Upcoming Projects
Critical Conversations
Pre-service and In-service Teacher Identity Work
Dr. Melissa Schieble and I are in our third year of a study focused on the ways in which middle and high school ELA teachers foster critical conversations in their classrooms. In an inquiry group, we meet monthly to analyze transcripts from 3 teachers and engage in discussion about how to better enter and maintain discussions focused on power and privilege. We have an article coming out in English Education in 2018 related to how we have facilitated critical conversations with our preservice teachers (Critical Conversations in English Education: Discursive Strategies for Examining How Teacher and Student Identities Shape Classroom Discourse). We are currently working on a book proposal for future and current ELA teachers who are interested in learning more about how to facilitate such conversations in their classrooms with literature.
Dr. Melissa Schieble and I are in our third year of a study focused on the ways in which middle and high school ELA teachers foster critical conversations in their classrooms. In an inquiry group, we meet monthly to analyze transcripts from 3 teachers and engage in discussion about how to better enter and maintain discussions focused on power and privilege. We have an article coming out in English Education in 2018 related to how we have facilitated critical conversations with our preservice teachers (Critical Conversations in English Education: Discursive Strategies for Examining How Teacher and Student Identities Shape Classroom Discourse). We are currently working on a book proposal for future and current ELA teachers who are interested in learning more about how to facilitate such conversations in their classrooms with literature.
The Writing Lives of Teens
Youth Identity Work
I am working with colleagues in Texas, Kentucky, and Oregon to explore the writing lives of teens. Specifically, we are interested in how teens construct and enact writing identities in and out of school. Currently, we have published one article about how teens' sexual orientation shaped writing practices in a summer camp in Ubiquity: The Journal of Literacy, Literature, and the Arts (Youth disrupting traditional notions of gender identity and sexual orientation through writing).
I am working with colleagues in Texas, Kentucky, and Oregon to explore the writing lives of teens. Specifically, we are interested in how teens construct and enact writing identities in and out of school. Currently, we have published one article about how teens' sexual orientation shaped writing practices in a summer camp in Ubiquity: The Journal of Literacy, Literature, and the Arts (Youth disrupting traditional notions of gender identity and sexual orientation through writing).
Published Research
Pre-service Teacher Identity Work
In 2018, Melissa Schieble, Mark Meacham and I co-wrote the article Critical conversations in English education: discursive strategies for examining how teacher and student identities shape classroom discourse for English Education. Read the abstract if you are interested. This research examined how preservice teachers in a university classroom used discourse analysis of video-recorded lessons to explore how identity markers such as race shaped classroom interactions. Findings from the study indicated that preservice teachers employed 10 different discursive strategies to engage in critical conversations. Identifying these discursive strategies offered insight into preservice teachers’ entry points for engaging in such dialogue. From that information, we offer potential narrative starters and questions that educators could use to deepen critical conversations in their English education courses. Pre-service Teacher Identity Work
In 2017, Holly Hungerford-Kresser and I wrote the article: Political tensions: English teaching, standards, and postsecondary readiness" for English Teaching: Practice & Critique. Read our abstract below if you are interested. Purpose The purpose of this paper was to highlight ways two novice secondary English teachers negotiated the politics of college and career readiness along with the literacy needs of students, in the age of accountability. Design/methodology/approach This three-year longitudinal qualitative case study focused on two participants in English teacher preparation and their first two years in the classroom. Findings The findings focus on participants’ definitions of college and career readiness as it pertains to their English Language Arts classrooms. Next, the focus is on two themes: tensions these novice teachers experienced as they attempted to build classrooms focused on postsecondary readiness, and the ways in which they worked to bridge the gap between their definitions of college and career readiness and the realities of their classrooms. Research limitations/implications Connections among high stakes testing environments, postsecondary readiness and literacy teacher education are important to the field. Studying the experiences of novice teachers can fill a present gap at the intersection of these concepts. Practical implications Curriculum in teacher education should introduce standards, as well as provide a platform for negotiating and critiquing them. Three focus areas to help pre-service teachers mitigate tensions between minimum skills assessments, college readiness and literacy are personal experience, collaboration and reflective partnerships. Originality/value There has been little to no research done on the tensions between preparing all students to be college and career ready and the minimum skills based priorities that govern many school systems and its impact on novice teachers. This classroom reality is important to literacy teacher education. In-service Teacher Identity Work
