Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)

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    Representations of dyslexia in children's fiction picture books: a critical content analysis
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2023) Green, Elizabeth Ann; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Sarah Pennington
    The purpose of this mixed methods critical content analysis was to examine the depiction of dyslexia and dyslexic characters in children's fiction picture books published between 2004 and 2022. Examining the data through the lens of critical neurodiversity studies and transactional theory concentrated the data collection and analysis on identifying the types of messages and values about dyslexia that are transmitted to the reader through the text. A mixed method critical content analysis approach was utilized, which involved categorizing texts, text passages, and thematic analysis as a qualitative step, followed by frequency analysis as a quantitative step. The use of mixed methods enabled the collection of descriptive statistics, frequency distributions, and specific data on the books. Multiple rounds of coding were utilized to discover and analyze themes and descriptive statistics found in the fifty-nine texts which met the criteria for inclusion. Results were described, analyzed, and interpreted. Finally, implications for practice and suggestions for future research were discussed.
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    Misalignment with values and practices: a content analysis on how one school district is implementing the science of reading
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2023) Fassbender, Christina Jordan; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Allison Wynhoff Olsen
    The term "Science of Reading" (SOR) has gained increased awareness over the past couple of years and has garnered the attention of researchers, teachers, and other educational stakeholders. As a result, the definition and implementation of the Science of Reading has led to misunderstandings between research and practice. This project uses content analysis to examine how one school district defines and implements SOR using a scripted curriculum and other outsourced curricular materials despite the research behind SOR. Relying on curriculum theory as an analytic lens, this paper also examines the impacts of SOR within the studied school district to analyze whose interests are being served and silenced. By presenting first a historical account of the past reading wars, I focus on the arguments for and against SOR. Next, artifacts in the form of district and teacher communications, teacher worksheets, websites, and responses from teacher interviews are used to identify mis/alignment with the pedagogical foundations purported by leading SOR scholars. Finally, a discussion and implications are offered to detail the impact that conflicting curricular values may have on young readers as well as current and future teaching practice of reading teachers in the focal district.
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    The motif of meeting: a content analysis of multi-voiced young adult novels
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2019) Stolp, Susan Hardy; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Joyce Herbeck; Ann Ewbank (co-chair)
    The purpose of this study was to discover, through content analysis, polyphonic narrative strategies used in a small sample of multi-voiced young adult novels. The objective was to trace the paths of the individual narrators toward eventual meeting with or understanding of each other, looking for trends, commonalities, and unique qualities that characterize the polyphonic fugue described by McCallum (1999) and Bakhtin (1981). I envisioned these points of meeting as Bahktin's (1981) units of narrative analysis known as the chronotope, perfect alignments in time and space, functioning as connectors among strands within multi-voiced narratives. In Vivo Coding, springing from the actual language of participants, and Emotion Coding, making inferences about narrators' subjective experiences, were the guiding qualitative methodologies used in this content analysis. The combination of In Vivo and Emotion Codes provided the data that was used to analyze and interpret narrators' emotional journeys as well as their interactions with one another. The content analysis revealed a complexity of emotions among the ten individual narrators from the three novels studied. Patterns in their emotional journeys were determined and displayed using artistic representation. Points of meeting between and among narrators proved to be the impetus for individual change and growth. In terms of the fugue, the voices are independent of one another but also have shape and meaning in conjunction with one another (McCallum, 1999), and through analysis and interpretation of narrators' emotional arcs, these shapes and meanings emerged. In terms of significance, this content analysis provided evidence for the use of multi-voiced young adult literature to be a means by which to read with a critical literacy lens, for adolescents to realize their existence as part of a greater whole, and to imagine literature as a catalyst toward personal growth.
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    A content analysis of realism in elementary school basal reading textbooks
    (Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 1984) Reyhner, Jon Allan
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