The Far-Reaching Influence of Early Literacy Education: Beginning Teachers Look to Their Own Early Literacy Teachers as Role Models for Their Teaching

• In Event: Poster Session 5
  In Poster Session: Examining Teacher Research and Classroom Practice

Abstract

This research study examines how the professional practice of six beginning elementary teachers is influenced by their own early literacy teachers. The participants’ early literacy learning and current literacy teaching were explored to determine the extent to which their early literacy teachers influence their understanding of themselves as literacy teachers, and their classroom literacy practice. Results illustrate that the participants’ early literacy experiences varied greatly as did the ways in which those experiences intersected with their teaching practice. The participants all report modeling their teaching after one or two specific teachers from their own childhoods. Using these role models as guides, the participants focus on teaching students whose needs are similar to their own needs as students.

Author

• Monica Eileen McGlynn-Stewart, George Brown College