonial, " Éducation et Sociétés, no. 7 (2001), pp. 151-68.
55. The history of Guinean reading instruction reported here has been reconstructed from firsthand accounts from participants and from Ibrahima Bah-Lalya, An Analysis of Educational Reforms in Post-Independence Guinea: 1958-1985 (doctoral diss., Florida State University, 1991); M. Lamarana Petty Diallo, "Enjeux et avatars de l'enseignement du Français en République de Guinée: Contexte historique, aspects pédagogiques, et perspectives de rénovation" (doctoral thesis in education, University of Bordeaux II, Sciences de l'Éducation, 1991); Aly Bandara Doukouré, Une réforme éducative dans le contexte d'une économie en transition: Le cas de la Guinée (1984-1996) (Washington, D.C., Institute for International Research/USAID, 1997, mimeographed report); Henri Kourouma, "Une étude de l'enseignement en langues nationales dans la République de Guinée" (unpublished manuscript); Claude Rivière, "Les investissement éducatifs en République de Guinée," Cahiers d'études africaines, no. 20 (1965), pp. 618-34. For details on the history, see Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt, "Ambivalences: La transformation d'une rénovation pédagogique dans un contexte post-colonial, " Éducation et Sociétés, no. 7 (2001), pp. 151-68.
56. The history of Guinean reading instruction reported here has been reconstructed from firsthand accounts from participants and from Ibrahima Bah-Lalya, An Analysis of Educational Reforms in Post-Independence Guinea: 1958-1985 (doctoral diss., Florida State University, 1991); M. Lamarana Petty Diallo, "Enjeux et avatars de l'enseignement du Français en République de Guinée: Contexte historique, aspects pédagogiques, et perspectives de rénovation" (doctoral thesis in education, University of Bordeaux II, Sciences de l'Éducation, 1991); Aly Bandara Doukouré, Une réforme éducative dans le contexte d'une économie en transition: Le cas de la Guinée (1984-1996) (Washington, D.C., Institute for International Research/USAID, 1997, mimeographed report); Henri Kourouma, "Une étude de l'enseignement en langues nationales dans la République de Guinée" (unpublished manuscript); Claude Rivière, "Les investissement éducatifs en République de Guinée," Cahiers d'études africaines, no. 20 (1965), pp. 618-34. For details on the history, see Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt, "Ambivalences: La transformation d'une rénovation pédagogique dans un contexte post-colonial, " Éducation et Sociétés, no. 7 (2001), pp. 151-68.
57. The history of Guinean reading instruction reported here has been reconstructed from firsthand accounts from participants and from Ibrahima Bah-Lalya, An Analysis of Educational Reforms in Post-Independence Guinea: 1958-1985 (doctoral diss., Florida State University, 1991); M. Lamarana Petty Diallo, "Enjeux et avatars de l'enseignement du Français en République de Guinée: Contexte historique, aspects pédagogiques, et perspectives de rénovation" (doctoral thesis in education, University of Bordeaux II, Sciences de l'Éducation, 1991); Aly Bandara Doukouré, Une réforme éducative dans le contexte d'une économie en transition: Le cas de la Guinée (1984-1996) (Washington, D.C., Institute for International Research/USAID, 1997, mimeographed report); Henri Kourouma, "Une étude de l'enseignement en langues nationales dans la République de Guinée" (unpublished manuscript); Claude Rivière, "Les investissement éducatifs en République de Guinée," Cahiers d'études africaines, no. 20 (1965), pp. 618-34. For details on the history, see Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt, "Ambivalences: La transformation d'une rénovation pédagogique dans un contexte post-colonial, " Éducation et Sociétés, no. 7 (2001), pp. 151-68.
58. The history of Guinean reading instruction reported here has been reconstructed from firsthand accounts from participants and from Ibrahima Bah-Lalya, An Analysis of Educational Reforms in Post-Independence Guinea: 1958-1985 (doctoral diss., Florida State University, 1991); M. Lamarana Petty Diallo, "Enjeux et avatars de l'enseignement du Français en République de Guinée: Contexte historique, aspects pédagogiques, et perspectives de rénovation" (doctoral thesis in education, University of Bordeaux II, Sciences de l'Éducation, 1991); Aly Bandara Doukouré, Une réforme éducative dans le contexte d'une économie en transition: Le cas de la Guinée (1984-1996) (Washington, D.C., Institute for International Research/USAID, 1997, mimeographed report); Henri Kourouma, "Une étude de l'enseignement en langues nationales dans la République de Guinée" (unpublished manuscript); Claude Rivière, "Les investissement éducatifs en République de Guinée," Cahiers d'études africaines, no. 20 (1965), pp. 618-34. For details on the history, see Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt, "Ambivalences: La transformation d'une rénovation pédagogique dans un contexte post-colonial, " Éducation et Sociétés, no. 7 (2001), pp. 151-68.
