An Examination of Teacher Education in Literacy Instruction and Candidate Perceptions of Their Learned Literacy Practices

Abstract

Using mixed-methods approaches and cross-case analysis procedures of a study of 10 teacher-preparation programs across the United States, researchers identified signature aspects of the programs that captured key elements unique to each institution and compared teacher candidate perceptions of learning with the expressed intentions of the faculty. The teacher candidates' perceptions of their learning were contextualized in terms of the 2003 to 2010 Standards for the Teaching Profession of the International Reading Association. Findings indicate some deficiencies across the institutions as well as many strengths and key attributes. Implications for teacher preparation programs and accountability of those programs are discussed. Further directions for research, including the second and third phases of this study, are suggested.

Notes

1. Researchers purposefully chose an emic perspective for this analysis. As Eisner and Peshkin (1990) tell us, “We are each of us ‘emic’ participants--we are insiders with particular biases about our programs and teacher preparation. What are these but perspectives? “The methods into which we have been socialized provide powerful filters through which we view the world” (p. 9). To preserve this emic perspective, we avoid the use of inter-rater reliability for the qualitative aspects of the study (cf. Porter, Polikoff, Zeidner, & Smithson, 2008).