Do we practice what we teach? Examining the affective reading dispositions of preservice elementary education students

Abstract

Using a narrative inquiry approach, this study attempts to address the issue of helping first-year elementary education students gain explicit understanding of their own affective reading dispositions and the past reading experiences that influenced their development and how their ARDs may influence the choices they make as teachers. Data was collected through the Literacy Habits Questionnaire (Applegate et al., 2014), two, one-on-one interviews, two group meetings, and reading autobiographical artifacts created by the participants. The theoretical framework used to support the study combined Beer's (1996) reading typology and McKenna's (2001) development of reading attitudes theory which highlight the importance of considering how the cognitive, sociocultural, and affective reading experiences affect reading identity and one's choice to read or not to read. As a collaborative experience, designed with the researcher as participant, this study also shines a light on how teacher educators may or may not address their students' ARDs and provide positive reading experiences to aid in reinforcing or adjusting students' ARDs before the enter the classroom as teachers. The results of this study indicate that providing a collaborative, interactive, reflective process focused on past reading experiences and the development of ARDs may provide students with new perspectives and address misconceptions about teaching and learning reading. Additionally, it reminds teacher educators that we cannot assume that all students entering a TEP have positive ARDs and/or are proficient readers. These are dispositional aspects that should be examined and addressed.