Preparing Teachers to Provide Literacy Instruction to All Students: Faculty Experiences and Perceptions

Abstract

Although there is an increased focus on reading instruction in schools, little is known about how teachers of students with extensive support needs are prepared to provide literacy instruction for this group of students. This paper reports the results of an exploratory study of how literary instruction is addressed within teacher education programs at institutions of higher education that prepare preservice and inservice teachers to work with students with extensive support needs. We conducted telephone interviews with nine teacher educators in university programs across the country that prepare special educators, asking about their experiences and perceptions of what works well and what presents difficulty in preparing teachers to effectively teach literacy skills to students with significant disability, what additional research and practice knowledge is needed in this area, and how they view literacy instruction for students with extensive support needs fitting into the current national debate on reading instruction methodology. Content analysis of respondents' interviews yielded three broad themes that we describe and discuss: Challenges, changes, and future directions for the field. We explore the implications of the study's findings for teacher preparation programs and directions for future research.