ABSTRACT
Our most fundamental assumptions are that there are some very good elementary-level literacy teachers, and much about effective literacy elementary literacy education can be learned by studying their teaching. Such a perspective contrasts with alternative approaches to the understanding and development of pedagogy, the most popular of which have been philosophical analyses (Noddings, 1995). Contemporary language arts, in particular, has been dominated by alternative philosophies of education and development (Goldhaber, in preparation; Pepper, 1942).
