Literacy Methods Course Research Articles

Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Experiences at the Intersection of Culturally Sustaining and Historically Responsive Pedagogy, Early Literacy, and the Science of Reading

This phenomenological study reports findings related to preservice teachers’ experiences mentoring early elementary readers. Preservice teachers in this study were enrolled in a literacy methods course designed to develop their understanding of early literacy, including knowledge of the written code and culturally sustaining and historically responsive pedagogy, and prepare them for the Texas’ Science of Teaching Reading exam. Within this context, we explored how preservice teachers worked to bridge multiple approaches to literacy instruction. Thematic results illustrate how preservice teachers sustained the lifeways of children through literacy as a social practice, created space for code-based and meaning-making skills, and learned to teach responsively. These results provide implications for a comprehensive approach to preparing teachers of elementary literacy: one that fosters knowledge of the written code while contextualizing knowledge in children's cultures, communities, and experiences.

A Systematic Review of Rehearsal Use in Literacy Methods Courses

ABSTRACT This systematic review provides an examination of the current literature on rehearsals in literacy-based methods courses for teacher preparation. We conceptualized a rehearsal as a teacher candidate teaching to a peer or group of peers, a teacher educator or mentor, live actors, or through a technology-based teaching simulation. Studies in this review met the following inclusion criteria: (1) included participants in K-12 teacher preparation programs, (2) focused on literacy instruction, (3) incorporated rehearsal opportunities for teacher candidates, and (4) were published in English. Fifteen total studies were identified for inclusion after conducting a search across multiple databases. We coded each study for general, participant, context, and rehearsal characteristics, and summarized overall study findings. Results indicated the majority of studies were qualitative (73%), conducted with pre-service teachers (60%), and occurred in undergraduate and/or graduate-level preparation programs (33% undergraduate, 33% graduate, 27% both). Rehearsals in the included studies were focused on the elementary grade levels (60%) and were primarily role play-based (80%) as opposed to simulation-based rehearsal types. Results provide insight on how rehearsals are currently being used in a variety of teacher preparation contexts. From these results, avenues of possible future research are presented.

An exploration of preservice teachers’ perceptions of Generative AI: Applying the technological Acceptance Model

Guided by the Technology Acceptance Model, the researchers designed a Google Form survey to explore elementary preservice teachers’(PSTs’) perceptions of using Generative AI (GenAI) as part of an authentic literacy methods course activity. Following the activity, responses to a qualitative survey were analyzed to learn about PSTs’ experience of using GenAI in developing questions for a read-aloud. Findings indicated that many PSTs perceived GenAI as a useful teaching tool. In addition, they shared their concerns that GenAI may limit creativity and teacher agency. We also found a positive correlation between the use of GenAI in the activity and PSTs’ intentions to use GenAI in the future. The study adds to the current literature about TAM with GenAI and underscores the value of GenAI in promoting critical reasoning among PSTs. Pedagogical implications for teacher educators are also discussed.

Research: “It feels like a safe place”: A (Re)Invitation to the Writer’s Notebook as Humanizing Pedagogy in Preservice Literacy Teacher Education

This qualitative case study examines preservice teachers’ (PTs) self-selected writer’s notebook (WNB) entries and written reflections in two literacy methods courses. The authors use thematic analysis to consider how the writer’s notebooks supported PTs’ learning to teach multilingual writers while concurrently writing for themselves and navigating contemporary sociopolitical contexts. The authors describe how PTs used their writer’s notebooks to process emotion and identity, develop professional stances, and build experiential knowledge around multilingual, multimodal writer praxis. The authors conclude with suggestions for teacher educators and researchers to expand these practices.

An Examination of Canadian and American Pre-Service Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs for 21st Century Literacy Instruction

This study explores the literacy self-efficacy of 235 Canadian and American pre-service teachers during a 2021-2022 elementary literacy methods course amid COVID-19 disruptions. Utilizing the Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs for Literacy Instruction in the 21st Century (TBLI21c) scale, administered at Time 1 and Time 2, the findings reveal high confidence in eight subscales. While participants displayed increased self-efficacy in diversity and 21st-century competences, early literacy and language skills saw lower confidence. US pre-service teachers exhibited higher self-efficacy initially, evening out by Time 2. These results underscore the need for assessing pre-service teachers’ literacy self-efficacy, particularly concerning contemporary literacies and diversity, with implications for program evaluation and course design.

