Date of Award
5-16-2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
PHD - Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Education
First Advisor
Dr. Caroline Heller
Second Advisor
Dr. Eva Konstantellou
Third Advisor
Dr. Jo Ann Gammel
Abstract
Educators transitioning from teaching positions to roles as literacy coaches take on new identities as leaders within their schools in both content and pedagogy. They negotiate relationships with teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders on a daily basis and construct their new professional identities through these social interactions. Research shows that this multi-faceted role can be challenging if not supported within the culture of the school and preparation through coursework and training. This qualitative study investigated the developing identities of four novice literacy coaches who participated in a training program, Literacy Collaborative, to prepare them for this role. They shared their experiences through semi-structured interviews focused on descriptions of responsibilities, development of support systems, and stories of times they felt successful or challenged while engaged in the role of novice literacy coach. Using narrative methods, I analyzed the coaches’ stories for evidence of their developing identities, and through phenomenological reduction, identified themes across the interviews that described how participants felt challenged or supported as they built their identities as novice literacy coaches. These themes included professional identity development, interpersonal communication, adult learning and development, and school culture. training programs might focus on more specifically to fully and successfully prepare educators as they build their professional identities as literacy coaches and support them through the process.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Czekanski, Antoinette, ""I Feel Like a Literacy Coach Today." Professional Identities of Literacy Coaches" (2020). Educational Studies Dissertations. 173.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/education_dissertations/173
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Rights
The author owns the copyright to this work.
