PASSIONS AND POSSIBILITIES: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF TEACHING ADVANCED

313 Pages·2009·1.17 MB·English

ABSTRACT
Title of Dissertation: PASSIONS AND POSSIBILITIES:
THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF TEACHING
ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH IN
PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL

Suzanne Rachel Borenzweig
Doctor of Philosophy, 2009

Dissertation Directed By: Professor Francine Hultgren
Department of Education Policy Studies

This study explores the lived experiences of Advanced Placement English
teachers in public school high school. Max van Manen’s methodology for hermeneutic
phenomenological research establishes the framework for the inquiry. The writings of
Heidegger, Gadamer, and Greene provide philosophical grounding throughout the
research process. The work of curricular theorists elucidates possibilities for
understanding the experiences of Advanced Placement English teachers, as I address the
question: "What is it like to teach Advanced Placement English while caught in the
tension between teaching and testing?"
Six Advanced Placement teachers engage with the researcher in conversations
about being with students in the Advanced Placement English classroom. The teachers
also reflect on their practice through a series of shared journal entries. The teachers, five
women and one man, range in age from 25 to 45 years, and have between 2 and 10 years
experience teaching Advanced Placement English. The phenomenological text
constructed from conversations and written reflections brings forth aspects of the
experience of dwelling aright in the Zone of Between in AP English teaching: between
teaching and testing, high school and college, and childhood and adulthood. The teachers
approach their work as master-craftspeople in the classroom-workshop, passing on to
their student-apprentices the proper use of tools in the art and craft of reading, writing,
thinking, and test-taking in the AP English classroom. As teachers prepare students for
the College Board exam, they also embrace, question, and innovate around aspects of the
test. The teachers use the exam as a foundation for courage and encouragement,
confidence and passion building, and creative ways-of-being with students.
The study suggests a need for Advanced Placement teachers to participate in the
development of curriculum, to retain the autonomy to teach from the self, and to be
trusted to provide students with meaningful experiences in the art and craft of literature
study. The study also reveals the importance of widening the narrow definition of student
achievement to include more than test scores. Finally, the study recommends an inquiry-
based project approach to assessment to expand the notion of teaching with passion for
possibility in the Advanced Placement English classroom.
PASSIONS AND POSSIBILITIES: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF
TEACHING ADVANCED PLACEMENT ENGLISH IN PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL

By

Suzanne Rachel Borenzweig

Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
2009

Advisory Committee:

Professor Francine Hultgren, Advisor and Chair
Professor Barbara Bass
Professor Steven Selden
Professor Wayne Slater
Professor Linda Valli
© Copyright by
Suzanne Rachel Borenzweig
2009
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For opening-the-way to phenomenology and to the things themselves, with patience and
com-passion, I thank Francine Hultgren.

For being insightful and giving readers, I thank my dissertation committee: Barbara Bass,
Steven Selden, Wayne Slater, and Linda Valli.

For being passionate teachers and eloquent conversants, I thank Amanda, Amy, James,
Katherine, Lisa, and Tina.

For being intrepid and generous colleagues, I thank Vic Caroscio, Ginny Macnemar,
Jennifer Lloyd, Diane Deming, David Mullaney, and Laura Cocozzella Griffiths.

For being supportive and understanding principals, I thank Ed Shirley for the early
encouragement, and Sylvia Morrison for seeing me through to the end.

For preparing me for my life’s work and for a lifetime of state certification, I thank Ted
Sizer, Joe McDonald, and Sharon Lloyd Clark.

For leading-the-way, cheer-leading, and all-around good cheer, I thank Linda Massey and
Linda DeLaYsla, my sisters-in-dissertation from the varsity squad.

For hosting the first reunion of my teaching self and my writing self, I am forever
indebted to Myra McLarey and the Bard Institute for Writing and Thinking. For making
the green sparks fly, I thank Cynthia Livingston, Larry Hays, and the Bardistas.

For being my midwestern homegirls on the eastern homefront, I thank Sandy Laurie and
Ele Weiss Donnarumma.

For raising-me-up to be a reader and a writer, I thank my parents. For keeping-me-
grounded as a writer and a teacher, I thank Debby and Colin.