Building Classroom Community in Elementary Literacy Methods Courses

In this article, two elementary teacher educators provide a novel approach to building relationships and classroom community in their face to face elementary literacy methods courses. The authors present their classroom practice entitled “Tell Me Time” (TMT), mirroring morning meetings in K–12 settings, as the staple of building classroom community in their courses. They describe how TMT has been used to build student relationships with each other and with instructors through providing unique, personalized opportunities to socialize and connect through listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Threaded throughout, the authors detail specific feedback from students and highlight how TMT has helped students find common ground with one another and made them feel comfortable, cared for, and respected by their instructors. The authors describe the reasons behind implementing TMT, outline specific TMT activities and examples that have been most effective with their students, provide insight into how to integrate technology with TMT, delineate specific steps for successfully implementing TMT, and describe lessons learned from the implementation of TMT.

Professional development for the science of reading

Despite training in phonics and phonemic awareness during literacy methods courses, preservice teachers indicate having a limited understanding of how to apply these two critical components of reading in their own classrooms. As preservice teachers enter the classroom, they will need support from principals, literacy professionals, and colleagues to provide effective instruction in phonics and phonemic awareness. Stacey Bose proposes a three-tiered support system to provide a continuum of professional learning as preservice teachers transition from the university to the classroom.

Unsettling teacher preparation: cultivating liminality and remaking space

In the USA, university-situated teacher education programmes are hierarchical, with tiers of students and faculty progressing through ranks that structurally confer power. Teacher education programmes purporting to engender democratic ideals must remake teaching and learning spaces to encourage the teachers that they prepare to do the same in their pre-school through to twelfth-grade classrooms and schools. In this article, we explore social pedagogy in a US context, describing the work of a tenured teacher educator, two graduate students and more than 40 undergraduate students as they experimented with practices of democratic education in a midwestern US land-grant university elementary literacy methods course. We centre our analysis on three questions: How do efforts to democratise a teacher education literacy course influence teaching and learning? What is the nature of those efforts? How do different social actors in the course make and remake space? We then present three findings that speak to the work of unlearning institutionalised norms that sustain hierarchical teaching and learning relationships and that demonstrate the nature of a maieutic disposition in bringing to life more democratic conceptions of teaching and learning. We illustrate throughout the overlaps between democratic education and social pedagogy.

A Descriptive Case Study of a Literacy Methods Course with a Focus On Practices Related to Text-Based Discussions about Informational Text

This article describes a literacy methods course designed to introduce reading specialist candidates to research-based practices for comprehension instruction. Specifically, this article focuses on a sequence of assignments and class sessions within that course that introduced theoretical perspectives about comprehension processes and how those perspectives inform text-based discussion as a setting for teaching those processes. We describe the course assignments and sessions within three research paradigms: (a) practice-based teacher education pedagogy with a focus on text-based discussion as a core teaching practice, (b) pedagogies of investigation and pedagogies of enactment, and (c) Grossman and colleagues’ (2009) framework for analyzing the teaching of practice, which includes representation, decomposition, and approximation. To the Grossman et al. framework, we propose co-construction as another aspect of teaching practice. By that we mean, candidates’ knowledge and insights can contribute to the process of learning specific practices if they are positioned to share their insights and experiences. Our goal in this article is to provide a descriptive case study that shows how course design, the work of a teacher educator, and the contributions of candidates were orchestrated to support learning about text-based discussion as a context for comprehension instruction.

Challenges in Learning Phonics and Phonemic Awareness: Case Studies of Pre-Service Elementary Teachers

This qualitative multi-case research study explored the experiences of pre-service teachers learning phonics and phonemic awareness (PPA) in a literacy methods course. Data were collected from pre- and post-test scores, literacy life maps, semi-structured interviews, and course questionnaires. Findings suggest pre-service teachers with limited prior knowledge struggled with learning PPA but were able to overcome the challenges. Participants perceived their preparedness and confidence in teaching PPA had grown through the course. Participants noted the benefits of hands-on practice with PPA.

“It Made Me See What Kind of Teacher I Want to Be:” Critical Literacy in a Pre-service Literacy Methods Course

ABSTRACT Drawing on critical literacy as a theoretical framework, this paper explores how a children’s book writing assignment designed to center the experiences of underrepresented communities in children’s literature contributed to shifts in awareness among predominantly White teacher candidates. The study occurred at a large urban university in California and included 77 participants who all participated in a required Literacy Methods course in a teacher preparation program. Teacher candidate surveys and critical content analysis of candidate-authored books revealed that candidates: (1) selected topics to write about because they had a personal connection to the issue or because of its relevance to their students; (2) created books that evidenced their ability to apply traditional literacy concepts through a critical lens, (3) evidenced a deepened understanding of representation and diversity in children’s literature. Findings highlight the importance of critical literacy experiences in teacher preparation as a way to develop teacher candidates’ critical lens. Implications include the importance of integrating critical literacy with traditional literacy content – it is not something “extra;” the need for a critical perspective to be an integral part of Teacher Performance Expectations and standards; and the need for ongoing professional development for both teachers and teacher educators.

