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This study explores the variety of understandings of literacy, or conceptions of literacy, that exist among graduate instructors in the fields of English literature, rhetoric and composition, and creative writing in their first semester of teaching and what the implications are for having these conceptions, particularly with regard to their teaching. I collected two kinds of data from seven participants who were enrolled in a fall 2010 composition practicum at a large, public university in the Northeast. The data I elicited included interviews of participants in which they examine their own writing, an assignment ranking activity, observations of participants as they teach composition, and field notes I collected from the Practicum course meetings. I also collected artifacts from their work in the Practicum course and their teaching, including two drafts of a literacy autobiography that they wrote for the practicum and marked-up student paper drafts from the composition course they were teaching. Following the work of Michael W. Smith and Dorothy Strickland, I parsed the data by content units. Using Peter Goggin's categories for defining literacy from Professing Literacy in Composition Studies, I coded data using the qualitative data management system Atlas.ti according to seven conceptions: literacy for personal growth, literacy for personal growth, social/critical literacy, critical activist literacy, cultural literacy, functionalist literacy, and instrumental literacy. My analysis of the data reveals that graduate instructors came to their first semester of teaching with powerful preconceptions about why people read, write, and engage in other literacy activities and that these positions deeply affected their teaching. I also contend that although all of the graduate instructors had complex, multifaceted conceptions of literacy, each graduate instructor had one primary conception, which acted as a kind of lens through which every other conception was viewed and filtered. This primary conception functioned as the graduate instructors' terministic screen for viewing literacy, even when other conceptions were at play. Finally, given the fact that all of the graduate instructors received the same syllabus for the composition course they were teaching, the extent to which each one of them was able to inscribe their own ideas about teaching and literacy onto the course was surprising and points to the power of these literacy orientations, even in the face of competing conceptions communicated to them in their practicum. / English

This study investigated principal leadership in building a culture of disciplinary literacy. Previous studies investigated and validated the uniqueness of disciplinary literacy (Moje, 2015; Shanahan and Shanahan, 2008; Spires et al., 2018). Case studies on individual schools looked at literacy within the context of a specific school community (Faulkner, 2012; Francois, 2014; Gilrane et al., 2008). These studies, although they touched on teacher and principal leadership, did not focus on leadership at the core of creating a community of literacy. This study focused on the essential actions and dispositions of principals who successfully built and maintained a culture of disciplinary literacy. Eight principals from a large, suburban Northeastern school district were interviewed to ascertain their actions. Open coding with constant comparative analysis yielded common themes, dispositions, and actions of principals. Common leadership themes emerged as principals discussed leading disciplinary literacy: demonstrate why change is needed, recognize that leading literacy requires a plan, link the district priorities to disciplinary literacy, distribute leadership, provide targeted professional development, and utilize established resources. What emerged from this study was that one person alone could not build a culture of literacy within a school. Rather, changing instructional practices to put literacy at the center of learning requires the community to embrace literacy. As school leaders look to improve equitable outcomes for all students, they must look at the variation in instructional practices across the disciplines and ensure that literacy research-based practices are being used across all content areas. Change of this magnitude is a multiyear shift with student learning at the center of all instructional decisions. The complex task of leading instructional change requires a principal to learn about disciplinary literacy. If schools want equitable education for all students, principals must understand and place priority on disciplinary literacy. / 5 / This study investigated principal leadership in building a culture of disciplinary literacy. Disciplinary literacy is the ability to read, write, think, and discuss like an expert in the field. For example, classes with disciplinary literacy at the core would ask students to read like a scientist or write an original score like a musician. Previous studies investigated and validated the uniqueness of disciplinary literacy (Moje, 2015; Shanahan and Shanahan, 2008; Spires et al., 2018). Case studies on individual schools looked at literacy within the context of a specific school community (Faulkner, 2012; Francois, 2014; Gilrane et al., 2008). These studies did not focus on principal leadership at the core of creating culture of disciplinary literacy. This study focused on the essential actions and dispositions of eight principals who built a culture of disciplinary literacy in each of their secondary schools. Common leadership themes emerged as principals discussed leading disciplinary literacy: demonstrate why change is needed, recognize that leading literacy requires a plan, link the district priorities to disciplinary literacy, distribute leadership, provide targeted professional development, and utilize established resources. As school leaders look to improve equitable outcomes for all students, they must look how literacy is taught in the disciplines and ensure that students have an opportunity to learn the real-life practices of professionals in the field. The complex task of leading instructional change requires a principal to learn about disciplinary literacy, so he or she can encourage teacher-experts to explicitly teach authentic disciplinary literacy skills in their classes.