Beginning in the 1950s  

and going to the present, 

the writer traces the 

intersection of her teaching 

career and movements in 

literacy education.

Language  arts  pedagogy  from  an  interdisciplin-

ary  perspective  expanded  greatly  in  the  1970s  and 

1980s,  supported  by  integration  of  research  from 

psychologists, anthropologists, and linguistics in the 

new fields of sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics

The  decade  of  the  1990s  began  with  the  whole 

language  movement  at  the  peak  of  its  influence. 

Teachers  were  actively  involved  in  research,  in 

developing  their  classroom  curricula,  in  writing 

books  and  articles,  in  organizing  conferences,  and 

taking  leadership  in  their  school  districts  and  in 

professional  organizations.  But,  with  the  national 

election of 1996, US education took a sharply dif-

ferent direction.