This six week study investigated six urban elementary teachers educational beliefs in regards to teaching writing, comparing their personal histories as writers with their self-reported beliefs on writing and teaching writing, with that of their teacher practices. A further analysis examined how closely aligned their teacher practices were to research-validated practices. During this ethnographic case study, three questions were explored. These questions were: (a) How do teachers personal histories with writing inform their beliefs regarding writing in general, as well as their beliefs on teaching writing?, (b) How do teachers educational beliefs in regards to teaching writing inform their instructional decisions?, and (c) What impact do teachers personal histories with writing and their educational beliefs in regards to teaching writing have on how closely aligned their teacher practices are to research-validated practices? The participants in this study were six primary grade teachers, a first, second, and third grade teacher respectively, from two Title 1 schools in neighboring school districts.
This ethnographic case study followed the Developmental Research Sequence Method, an ethnographic method of analysis designed by James Spradley (1980), in his book The Participant Observer. The data collected included written autobiographies concerning the teachers histories as writers, interviews, and classroom observations. There was evidence to suggest that teachers histories with writing informed some general held beliefs regarding writing, as well as beliefs regarding teaching writing. There was an indication that the histories and beliefs then informed the teachers instructional decisions in the classroom and how closely aligned those practices were to current, research-validated practices.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-10222012-094356 |
| Date | 31 October 2012 |
| Creators | Stanley, Shalanda |
| Contributors | Cheek, Earl, Monroe, Pamela, Blanchard, Pamela, Mitchell, Roland |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-10222012-094356/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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