In 2016, Melody Zoch, Joy Myers, Claire Lambert, Colleen Fairbanks and I co-wrote the article "Reimagining instructional practices: exploring the identity work of teachers of writing" for Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education. Read our abstract below if you are interested. This article provides a cross-case analysis of three teachers who participated in a two-week professional development (PD) on the teaching of writing that addressed their own identities as writers. This is an area that is commonly overlooked and how teachers view themselves as writers may play an important role in how they help their students to think of themselves as writers, may shape the conversations they have about writing, and may influence the kinds of writing opportunities they provide. Drawing on an identity perspective, the findings illustrate how the opportunity to construct and enact writing identities shaped how the teachers understood the teaching of writing. As they engaged in the writing process, collaborated in writing groups, and conversed in writing conferences with student writers in a weeklong writing camp, teachers reimagined their practice to include more nuanced writing instruction that focused on the capabilities of students as writers. Pre-service Teacher Identity Work
In 2015, Melissa Schieble and I co-wrote the article, "A discourse analytic approach to video analysis of teaching: Aligning desired identities with practice" in Journal of Teacher Education. Read our abstract below if you are interested. The authors present findings from a qualitative study of an experience that supports teacher candidates to use discourse analysis and positioning theory to analyze videos of their practice during student teaching. The research relies on the theoretical concept that learning to teach is an identity process. In particular, teachers construct and enact their identities during moment-to-moment interactions with students, colleagues, and parents. Using case study methods for data generation and analysis, the authors demonstrate how one participant used the analytic tools to trace whether and how she enacted her preferred teacher identities (facilitator and advocate) during student teaching. Implications suggest that using discourse analytic frameworks to analyze videos of instruction is a generative strategy for developing candidates’ interactional awareness that impacts student learning and the nature of classroom talk. Overall, these tools support novice teachers with the difficult task of becoming the teacher they desire to be. Youth Identity Work
In 2013, I published "You Need Some Laugh Bones!" Leveraging AAL in a High School English Classroom in the Journal of Literacy Research in regards to youth's identity work. Read the abstract below if you're interested or listen to the podcast. The purpose of this study was to examine how a White teacher (Gina) responded to African American Language (AAL) in ways that situated students as valuable members of a high school English classroom. This 5-month qualitative study in a 10th grade classroom drew from positioning theory and discourse analysis to make sense of classroom interactions with AAL. Findings show that although Gina was not fluent in AAL, she leveraged it in ways that positioned students as members of the literacy community by doing the following: (a) opening opportunities for students to use AAL in ways that contributed to the community, (b) not dismissing or ridiculing the use of AAL, and (c) maintaining a classroom of respect when AAL was used in ways that disrespected that community. Implications from the study suggest that teaching high school English is not only about knowledge of content or best practices but also about leveraging multiple languages in ways that position students as participants of a literacy community. Youth Identity Work
In 2014, Ye He, Colleen Fairbanks, and I wrote "Reframing Literacy Practices for English Learners in US Schools" that was published in English Education. Here is the abstract to learn more. The growing numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse students, including English learners, in US K–12 settings, pose unique challenges and opportunities for English educators. While there have been evolving efforts in policy, research, and classroom practices to support culturally and linguistically diverse learners' development, a broadened understanding of their cultural lives and more global and contextualized perspectives are needed. Building upon a cosmopolitan perspective, this article explores the current policies, research, and practices related to language and literacy education for these students. Promising practices in English education in terms of strategies to promote world Englishes, multiliteracy and critical literacy practices are examined. Finally, recommendations for the development of policy and research that address a broader sociocultural understanding of culturally and linguistically diverse students and English education are also provided. Youth Identity Work
In 2014, Holly Hungerford and I wrote “'We gotta change first': Racial literacy in a high school English classroom" for the Journal of Language and Literacy. To learn more about it, read our abstract. Students need more opportunities to learn how to respond to and counter forms of everyday racism. This qualitative study addresses that need by investigating how one peer-led group engaged in dialogue about issues of race in regards to an eleventh-grade Language Arts assignment. A racial literacy perspective framed our analysis of three small group conversations. Findings suggest that dialogue in the small group fostered opportunities for students to engage in the following elements of racial literacy: a) hear and appreciate diverse and unfamiliar experiences; b) facilitate problem-solving with the community; and c) create opportunities to talk about race. Pre-service Teacher Identity Work
In 2013, Jeanie Reynolds and I wrote Lessons From a Preservice Teacher: Examining Missed Opportunities For Multicultural Education in an English Education Program published in Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research. This article was from teacher research in our courses in the English Education Program. From our interview with James, we realized that we missed several opportunities to integrate multicultural education into our curriculum. Although discussed theoretically, we needed to work on the weekly and consistent practices of challenging students to reveal how race and culture shaped their pedagogy as student teachers. As a result, this paper focuses on what James’s experiences taught us about those missed opportunities and related implications for our program and courses. Youth Identity Work
