"We Don't Live in Boxes": Preservice Teachers' Shifting Conceptions of Literacy

• In Event: 35.081 - Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: 35.081-5 - Teachers' Understandings of Students' Literacy Practices

Abstract

There have been persistent calls to integrate a multiple literacies approach in teacher education; however, further research is needed to fully understand preservice teachers’ experiences with multiple literacies, and their sense of preparedness to teach from a multiple literacies perspective. This longitudinal qualitative research involved three phases of data collection with preservice middle school teachers. Data collection methods included questionnaires (N=24), semi-structured interviews (N=10), and document analysis. Findings suggest the majority of participants’ conceptions of literacy steadily broadened during their studies. They exhibited a growing awareness of how their literacy histories informed their assumptions of what counts as literacy, and they developed a more nuanced understanding of literacy pedagogy, which influenced how they identified as literacy teachers.

Authors

• Lydia Menna, OISE/University of Toronto

• Clare Kosnik, University of Toronto/OISE