abstract: In 1976 Florynce R. Kennedy, a United States lawyer, activist, speaker, and author famously stated that “anybody with the brains and energy to become a teacher ought to want to become something better.” With these stigmas surrounding the teaching profession, it becomes a wonder that anybody decides to become a teacher, or even more difficult, stay in the profession. The state of Arizona, specifically, has reached landmark attrition rates and dissatisfaction surrounding lack of education funding. The stories of those leaving have been well publicized over the last year, but what about those who choose to stay? This dissertation examines the counter narrative behind the teacher attrition crisis by focusing on the stories of the teachers in the secondary English Language Arts (ELA) classroom who have decided to remain in the profession. Through narrative inquiry, this study examines how teachers narrate their experiences as teachers and how those constructs may have contributed to their retention. This study collected data from four high school English teachers through two in-depth interviews, classroom observations, a self-made teacher journey concept map, and teaching artifacts in the form of a teaching experience “time capsule.” Through this data, the participants’ stories highlighting their journey to teaching, current careers, and insights on retention were re- storied then thematically coded and analyzed. Findings are in essence the stories themselves, but also reveal how these teachers narrate their career, societal impacts, quality of life, as well as what motivating factors inspire them to stay in the classroom and teach. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2019

This thesis critiques A Statement on English for Australian Schools (1994) for what it does, and what it does not, say in respect of literature education. It argues the need to reconceptualise the way literature education is thought to benefit adolescent readers. The initial discussion identifies the issues which are raised in that document. This yields the need to redefine literature education as Human Literacy. It does so on the basis of a theoretical exploration of reader and text. Human Literacy is able to define reader response to show certain orientations which have either been left out, misunderstood or inadequately portrayed in A Statement. This thesis places Human Literacy within real world educational aims of homo economicus as well as homo sapiens sapiens. Such a context recognises liberal and utilitarian value positions, and is able to balance these in a manner which A Statement does not. In placing Human Literacy within educational philosophies of competing models of practice, literature education becomes nested within a more comprehensive understanding of education. Human Literacy provides a way by which educational value of literature is maximised. However, this projects a paradigm shift for A Statement, by identifying a liberal neglect through flawed assumptions, omissions, and contradictions. The presence of these in A Statement inhibit literature from working to best advantage. Human Literacy provides a more comprehensive way by which current theory is accommodated within an English curriculum / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This paper is a study of written feedback in English teaching in an upper secondary school. The research is a comparative study of the teachers’ and the students’ experiences working with written feedback. The intention of the research is to study the teachers’ usage of feedback on written work in their English teaching and how the students and the teachers experience the feedback in relation to the students’ development in the English language.</p><p>The study is based on national and international research regarding the usage of feedback in teaching. The method for the study is qualitative and involves interviews of four teachers and four students.</p><p>The results of the study reveal that written feedback is individually adapted and used when assignments are finished. Students who are interested and motivated to learn English are provided with more feedback. Written feedback is combined with oral feedback to make sure the feedback is understood. The written feedback is often provided combined with a grade. Students are of the opinion that feedback develops their skills in English while teachers claim that they do not detect the connection between written feedback and student improvement.</p><p>In conclusion students do not get the opportunity to improve their skills due to the absence of process writing which means that students are responsible for whether or not the feedback is acted on. Students who are good in English improve their English more since the teachers provide them with more feedback than the weaker students. The combination of feedback and grades results in the students not paying attention to the feedback.</p>

This paper is a study of written feedback in English teaching in an upper secondary school. The research is a comparative study of the teachers’ and the students’ experiences working with written feedback. The intention of the research is to study the teachers’ usage of feedback on written work in their English teaching and how the students and the teachers experience the feedback in relation to the students’ development in the English language. The study is based on national and international research regarding the usage of feedback in teaching. The method for the study is qualitative and involves interviews of four teachers and four students. The results of the study reveal that written feedback is individually adapted and used when assignments are finished. Students who are interested and motivated to learn English are provided with more feedback. Written feedback is combined with oral feedback to make sure the feedback is understood. The written feedback is often provided combined with a grade. Students are of the opinion that feedback develops their skills in English while teachers claim that they do not detect the connection between written feedback and student improvement. In conclusion students do not get the opportunity to improve their skills due to the absence of process writing which means that students are responsible for whether or not the feedback is acted on. Students who are good in English improve their English more since the teachers provide them with more feedback than the weaker students. The combination of feedback and grades results in the students not paying attention to the feedback.