59. The history of Guinean reading instruction reported here has been reconstructed from firsthand accounts from participants and from Ibrahima Bah-Lalya, An Analysis of Educational Reforms in Post-Independence Guinea: 1958-1985 (doctoral diss., Florida State University, 1991); M. Lamarana Petty Diallo, "Enjeux et avatars de l'enseignement du Français en République de Guinée: Contexte historique, aspects pédagogiques, et perspectives de rénovation" (doctoral thesis in education, University of Bordeaux II, Sciences de l'Éducation, 1991); Aly Bandara Doukouré, Une réforme éducative dans le contexte d'une économie en transition: Le cas de la Guinée (1984-1996) (Washington, D.C., Institute for International Research/USAID, 1997, mimeographed report); Henri Kourouma, "Une étude de l'enseignement en langues nationales dans la République de Guinée" (unpublished manuscript); Claude Rivière, "Les investissement éducatifs en République de Guinée," Cahiers d'études africaines, no. 20 (1965), pp. 618-34. For details on the history, see Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt, "Ambivalences: La transformation d'une rénovation pédagogique dans un contexte post-colonial, " Éducation et Sociétés, no. 7 (2001), pp. 151-68.
60. A. Davesne, Nouveau syllabaire de Mamadou et Bineta, à l'usage des écoles africaines (Paris: EDICEF, Librairie ISTRA, 1950). It is still available in Guinea, in Paris, and on a Web site.
61. Anderson-Levitt, "Ambivalences."
62. Republic of Guinea, p. 30; France, Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, École élémentaire, p. 23.
63. Republic of Guinea, p. 30; France, Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, École élémentaire, p. 23.
64. Anderson-Levitt and Diallo (n. 13 above).
65. We analyzed every first-year and second-year classroom observed in 1998, excluding from the sample the eight first-year classrooms we observed during the first weeks of the year when reading per se had not yet been introduced. For this analysis, the sample consisted of four first-year lessons taught in three different classrooms, and 10 second-year lessons taught in nine different classrooms. Despite efforts to spend a full week at each site, we rarely were able to observe a full lesson from beginning to end, making it difficult to reconstitute the entire lesson structure in many cases. Of the 14 lessons observed, four clearly introduced each activity in the prescribed order, two followed a different order (isolating the sound before studying the words); in the remaining eight, we could not be sure. See Anderson-Levitt and Diallo for details.
66. Catherine E. Snow, M. Susan Burns, and Peg Griffin, eds., Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1998). Similarly, a National Reading Panel commissioned by Congress focused its 2000 report on both instruction in the code and instruction in comprehension (National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read [Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000]).
67. Catherine E. Snow, M. Susan Burns, and Peg Griffin, eds., Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1998). Similarly, a National Reading Panel commissioned by Congress focused its 2000 report on both instruction in the code and instruction in comprehension (National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read [Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000]).
68. Rebecca Barr and M. W. Sadow, "Influence of Basal Programs on Fourth-Grade Reading Instruction," Reading Research Quarterly 24 (1989): 44-71; Donald J. Freeman and Andrew C. Porter, "Do Textbooks and Tests Define a National Curriculum in Elementary School Mathematics?" Elementary School Journal 83 (1983): 501-13; Hoffman et al. (n. 16 above); Susan S. Stodolsky, "Is Teaching Really Teaching by the Book?" in From Socrates to Software: 89th Yearbook of NSSE, ed. Philip W. Jackson and Sophie Harouttunian-Gordan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989). See also Amanda Datnow and Marisa Castellano, "Teachers' Responses to Success for All: How Beliefs, Experiences, and Adaptations Shape Implementation," American Educational Research Journal (2001): 775-99; Harry Judge, "A Cross-National Study of Teachers," in Emergent Issues in Education: Comparative Perspectives, ed. Robert F. Arnove, Philip G. Altbach, and Gail Paradise Kelly (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992).
