Date of Award:

5-2012

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

School of Teacher Education and Leadership

Committee Chair(s)

Kay Camperell

Committee

Kay Camperell

Committee

Cindy D. Jones

Committee

Martha Dever

Committee

Sylvia Read

Committee

Judith Holt

Abstract

This case study explored the knowledge and beliefs held by six district-level reading coaches about how to teach reading at the middle-school level. It narrowed in on the possible influence past personal experiences, past academic and work experiences, and the influence of domain specific knowledge (i.e., English, social studies, elementary education, special education, ESL, etc.) might possibly have had upon the development of their knowledge and beliefs about how to teach reading. Finally, the study looked at how these influenced practice and decisions made in their roles as a cohort of district-level literacy coaches involved in developing and implementing a district-wide seventh-grade reading intervention program for struggling readers.

The aim of this study was to add to the professional literature concerning literacy coaches functioning specifically at the secondary level. By identifying and describing the personal literacy beliefs held by these six literacy coaches, it is possible to shed light on a phenomenon dealing with how these beliefs develop, how they impact the professional development choices made by these coaches, and how these might be affecting instruction in curriculum development dealing with literacy at the secondary level. Such knowledge about a literacy coach would assist teacher educators in planning effective professional development workshops, especially those involving issues of conceptual change and reform. It would also assist literacy coaches of how to effectively transition their knowledge about how to teach reading across the grade levels. Principals hiring literacy coaches at the secondary level would also be more informed about the diversity inherent in teaching reading and the impact experience and beliefs might have upon a literacy coach’s ability to transition effectively from teaching reading at the elementary level to the secondary level.

Data collection protocols involved the taping of common interview questions, a survey and taped interview dealing with of the literacy coach’s professional library, the taping of think-aloud responses to a vignette dealing with a struggling student, and the taping of think-aloud responses to two scales to measure epistemological and ontological beliefs and determine worldviews about the nature of knowledge. The cost of the research for this study involved the time spent interviewing six participants, the transcription of the data, and the time it took to write up the findings. The only out-of-pocket expenditures involved the transcription process, which came to about $1,600. The remainder of the work was executed within the confines of the dissertation coursework and process.

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This work made publicly available electronically on April 12, 2012.

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