Wednesday, November 5, 2008

What My Secondary Resources have to say about my RQ

All of my secondary sources deal with individuals that have experienced censorship inside private education. Much of their focus is opinions on how teachers should respond to parental involvement in censorship. Some take a more aggressive stance, indicating that it is the teacher's responsibility to choose texts, not the parents, while a few of the articles deal with issues about parent/teacher communication and a level of respect each and every teacher must employ towards families. The gap in the secondary research is that much of the information is still fairly vague on what 'private schools' they are speaking of because there are a number of private schools that differe greatly from one another. A second gap is none of the articles take a close look at parental rationale for censorship from a religious standpoint, which in some private schools is the driving force behind book censorship. What I hope to do with my research is give a perspective on what teachers have done, in regards to book censorship, at religious private schools, particularly Christian private schools. Much, if not all, of the censorship issues that arise in Christian schools deal directly with religous and theological beliefs that parents hold and the conflict that those beliefs have with literature.

1 comment:

Eric A said...

This research question is relevant to every English teacher, particularly those in Christian private schools, but the idea of censorship is seen in all school settings. The research is very well connected to the question and seems to be guiding you on the right track. The gap in research is mainly on the specific private schools that are seeing censorship and on parent rationale of censorship from a religious standpoint. I think that your secondary sources are sufficient but you might look for some from a parents point of view as opposed to teachers. I'd like to know maybe what kinds of things are being censored in schools, primarily Christian and private schools, and how much that censorship differs from a public school setting.