In 2012, Holly Hungerford Kressor and I published Positioning and the Discourses of Urban Education: A Latino Student’s University Experience in the Urban Review. Check out our abstract below. Based on data collected from a year-and-a-half-long qualitative research project, this case study examines the early college experiences and identity negotiations of one urban-schooled Latino participant as he navigated a predominately White state university in his hometown. Recognizing the university as a figured world, this study highlights two emblematic personal encounters that positioned him in inferior ways. It also offers a counter-example of a rhetoric professor who positioned him in positive ways and contributed to his academic success. Implications are framed in an argument for the inclusion of identity studies and positioning theory in order to better contextualize urban-schooled Latina/os’ early college experiences. Teacher Researcher Identity Work
In 2011, Gail Russell and I wrote “'Taking a cross-country journey with a world map'”: Examining the construction of practitioner researcher identities through one case study" that was published in Educational Action Research. Research about how teachers construct practitioner researcher identities is central to teacher education and professional development because it provides insight into how teachers continue to learn about and implement practices that meet the needs of their students. The paper explores how one fourth-grade teacher (Holly) constructed her practitioner researcher identities over two years. It draws upon data gathered from a year-long Teacher as Researcher course and a monthly practitioner researcher group (Triad Teacher Researchers) associated with a Southeastern university in the United States. In particular, this paper examines moments of tension when Holly was challenged to negotiate multiple identities in order to situate herself as a practitioner researcher within multiple contexts. Findings suggest that learning to 'become' a practitioner researcher is an identity process that involves moments of tension that are best supported through a collaborative community. The paper concludes with implications about how to facilitate spaces of identity work through various types of reflective practices in courses and groups. Youth Identity Work
In 2010, I wrote "Positioning students as readers and writers: An Examination of teacher’s improvised responses in a high school English classroom" that was published in English Education. Check out a description below. This 5-month qualitative study investigates how one high school English teacher situated students as readers and writers within daily, spontaneous classroom interactions. Specically, I draw onpositioning theory (van Langenhove & Harré, 1999) as a lens to analyze how the teacher navigatedimprovised responses during three separate literacy events to position students as engaged read-ers, capable writers, and members o a writing community. This approach construes that literacylearning is an identity process in which language is a powerul medium. Results rom the studysuggest that teachers must be sophisticated navigators o improvised interactions to acilitate theprocess o literacy learning. I oer suggestions to teacher educators about how to implement critical analysis o classroom interactions and improvised responses to improve literacy instruction. Teacher Researcher Identity Work
Vetter, A., Marty, M., Meyers, J. Wrobelski, H., Hitchcock, A. (2010). Opportunities and Obstacles: Thriving and Overcoming in Practitioner Research. In I.M. Saleh and M.S. Khine (Eds.), Practitioner Research in Teacher Education: Theory and Best Practices (pp. 239-264). New York: Peter Lang. Over the past decade there has been increased interest in teachers’ investigation of their own practice in their classrooms. Practitioner research is not a new concept in education and many teachers have attempted to enact and study their own practices with the view of improving teaching effectiveness. However, the findings of many of these studies are often not treated seriously by education scholars and policymakers, and not disseminated to others. In fact, the research process is perceived more as a professional development exercise for teachers to improve upon their own practices. Despite these criticisms, there is growing support for getting teachers to study their practices in the context of their own classrooms. This book has the potential of generating knowledge that not only informs and shapes teachers’ practices and professional development, but also makes the stakeholders aware of critical education issues. Distinct from action research, practitioner research provides the platform for teachers to try out ideas in practice as a means of improvement and of increasing knowledge about curriculum, teaching, and learning, and the ways of transforming them. |
Youth Identity Work
In 2017, Brooke Langston-Demott and I co-wrote the article "Youth disrupting traditional notions of gender identity and sexual orientation through writing" for Ubiquity: Journal of Literature, Literacy, and the Arts. Read the abstract if you are interested. The purpose of this study is to examine how three young writers (grades 9-12) used writing to disrupt traditional notions of gender and sexual orientation both in and out of school. Findings from the qualitative study suggest that the three case studies engaged in out-of-school writing that created characters that challenged gender and heteronormative stereotypes, used a wide range of texts to learn about gender, and sexual orientation, and articulated the complexities of writing about issues of social justice. In school, the young writers engaged in critical conversations and negotiated safe spaces. Implications suggest specific ways that educators can use writing as a space for students to explore these issues both in and out of the classroom. Youth Identity Work