In October 2009, United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared in a speech to Columbia University’s Teacher’s College that many university teacher preparation programs are outdated and must undergo major reform in order to produce high quality teachers needed to improve academic achievement for all students (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). Duncan stated that “America’s university-based teacher preparation programs need revolutionary change – not evolutionary tinkering” (U.S. Department of Education, 2009, p.2). To improve student success in the classroom, policy makers must understand the key role well-trained teachers play in achieving this goal (Boyd, Lankford, Clothfelter, Ladd & Vigdor, 2004; Loeb, Rockoff, & Wyckoff, 2007; Provasnik & Young, 2003; Rice, 2003; Rivers & Sanders, 2002). This study examined the specific aspects of an English teacher preparation program that beginning teachers implement and rely on in their classrooms on a consistent basis. In addition, this study examines how administrators/department chairs view the pedagogical competence of graduates from the English teacher preparation program. The research questions that guided this study are: (1) How do beginning teachers perceive their preparation for teaching in the urban English Language Arts classroom? (2) How do school administrators perceive the teaching ability of graduates? The participants were graduates of Southern Urban University’s English Education Master’s level program from 2005 – 2008. Data sources included Beginning Teacher Questionnaires, Administrator/Department Chair Questionnaires, in-depth phenomenological interviews with select teachers, observations of select teachers’ practice, “card sort” activity/interview, teacher artifacts and photographs. Data were analyzed inductively using the constant comparative method to determine categories and themes (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Trustworthiness was established through research methods that confirm credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). This study provides insight into how to better educate high quality teachers through the examination of an English teacher preparation programs’ daily effect and impact on their graduates and an examination of school administrators’/department chairs perception of these graduates’ performance in the classroom.

This study examines the effects of the CSCOPE prescribed curriculum on four English language arts teachers. CSCOPE, created for implementation in Texas public schools, is directly aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Research objectives included the effect of implementation on experienced teachers and how it affected their general or personal teaching efficacy, curricular planning, and attitudes about the profession. A qualitative case study research method guided this study. Purposeful sampling was used in order to ensure that the subjects selected would be able to best encompass a true experience of the curriculum being explored. The subjects for these case studies were four teachers from four different school districts in Texas. The four teachers were in schools that had implemented the CSCOPE curriculum at the time of the interviews. Each teacher was required to have three years minimum of teaching experience prior tothe implementation of CSCOPE. In actuality, they all had significantly more experience, ranging from a teacher in her 8th year to a teacher in her 29th year. Because each teacher worked in a different school and had varying experiences, their stories were different, but similarities certainly existed. The similarities of their experiences became apparent and produced three major themes that emerged from this study: 1) CSCOPE is terrific in theory but ineffective in practice, 2) Good teachers teach in spite of CSCOPE, not with it, 3) CSCOPE makes too many false assumptions about students. The findings indicate that while the CSCOPE curriculum is an idea that would work in an idealized educational system, because the teacher is the variable and students have different needs, CSCOPE is an unrealistic mandate for all Texas schools. Additionally, problems arise with gifted education, and Advanced Placement, and other high-performing programs. CSCOPE does not address any differentiation for gifted students. In some schools, due to enrollment levels or scheduling conflicts, all levels are included in one classroom. To mandate a teacher use one curriculum system and serve all students is unrealistic.