Shifting Epistemologies Amidst Whitestream Norms: Centering Black Language in an Elementary Literacy Methods Course

This paper argues for a Black epistemological literacy education by centering Black equity in the process of teaching literacy methods. I offer a pedagogical model that stems from my own experiences disrupting required elementary literacy methods courses. My approach utilizes Black Language to illustrate the linguistic, sociocultural, and cognitive dimensions of literacy, and therein draws awareness for how white monolingual norms are thoroughly normalized in literacy instruction. While the linguistic legitimacy of Black Language, particularly its phonological systems, have been well established, in our current state, phonics instruction belongs to White Mainstream English. I contend that any cognitive literacy instruction for Black Language speakers must leverage the tacit knowledge of their own language. Pre-service teachers must receive explicit instruction on understanding societal hierarchies, especially as anti-Blackness and white supremacist views of Black Language are intertwined. A Black epistemological literacy education is necessary in modeling for pre-service teachers how literacy curricula must move beyond tokens of diversity.

Beyond Apple Pies, Popsicles and Patriotism: Leveraging Digital Literacy to Unpack Matters of Race, Power, and Privilege

It is important for all educators, but especially those working in P-12 systems, to not only be prepared to navigate the digital terrain but to do so while taking a critical stance and encouraging students to critically examine and confront injustice. To that end, this article spotlights the work being done in a literacy methods course for preservice teachers. Consideration is given to efforts to engage preservice teachers in the integration of information communication technologies (ICTs) in ways that develop critical consciousness while promoting social justice and equity.

Drawing teachers: examining teacher gender in drawings by pre-service educators

ABSTRACT This article examines representations of gender in teacher drawings by pre-service elementary educators enrolled in a literacy methods course in the southeast United States. A total of 55 pre-service teachers completed 110 drawings with brief narratives or 55 sets. Drawings were analyzed via visual discourse analysis and narratives were analyzed with the constant comparative method. Sets were examined specifically for D/discourses of gender. Three gender-related findings emerged including, the vast majority of drawings included representations of femininized teachers, gender minority as well as gender majority students did not necessarily identify as a teacher in the drawing, and teacher identities were negotiated between drawings. Implications include the need for teacher education programs that incorporate spaces for pre-service teachers to negotiate gender and conceptualizations of teachers in both course work and field experiences.

Personalized Multimodal Instruction: Positively Impacting Lives Through Invitational Education


 
 
 This longitudinal qualitative study explored the impact of personalized multimodal instruction in a university literacy methods course for pre-service teachers. Participants discussed their insights from culturally responsive novels in literature circles and created book trailers to introduce their strategic literacy lesson plans for avatars. They collaborated in an intentionally inviting environment while they prepared multimodal projects to personalize learning experiences for avatars and elementary students in grades three to five. When they described the highlights of their class sessions and field experiences, the results of this study aligned with the overarching goals, elements, and domains of Invitational Theory and Practice. 
 
 

Towards Socially Just Literacy Teaching in Virtual Spaces

This study inquires into preservice teachers’ teaching experiences within a virtual tutoring field experience in a literacy methods course. Our work is situated against the greater institutional and social-political context of a competency-based model in education and the Covid-19 pandemic that led to a shift to online instruction. From a social justice lens, we approach the research questions: What are undergraduate preservice teachers’ literacy teaching experiences in a newly-transformed-to-online literacy methods course? In what ways does a virtual tutoring field experience prepare preservice teachers towards socially just literacy teaching? By engaging in Narrative Inquiry, we unraveled preservice teachers’ experiences in facilitating literacy lessons that combine print-based and multimodal instruction, while learning about the specific tensions and questions that they confronted during the process. We realized that preservice teachers’ virtual teaching experiences develop towards more socially just teaching along the areas of knowledge, interpretive frames, teaching strategies, methods, skills, and advocacy and activism. We further found that this approach is a complex process characterized by the personal, contextual, and relational aspects of teaching.

