Study methodology and instruments for an EGL pre-service research study in Central America

• In Event: Are teachers in Central America being prepared to teach reading? Findings from a regional research study on pre-service teacher education
  In Formal Panel Session: Are teachers in Central America being prepared to teach reading? Findings from a regional research study on pre-service teacher education.

Proposal

Ingrid Nanne will describe the study methodology and present the instruments. This regional research study was initiated in July of 2018 and will be completed by March of 2019. This research is being led by a group of researchers from Guatemala, el Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica who will each conduct the study in their own country. For this study we will use a qualitative research methodology to answer our research questions. The research team based all instruments on the evidence-based framework described in the previous paper. Instruments include a curriculum mapping tool, interview protocols for pre-service teacher trainers and trainees, and a pre-service classroom observation protocol. All tools are digitalized so that researchers can input data from laptops or tablets to minimalize data entry errors. Examples of each tool will be demonstrated for participants, so they can get a better understanding of the breadth and depth of each tool. Mrs. Naane conducted this research for Guatemala and can also share the personal experience of first hand application of these instruments.

The pre-service teacher training analysis will triangulate information obtained from the following sources: (1) a mapping of the pre-service literacy curricula against a predesigned framework, (2) interviews with pre-service professors and teachers in training, and (3) observations of pre-service literacy classrooms. Data analysis will primarily use MaxQDA to help identify themes in the data at a national and regional level and to triangulate data from the mapping, interviews, and observations. Researchers from each country will come together in a data analysis workshop to review trends across the five countries. Researchers will write up findings from their individual countries and the senior researchers will also write up the regional findings pulling together findings from each of the five countries.

Author

• Byron Delgado, Universidad Centroamericana UCA de Nicaragua