Reconciling Competing Missions of English Education: A Story of Pedagogical Realism

English teaching that satisfies curricula standards has often been siloed from instruction that advances the goals of social justice. Exasperated teachers may feel they can either meet the day-to-day demands of their profession or teach to dismantle social inequities, but not achieve the aims of both approaches. In this reflective practitioner piece, the authors offer pedagogical realism as a means to negotiate and reconcile these seemingly dichotomous orientations to English teaching. Using narrative inquiry, the authors illustrate a pedagogical realist approach to teaching ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale’. This pedagogical anecdote intends to show both in-service teachers and teacher educators how they can teach for social justice while delivering ‘traditional’ materials.