TY - JOUR AU - Reinking, David AB - Journal of Reading Behavior 1994, Volume 26, Number 2 A CRITICAL COMMENTARY ON RESEARCH, POLITICS, AND WHOLE LANGUAGE Michael C. McKenna Georgia Southern University Steven A. Stahl and David Reinking University of Georgia A recent exchange of four letters in The Reading Teacher exemplifies the revo- lution going on in reading education. It began with a letter from Joanne Yatvin, a superintendent of schools, apparently sympathetic to whole language, asking for evidence that "instruction based on whole language work(s) better for kids (or at least as well) when compared to more traditional instruction" (Yatvin, 1993). She acknowledges the importance of qualitative research, but continues that: .. . the exclusive use of qualitative research to support whole language has hurt its credibility in the schools and has made whole language seem more like a religion than responsible educational practice. The answer to my prayers would be a spate of educational research studies that confirm what I believe about whole language. But until those appear, Goodman and others should not pretend that their absence doesn't matter. (Yatvin, 1993, p . 636) Kenneth Goodman (1993a) replied that he had "discussed [his] reading miscue research and other sociopsycholinguistic research that forms the base TI - A Critical Commentary on Research, Politics, and Whole Language JF - Journal of Literacy Research DO - 10.1080/10862969409547846 DA - 1994-06-01 UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/sage/a-critical-commentary-on-research-politics-and-whole-language-fkLEoso5Ur SP - 211 EP - 233 VL - 26 IS - 2 DP - DeepDyve ER -