In 2017, Joy Myers, Jeanie Reynolds, Adrienne Stumb, and Coley Barrier co-wrote the article "The daybook defense: how reflection fosters the identity work of readers and writers" for the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Read our abstract below if you are interested. Classrooms play a large part in shaping youths’ identities as readers and writers. Due to the pressures of high‐stakes exams, for example, reading and writing identities are often defined by a set of academic skills that students can or cannot perform. Such rigid concepts of readers and writers often cause secondary students to believe that their literacy abilities are fixed (i.e., as struggling readers). This study explores how reflective conversations through a daybook defense (an oral reflective assessment for a writer's notebook) opened opportunities for students to redefine what it meant to read and write in two English language arts classrooms. Findings suggest that reflections opened opportunities for students to articulate behaviors of reader/writer identities and express beliefs about reader/writer identities. Implications suggest that such reflective opportunities can provide spaces for students to rewrite reader/writer identities in the classroom. Pre-service Teacher Identity Work
In January 2016, Dr. Hartman, Dr. Reynolds, and I published a piece title Confronting unsuccessful practices: repositioning teacher identities in English education in Teaching Education. If you are interested in how teachers change practices that aren't working, take a look. Teacher education programs attempt to prepare preservice teachers for the various challenges faced in the classroom. One particular challenge new teachers face is how to handle unsuccessful practices. This paper argues that confronting ineffective practices require that teachers respond to complex and dynamic challenges, making change difficult when solutions are not readily available. Presenting data from case-study research, the paper uses an identity framework and positioning theory to explore how two novice teachers navigate moments of unsuccessful practice. Findings suggest that when teachers confronted ineffective practices they repositioned their teacher identities in ways that depended on the ideologies of their school. The paper concludes with implications about the importance of extending typical reflective practices of teacher education with video analysis that challenges students to examine how they enact teacher identities over time within the figured world of their school. Pre-service Teacher Identity Work
In October 2015, Melissa Schieble and I wrote a book titled Observing Teacher Identities through Video Analysis: Practice and Implications. Check it out if you are interested in using video analysis to improve teaching practices. Teaching is often seen as an identity process, with teachers constructing and enacting their identities through daily interactions with students, parents and colleagues. This volume explores how conducting video analysis helps teachers gain valuable perspectives on their own identities and improve classroom practice over time. This form of interactional awareness fosters reflection and action on creating classroom conditions that encourage equitable learning. The volume follows preservice English teachers as they examine video records of their practice during student teaching, and how the evidence impacts their development as literacy teachers of diverse adolescents. By applying an analytic framework to video analysis, the authors demonstrate how novice teachers use positioning theory to transform their own identity performance in the classroom. Education scholars, teachers and professional developers will greatly benefit from this unique perspective on teacher identity work. Pre-service Teacher Identity Work
In 2015, Mark Meacham, Melissa Schieble and I wrote a chapter called "Critical conversations in English Education: Using video analysis to discuss the identity positions of preservice teachers" for the book Reconceptualizing Literacy in the New Age of Multiculturalism and Pluralism: A Tribute to Peter Mosenthal. If you are interested in learning more about how to foster discussion in teacher education courses related to the ways in which gender, race, class, and sexuality shape how teachers teach, then take a look. Teacher Researcher Identity Work In 2014, Joy Myers and I published an article in The Teacher Educator titled Negotiating Ideologies About Teaching Writing in a High School English Classroom related to teacher researcher identities. Read our abstract below. More research needs to examine how novice teachers successfully negotiate multiple ideologies with others in ways that allow them to construct preferred teaching identities. This qualitative study addressed that need by investigating how one high school English teacher negotiated contradictory ideologies related to writing instruction at her school. In particular, the study examined how the teacher negotiated ideologies with allies, students, and practitioner researchers. Implications suggested that practitioner research groups could provide support for ideological negotiations and teacher identity construction. Educators would benefit from teacher education that explicitly discusses and supports methods of negotiation through case study and video analysis. Pre-service Teacher Identity Work
In 2014, I co-authored "Leveling the Field: Negotiating Positions of Power as a Preservice Teacher" in Action in Teacher Education with Mark Meacham and Melissa Schieble about fostering the identity work of pre-service teachers through video analysis. Read our abstract below if you're interested. Set in an undergraduate Secondary English Education Program, this qualitative study draws on theories of power, positioning, and identity to explore how positions of power affect teacher identity construction. Drawn from a larger study, the authors examine how one preservice teacher negotiated positions of power with students in ways that enabled and prohibited him from enacting his preferred teacher identities. In addition, the authors investigated how Jay engaged in reflection about those positions of power through a video analysis project that used discourse analysis and positioning theory. Ultimately, this study contributes to research in teacher education focused on how video analysis can be used to engage students in critical reflection about how positions of power affect teacher identities. Pre-service Teacher Identity Work