Finally, for the passions, the possibilities, and the wide open spaces, I thank Alex and
Nicholas. Same team.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following authors and publishers: “To Look at
Any Thing,” from The Living Seed by John Moffitt, Copyright© 1961, 1989. Reprinted
by permission of Houghton Mifflin; “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in
Pine Island, Minnesota” from Collected Poems by James Wright, Copyright© 1971 by
James Wright. Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press; “The Red
Wheelbarrow” from Collected Poems: 1909-1939, Volume I, by William Carlos
Williams, Copyright©1938 by New Directions Publishing. Reprinted by permission of
New Directions; “Introduction to Poetry” from Sailing Alone Around the Room, by Billy
Collins, Copyright©2001 by Random House. Reprinted by permission of The University
of Arkansas Press; “Ars Poetica” from Collected Poems 1917-1882, by Archibald
iii
MacLeish, ©1985. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin; “Sea of Faith” from
Sea of Faith by John Brehm, Copyright© 2004 by the Board of Regents of the University
of Wisconsin System. Reprinted courtesy of The University of Wisconsin Press; “Little
Gidding” and “Burnt Norton” from Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot, Copyright©1942 and
renewed 1970 by Esme Valerie Eliot. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt Publishing Company; “What Have I Learned” and “Axe Handles” from Axe
Handles: Poems by Gary Snyder, Copyright© 2005. Reprinted by permission of
Counterpoint; 2007 AP English Language and Composition Exam, Copyright© 2008,
The College Board. Reproduced with permission. 1994 AP English Literature and
Composition: Free-Response Scoring Guide with Multiple-Choice Section, Copyright©
1995/2008, The College Board. Reproduced with permission.
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE: STANZAS AND SCANTRONS—OPENING SPACES OF
PASSIONS AND POSSIBILITIES.................................................................................... 1
Appreciating “This Stuff”............................................................................................ 1
Turning to the Test ............................................................................................... 3
Turning to the Tension ......................................................................................... 4
The Call of the Horizon ............................................................................................... 6
Finding the Far Horizon ....................................................................................... 6
Advancing Toward the Horizon ........................................................................... 8
Meeting the Horizon of the Other ........................................................................ 9
Defining the Horizon.......................................................................................... 10
Fusing the Horizons............................................................................................ 12
Taking the Big Step ................................................................................................... 12
Stepping Up ........................................................................................................ 13
Stepping in the Right Direction.......................................................................... 14
Teaching the Student Teacher ............................................................................ 15
Taking the AP Challenge.................................................................................... 17
Being Practical: The Writer-Scholar as Teacher ....................................................... 20
Choosing Plan B ................................................................................................. 20
Taking the Road Less Traveled.......................................................................... 21
Teaching with Love and Passion ............................................................................... 23
Testing With Care............................................................................................... 24
A Passion for Choice and Creativity .................................................................. 26
Pedagogical Passion .................................................................................... 27
Textual Passion ........................................................................................... 29
Storying the Phenomenon.......................................................................................... 31
Making Explicit/Seeking Meaning..................................................................... 32
Constructing the Phenomenological Text .......................................................... 33

CHAPTER TWO: DWELLING IN THE TEACHING OF ADVANCED PLACEMENT
ENGLISH ......................................................................................................................... 36
Making Things Present in Advanced Placement Literature ...................................... 36
Naming World .................................................................................................... 38
Carrying The Things Themselves ...................................................................... 39
Story-Truth and Happening-Truth...................................................................... 40
A Story That Must Be Told ................................................................................ 42
Dwelling in Poetry..................................................................................................... 45
Building Poetic Foundations .............................................................................. 46
Letting-Dwell ..................................................................................................... 47
Not-Letting-Dwell .............................................................................................. 48
Opening Doors to Poetic Dwelling..................................................................... 50
Beside the White Chickens................................................................................. 53
Dwelling Poetically ............................................................................................ 55
Introduction to Ars Poetica................................................................................. 57
Dwelling Aright in the Zone of Between .................................................................. 59
v
Dwelling in Art and Play.................................................................................... 60
Ars Poetica.......................................................................................................... 61
AP Literature Teachers as Poetry Guides........................................................... 63
Text and Con-text ............................................................................................... 65
Test and Con-test ................................................................................................ 67
Rangefinding ...................................................................................................... 68
Dwelling in the Art of Translating and Testing......................................................... 69
Questioning the Quest ........................................................................................ 70
Love the Material; Hate the Test ........................................................................ 71
Searching for the Lost Chord ............................................................................. 74
Solving the Riddle .............................................................................................. 77
Form-ing Meaning.............................................................................................. 80
Imping on Easter Wings ..................................................................................... 82
AP Lit Teachers as Translators........................................................................... 85
Pro-test and Revolution in the AP Lit Classroom .............................................. 87

