Papers by Sarah E . Pennington
The Role of Teacher Education in Improving Digital Literacy: A Pre-Service Teacher Case Study
Networks An Online Journal for Teacher Research, Oct 9, 2024
Technology is crucial for teaching and learning in the 21st century. However, many pre-service te... more Technology is crucial for teaching and learning in the 21st century. However, many pre-service teachers (PSTs) feel unprepared to utilize digital literacy (DL) in their future classes. This study explored PST’s perceptions of their DL knowledge and the perceived impact of their teacher education programs through a qualitative bounded case study method. Participants for this study were three PSTs engaged in a technology integration course at a land grant university in the northwestern US. Participants engaged in recorded one-on-one semi-structured interviews to learn about their perceptions and readiness for DL. The findings indicate that while PSTs were aware of DL, they lacked confidence in their ability to teach it. The study identified four critical themes related to the PSTs' perspectives on DL: concerns, challenges, advantages, and future decisions. The prioritization of DL training in teacher education programs and the reconsideration of engaging technology-related courses by universities and policymakers are recommended.
Learning to Connect Theory to Practice: The Next Generation of Teacher Educators
A Scoping Literature Review on Parent Interactions with Teachers and School Environments at the Middle Level
Education Sciences, 2024
This scoping literature review explores parent interactions with teachers and school environment... more This scoping literature review explores parent interactions with teachers and school environments at the middle level, particularly how parents and teachers perceive middle school environments and parent–teacher relationships, the strategies that schools use to foster parent–teacher collaboration, and the impacts of these interactions on students. The research team identified 14
peer-reviewed studies from 2015 to 2024 that focused on parent interactions with teachers and school environments at the middle level, including parent and teacher perceptions of school environments and parent–teacher relationships and collaborations. The findings revealed a common disconnect between how parents and teachers view school environments, but also showed that intentional, structured communication can help to bridge these gaps. The review also highlights that research on strategies to enhance parent–teacher partnerships is limited and context-specific. Based on this review of the literature, more research is needed on how home–school relationships benefit
diverse middle school communities and how collaboration can support student success, particularly during the critical middle school years.
A Systematic Review of Literature on Student Voice and Agency in Middle Grade Contexts
Education Sciences, 2024
This systematic review analyzes the research literature on student voice and agency in the middle... more This systematic review analyzes the research literature on student voice and agency in the middle grades, focusing on middle-level schools, culture, and learning environments. The idea of student voice and agency was taken up as collaborative decision-making and/or student feedback on issues related to school and pedagogy. After a comprehensive search for peer-reviewed research (2015–2024), an article review framework was developed to determine how, where, and why student voices and agency were engaged in the middle grades. Three themes characterized the research literature: (1) passive student voice and agency: researcher-driven studies to gain understanding; (2) active student voice and agency: partnering with students to improve their learning experiences; and (3) activating the inner voice and agency: helping students to reflect on their own learning. The research on student voice and agency provided information that directly and indirectly benefited students. The literature related to passive student voice and agency tended to be indirect, while active student voice and agency and activating students’ inner voice and agency tended to provide tangible and observable student benefits. While the studies were responsive to different aspects of young adolescent development and included foci on students’ social/emotional development and identity, other areas were lacking—including culturally responsive teaching, international perspectives, and sense of self/peer perceptions.
Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research, 2024
Technology is crucial for teaching and learning in the 21st century. However, many pre-service te... more Technology is crucial for teaching and learning in the 21st century. However, many pre-service teachers (PSTs) feel unprepared to utilize digital literacy (DL) in their future classes. This study explored PST’s perceptions of their DL knowledge and the perceived impact of their teacher education programs through a qualitative bounded case study method. Participants for this study were three PSTs engaged in a technology integration course at a land grant university in the northwestern US. Participants engaged in recorded one-on-one semi-structured interviews to learn about their perceptions and readiness for DL. The findings indicate that while PSTs were aware of DL, they lacked confidence in their ability to teach it. The study identified four critical themes related to the PSTs' perspectives on DL: concerns, challenges, advantages, and future decisions. The prioritization of DL training in teacher education programs and the reconsideration of engaging technology-related courses by universities and policymakers are recommended.
