Stubborn Pilgrimage

Resistance and Transformation on Ontario English Teaching 1960-1993

by Don Gutteridge

contributions by Ian Underhill

How have English teachers responded to the pressing demands for educational change as the world moved from the 60's to the 90's? Stubborn Pilgrimage examines the case of Ontario English teachers, detailing their pattern of resistance and reform.
How have English teachers responded to the pressing demands for educational change as the world has moved from the sixties into the nineties? How have they dealt with the issues of feminism, equity, mainstreaming, multiculturalism and non-elitist definitions of literacy itself? Stubborn Pilgrimage examines the particular case of Ontario English teachers, detailing their pattern of resistance and reform.
In part, this pattern may be unique to Ontario. By 1960 the province's English teachers already had an indigenous pedagogy - the Diltz Literary Method - and a long tradition of producing their own textbooks, teaching materials and curricula. Thus they had much of their own to conserve. Yet by 1990, according to Don Gutteridge's analysis, a virtual transformation had taken place in both English pedagogy and curriculum - changes that are illustrated in Ian Underhill's exemplary teaching-unit. On the other hand, the Ontario case, involving as it does the response to pressures and notions common to much of the English-speaking world, may well represent some general features of educational reform wherever a strong local tradition is challenged simultaneously from abroad and within.
Stubborn Pilgrimmage is an intensive analysis of teaching methods in a period of profound transformation.

About the Authors

Don Gutteridge

Don Gutteridge
DON GUTTERIDGE is a major Canadian writer, poet, and educator. He has taught English to students at all levels for over thirty years. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Western Ontario.

Ian Underhill

Subjects (BISAC)

Subjects

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