Exploring Literacy Teacher Educators: Backgrounds, Visions, and Practices
Delve into the study of a group of literacy/English teacher educators including Clare Kosnik, Cathy Miyata, Lydia Menna, and Pooja Dharamshi. Learn about their backgrounds, knowledge, research activities, pedagogy, and course goals through interviews and data analysis. Discover how their experiences as classroom teachers influence their practices and priorities.
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LITERACY TEACHER EDUCATORS: YOU TEACH WHO YOU ARE CLARE KOSNIK, CATHY MIYATA, LYDIA MENNA,AND POOJA DHARAMSHI 1
LITERACY TEACHER EDUCATORS: THEIR BACKGROUNDS, VISIONS, AND PRACTICES to study in depth a group of literacy/English teacher educators, with attention to their backgrounds, knowledge, research activities, identity, view of current government initiatives, pedagogy, and course goals 2
DATA GATHERING 2 interviews Nvivo for analysis 3
28 PARTICIPANTS Experience as a classroom teacher Rank at the University Assistant Professor (Lecturer) = 6 Associate Professor =5 Senior Lecturer = 7 Full Professor = 5 Other =1 Contract = 4 0 years = 1 1-5 years = 3 6-10 years = 12 11-20 years= 6 21+ years = 6 4
DRAWING ON CLASSROOM TEACHER EXPERIENCES Continuity of Priorities underserved communities subject organizations marginalized youth teacher activism teacher inquiry groups More than telling stories 5
EDL BACKGROUND + RESEARCH ACTIVITIES 6
Yes 6 DURING YOUR UNDERGRAD DID YOU PLAN TO DO A PHD? No 22 7
DOCTORAL RESEARCH 17 on children 5 on student teachers 3 at the inservice level 3 on something rather different 8 did their doctoral research in their own classroom 8
Although current research broader in scope, for most a direct link with their doctoral research; e.g., doctoral research on adolescent writing, current research on use of technology for adolescent writing. 9
caring listener reflective team player compassionate flexible QUALITIES OF AN EFFECTIVE LTE 10
TERMS USED TO DESCRIBE SELF (COULD SELECT MORE THAN ONE) Literacy/English professor 15 Teacher Educator 17 Teacher 14 Professor 3 Other - Learn with kids 1; Lecturer 2; Teacher trainer 1; Associate Dean 1; Researcher -1 11
ACADEMIC COMMUNITIES Own university 15 Teacher research group or network -4 Classroom teachers 8 Literacy association 22 AERA -- 6 Other - 12 e.g., BERA, minority faculty group Cannot find a home 2 12
A CRITICAL STANCE IN LITERACY TEACHER EDUCATION POOJA DHARAMSHI 13
PARTICIPANTS A subset of 8 literacy teacher educators with a critical stance 3 sources considered for selection of LTEs with a critical stance: 1. pedagogical practices 2. research and publications 3. theorists 14
CRITICAL STANCE Consciously Engaging Entertaining Alternate Ways of Being Monitoring language use, interpretation of language, and actions to see how they maintain or disrupt the status quo. creating and trying on new discourses (p. 16) tension is used as a resource Lewison et al. 2008 15
CRITICAL STANCE Taking Responsibility to Inquire Being Reflexive being aware of our own complicity in maintaining the status quo or systems of injustice (p.18) placing inquiry, interrogation, and investigation at the forefront Lewison et al. 2008 16
FINDINGS Background of Participants and Influence of Personal Experience Name Pietro Maya Giovanni Melissa Justin Sara Dominique Yrs at Uni Yrs in CR 5 3 7 4 10 7 10 13 4 5 10 6 20+ 10 8 7 Misa 17
MELISSA I think being a mother influences me, but also being a woman, a woman of colour, being a speaker of English as another language, being someone who has been barred from entering my place of work because of the way I look. [They] tried to buy me out of baby-sitting my own child in the upper west side. So those are experiences that I bring to my classroom. 18
FINDINGS Consciously Engaging Entertaining Alternate Ways of Being Goals of Literacy Course Helping Student Teachers Unlearn Using Alternate Texts and Forms of Expressions Exploring Difficult Topics During Class Discussions 19
PIETRO Pietro described a powerful learning moment: the identity of your students is very likely not your identity, particularly in urban schools They are scared, they feel vulnerable. I try to broker this conversation. I'm a white, gay man in front of you talking about all of this stuff. How do we position ourselves in the classroom? How do our own identities inform our teaching practices? Some of them are terrified 20
FINDINGS Taking Responsibility to Inquire Being reflexive Organic and flexible course structure Viewing teachers as intellectuals Authentic learning experiences Considering multiple perspectives 21
MAYA Maya mobilized an inquiry stance : I want to engage the student [teachers] in inquiry I want them to discover some things about how literacy works to position people or to exert power through their own inquiring into text. So I see my role as a facilitating conversations between the readings and then providing particular examples and scaffolds so that we can inquire together and they can arrive at different understandings. 22
MULTILITERACIES APPROACH CATHY 23
SUB-SET 7 literacy teacher educators 1 New career: 0 5 years experience; 2 Mid-career: 6 - 10 years experience; 4 Later-career: 10 + years experience 24
PERTINENT NODES/THEMES Early Childhood Future Plans Gaps in Knowledge Goals Identity Turning Points Influences on practice Pedagogy Qualities of TE 25
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 6 Themes (Rowsell, Kosnik and Beck, 2008) Recognizing a diversity of language forms Combining the old and the new in literacy pedagogy Applying a broad concept of literacy Building an inclusive, critical approach to literacy Balancing social, cultural, and individual perspectives Implementing a constructivist, dialogical approach 26
EMERGING THEMES SO FAR Balancing practice and theory Relational teaching Vision of the future 27
RELATIONAL TEACHING Supported socio-cultural notion of Multiliteracies Developed meaningful relationships with students 28
Being closely attentive to what my student teachers are doing and saying seems hugely important to me. Justin 29
STUDENT TEACHERS PERSPECTIVE LYDIA 30
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Who should be the literacy teacher educators? What background experiences are necessary to be an LTE? What should LTEs try to accomplish in their literacy courses? What are essential knowledge and skills for student teachers to acquire? Is building community necessary in higher education? Should instructors in higher education be expected to build community? 31
STAY CONNECTED WITH US: WWW.LITERACYTEACHING.NET 33
