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The Trouble with the Doing Part: Coming to See the Need for Dialogism as a Stance in English Teacher Education Field Instruction
No full textIn teacher education, program-supported clinical experience is widely valued, but exactly how field instructors engage in their teaching is an area of educational research that remains underdeveloped. To better understand the way in which my field instruction impacts the pre-service teachers (PSTs) I serve, I asked the research question: How does my work as a field instructor open or foreclose opportunities for genuine critical inquiry in my English Language Arts (ELA) methods clinical as pre-service teachers work to enact their frameworks for socially just ELA instruction? I engaged in a semester-long teacher-research study within the clinical component of an ELA methods course. Using discourse analysis tools, I analyzed data from PSTs’ post-teaching reflection cycle, focusing specifically on sites of interaction. My analysis revealed how my own uninterrogated didactic framework obstructed PSTs’ inquiry processes. Implications of this study include my own recognition of dialogism as a stance rather than a structure, a need to continue engaging in data analysis within the time of instruction, and a call for continued practitioner research in the work of field instruction
Improving Device Care, Online Behavior and Technology Use: The Impact of Digital Citizenship Training on Students in a Midwestern Middle School
No full textThis quantitative research study examined the effect of digital citizenship training on middle school students’ proper handling of their school-issued devices, online behavior and technology use.
The research questions were: What effect does the digital citizenship training have on students’ understanding of how to take care of their school-issued device? What effect does the digital citizenship training have on students’ online behavior? What effect does the digital citizenship training have on the number of technology incidents?
Data was collected from 156 sixth-grade students from April 15, 2024, to May 13, 2024, through surveys. Students’ technology incidents were also gathered from One2One, the school’s device management system, and Skyward, the school’s student information system. In addition, information about student access to technology was collected through student self-reported surveys. The data collected for this study were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-tests in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 29 software. Finding from the study show that explicit digital citizenship training does have an effect students device care, online behaviors, and technology use. This study has implications for school leaders and educators as it shows explicit digital citizenship instruction can have an impact on students, helping them become better digital citizens, in turn having greater access to technology and therefore greater equity to curriculum.
KEYWORDS: technology, digital citizenship, digital equit
Looking Beyond the Achievement Gap: An Inquiry Into Bridging the Divide Between Teacher Preparedness and English Learners’ Literacy Success
Full text linkEnglish Learners (ELs) in early childhood and elementary settings continue to face a significant literacy achievement gap compared to their non-EL peers. A qualitative action research study was conducted in a suburban Midwest district to examine how teacher preparedness, instructional practices, and professional development influence EL literacy development. Through teacher interviews, surveys, and classroom observations, the study identified key challenges, including limited EL-specific training, minimal collaboration with EL specialists, and inadequate instructional resources. Aimsweb Plus data confirmed a widening literacy gap, reinforcing the need for culturally responsive teaching, improved collaboration, and targeted interventions. The findings emphasize the importance of sustained professional learning and school-wide strategies that prioritize equity and inclusion to support EL achievement
From Unprepared to On Track: Closing the Kindergarten Readiness Gap by Using a Team-Based Approach to Implement a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) Framework with Fidelity
Full text linkWe live in a world where preschool and even kindergarten are optional years in schooling, only perpetuating the problem of incoming kindergartener students systemically lacking foundational skills necessary to successfully begin their academic careers. Access to quality preschool is an equity problem that needs to be discussed and researched. Preparing a student to enter kindergarten with the appropriate foundational academic skills does not just set them up for kindergarten success, but also for success in future grade levels. Therefore, a co-design team focused a problem of practice at an elementary school to provide the kindergarten teacher with additional support by using a team-based approach in planning and implementing the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) Framework with fidelity in order to increase kindergarten students’ reading scores.
This mixed-method study included 19 kindergarten students at a Midwest K-5th elementary school where three research questions were examined: 1) What was the effect of the team-based MTSS intervention planning process on the kindergarten students’ MAP reading scores?; 2)What was the effect of the team-based MTSS intervention planning process on the kindergarten students’ FastBridge Early Reading Screener Scores?; 3) What were the co-design team’s perceptions of the team-based MTSS intervention planning process? Utilizing the quantitative measures of the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress MAP) assessment and the FastBridge Early Reading Screener and the qualitative measure of a six-question open-ended educator survey, the co-design team examined growth in kindergarten students’ reading scores and the co-design team’s perception of utilizing the team-based approach to implement the MTSS Framework with fidelity.
