TEACHER PARTICIPATION IN CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT: A HISTORY OF THE IDEA AND PRACTIC

RALPH M. BENNETT, JR.
Recent reform proposals have recommended greater teacher participation in the decision-making process. Curriculum and instruction are areas which are frequently suggested as appropriate for teacher participation. Current discussions of teacher participation in curriculum development seldom include any historical perspective of
teacher involvement in curriculum work. The implication is that there is little to learn from past practices to involve teachers in curriculum development. Reasons for this implication included: limited number of examples past
efforts to advise current practice; past efforts exploited teachers rather than trying to involve them in meaningful collaboration; and, curriculum development is no longer pertinent to post-modern education. An examination of the rhetoric and practices of teacher participation in curriculum development from the period 1890
through 1940 was conducted to investigate these assertions and to ascertain any significance for current practice.
Schubert's Curriculum Books: The First Eighty Years (1980)served as a guide for references to the rhetoric and
practices of teacher participation in curriculum development. Books addressing curriculum and issues of teacher participation were included. Each book was reviewed for ideas, rationales, and descriptions of practice. The
bibliographies of each book were reviewed for additional sources on ideas and practices in teacher participation in
curriculum development. Additionally, secondary sources were obtained through searches of Dissertation Abstracts,
Periodicals Content Index, Education Index, Educational Literature, 1907-1932 and ERIC records. This study found that from 1915 to 1940 the practice of teacher participation was widespread, though it never matched the rhetoric. Teachers participated at school, system, and state levels. Teachers participated from inception and even initiated curriculum work, but most often were involved in the production of the actual materials. A variety of purposes were given for participation including the promotion of professional growth and democratic ideals. Implications for present practice included making provisions for participation by all teachers (i.e., through curriculum study, action research, etc.), selecting representative teachers to conduct the actual work of production, providing
for adequate support (i.e., release time, clerical help, professional resources including consultants, etc.), and
organization of participants

DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH AS A SECOND OR FOREIGN LANGUAGE

James B. Wold
Difficulties in Learning English as a Second or Foreign Language
In this research project, the author explored the experience of one adult female immigrant to the United States and her difficulties in learning English as a second language (ESL) and identified several compounding reasons for her lack of expected progress. The research was accomplished by way of personal observation and interviews, which allowed the learner the opportunity to tell her own story in the phenomenological case study. There are many challenges that face foreign language (FL) learners and the learner struggled with notable difficulties. The findings showed that the learner, whose first and second languages were nonalphabetical, had never been taught the sound/letter rules system of English, and this fundamental deficit played a pivotal role in her poor classroom attendance, wavering motivation to learn and practice English, and ultimately, in her lack of progress. Implications included the need for basic sound/letter training to be implemented in basic ESL programs, especially for nonalphabetic first language learners.