ABSTRACT
Arthur Noble Applebee's 1974 book Tradition and Reform in the Teaching of English: A History sparked author's interest in the history of English teaching. The book traces the development of progressive teaching approaches and tensions between conservative and liberal methods from the late nineteenth century to the 1970s. This chapter introduces Dr. W. Wilbur Hatfield's student-oriented pedagogy and the democratic values underlying his work to current educators; suggests its relevance to present-day approaches, such as those developed by Arthur Applebee. Hatfield also encouraged multicultural literature, even before that term was coined, as editor of EJ, with a special issue on that subject guest edited by Louise Rosenblatt, the famous reader-response theorist, in 1946. In his writings on classroom activities, Hatfield's progressive stance often focused on course projects that required a combination of reading, writing, and collaboration. In his administrative and editorial work as well, Hatfield stressed the importance of collaboration and democratic values.
