UMD Theses and Dissertations
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Item THE QUEST FOR I-LITERACY: IDENTIFYING AND ADDRESSING GAPS IN INFORMATION LITERACY EDUCATION IN INFORMATION SCIENCE UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS(2022) Douglass, Courtney L.; Jaeger, Paul; Library & Information Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Information scholars, educators and librarians have grappled with defining the concept of information literacy for decades – at least as far back as the 1970’s – with the most prominent common thread being as a set of skills. In pedagogy and practice, what higher education currently calls information literacy is delivered more akin to research skills or the ability to effectively conduct and share research in its myriad forms. It is problematic that for so long the emphasis on research and academic skills has wholly devalued those sources deemed non-traditional by academic measures, including popular sources, pop-culture entertainment, and the power of observation. Ironically this emphasis on academic research skills diminishes the extreme societal impact non-traditional sources and stories have had throughout the information age in which we currently find ourselves. In this dissertation, I provide a curriculum map for the required courses in five Undergraduate Information Science Programs, with the dual purpose of aligning instruction practices and gaps with the aforementioned impacts as they determine what information literacy should mean, and encouraging iSchools to adopt and promote a socially constructed model of information literacy, which I am terming i-Literacy. This study demonstrates how iSchool undergraduate programs emphasize understanding that different information mediums are required based on audience, user needs, and the information problem, but may not highlight social and civic responsibility with information use and sharing. The map also shows a strong alignment between the seemingly antiquated ‘Bibliographic Instruction’ practices from the 1980’s and 90’s, and the current pedagogy based on the ACRL Framework.Item Working Literacies: Gender, Labor, and Literacy in Early Modern England(2022) Griffin, Danielle; Enoch, Jessica; Donawerth, Jane; English Language and Literature; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)“Working Literacies” explores the literacy abilities and practices of early modern working women, paying attention to the ways that ideologies of patriarchy and labor as well as the institutionalization of poor relief mediated their engagements with literacy. By examining little-studied archival material such as administrative records, literary ephemera, and petitions, “Working Literacies” nuances assumptions about working women's (il)literacy in the period, showcasing the multiple layers of literate ability that women leveraged as available means in making arguments about their lives as economically precarious workers in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England. In centering the reading and composing habits of pre-modern working women, this dissertation provides historical depth to intricate relationships of gender and class in histories of rhetorical education, economic systems, and labor activism.In my three major chapters, I analyze little-studied literacy artifacts of three sites: 1) curricular and administrative materials from charity schools and orphanages; 2) ephemeral reading materials such as popular chapbooks and ballads; and 3) petitions that address working conditions for women. Although these sites may seem disparate, they present compelling evidence about the literacy of working women at different points in their lives: learning literacy skills, reading as evidence of literacy, and the use of those literacies in the act of petitioning. Furthermore, “Working Literacies” illuminates that ideologies of gender, labor, and literacy were complexly interconnected: lower-class children learned literacy skills in ways that sought to make obedient and industrious workers and wives, yet working women made inventive use of those literacy skills to engage representations of and forward arguments about their lives as workers and their gendered workplaces. In demonstrating the intricate interrelationship between class and gender in theories and practices of literacy, “Working Literacies” enters into and energizes conversations about women and labor as well as histories of literacy and rhetorical education.Item Factors that Influence Preservice Teachers' Planning and Leading of Text-Based Discussions(2021) Hogan, Erin; Dreher, Mariam Jean; O'Flahavan, John; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Text-based discussions are defined as the process of collectively building high-level comprehension of text among a group of students who use each other and text as sources of meaning. Teachers’ role in this process is two-fold: first, they ask questions that require extended exploration of text ideas and go well beyond literal, surface level understandings. Second, they support students as they do the heavy lifting of engaging deeply with the text and with each other by helping students link their ideas and those conveyed in the text together. Nearly 40 years of empirical research offers support for text-based discussion as an instructional technique with the potential to break persistent patterns of basic-level student reading achievement (Applebee et al., 2003; Murphy et al., 2009; Nystrand, 1997; Soter et al., 2009). However, this same research identified text-based discussions as infrequently used in classrooms, which suggests there is something preventing more teachers from utilizing them in the classroom. This two-study dissertation sought to identify and intervene on factors that influenced preservice teachers’ learning about and ultimately using discussion. I identified three factors: the ability to analyze text (i.e., to determine main ideas of text as well as text features that potentially facilitate or hinder students’ understanding of the main ideas); experiential knowledge gained from repeated cycles of planning, leading, and reflecting on discussions; and epistemological beliefs. Study