Upon the conclusion of the 90-day cycle of inquiry, 84% of the 19 kindergarten students showed an increase on their MAP reading assessment from fall to winter. Additionally, there was an observed growth from 21% of students falling in the “low risk” range on the fall FastBridge Early Reading Screener to 53% of students falling in the “low risk” range in the winter. Lastly, the survey results showed three themes: collaboration, instruction, and time. The three co-design team educators who completed the six-question open-ended survey unanimously recommended the team-based approach to implementing the MTSS Framework with fidelity.
As practical implications in an elementary school are considered, the co-design team wonders what this team-based approach to planning and implementing the MTSS Framework with fidelity could look like when done with multiple teachers. If this intervention proved to be successful with the co-design team for this 90-day cycle of inquiry, could it be expanded to provide the same support to more classroom teachers throughout an elementary school building, resulting in all the more students with improved reading achievement
Internal Factors and Phases of the Role Transition to Full-time Nursing Academia: A Quantitative Study
No full textThis dissertation comprises three manuscripts intended for publication, exploring internal factors of nurse faculty transition to academia. The first manuscript presents an integrative review of the current research on nurse faculty transition experiences and internal factors. The review highlights the existence of internal factors and phases of the transition process among nurse faculty experiences. It concludes with a need for further research in identifying and measuring internal factors of nurse faculty members transitioning to a full-time academic role.
The second manuscript reports on a descriptive cross-sectional study identifying the common characteristics of full-time nurse faculty members among the variables of interest: (1) teaching characteristics, (2) internal factors, and (3) phases of the transition. The Nurse Educator Transition (NET) model was utilized as a guiding framework for this study, in conjunction with the checklist for Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) for complete reporting of the study’s methods and results.
The third manuscript summarizes lessons learned regarding the cluster analysis technique used to identify two distinct sample groups and their defining characteristics among full-time nurse faculty. The principal investigator further reflects on the insights gleaned from this research and the implications for nursing education and future research
A Care-Focused Characterization of Beginning Elementary Preservice Teachers’ Visions of Mathematics Instruction
Full text linkIn this dissertation study, I sought to understand how elementary preservice teachers (EPTs) envisioned mathematics instruction at the beginning of their university program and what factors they identified as contributing to those visions. I conducted semi-structured interviews with 32 EPTs who had recently finished their first mathematics content course in their university program. I then connected theories of teacher care to characterize their visions of mathematical instruction.
Through my data analysis, I identified five themes that represented components of the EPTs’ beginning visions of mathematics instruction: Driver of the Math Task, Focus of the Math Task, Student Sharing, Classroom Environment, and Considering Student Needs. I also identified seven unique visions of mathematical instruction that existed among EPTs near the beginning of their program, which varied in both the ways they described the observable behaviors of the teacher and the internal motivations they described behind those behaviors. Specifically, EPTs’ visions reflected different kinds of care—one vision was motivated by Content Care, one vision was motivated by Student Care, and five visions were motivated by Academic Care (three of which priortized Student Care). I found that EPTs cited their experience in their content course, as well as both positive and negative prior learning experiences, as factors that contributed to their vision of mathematics instruction. These findings suggest that care can be used as an asset-based lens on student perspectives (or feelings, needs, conceptual understanding, etc.) to consider ways to move EPTs toward a vision of high-quality mathematics instruction
Breaching the Screen: A Digital Technofeminist Methodology for Virtual and Augmented Realities
Full text linkThis dissertation provides a methodological framework that seeks to further scholarly and pedagogical inquiry at the intersections of feminist rhetorical studies, digital rhetoric, and cultural studies. More specifically, drawing upon theories of technofeminism (relationships among technology and feminism) and cyberfeminism (relationships among the internet and feminism), this dissertation proposes a digital technofeminist methodology to study the complex relationships between virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies, bodies, and rhetoric. This framework aims to help digital rhetoric scholar-teachers to critically investigate digital technologies that blur the distinction between virtuality, material bodies, and realities.
