Through our research, interactions, and experiences as teacher educators with young children and their families, various types of family support are provided in the teaching and learning processes in rural communities. A common theme reported within the landscape of rural communities is to connect families and their children with schools that use effective community partnerships and collaborations. Cheatham and Santos (2011) claims that, “a critical component in increasing parental involvement is effective collaboration between teacher and family” (p. 76). Across the nation, usual requests for parental and collaborative support in most school environments takes on a variety of forms – from parent teacher conferences, school governance actions, school program events, volunteering, and an endless number of other engaging activities. In remote and underserved areas, “Rural schools can provide an important social and cultural function for the area’s residents as well, drawing community members together from a wide geographic area” (Corrigan, 2013, p.49). On the other end of the spectrum, schools in rural communities often have inadequate technology usage, lack instructional resources, and the inability to disseminate information in a timely manner on issues concerning education, healthcare, economic development and sustainability, and limited professional development for teachers and parents. In 2017, the College of Education at North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University, partnered with “North Carolina State Employees’ Credit Union Foundation” to financially support 10 pre-service teacher candidates as summer interns. The interns completed 10 weeks of service learning experiences in rural and underserved communities. The overarching goals for the interns was to develop service learning immersion experiences and produce authentic artifacts for children and families with support from various community agencies in rural and underserved counties across North Carolina. The conceptual framework for this collaborative service learning internship program consisted of three methodology phases: Phase I. Orientation and Leadership for the Future. A leadership team provided orientation sessions for all participants and selected the interns and different educational partners from various rural environments. Phase II. Service Learning Immersion Experiences with Blended Research Activities. Interns developed service learning immersion plans and implemented a series of intentional service and research experiences based on the needs of schools serving families, children and community agencies. The interns utilized technology and evidence-base activities to meet the project’s goals. Each intern had a mentor that supervised the diverse service immersion and research-blended experiences. Phase III. Leadership Reflections and Next Steps. Interns and community partners assessed and evaluated the program effectiveness by means of surveys, questionnaires’ and follow-up discussions. Finally, qualitative and quantitative data was disseminated and the interns engaged in reflective presentations in their field of study. This presentation provides alternative strategies which focus on a teacher education internship program using service learning immersion experiences with established community partnerships specifically with schools and educational organizations in rural communities. This presentation also illustrates interns producing high quality service learning artifacts including technology-based products relative to student attendance, parents’ professional development, food pantries, summer backpacks and wellness initiatives to support the family and children needs in the community.

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abstract: This mixed methods study explores the work of five small writing communities formed within a university-based preservice English language arts writing methods course. Fifteen preservice English language arts teachers took part in the study and participated across five peer writing groups. The study shares the instructional design of the course as well as the writing activities and practices that took place within the groups over the course of one 15-week semester. The study draws on Wenger’s (1998, 2009) theory of communities of practice as well as activity theory (Engeström,1999, 2001; Russell, 1997) to understand the social supports, practices, and learning activities that assisted these preservice teachers as writers and as teachers of writing. The qualitative data included writing surveys, writing samples, and participant interviews as well as pre and post writing self-efficacy surveys as quantitative data. This study documents the affordances and constraints of peer writing groups in methods courses for preservice English language arts teachers and how these groups may influence their identities and practices as writers and as teachers of writing. These findings provide insight into ways we might strengthen the preparation of English language arts preservice teachers as teachers of writing and build communities of practice within preservice training courses and programs. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2019

In California, 55 teacher preparation programs have embedded a standardized four-task teaching performance assessment (CalTPA) as a requirement for initial teacher licensure. Guided by the frameworks of transactional experience and the theory of formative assessment, this phenomenological study addressed the meaning and role ascribed to the CalTPA by those who complete it. Research questions examined participants' perceptions of their CalTPA experience with respect to preparation, completion of the tasks, feedback, remediation, activities between tasks, and overall experience Data were collected through 3 semi-structured interviews of 8 participants who had successfully completed the CalTPA tasks, chosen by reputational case selection from 1 teacher preparation program. Data were coded for elements of process and overarching themes using inductive descriptive coding in 2 cycles, beginning with discrete codes and then grouping those into themes. Results indicated that the CalTPA played a significant role in the development of completers. Themes included common process elements, emotions, perceptions of tasks, key success factors, and overall influence of the experience. Implications for positive social change include informing stakeholders in teacher preparation programs on best policies and practices to support the development of pre-service teachers into effective in-service teachers, whose future students will benefit from improved educational quality.

This is a qualitative, mixed-methods study that focuses on the experiences of pre-service teachers in an art methods for non-majors class. The purpose of this study is to describe the process of transforming pre-service elementary teachers’ apprehensive feelings and experiences about creating art. An examination of play, Thirdspace pedagogy, and contextual exploration within a humanistic approach all inform this study. The dataset exposed themes of apprehension and reluctance to art-making, community building, preconceptions about art and art-making, exploration, non-prescribed outcomes, learning from mistakes, and identity. The results of this study show evidence that explorative methods can alter the conceptions and approaches to art of pre-service teachers in an art methods for non-majors course. As a researcher, it is my hope that this study will impact art educators’ views of teaching art methods courses to non-majors.