One was an exploratory multiple case study of seven senior preservice teachers all enrolled in their capstone literacy methods class and working in their field placements. This study took a holistic look at the ways in which epistemological beliefs, instruction in text analysis, and repeated cycles of planning, leading, and reflecting on text-based discussions affected PSTs’ leading of discussions with students in their field placements. Results indicated that PSTs’ epistemological beliefs affected both their learning about and leading text-based discussions, they lacked specialized knowledge needed to analyze text and use this information to help students negotiate text meaning in the text-based discussions, and some gained experiential knowledge in the form of specific moves they could make to shift interpretive authority to students. These findings informed the design of study two. This study was quasi-experimental and situated in two pre-existing sections of a reading methods course for first-semester senior preservice teachers. One section served as a business-as-usual control group while the other section received a semester-long intervention into text analysis. Participants in the intervention section received direct instruction on text analysis including text structures and their common features, how to evaluate text complexity, and how to decipher main and supporting ideas. They also received instruction on how to use this knowledge to support students in text-based discussions. Results of ANCOVA analysis suggests intervention led to statistically significant improvement in participants’ ability to analyze text. Exploratory analyses shed light into the mechanisms behind the intervention’s effect: participants’ ability to monitor and respond to students improved significantly. Taken together, the findings from these two studies have implications for teacher educators seeking to create learning experiences that lead to preservice teachers taking up text-based discussions.Item Stress and Literacy Achievement: The Potential Moderating Role of Socioemotional Factors for Dual Language and Non-Dual Language Students(2019) Goldthrite, Antoinette Marie; O'Neal, Colleen R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The achievement gap is one of the most pervasive education problems in the United States. Stress may contribute to this achievement gap, since it is inversely related to achievement. Dual Language Learners (DLLs) may face a wide variety of stressors that contribute to their lower grades, relative to their non-DLL peers. Researchers have turned to a slew of socioemotional factors to see which may help reduce the gap between ethnic minority and White students. However, in the face of stress, these factors may not all be equally protective. This study explored the potential protective effects of three socioemotional factors – grit, growth mindset, and anger regulation - by using moderation analyses within both a self-regulation and a risk and resilience framework in an ethnically diverse sample of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students. Results were compared between the DLL (N = 81) and non-DLL (N = 170) students. Results indicated that grit was a significant moderator of the relationship between stress and reading achievement for the for the DLL subsample; those with high grit outperformed those with low grit in times of high stress. Additionally, in the DLL group, growth mindset moderated this relationship; those with high growth mindset outperformed those with low growth mindset in times of low perceived stress, while those with low and high growth mindset performed similarly in times of high perceived stress. Anger regulation was a significant moderator for the non-DLL group; those with reporting high usage of anger regulation skills outperformed those with low use of anger regulation in times of high stress. The findings of this study suggest that there may be different protective factors for different groups facing stress, though more research needs to be conducted to explore this relationship. School administrators and school psychologists should continue to consider the potential benefits of fostering socioemotional skills to promote reading achievement but are cautioned to critically consider and tailor which interventions are selected for which students.Item Examining the Multidimensional Nature of Engagement: The Development of the Multidimensional Engagement Rubric (MER)(2018) Smith, Patricia; Taboada Barber, Ana M.; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The current literature on the construct of engagement lacks clarity in how it defined, the dimensions associated with engagement, and the way it has been measured. Establishing agreement on how engagement is conceptualized and operationalized will inform the development of instruments that measure this construct accurately. Engagement is an important topic of study given its relationship to students’ reading achievement. Understanding the engagement needs of growing populations of students in K-12 schools, such as English Learners (ELs), is vital to their academic success. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to clarify the conceptual and operational problems with the construct of engagement, assess the content validity of a newly developed engagement instrument through experts’ judgements, and test the reliability and criterion-related validity of this instrument with a small sample of ELs. Chapter 2 is a research synthesis that examined the discrepancies surrounding the construct of engagement using instruments that measure engagement for upper elementary and middle school students. Two empirical studies comprise Chapters 3 and 4 of this dissertation. Study 1 assessed the content validity of the items included in the Multidimensional Engagement Rubric (MER) through expert opinion. Study 2 explored the reliability and validity of this instrument when used to measure the engagement of 6th grade English Learners (ELs) participating in literacy instruction. The results from these three papers have uncovered several findings. First, the instruments used to measure student engagement have been constructed