Date of Award

12-20-2024

Date Published

January 2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Reading and Language Arts

Advisor(s)

Bong Gee Jang

Subject Categories

Education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mediating Roles to Develop Literacy Skills: A Formative Research Project Exploring Planning Tools Which Support Co-practice for English Language Learners Educators are often required to mediate many factors while engaging in the act of literacy instruction. It is an insurmountable task to maneuver varied approaches, curricular expectations, achievement goals and overall system dynamics while teaching. This is confounded when teachers are differentiating to meet the needs of English language learners. The additional support of both literacy and English as a New Language (ENL) consultant teachers is intended to assist classroom teachers with this important work, however, collaboration becomes yet another added complexity in the classroom. The iterative process of examining effective instructional actions and innovative tools with the direct intention to improve co-practice is needed for English language learners and their collaborating teachers. It is surmised that due to the infinite variables which may comprise a teaching team within a particular system, “collaboration,” is in fact a very fluid social construct and is impacted by conditions in the larger system. Therefore, any effort to define and improve collaboration must focus on a team's unique characteristics and needs. This study examined how classroom teachers, literacy teachers and English as a New Language (ENL) teachers described the literacy co-practice they provided for the English language learners with whom they work. This study further explored the way teachers divided the skills and their roles to focus on language and literacy development. Additionally, the study explored the tensions which occurred between separate components of the collective system and the manner in which those components became decentralized. Solutions to mitigate these tensions were a major focus of the study as teachers and administrators collaborated to redevelop various aspects of the activity system. The process by which these changes and resolutions united the components of the system toward a collective goal was also examined. This process was observed and analyzed using formative design methodology and Cultural Historical Activity Theory. This study provides a lens through which we can regard a dedicated team turning naturally occurring tensions in their activity system into opportunities to improve collaborative literacy practice. This project captured the journey of this team whilst they developed a digital platform to coordinate and streamline core curriculum literacy resources for English language learners. The findings are presented for each phase of the formative design process and indicate that teachers experienced challenges with scheduling, co-planning protocols, competing instructional goals and clarity around language acquisition stages. Additionally, findings include the ways in which teachers divided their roles and developed mediating tools to counter the co-practice challenges they faced. Finally, this study captured the shifting perspectives of participants as a result of improved collaboration.

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Open Access

Available for download on Friday, January 23, 2026

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