Effective Intervention: Perspectives of Title I Elementary School Stakeholders on Most Significant Inhibiting Factors to Effective Literacy Interventions (Poster 52)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Eight
  In Poster Session: 2023 AERA Undergraduate Fellows Research Poster Fair

Abstract

"The purpose of Phase I of this study was to investigate Title I elementary school teachers’
perceptions of the most significant inhibitors to effective reading interventions and to describe teachers’ solutions to such inhibitors. The research followed a phenomenological, nonexperimental, mixed-methods design centered from a metaphysical orientation. The data analysis concluded five significant inhibitors to effective reading interventions: (1) incomprehensive curricula, (2) high teacher shortages, (3) insufficient collaboration time, (4) low student attendance, and (5) student home life factors. Many teachers deemed home life factors to be outside of their control. 90.3% of teachers believed that home life significantly impacts students’ participation and engagement in the classroom. Survey respondents explained that “the most significant inhibitor to student progress in reading is the lack of reading support at home.” Phase II investigates parent perspectives on inhibitors to engaging in their child’s literacy development. This ongoing study seeks to examine how U.S. education stakeholders can foster unity and collaborative investment amongst teachers and parents to promote effective childhood literacy development in Title I schools. In Fall 2022, an archival study regarding enslaved persons’ methods of literacy acquisition in the antebellum south was conducted. Primary source analysis yielded both individual and communal investment and dedication to literacy by means of leveraging very limited tools and their embodied environment to achieve literacy. These findings surfaced the tension between the historical legacy of enslaved persons’ literacy practices as self and communal investments and the deficit assumptions of Title I teachers regarding students’ home lives. Based on the findings from both phases, the next step is to interview parents of Title I students to better understand how they engage literacy in the home.
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Author

• Psalm A. Delaney, Colorado College
  Presenting Author