8 TEACHERS REPORTED PEDAGOGICAL DEPENDENCY ON BASAL READERS

This article reports on a qualitative study based on interviews of 8 e lementary teachers concerning their beliefs, perceptions, and feelings about reading instruction and the role of basal readers in reading in struction, and their beliefs about the needs fulfilled for students, t eachers, parents, and school administrators through classroom reading instruction. Results indicated a conflict between teachers' beliefs an d their reported methods of teaching reading. Although teachers believ ed that basal instruction was not the best way to teach reading, they continued to rely heavily on the basal. The results also indicated tha t teachers felt that basal reading instruction fulfilled primarily low er-level security needs of students and teachers. Lower-level needs of students were addressed through, for example, skills instruction, gro uping, and pacing. Higher-level needs such as self-actualization, know ing and understanding the world, obtaining pleasure from learning, and creativity were rarely met by basal instruction. Basal instruction me t only lower-level needs of parents and administrators. Teachers repor ted that nonbasal instruction satisfied needs associated with enjoymen t, creativity, and alleviating pressure to cover a certain amount of m aterial. These results are discussed in terms of critical theory, cogn itive dissonance, exchange theory, pressures on teachers related to ac countability, professional uncertainty, and contextual aspects of the study. We conclude with a discussion of the need for teacher empowerme nt in the delivery of reading instruction and implications for further research.