using a confounded body of literature which may, in turn, have led to the development of measures that may not have assessed this construct with precision. Next, the MER was developed after synthesizing the engagement literature and eliciting feedback from experts on engagement and motivation, which revealed a need for revising indicators included in the MER. Evidence of high reliability was revealed through weighted Kappa analysis, while criterion-related validity of the MER, when correlated with time on task scores, revealed moderate positive correlations. Finally, correlations between engagement and participants’ ages revealed mostly weak relations despite the small sample size.Item BEYOND BENCHMARKS: ELEMENTARY EDUCATION PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ VISIONS FOR USING DIVERSE FAMILY LITERACY PRACTICES TO GUIDE CLASSROOM READING INSTRUCTION(2017) Albro, Jennifer; Turner, Jennifer D; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Many preservice teachers are entering the field of teaching feeling unprepared to to collaborate with families to foster the growth of students (Caspe, Lopez, Chu, & Weiss, 2011); further, they are less prepared to engage families from various cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, and other diverse backgrounds (Patte, 2011). Given that using vision has been shown to help to prepare preservice teachers for their future classrooms (Duffy, 2002; Turner & Mercado, 2009), this study examined the visions of elementary preservice teachers and how they envisioned the role that families and their diverse literacy practices will play in their future reading instruction. Using qualitative research methods and a sociocultural lens, this dissertation investigated the visions of 34 elementary preservice teachers. Throughout the semester, the preservice teachers participated in two course assignments: a.) they attended a local family literacy event hosted by Ethiopian American parents who wanted their children to maintain their Ethiopian culture, and b.) the preservice teachers chose one family member of one of their students to interview to learn more about their family literacy practices. Seven of the 34 preservice teachers were selected to participate in individual interviews and one focus group to further examine their visions. Through the review of their vision statements, course assignments, interviews, and the focus group, I examined their visions through a “funds of knowledge” (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005) lens. Additionally, I created a Funds of Knowledge Rubric to assess whether their visions were “emerging,” “developing,” or “advancing” toward using diverse family literacy practices to guide their classroom reading instruction and to what extent that they held a “funds of knowledge” perspective. Findings illustrated that the majority of the preservice teachers envisioned families as supporters of the literacy learning that occurs in the classroom by extending the learning at home. Only five of the 34 preservice teachers had visions of using diverse family literacy practices to guide their classroom instruction. Suggestions for supporting preservice teachers’ vision development and strengthening teacher education initiatives around preparing teachers to learn about families and integrating their literacy practices into instruction are discussed.Item Can grit fix the achievement gap? An investigation of grit's conceptual uniqueness and predictive value in diverse student achievement(2016) Riley, Lynsey W; O'Neal, Colleen R; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Grit, defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals,” is considered an important noncognitive factor for promoting academic achievement and closing the racial achievement gap. School-based policy and intervention work, however, is getting ahead of the grit research. Specifically, it is unclear to what extent grit overlaps with existing noncognitive variables as a construct and measure. It is also unclear whether grit predicts later achievement when accounting for other noncognitive variables, and if grit and other noncognitive variables predict achievement differently for students from different demographic backgrounds. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis within a self-regulation framework, I evaluated grit’s conceptual and operational overlap with similar noncognitive factors of engagement, emotion regulation, and growth mindset in an ethnically diverse 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade student sample (N = 192). Using structural equation modeling, I tested if grit predicted literacy achievement 1-3 months later, in a model also adjusting for similar noncognitive factors and for previous (Time 1) literacy achievement. Finally, I compared the predictive model by age, ethnic group, and bilingual status to determine which noncognitive factors predicted literacy outcomes for which groups of students. Results indicated that, among diverse elementary school students, grit and other noncognitive constructs are not lower-order factors of an overarching self-regulation construct. Grit was moderately related to, yet distinct from, growth mindset and emotion regulation, while it overlapped excessively with engagement. Grit and engagement as a joint construct did predict later literacy achievement, but not after controlling for previous literacy achievement. Relations among grit, engagement, and literacy achievement were different for ethnic and linguistic groups, but again these differences were eliminated after controlling for previous literacy achievement. Research lacks compelling evidence that grit, at least as it is currently measured, is a relevant predictor of diverse students’ short-term literacy outcomes. Researchers and educators are thus cautioned against focusing on grit as an assessment or academic intervention tool for improving ethnic minority or bilingual students’ reading; a focus on previous achievement and building literacy skills continues to be best practice for promoting future literacy achievement.Item BUILDING BLOCK OF THE WORLD, BUILDING BLOCK OF YOUR IDENTITY: MULTILINGUAL LITERACY SOCIALIZATION