Previous research indicates that pre- and in-service teachers are not receiving adequate training to implement data-informed instructional decision making. This is problematic given the promise this decision making process holds for improving instruction and student learning. At the same time, many educators do not see the value of different types of assessment data (e.g. accountability data), and lack the knowledge, skills, and confidence to use available data to guide instructional decisions. The purpose of this study was to conduct a formative evaluation of an online training designed to improve Iowa pre- and in-service teachers’ perceptions about data, data knowledge, skills and confidence working with data. The training along with a data literacy test was administered online to 29 pre-service teachers from two Iowa universities. A pre-post design was used to assess changes in these data constructs. Results indicated that participants’ perceptions about external accountability data improved significantly after completing the training, as did their confidence working with data. However, most participants’ data performance were relatively stable pre-post training. A content analysis of responses pre-post revealed qualitative changes in some participants’ thinking about data. Participants rated the value, effectiveness and quality of the training and complementary materials. Ratings were mostly positive, with participants signifying the training and materials as valuable and effective for enhancing their understanding of data as well as their confidence working with data. Participants also identified opportunities for improving the training. The author concludes with a discussion of the results, implications for future research, and how the study adds to the existing literature and informs practice.

Over the last five years, there has been an increased number of computers in schools and teachers' colleges in Jamaica. In addition, recently revised national policy documents have indicated the need to infuse technology into the curricula of all schools. Despite these investments in computers, however, there has been little corresponding development in training teachers to use computers and emerging technologies as teaching learning tools. The purposes of the study were three-fold: (a) to describe the current state of technology integration in Jamaica's teacher training programs (b) assess the extent to which teachers' college faculty and pre-service teachers perceived themselves as prepared to teach with computers, as well as their perceived computer proficiency; and (c) to use data gathered in the study to inform an action plan for integrating technology into Jamaica's teacher training programs. To gather required data, a survey design was employed because the study required collection of data from a large number of persons located in diverse sections of the island. Data were collected from three distinct groups of participants in three teachers' colleges in Jamaica. These included six teachers' college administrators--two principals and four vice-principals, 121 teachers' college faculty, and 268 final-year pre-service teachers. Data were gathered through interviews with college administrators and IT faculty, questionnaires administered to college faculty and pre-service teachers, and focus group discussions with pre-service teachers. The results indicate that, in general, teacher training programs in Jamaica have not systematically incorporated technology in the college curricula. In addition, to a large extent, teachers' college faculty and pre-service teachers did not perceive themselves as prepared to teach with computers. These respondents also reported low levels of proficiency with various computer tools. In response to the urgent need to integrate technology into Jamaica's teachers' college curricula, the author proposes a new VIBES conceptual framework as an action plan specifically designed to facilitate technology integration into this setting. VIBES is comprised of five components: Vision, Infrastructure, Behaviour, Experience, and Support, hence the acronym. Each component of VIBES is required in teacher training programs if technology is to be systematically incorporated into the college curricula.

As students begin secondary school, they are charged with learning more content, at a faster pace and with increased pressure from accountability measures (Dreschler, Shumaker, & Woodruff, 2004). If secondary students' reading difficulties are not identified and remedied, the gap between struggling readers and their peers widens every academic year (Edmonds, Vaughn, Wexler, Rutebuch, Cable, Tackett, and Schnakenberg, 2009). The task of reading instruction primarily falls on English teachers, but Strickland and Alvermann (2004) note that while secondary English Teachers do have more preparation in reading instruction compared to other content area teachers, they are not as prepared as they need to be and do not provide reading instruction even when given the opportunity. Additionally, little attention has been given to how teacher should be taught to teach reading (Moats & Foorman, 2003) and even less attention has been given to reading instruction at the secondary level (Edmonds, et al., 2009). Pre-service teacher's beliefs influence how they take in information presented in their teacher education program and classroom instructional decisions (Holt-Reynolds, 1992; Richardson, 2003). However few studies have examined English education pre-service teachers beliefs about teaching struggling readers at the secondary level. The purpose of this study is to describe and explain secondary English education pre-service teachers' beliefs about teaching struggling readers using Photovoice. This study uses a combination of constructivism, Lakoff and Johnson's concept of metaphor, and interpretivism as the theoretical framework. Research methods examining beliefs often involve using surveys or interviews (i.e. Sadaf, Newby, & Ertmer, 2012; Sandvik, van Dall, & Ader, 2013). However, these methods may not provide as representational responses as a method that allows participants to respond through multiple mediums and through metaphor. This study uses a modified version of the Photovoice method to examine secondary English education pre-service teachers' beliefs. Because Photovoice has not been used to examine beliefs of this population, an additional aim of this study is to examine Photovoice as a reflection method. The research questions guiding this study are: 1. What are English education pre-service teacher beliefs' about teaching struggling adolescent readers? 2. What are English education pre-service teacher beliefs about themselves as readers? 3. In what ways, if any, did Photovoice facilitate reflection on beliefs about reading instruction? Findings suggest English education pre-service teachers had not considered struggling readers as part of their classrooms, did not understand the complexities of the reading process, held a deficit view of struggling readers, assumed a teacher's identity, saw reading as an experience/event, found the discussion in the Photovoice process helpful in reflection, Photovoice helped address some issues with teacher reflection, and Photovoice helped develop as well as capture beliefs. Implications for teacher education are discussed.