The idea of the literary canon is a concept that has occupied the field of English Education for quite some time, where it is discussed, debated, and critiqued as a list of books (or as an ideological force linked to a list of books) that is, ought, and/or ought not to be read and engaged in the English classroom. Using a critical qualitative approach, this project rethinks or disrupts this notion of canon as only a list of books, conceiving instead of the concept and its impact in much broader terms, ones that explore the educational project of canonicity, a larger concept that both endorses the canon as a list but also does much more to entrench the ideology inherent in such a list through pedagogical encounters. By theorizing the latent meanings of the word “canon” and in using data drawn from three different secondary English classrooms, this project illustrates that the ways teachers act, think, and speak about and around canonical texts are imbued and embedded with one ideology in particular: religiosity, or general, religious-like discourses. It also contends that the religious-like ways and ideologies of “canon” shape teachers’ pedagogies during the teaching of canonical texts. Thus, this project demonstrates that canonicity is an all-encompassing approach to English education, a discursive frame that actually invites (or forecloses) certain pedagogical practices and encounters linked to instantiated traditions, assumptions, and pedagogical practices in the field. In offering this notion of canonicity, the project imagines a new way in which the field of English Education might deepen its traditional critique and discussion of the canon as a list of books.
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