Backing the right horse: Teacher education, sociocultural analysis and literacy in rural education

Abstract

This paper is a reflection on the way that a background in sociocultural theory and research actuallysaved my teaching career by allowing me to shift from being a dispenser of knowledge to a culturalneophyte attempting to understand where he is. Teaching then is understood as a reading exercise whichis undertaken in a particular place which itself needs to be read by the effective teacher. This isa narrative inquiry into practice which represents an attempt to understand my own teaching career inthe light of Frank Smiths (1984) provocative essay How education backed the wrong horse in which heargues that anthropology would have made a better choice for a foundational discipline for educationthan psychology. I conclude with some thoughts on what this perspective implies for literacy instruction