69. Rebecca Barr and M. W. Sadow, "Influence of Basal Programs on Fourth-Grade Reading Instruction," Reading Research Quarterly 24 (1989): 44-71; Donald J. Freeman and Andrew C. Porter, "Do Textbooks and Tests Define a National Curriculum in Elementary School Mathematics?" Elementary School Journal 83 (1983): 501-13; Hoffman et al. (n. 16 above); Susan S. Stodolsky, "Is Teaching Really Teaching by the Book?" in From Socrates to Software: 89th Yearbook of NSSE, ed. Philip W. Jackson and Sophie Harouttunian-Gordan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989). See also Amanda Datnow and Marisa Castellano, "Teachers' Responses to Success for All: How Beliefs, Experiences, and Adaptations Shape Implementation," American Educational Research Journal (2001): 775-99; Harry Judge, "A Cross-National Study of Teachers," in Emergent Issues in Education: Comparative Perspectives, ed. Robert F. Arnove, Philip G. Altbach, and Gail Paradise Kelly (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992).
70. Rebecca Barr and M. W. Sadow, "Influence of Basal Programs on Fourth-Grade Reading Instruction," Reading Research Quarterly 24 (1989): 44-71; Donald J. Freeman and Andrew C. Porter, "Do Textbooks and Tests Define a National Curriculum in Elementary School Mathematics?" Elementary School Journal 83 (1983): 501-13; Hoffman et al. (n. 16 above); Susan S. Stodolsky, "Is Teaching Really Teaching by the Book?" in From Socrates to Software: 89th Yearbook of NSSE, ed. Philip W. Jackson and Sophie Harouttunian-Gordan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989). See also Amanda Datnow and Marisa Castellano, "Teachers' Responses to Success for All: How Beliefs, Experiences, and Adaptations Shape Implementation," American Educational Research Journal (2001): 775-99; Harry Judge, "A Cross-National Study of Teachers," in Emergent Issues in Education: Comparative Perspectives, ed. Robert F. Arnove, Philip G. Altbach, and Gail Paradise Kelly (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992).
71. Rebecca Barr and M. W. Sadow, "Influence of Basal Programs on Fourth-Grade Reading Instruction," Reading Research Quarterly 24 (1989): 44-71; Donald J. Freeman and Andrew C. Porter, "Do Textbooks and Tests Define a National Curriculum in Elementary School Mathematics?" Elementary School Journal 83 (1983): 501-13; Hoffman et al. (n. 16 above); Susan S. Stodolsky, "Is Teaching Really Teaching by the Book?" in From Socrates to Software: 89th Yearbook of NSSE, ed. Philip W. Jackson and Sophie Harouttunian-Gordan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989). See also Amanda Datnow and Marisa Castellano, "Teachers' Responses to Success for All: How Beliefs, Experiences, and Adaptations Shape Implementation," American Educational Research Journal (2001): 775-99; Harry Judge, "A Cross-National Study of Teachers," in Emergent Issues in Education: Comparative Perspectives, ed. Robert F. Arnove, Philip G. Altbach, and Gail Paradise Kelly (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992).
72. Rebecca Barr and M. W. Sadow, "Influence of Basal Programs on Fourth-Grade Reading Instruction," Reading Research Quarterly 24 (1989): 44-71; Donald J. Freeman and Andrew C. Porter, "Do Textbooks and Tests Define a National Curriculum in Elementary School Mathematics?" Elementary School Journal 83 (1983): 501-13; Hoffman et al. (n. 16 above); Susan S. Stodolsky, "Is Teaching Really Teaching by the Book?" in From Socrates to Software: 89th Yearbook of NSSE, ed. Philip W. Jackson and Sophie Harouttunian-Gordan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989). See also Amanda Datnow and Marisa Castellano, "Teachers' Responses to Success for All: How Beliefs, Experiences, and Adaptations Shape Implementation," American Educational Research Journal (2001): 775-99; Harry Judge, "A Cross-National Study of Teachers," in Emergent Issues in Education: Comparative Perspectives, ed. Robert F. Arnove, Philip G. Altbach, and Gail Paradise Kelly (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992).
73. Rebecca Barr and M. W. Sadow, "Influence of Basal Programs on Fourth-Grade Reading Instruction," Reading Research Quarterly 24 (1989): 44-71; Donald J. Freeman and Andrew C. Porter, "Do Textbooks and Tests Define a National Curriculum in Elementary School Mathematics?" Elementary School Journal 83 (1983): 501-13; Hoffman et al. (n. 16 above); Susan S. Stodolsky, "Is Teaching Really Teaching by the Book?" in From Socrates to Software: 89th Yearbook of NSSE, ed. Philip W. Jackson and Sophie Harouttunian-Gordan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989). See also Amanda Datnow and Marisa Castellano, "Teachers' Responses to Success for All: How Beliefs, Experiences, and Adaptations Shape Implementation," American Educational Research Journal (2001): 775-99; Harry Judge, "A Cross-National Study of Teachers," in Emergent Issues in Education: Comparative Perspectives, ed. Robert F. Arnove, Philip G. Altbach, and Gail Paradise Kelly (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992).
