Seeking Teacher-Scholar-Activists: A Multiple-Case Study of Postsecondary Literacy Practitioner Professional Identity in Practice

• In Event: Adult Literacy and Adult Education Posters

Abstract

National efforts to eliminate developmental education have irreversibly changed the work of postsecondary literacy practitioners whose disciplinary history and expertise have been erased in reform conversations (Armstrong, 2020). This multiple case study of seven practitioners engages in theory confirmation of Teacher-Scholar-Activism (Toth et al., 2013) as a fit for conceptualizing the professionalization (Larson, 1977) of these instructors. Individual practitioner profiles illustrate whether and how participants asserted and maintained distinct professional identities. Cross-case analysis illuminated how professional identities were grounded in student support, transcending disciplinary boundaries. Participants most frequently described their identities through the context of their practice. Implications are discussed for leveraging literacy practitioners’ commitment to students to increase visibility of their scholarship and activism in institutional and disciplinary contexts.

Authors

• Emily Suh, Texas State University

• Barrie McGee, Texas State University

• Shiniece Owens, Texas State University - San Marcos

• Darin L. Jensen, Des Moines Area Community College