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So how do you teach literacy in teacher education?: Literacy/English teacher educators’ goals and pedagogies

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Abstract

Given expanding concepts of literacy and evolving communication patterns literacy teacher educators face a daunting task–preparing student teachers for a world where literacy is very complicated and contested. This paper addresses two key questions: What are the elements of a pedagogy of literacy teacher education? What opportunities for learning do literacy/English teacher educators offer to help student teachers understand the changing conception of literacy? For this research 28 literacy/English teacher educators in four countries were interviewed three times. Two overall conclusions are: the need to anchor their course in the concept of literacy as expanding and evolving; and to approach literacy teacher education holistically. Three elements of a pedagogy of literacy teacher education are discussed in this paper; that there is a need to: value and respond to diversity; read, discuss, and analyse a range of texts and genres; create authentic reflection activities. These elements are relevant for our increasingly diverse student body and can work dialogically. This paper provides a broad road map for literacy teacher educators who are often faced with conflicting messages from governments and feel tremendous pressure to teach to the test.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto, Canada

    Clare Kosnik

  2. University of Alberta, Canada

    Lydia Menna

  3. Simon Fraser University, Canada

    Pooja Dharamshi

  4. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto, Canada

    Cathy Miyata

Authors
  1. Clare Kosnik
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  2. Lydia Menna
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  3. Pooja Dharamshi
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  4. Cathy Miyata
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Kosnik, C., Menna, L., Dharamshi, P. et al. So how do you teach literacy in teacher education?: Literacy/English teacher educators’ goals and pedagogies. AJLL 40, 59–71 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03651984

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