74. A third, code-based approach emerged in the mid-1990s, although we do not know how widely it is practiced. For example, California adopted McGraw-Hill's Open Court, which features scripted, direct instruction on the code, as one acceptable textbook series (California Department of Education, Reading/Language Arts Publishers List, http://www.cde.ca.gov/cfir/pl/rla/rlapub.html). I do not include strictly code-based lessons in this article because I have not found a description of naturally occurring lessons in the literature.
75. The five first-grade classes described by Dolores Durkin in 1984, three code-oriented first grades described by Steven Stahl and his colleagues in 1994, and three traditional first grades described by Stahl and other colleagues in 1996.
76. Durkin (n. 17 above). Since Durkin's study, traditional classes have been influenced by the whole-language movement to the extent that students now tend to spend less time doing seatwork, more time listening to the teacher read, more time doing independent reading, and more time composing their own texts (Allington et al.).
77. Paraphrased from Stahl, Osborn, and Pearson (n. 17 above), p. 11.
78. We do not know what proportion of teachers in the United States use a process or whole-language approach, although traditional lessons are probably more common (Susan Florio-Ruane, personal communication based on her classroom observations). The 22 classrooms in my sample from the literature were not chosen at random.
79. Three whole-language first grades described by Stahl, Osborn, and Pearson; three process first grades described by Stahl, Pagnucco, and Suttles (n. 17 above); and five exemplary first-grade classes described by Pressley et al. (n. 15 above).
80. Sometimes the reporting was vague; where Stahl, Pagnucco, and Suttles said teachers in the study assigned worksheets or workbooks on "skills," I interpreted skills to include work on the code. Studies outside my sample demonstrate explicit instruction in the code in whole-language classrooms (Dahl et al. [n. 16 above]).
81. In contrast to composition of texts by the whole class in France.
82. Notice, however, that variation within each country was limited. Including the strictly code-based classrooms not illustrated in fig. 1, there were at most three different lesson structures within a single country.
83. Some authors have argued that beneath national differences in structure lies a more dimly perceptible common structure (Givvin et al. [n. 19 above]). However, fig. 1 provides no hint of a deeper common structure.
84. Alexander (n. 4 above).
85. Anderson-Levitt, "Ambivalences" (n. 33 above).
86. I can only speculate on what is going on here. Just as educators in Guinea associated synthetic methods with the colonial era, educators in the United States and France seem to associate synthesis with the past or with political conservatism, however incorrectly. More recent French textbooks seem to give less attention to synthesis than older textbooks, and Catholic schools are seen as more likely to teach synthesis than public schools in both countries.
87. It would be worth investigating what difference this simple reversal of sequence might have on students' learning.
88. These explanations fail to explain why grouping is much more prevalent for reading than for math in U.S. elementary grades.
89. Anderson-Levitt, Teaching Cultures (n. 11 above). The notion of "individualized" instruction belongs to that set of ideals like coeducation and student-centered instruction that educators see as part of a transnational, modern way to do schooling (Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt, "A World Culture of Schooling?" in Anderson-Levitt, ed. [n. 13 above]).
90. Anderson-Levitt, Teaching Cultures (n. 11 above). The notion of "individualized" instruction belongs to that set of ideals like coeducation and student-centered instruction that educators see as part of a transnational, modern way to do schooling (Kathryn M. Anderson-Levitt, "A World Culture of Schooling?" in Anderson-Levitt, ed. [n. 13 above]).
91. Anderson-Levitt, Teaching Cultures.
92. Barr and Dreeben (n. 22 above).
93. Alex Inkeles, One World Emerging (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1998), p. 40.
94. Jaekyung Lee, "School Reform Initiatives as Balancing Acts: Policy Variation and Educational Convergence among Japan, Korea, England and the United States," Educational Policy Analysis Archives 9 (April 2001), http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa.
95. Bradley Levinson and Dorothy Holland ask how students, teachers, and other actors produce culture "within and against schooling" ("The Cultural Production of the Educated Person: An Introduction," in The Cultural Production of the Educated Person, ed. Bradley Levinson, Douglas Foley, and Dorothy Holland [Albany: SUMY Press, 1996], p. 30).