CHAPTER THREE: EXPLORING PHENOMENOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL
FOUNDATIONS .............................................................................................................. 90
Going There and Knowing There .............................................................................. 90
Teacher-Researcher as Hermeneut ..................................................................... 91
Teacher-Researcher as Phenomenologist ........................................................... 92
Exploring the Four Corners of the Lifeworld ............................................................ 93
Lived Space ........................................................................................................ 95
The Dispars and The Compars ........................................................................... 96
A Place-Memory ................................................................................................ 98
Lived Body ....................................................................................................... 100
A Bodily Experience ........................................................................................ 102
Lived Time ....................................................................................................... 103
A Timely Experience........................................................................................ 105
Lived Community............................................................................................. 108
Community of Practice..................................................................................... 109
The Call of Central Office................................................................................ 111
Imagination and Empathy................................................................................. 113
Writing My Way Home ........................................................................................... 114
Finding the Original Shell ................................................................................ 115
Homecoming .................................................................................................... 116
Homesteading ................................................................................................... 117
Home Renovation .................................................................................................... 119
The Holy Ghost ................................................................................................ 119
The Duende ...................................................................................................... 121
A Phenomenological Schematic .............................................................................. 124
Critical Sensibility ............................................................................................ 125
Pedagogic Sensibility ....................................................................................... 126
Personal Sensibility .......................................................................................... 128
Phenomenological Construction Plans .................................................................... 129
Thematic Renderings........................................................................................ 132
vi
Conversational Relations.................................................................................. 133

CHAPTER FOUR: BETWEEN ART AND CRAFT—TEACHING ADVANCED
PLACEMENT ENGLISH IN THE CLASSROOM-WORKSHOP ............................... 136
Coming to Craft in the Teaching of Advanced Placement English......................... 136
Madhatter’s Tea Party: Coming Up-on the Guest List..................................... 140
Yearbook Pages: Senior Section ...................................................................... 140
Teaching AP English as Craft .......................................................................... 149
Teaching AP English as Parenting ................................................................... 150
Good Work ....................................................................................................... 152
Home Workshop............................................................................................... 156
Wood Shop ....................................................................................................... 158
To Let-Learn..................................................................................................... 160
A Necessary Home ........................................................................................... 163
Currere in Slow Craft Time ............................................................................. 165
Patience in Slow Craft Time............................................................................. 168
Cool Tools ........................................................................................................ 170
The Proper Use for Several Tools .................................................................... 171
If I Had a Hammer............................................................................................ 174
Building Bildung .............................................................................................. 176
Our Axe Handles, Our-Selves .......................................................................... 181
My Axes ........................................................................................................... 182
How We Go On ................................................................................................ 187
Coming to (Course) Terms ...................................................................................... 189
Paradox in Paradise .......................................................................................... 192
A Really Good Test: Hyperbole or Oxymoron?............................................... 194
Paradox-redux................................................................................................... 198
Coming of Age in the AP English Workshop ......................................................... 203
Joining the Conversation .................................................................................. 205
Advancing Toward Historical Horizons........................................................... 207
Risky Business.................................................................................................. 209
What’s the Matter? ........................................................................................... 211
Innovate and De-liberate .................................................................................. 213
Innovate and Instigate....................................................................................... 214
Innovate and Cultivate...................................................................................... 218
Courage and En-courage-ment ......................................................................... 220
Passion Building............................................................................................... 223
Com-passion Building ...................................................................................... 225
Is This Enough?................................................................................................ 229
Rigor and Vigor................................................................................................ 230
May the Force Be With You ............................................................................ 233
AP English By Numbers .................................................................................. 234
Response-ability and Account-ability .............................................................. 235
Grasping and Letting Go .................................................................................. 239
vii
CHAPTER FIVE: CORONATING MAGICAL MINDS IN PASSIONATE PLACES OF
HOPE .............................................................................................................................. 243
Locating the Particular Locale................................................................................. 246
Tracing the Royal Bloodlines........................................................................... 248
Synecdoche in the Key of Hope ....................................................................... 249
Same Team ....................................................................................................... 250
Assembling Five Sonnets ................................................................................. 252
Taking Aim for Happiness ............................................................................... 254
Wide Open Spaces............................................................................................ 256
Thinking the World Together........................................................................... 258
Challenging the Challenge Index............................................................................. 261
Catching Up...................................................................................................... 264
Opting Out ........................................................................................................ 267
Healing the Damage Index ............................................................................... 270
Under the Falling Sky....................................................................................... 274
Heads Up!......................................................................................................... 276
Restoring Broken Wholeness .................................................................................. 279
Ulysses Come Home ........................................................................................ 282
Seeking a Newer World.................................................................................... 285

APPENDIX A: “A WHIPPOORWILL IN THE WOODS”........................................... 288
APPENDIX B: PHENOMENOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION ......................................... 291
APPENDIX C: INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE....................................................... 293
APPENDIX D: CONSENT FORM................................................................................ 294
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 297