Date of Award
9-11-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Educational Leadership, Ed.D.
First Advisor
Ibrahim Duyar
Committee Members
Richard Casey, Teresa Handy
Call Number
LD 251 .A566d 2024 G46
Abstract
The purpose of this phenomenological investigation was to explore teachers' experiences as they engage in reading literacy discussions and planning using the PLC process. The study targeted the large number of ninth-grade students entering high school with below basic Lexile scores and the lack of professional development for teachers in literacy to support the rise in low-level readers. Situational Learning Theory was this study's guiding theoretical framework, using professional learning communities as a lens to explore how teachers work collaboratively to develop literacy instructional practices and experiences to improve student literacy skills. This study explored nine secondary teachers from a Western urban high school who participated in a literacy PLC in the content area of Art, Social Studies, and Mathematics. Within each literacy PLC, participants engaged in semi-structured interviews and literacy PLC observations and provided PLC summary notes to the researcher. The key findings for the first research questions are that PLC are valuable to teacher growth. The second research question reveled that notetaking and vocabulary support student literacy. Lastly, the third research question identified that teachers need literacy professional development. Participants' experiences in the literacy PLC provided this study with the recommendation for future research and recommendations to improve literacy PLC by building solid teams using literacy experts, providing teachers with literacy professional development, and placing literacy experts in secondary schools to support low-level readers and literacy PLCs.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Gentry, Kerri, "Exploring Teachers' Participation in A Literacy-Focused Professional Learning Community" (2024). Student Theses and Dissertations. 56.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/56
