Pre-Service Teachers’ Understandings of Literacy Practices

Abstract

This paper presents a 2-year study of pre-service teachers’ understandings of and views toward literacy. Data werecollected via pre-service teachers’ 48-hour literacy log, reflections and lesson plans. Findings indicate thatpre-service teachers’ perceptions of literacy were initially bound by traditional views toward literacy, focusing solelyon print based literacy. Throughout the semester via coursework and field experience, pre-service teachers gainednew insights about the literacies of their students. By the end of the semester they had broadened theirunderstandings of and views toward literacy, acknowledging the need to support their students’ academic literacyand they affirmed the need to learn how to engage in instructional practices that support twenty-first century skills inorder to bridge the gap between their students’ life-world and academic literacy. However, upon transition into fieldexperiences they encountered several barriers such as limited accessibility and school policies precluded use of theirnewfound conceptions in their teaching. The significance of the study puts forth an implication for teacher educatorsto support pre-service teachers with opportunities to explore and ground their professional beliefs about literacy andopportunities to engage as reflective practitioners.