Teaching teachers to teach reading, a self-study

grantor: University of TorontoThis interpretive inquiry is an ongoing self-study about my learning to teach a preservice reading-education course. The aim of the inquiry is to understand the experience of learning to teach from the perspective of a beginning professor. The participants were myself and my students over the course of five years. The data include: my reflective journal as a beginning professor documenting a growing awareness of the context of teaching preservice reading-teachers; and the preservice students' journals and tape-recorded interviews documenting their experiences in learning to teach reading during the course, during the practicum following the course, and during their first year of teaching. Analysis of the data draws heavily on Russell's ("Returning to the physics classroom," 1995) conception of competing authorities and is discussed in the context of: (1) an examination of three early formative experiences in my learning to teach; (2) three letters addressed to my students concerning learning to teach reading and the problems posed by the practicum and the current state of reading instruction, and the substantive changes I have made in the teaching of this course. The study concludes with a discussion of projects that I have initiated to help my students develop a thorough understanding of teaching reading and a discussion of the tensions and dilemmas related to these projects.Ed.D