Learning about Social Justice through Literature Circles

ABSTRACT Drawing on data from 16 teacher candidates in an elementary literacy methods course, this qualitative study seeks to understand how literature circles can help candidates critically reflect on social justice and equity as well as encourage reflection on race and privilege. Upon analyzing recorded classroom discussions, written artifacts, and interviews, findings indicate literature circles in a methods class can provide candidates entrance into conversations about social justice, support candidates to better understand themselves and their students, and represent an initial step in disrupting a system. Equity-centered literature circles are an instructional practice that teacher educators can utilize to provide teacher candidates a space to engage in difficult conversations and support teacher candidates in working to disrupt a normalization of Whiteness in schools.

Making the Transition to Virtual Methods in the Literacy Classroom: Reframing Teacher Education Practices

In response to the COVID 19 pandemic universities and colleges abruptly closed and teacher educators had little time to move instruction from face-to-face classrooms to digital learning environments. This sudden shift created a myriad of obstacles as instructors worked to retain pedagogically sound and effective instruction digitally—while also preparing novice teachers to teach online themselves. Adding another layer of complexity was prospective teachers’ lack of knowledge and hesitation regarding technology tools, as well as how to meaningfully integrate the tools into their teaching. Facing these challenges, we as literacy teacher educators drew upon effective methods of teacher education, literacy practices and digital literacy to rethink the way we design lessons and assignments for our literacy methods courses. The framework we created for restructuring the integration of technology into courses can be duplicated across disciplines and guide instructors to reconceptualize their use of tech tools to re-envision face-to-face and digital instruction to expand learning outcomes.

Bringing Joy to School: Engaging K–16 Learners through Maker Literacies and Playshops

BackgroundFor too many youths, school has become a place for students to withstand and kill time until they can leave and learn about things that matter to them. Instead, schools should be inviting and exciting places to learn but also nurturing spaces where all students feel they belong. Drawing upon expanded definition of literacies that include play and making, this study examines how the maker literacies—media production where multimodal, digital, and artifact-based literacies converge—creates opportunities for youth to critically engage their favorite toys and media in school. While the preponderance of research on media literacy has focused on critical consumption of multimedia, research on play-based literacies has focused largely on early childhood (K–2) spaces. This article examines student engagement in the intersection of critical media production and play-based literacies for older youth, specifically play, toymaking, and filmmaking in classroom makerspaces.PurposeThe goal of the ongoing Literacy Playshop studies is to explore the meaning-making and participation that youth experience through production-oriented maker literacies (e.g., toy(re)making, filmmaking) in P–12 settings. Maker literacies enable students to critically respond to pervasive stereotypes in popular media by producing their own films by “toyhacking” or remaking physical features of toys that also enable revised character identities and alternative storylines. The research within this article aimed to understand how preservice and in-service teachers approach play-based media production as a participatory literacy for students in classroom makerspaces.Research DesignUsing mediated discourse analysis, toy remaking and filmmaking is examined to unpack the tangles of meanings, bodies, and toys in the action texts and imaginary contexts of play. Researchers looked across three sites, including a third-grade classroom, a literacy methods course for preservice elementary teachers, and a methods course for secondary English/Language Arts preservice teachers, all of which implemented a curricular framework for play-based makerspaces. Using ethnographic methods, multimodal video analysis, and mediated discourse analysis, researchers compared critical media literacy strategies in these three sites. Data sources included: video data of students’ toyhacking, hacked toys, student-created films centering toys, researcher fieldnotes, written reflections of preservice teachers, and interviews with the in-service teacher.FindingsFindings suggest student engagement was significantly increased through the collaborative digital film process, which often gave preservice and inservice teachers the chance to expand their conception of literacy. Teaching children and preservice teachers to engage in play-based literacies allowed participants to more actively participate in their own education, assisting them in creating their own media, responding critically, productively, and multimodally to a world filled with popular animated films, television, video games, and digital media texts.ConclusionsOverall, findings align with calls to reconceptualize and update literacy curricula across K–12 and teacher education programs to center student meaning-making, agency, and critical response. More research is needed to understand the intersections of participatory literacies, mass media, critical literacy, and social justice.

Professor and institution characteristics: Relations to technology use and teacher preparation in literacy methods courses

One-hundred ninety-nine literacy professors responded to an online survey. A multivariate outcome logit/probit model was used to analyze these data to determine how professor and institution characteristics were related to (a) technologies that professors use in their courses, (b) technologies that professors prepare teachers to use, (b) teaching methods that professors use to prepare teachers, and (c) strategies that professors prepare teachers to use in K-12 instruction. While some institutional characteristics predicted literacy teacher preparation, professor characteristics predominantly predicted how teachers were prepared to integrate technologies in literacy instruction, especially professors’ knowledge, comfort with using technologies, and their rank.