Building on digital rhetoric and technofeminist scholarship, this dissertation employs a technofeminist approach to study virtual reality peripherals, highlighting the material of the digital and identity in virtual and augmented spaces. Using case study as a method to unpack the rhetorical complexities of this underresearched composition tool, this dissertation demonstrates how new perspectives of reality necessitate a modification of digital and multimodal rhetorics, theories, frameworks, and curricula. Further, this dissertation will begin an analysis of the effects augmented and mixed realities can have on spatial relations, identity politics, and materiality—as well as how spatiality, identities, and materialities can and should affect augmented and mixed realities.
The second case study offers a curricular and pedagogical example of digital technofeminist course design and praxis. Drawing on data collected from students during two sections of ENG 239: Multimodal Composition—including literacy narratives, beginning- and end-of-semester surveys, and end-of-semester interviews—this dissertation reveals and theorizes the affordances and limitations of using a technofeminist digital rhetorical methodological framework to inform pedagogical contexts.
Finally, this dissertation discusses the future possibilities for digital technofeminism—in and out of the classroom
Controls on Longitudinal Stream Profile Evolution in Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Full text linkCanyons in Guadalupe Mountains National Park are excellent locations to study the discrete boundary conditions that influence longitudinal channel profile evolution including climate, tectonics, hydrology, and lithology. The Guadalupe Mountain landscape records deep earth mantle processes in combination with surficial channel erosion and incision. Knickpoints and convex segments in longitudinal river profiles document impacts of climate change, tectonics, or surface processes. This study combines field observations with an analysis of longitudinal profile slopes and residual errors to evaluate how bedrock strength can be distinguished from features created by climate change, faulting, or subsidence in Pine Springs and McKittrick Canyons within Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Rock strength values averaging 62.3 ± 6.5 were observed in the field along active bedrock channels. Channel morphometries were described using digital elevation models, and Flint’s Law was applied to reaches of the stream channels to calculate mean concavity and distribution of channel steepness indexes. Knickpoints in longitudinal profiles corresponded to three stream confluences and one normal fault. Correlations between rock strength and channel steepness varied between two study canyons in the park. Significant correlations between rock strength and stream gradient were observed in five hydrologically simple tributary channels. Disparity in statistical results might be related to upstream drainage area variations and stream capture associated with local faults and rock strength differences. Variable conditions constrained within the small area of Guadalupe Mountains National Park highlight the uncertainties that influence larger scale regional models
Teaching in Authentic Ways: Exhibit Work and Student Curators in Special Collections
Full text linkEngaging students in exhibit work offers them a chance to learn new skills and grow as scholars while producing a tangible and public-facing project outcome from their coursework. From learning to communicate complex ideas to making research connections between rare and primary sources, exhibit curation relies on building research skills, sharpening writing and communication techniques, and developing critical thinking skills. Pushing and refining ideas is an essential part of the iterative process of research, and exhibit curation invites students to learn this practice in a real-world, project-based way. More specifically, it requires students to read, review, compare, and analyze more content than they can showcase, meaning they learn how to edit, select the most relevant resources, and experience the kinds of background and supplemental reading that form the backbone of detailed research endeavors. Through the design and layout process they also learn about the impacts of visual communication in addition to written communication. This talk showcases two semester-long projects that incorporated exhibit curation and design into undergraduate classes, making it the central project around which all coursework was framed. It will highlight successes, challenges, and outcomes that arose for students and through the deep collaborations of librarians and faculty
Building Digital Archives with Minimal Staffing: Making the Case for Digitization
No full textDigitization can help bring your archival materials to life by making them accessible and easy to use in a variety of projects and settings. There are many reasons to start digitizing your institution’s holdings, and likely just as many stakeholders who want an institution\u27s archival materials digitized. If you do not have a digitization department, this work can seem daunting—even if you do have a digitization department, you might have good reasons to supplement their output. This webinar covered getting started on digitization projects in the archives when you do not have many resources.
Sessions included information on equipment recommendations, digitization workflows, metadata, and platforms and tools for managing, accessing, and working with digitized or born digital materials. During the webinar, presenters discussed advocating for resources, project planning, and documentation, along with demonstrations.
This session included getting administrators interested in supporting digitization including: • Project scope and realistic expectations• Developing accurate timeframes• Managing expectations and production promises• Compelling project proposals• Alumni and other interest groups• Documentation, Statistic