In 2012, I wrote Reframing Resistance in the English Classroom with Jeanie Reynolds, Katie Roquemore, Heather Beane, Katie Alred, and Amanda Rorrer in English Journal. Student resistance, rather than something to avoid, is something to understand and even encourage, as the experiences of two teacher educators and several preservice secondary teachers describe. We conclude with specific suggestions for classroom practice. Teacher Researcher Identity Work
In 2012, I published an article in Teacher Education Quarterly called "Teachers as architects of transformation: The change process of an Elementary school teacher in a practitioner researcher group." Check out the abstract below. Lasting change in teacher practice is difficult because it expects that teachers challenge and reconstruct deeply embedded practices and beliefs. Less research has examined teachers' change process to better understand what professional spaces foster teachers as they construct their own transformation. This qualitative study examined the following research question: What was the change process of one teacher researcher as she engaged in a year-long practitioner researcher group? Building on teacher education research that addresses teacher change the author focuses on three central theorists, Dewey, Schon, and Kegan, because of their focus on professional experience and critical reflection. Their theories of change imply that teachers must acquire new knowledge and put that new knowledge into practice to promote learning in their classrooms. The author uses the phrase architect of transformation to highlight elements of practitioner agency and identity shifts that changed how teachers see themselves, their students, and the world around them. This study draws upon case-study research methods and positioning theory to better understand Grace's (a fifth-grade teacher) change process in a practitioner research group for one year. Findings illustrate not only how she transformed but also how members of the group positioned Grace in ways that helped her imagine, prepare, and enact new positions in other environments. This study has several implications for professional development and teacher change. For Grace, change was a dynamic, interactive, and complex experience. Youth Identity Work
In 2011, I published "A writing assignment extended: An occasion for youth to construct writer identities" in Changing English. Read below for more information. Becoming a successful writer is an important skill for the young because it predicts academic success, supports and extends learning, provides opportunities to participate in civic and community life and fulfills expectations of the workforce to create clear and concise documents. Many secondary students in the US, however, struggle to gain basic academic literacy skills that meet the demands of higher education and the workforce. This qualitative study explored how a specific writing genre, occasional papers, opened opportunities for students to situate themselves and each other as authors in an 11th-grade English classroom. The paper argues that high school students need more opportunities to construct their identities as lifelong authors, who write to make sense of themselves and the world around them and write to promote dialogue with an audience if they are to succeed at high-stakes exams and writing as a member of the workforce. Suggestions for how to integrate such writing within a standardized curriculum are discussed. Youth Identity Work
In 2010, I published "'Cause I’m a G’: The identity work of a lesbian youth in a high School. English classroom" in Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. Read the abstract below for more information. Framed around the perspective that identities matter in relation to literacy learning, this case study examined the identity work of June (pseudonym), a lesbian youth in an 11th-grade high school language arts classroom. Informal interviews with June about her work on a multigenre research project in relation to LGBTQ issues were analyzed using the constant-comparative method and discourse analysis. Findings indicate that she positioned herself as a reader and writer in new ways because of an assignment that provided her the opportunity to explore her sexuality. I propose that teachers consider making youth's experiences, including LGBTQ experiences, the centerpiece of literacy instruction. More work, however, needs to be done to explore how educators can create curricula and school communities that recognize and celebrate sexual identities as a part of literacy learning. Youth Identity Work
In 2010, Colleen Fairbanks and I wrote “Crazyghettosmart”: A case study in Latina identities that was published in Qualitative Studies in Education. Read the abstract below for more information. Drawing from recent scholarship that examines schooling and the shifting terrain of youth identities, this study examines the identity constructions of Jessica, a Latina high school student. Our portrait of Jessica is part of a larger longitudinal study in which the middle and high school experiences of three Latinas, including Jessica, were examined. For this paper, we used data gathered from Jessica’s four years in high school, which included interviews from Jessica and her mother, and field observations from shadowing Jessica’s school days during her junior and senior years. Data analysis illustrated two broad themes: Jessica’s relationships with her academics and her social life, including the recent positioning of herself as a mother during her pregnancy in her senior year. Findings suggest that Jessica improvised her positions within various realms of school to both resist and reconfigure discourses that shaped her identities as a student and adolescent. This study argues for more research that examines and explores what youth have to say about their school experiences in order to illustrate the complex ways in which adolescents author themselves in school. |