Conversations among multiple voices: Merging and emerging stories of beginning literacy teachers as professional decision-makers.

Abstract

Participants included one male and ten female undergraduate students majoring in elementary and/or early childhood education. Data sources included the preservice teachers' responses to two types of pre-and-post survey instruments; information about the tutoring sessions; student-generated writing; peer-collaborative information; interview data; and field notes. A typology developed from the data and from previous research was used for data analysis. Triangulation was provided by comparing the multiple sources of data.

Three overarching themes were used as the organizational framework. (1) Conceptualization of self as a teacher of literacy is multidimensional. Five dimensions were described: personal literacy history, sense of self-efficacy, understandings of literacy instruction, thinking about complexity, interactions in a social context. (2) Conceptualization of self as a teacher of literacy interacts with decisions and decision-making processes. Three types of decision-making were identified in this context: types of interpersonal interactions, assessment decisions, curricular decisions. Five descriptive continua were developed as a way of explaining the interactions between the decision-making and the dimensions of self as a teacher of literacy. (3) Development of conceptualization of self is multidirectional along each dimension and interrelated among the dimensions.

Two interrelated foci guided the study. Two research questions related to the first focus, which was the preservice teachers' sense of self as a teacher of literacy: (1) How do the preservice teachers conceptualize themselves as teachers of literacy? (2) How do the preservice teachers' conceptualizations, of themselves as a teacher of literacy develop or change, if at all, over the semester-long teaching experiences? Two additional research questions related to the second focus, which was their decisions and decision-making processes related to literacy teaching: (3) What types of decisions and decision-making processes do the preservice teachers employ during the semester? (4) How do these decisions and decision-making processes relate to their concept of self as a teacher of literacy? The research questions addressed each focus, as well as interactions between the two.

This study examined the development of beginning teachers of literacy as professional decision-makers during a one-semester undergraduate literacy methods course, in which preservice teachers engaged in one-on-one tutoring of a specific elementary child. It was framed by sociocultural views of learning and literacy, focused on the social nature of learning, and included components such as collaboration and reflection.

For these preservice teachers, the interactions between their decisions and their conceptualizations of self were complex and varied. The research added to the ways that teacher educators can understand these processes, and, therefore, helped to describe components of teacher education programs that support the positive development of novice teachers of literacy. The implications included that reflection, collaboration, and on-going supportive mentoring are important for novice literacy teachers, and that longitudinal studies are needed to understand ways that this support will be helpful in other social contexts.