If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You Might End Up Where You’re Headed! Teachers’ Visions Transforming Praxis Through Agency

ABSTRACT

Frustrated by the ineffectiveness of externally mandated reforms to positively influence the academic performances and attitudes of their students who came from families with limited economic resources (>98%), two fourth-grade teachers used their teaching visions to redesign daily instructional activities. Consistent with their visions and a quest for more- effective reform strategies, they promoted agency by soliciting students’ input and feedback regarding the nature and format of their studies. Guided by situated learning theory, which underscores the potential for students who have been marginalized for whatever reason, to adopt positive learning trajectories when allowed to demonstrate agency, they collaborated with university researchers using design-based research methods, to provide opportunities for students to become engaged, remake identities, and improve learning. As students adjusted to new expectations, they increased engagement in daily studies, reflected on emerging life goals, portrayed positive learning identities, and demonstrated improvement onformal and informal assessments. Discussion focuses on how teachers might promote robust literacy reforms by teaching-beyond-the-test, using their visions to promote students’ agency.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Samuel D. Miller

Samuel D. Miller, PhD, is a professor in the department of teacher education at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Over his career, he has collaborated with classroom teachers to better understand those practices that influence students’ understanding of the curriculum and their interpretation of its meaning in their daily lives.

Salem Rainey Metzger

Salem Rainey Metzger, PhD, is an adjunct literacy professor at UNC Greensboro. She is a former elementary teacher and curriculum specialist who enjoys engaging students in literacy work that reflects their interests and identities as readers and writers.

Amber Fitts

Amber Fitts transitioned after this study to become her school’s curriculum facilitator where she now attempts to help teachers use what she learned in this study to adopt a teach-beyond-the-test approach to accountability.

Sarah Stallings

Sarah Stallings has now transitioned from the classroom to the university where she is a doctoral student studying how different literacy practices influence students’ understanding of science curricula with a focus on their engagement and identity development.

Dixie D. Massey

Dixie D. Massey, PhD, is an instructor of literacy methods at the Seattle Pacific University. Her research interests include teacher decision making and the role of motivation in literacy learning.