The purpose of this study is to understand the factors behind Chinese student’s English-speaking proficiency. The hypothesis formed to answer this issue follows: “Large factors influencing Chinese students’ English speech proficiency is an examination-oriented education system, degree of childhood exposure to English and motivational, stress-free learning environments.”  Data has been collected by sending out an anonymous online questionnaire to Chinese students at Swedish Universities, asking about their learning experiences. A criterion for participation was to have taken either the IELTS or the TOEFL. Stephen Krashen’s theories on second language acquisition was used as source material because of its reliability and well-established ideas. Additionally, previous research and data from the IELTS or the TOEFL has also been included. The participants were also asked to include their results from the IELTS or the TOEFL for the purpose of comparing the different categories of reading, writing, speaking and listening ability, with focus placed on factors affecting speech proficiency. Our study found some support for our hypothesis. The results showed that the Chinese English education system places a lot of attention on reading which might deprioritize other parts of language learning such as speaking. The system also promotes examinations, which shapes curriculum into focusing on test results. In short, the testing-based system influence the way students are taught. Participants considering “speaking” to be highly important, but many received low speaking scores.  Our questionnaire showed that many students experienced nervousness when speaking English, the reason for this might be that they have not received comprehensible input and sufficient time to acquire the language, meaning that they are not yet ready to produce natural speech.  Ideally, a larger sample of participants, more survey questions and an in-depth interview with the students would have been preferable and resulted in more reliable results, which can be taken into consideration for future research.

abstract: This research shares findings from a qualitative case study featuring pre-service teachers enrolled in an undergraduate English methods course at a large public university. The participants engaged in a semester long course focused on different critical pedagogies, such as culturally sustaining pedagogy (Paris & Alim, 2014), funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992), and multicultural education (hooks, 1992). The purpose of the study was to determine what effect the study of critical pedagogies would have on the pre-service teachers’ design of a civic action unit for a secondary English language arts context. In terms of which critical pedagogies influenced the design of the civic action units, how the critical pedagogies were adapted for specific contexts, and how the critical pedagogies are negotiated with other systemic educational forces. The data collection occurred over the final six weeks of the course and in a follow-up interview a month later. Data were drawn from the following sources: (1) participant’s weekly reflections, (2) audio recorded class discussions, (3) researcher field notes, (4) participant’s civic action units, and (5) follow-up interviews. The participant reflections, civic action units, and interviews went through three rounds of coding and were categorized to identify salient findings. The audio recordings and field notes were referenced to provide contextual details. These findings show that when pre-service teachers engage in an ongoing dialogue about critical pedagogies, they design civic action units that apply a variety of critical pedagogies for a unique context while accounting for different systemic forces including educational standards, colleagues, and parents and policies. For the course, the participants were able to pick their unit’s focus and were responsible for the unit’s design. The participants designed units that engaged students in consciousness-raising experiences, and created opportunities for students to critically reflect on their world and take action to improve it. As a result, the participants in this study all reported that they planned on using their civic action unit in their future classrooms. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2020

Many local and national teaching associations and teacher preparation programs have called for the integration of LGBTQ+ Young Adult literature in the secondary English language arts classroom. However, in practice, classroom teachers continue to rely on classic, canonical works which often represent a white, cisgender male, heterosexual point of view. In choosing these canonical texts, the identities and experiences of the spectrum of LGBTQ+ students are excluded. The effects of this exclusion are harmful to both LGBTQ+ students and their peers. The purpose of this thesis is twofold: 1) explore how LGBTQ+ YA literature is currently being used in secondary English Language Arts classrooms and 2) provide a list of exemplary LGBTQ+ texts that teachers can integrate into their curriculum. In exploring these topics, I discuss various teacher hesitations in using LGBTQ+ texts in their classroom as well as successful ways teachers are currently integrating these texts into their curriculum. At the conclusion, I provide recommendations for novel selections and classroom appropriacy.

This study is concerned with the history of the Student Use of English examination at North Texas State University in Denton, Texas. Conceived in 1944 and implemented in 1946, the examination serves as a measure to insure that marginal English students demonstrate a minimal proficiency in composition evidenced by a three and a half page essay written in topics related to their major fields.