OF HERITAGE LANGUAGE LEARNERS(2017) Tigert, Johanna; Martin-Beltran, Melinda; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigates multilingual literacy socialization of Finnish heritage language learners (HLLs) in homes and a Finnish heritage language (HL) school in the United States. Participants included eighteen parents, fifteen students, and three Finnish HL teachers. Five HLLs aged 5 to 11 were chosen as focal cases. This study used ethnographic and microethnographic methods, with language socialization as the major theoretical lens and new literacies as a complementary theory. The study conceptualizes language and literacy socialization in an HL context as manifesting in three processes: family and classroom language policies, translanguaging practices, and language and literacy practices across languages and media. Additionally, the study considers HLLs’ construction of multilingual identities. Field notes and videos of language and literacy events in the two contexts, literacy-related artifacts, vocabulary and reading assessments in English and Finnish, and background survey and interview data were considered to understand participants’ language and literacy practices. The study demonstrates that parents and teachers engaged in similar socialization strategies: setting strict Finnish-only policies, curbing students’ translanguaging, and engaging children in traditional, print-based literacies in Finnish. Contextual factors, such as students’ English-medium schoolwork and non-Finnish parents’ lack of Finnish proficiency restricted these efforts. HLLs influenced these socialization processes by renegotiating family and HL classroom language policies, translanguaging in their interactions, and engaging in literacy practices, especially digital literacies, that promoted English at the expense of the HL. Such influences often ran counter to the parents’ and teachers’ efforts. Findings also indicated that learners constructed fluid, multilingual identities within different contexts and situations. The study contributes to socialization research and HL education research by examining a less commonly taught HL, Finnish in the United States. The study corroborates recent scholarship on language socialization, which has begun to uncover children’s strong influence and agency in socialization processes. The study also highlights the importance of digital literacies in young HLLs’ lives. The need for teacher education and P-12 educators to recognize HLLs as part of linguistic diversity in schools, and ways for parents and teachers of HLLs to support HL maintenance while recognizing HLLs’ multilingual, multinational identities are discussed.Item The Association between Literacy and Work Performance as Mediated by Depression(2015) Foss, Lindsey E.; Epstein, Norman B.; Family Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Approximately 90 million Americans are functionally illiterate, meaning that they cannot accomplish basic tasks such as interpreting a bus schedule or filling in an order form (Lincoln et al., 2008). Low levels of literacy have been associated with poor health outcomes, including anxiety and depression, in addition to poor work performance. This study examined the possible mediating role of depression in the association between literacy and work performance, using a nationally representative sample of young adults from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth - 1997. The results indicated that after controlling for race and gender there was a significant association between emotional distress and the degree to which emotional problems limited work performance. The trend toward an association between literacy and the degree to which emotional distress affects work did not hold once race and sex were controlled. Suggestions are provided for future research that can more thoroughly test the effects of literacy on work performance.Item READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGY INSTRUCTION IN UPPER-ELEMENTARY CLASSROOMS WITH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS: A STUDY OF PRACTICES AND OUTCOMES(2015) Doyle, Candice Briece; Silverman, Rebecca D; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between reading comprehension strategy instruction (explicit or skills-based) in general education settings and third through fifth grade students' reading comprehension outcomes. In addition, I was interested in whether relationships between instruction and outcomes differed for students from English only (EO) and English language learner (ELL) backgrounds. To address these goals I conducted a secondary data analysis of 59 Reading/Language Arts classroom observation transcripts. These represented observations of 19 teachers at three time points (fall, winter, spring). I analyzed transcripts by employing an iterative coding process including open, axial, and selective coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). I coded teacher talk at the utterance (Crookes, 1990) level for either explicit instruction (instruction that included all of the following: introduction, modeling, collaborative practice, guided practice, independent practice) or skills-based practice (teacher practice in which students were asked to apply a comprehension strategy absent of instruction of how to do so). In addition I coded for separate parts of the explicit instruction model (introduction, modeling, collaborative practice, guided practice, independent practice). Then, I quantitized (Tashakori & Tedlie, 1998) the instructional code data into average frequency counts across observations in order to conduct multiple regression analyses with student reading comprehension outcome measures. I found no statistically significant results related to the explicit instruction model (as a whole), or skills-based practice and students' outcomes. However, when analyzing separate parts of explicit instruction, results suggested that more guided practice was associated with higher scores on one outcome measure. In exploring interactions between language background and instructional codes, I found no differences in relationships between instructional codes and reading comprehension for EOs versus ELLs.