literacy teacher educators: you teach who you are

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C L A R E KO S N I K , C AT H Y M I YATA , LY D I A M E N N A , A N D P O O JA D H A RA M S H I

LITERACY TEACHER EDUCATORS: YOU TEACH WHO YOU ARE

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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•

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DATA GATHERING

• 2 interviews • Nvivo for analysis

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28 PARTICIPANTS

Experience as a classroom teacher

• 0 years = 1• 1-5 years = 3 • 6-10 years = 12• 11-20 years= 6• 21+ years = 6

Rank at the University

• Assistant Professor (Lecturer) = 6• Associate Professor

=5• Senior Lecturer = 7• Full Professor = 5• Other =1• Contract = 4

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DRAWING ON CLASSROOM TEACHER EXPERIENCES

More than telling stories

Continuity of Priorities• underserved

communities • subject organizations• marginalized youth • teacher activism• teacher inquiry

groups

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ED’L BACKGROUND + RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

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• Yes – 6

•No – 22DURING YOUR UNDERGRAD DID YOU PLAN TO DO A PHD?

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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

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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.

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• caring • listener• reflective • team player• compassionate• flexible

QUALITIES OF AN EFFECTIVE LTE

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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

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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

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A CRITICAL STANCE IN LITERACY TEACHER EDUCATION

POOJA DHARAMSHI

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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

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CRITICAL STANCE

• Consciously Engaging

• Monitoring language use, interpretation of language, and actions to see how they maintain or disrupt the status quo.

• Entertaining Alternate Ways of Being

• “creating and trying on new discourses” (p. 16)

• “tension” is used as a resource

Lewison et al. 2008

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CRITICAL STANCE

• Taking Responsibility to Inquire

• placing inquiry, interrogation, and investigation at the forefront

• Being Reflexive

• “being aware of our own complicity in maintaining the status quo or systems of injustice” (p.18)

Lewison et al. 2008

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FINDINGS

Background of Participants and Influence of Personal Experience

Name Yrs at Uni Yrs in CR

Pietro 5 7

Maya 3 4

Giovanni 10 10

Melissa 7 6

Justin 10 20+

Sara 13 10

Dominique 4 8

Misa 5 7

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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.

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FINDINGS

• Consciously Engaging

• Goals of Literacy Course

• Exploring Difficult Topics During Class Discussions

• Entertaining Alternate Ways of Being

• Helping Student Teachers Unlearn

• Using Alternate Texts and Forms of Expressions

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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…

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FINDINGS

• Taking Responsibility to Inquire

• Viewing teachers as intellectuals

• Considering multiple perspectives

• Being reflexive

• Organic and flexible course structure

• Authentic learning experiences

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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.

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MULTILITERACIES APPROACH – CATHY

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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

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PERTINENT NODES/THEMES

• Early Childhood• Future Plans• Gaps in Knowledge• Goals• Identity• Turning Points• Influences on practice• Pedagogy• Qualities of TE

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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

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EMERGING THEMES SO FAR…

Balancing practice and theory

Relational teaching

Vision of the future

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RELATIONAL TEACHING

• Supported socio-cultural notion of Multiliteracies

• Developed meaningful relationships with students

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“Being closely attentive to what my student teachers are doing and saying seems hugely important to me.” Justin

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STUDENT TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVE – LYDIA

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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?

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