Associations of Teacher Autonomy Support and Structure with Young Adolescents’ Motivation, Engagement, Belonging, and Achievement
The Middle Grades Research Journal, Apr 1, 2016
Sharing Hidden Scars
IGI Global eBooks, 2022
As a middle grades teacher, the author made positive student-teacher relationships a priority wit... more As a middle grades teacher, the author made positive student-teacher relationships a priority within her classroom. In this narrative, she describes how sharing her own invisible scars with her students provided an opportunity for one particular student to come to her after this student experienced a sexual assault. By allowing her students a glimpse at her own humanity, this teacher was able to serve as an advocate for a student who was struggling to move forward in dealing with her own trauma.
The Montana English Journal, 2020
More Than Just Academics
Advances in Early Childhood and K-12 Education, 2020
This chapter addresses how the authors, two former elementary school teachers, discovered that th... more This chapter addresses how the authors, two former elementary school teachers, discovered that their students needed lessons in how to treat fellow students with respect and kindness. Now working in teacher preparation, the authors reflect on the importance of actively teaching kindness. They argue that teaching children to be thoughtful, kind, and considerate is every bit as vital as teaching them the three Rs—Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic. From experience, they know that helping children develop an ethic of caring for others is not learned from lecture or posted rules. Rather, it is learned from observation and with encounters of what kindness looks and feels like. In their college classrooms, they share these stories as a way to help young teachers understand that once they are in a classroom of their own, they will be education the whole child.
Sterilized by Grief: The Death of My Brother and the Choice to be Childless
Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 2016
In this poetry-infused autoethnography, I reflect on how the experience of my baby brother's ... more In this poetry-infused autoethnography, I reflect on how the experience of my baby brother's death influenced my choice not to have children of my own. In reviewing the extant literature about women who choose to remain childless, I found my experience is not reflected, as much of what is written about the increasing number of women who are childless by choice focuses on reasons such as finances, freedom, and career. With this in mind, I offer my story and present an alternative narrative of grief impacting the choice to remain childless.
Sharing Hidden Scars
Advances in Early Childhood and K-12 Education
As a middle grades teacher, the author made positive student-teacher relationships a priority wit... more As a middle grades teacher, the author made positive student-teacher relationships a priority within her classroom. In this narrative, she describes how sharing her own invisible scars with her students provided an opportunity for one particular student to come to her after this student experienced a sexual assault. By allowing her students a glimpse at her own humanity, this teacher was able to serve as an advocate for a student who was struggling to move forward in dealing with her own trauma.
Shifting the Teacher Mindset: What Counts as "Real Reading"
Montana English Journal, 2020
In this article, the author shares how her epiphany about what texts she valued in her classroom ... more In this article, the author shares how her epiphany about what texts she valued in her classroom pushed her to change how she defines what counts as "real reading" and how this shift in mindset allowed more of her students to view themselves as readers. As part of this process, the author began introducing more alternative text formats and digital texts into her classroom library and instruction, allowed students to bring in their own texts for independent reading, and provided space for students to read their peers' writing for pleasure during reading time.
Motivation, Needs Support, and Language Arts Classroom Practices: Creation and Validation of a Measure of Young Adolescents’ Perceptions
Early adolescence is a critical time for examining academic motivation, specifically motivation t... more Early adolescence is a critical time for examining academic motivation, specifically motivation to read. To support self-determined motivation to read, students’ needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness must be met within the classroom context. Because classroom instructional practices are a key component of adolescents’ daily experiences in the classroom, research that investigates the influence of these practices on students’ intrinsic motivation to read is needed. In addition, the perceptions of students regarding the degree to which classroom instructional practices meet students’ needs as well as the influence of classroom instructional practices on students’ motivation to read should be considered. The field is lacking an established measure of early adolescents’ perceptions of classroom instructional practices and the degree to which they support students’ needs (i.e., competence, autonomy) and intrinsic motivation to read. This study, guided by self-determination theory, sought to address this gap in the literature by developing and validating a measure called the Language Arts Reading Practices Survey (LARPS). This measure assessed student perceptions of the degree to which classroom instructional practices in the language arts classroom support students’ needs for competence, autonomy, and students’ self-determined motivation to read. The results of this study provide preliminary support for the validity of the LARPS.
The author as reader: Using Twitter to engage in author/reader dialogue
Twitter is one social media tool teachers can use to engage students in deeper discussion of lite... more Twitter is one social media tool teachers can use to engage students in deeper discussion of literature by crafting questions to be addressed to their favorite authors. In this article, the author shares her own experience in conducting such a project, named a #1QTwitterview. This Twitterview focused on the positionality of various children’s and young adult authors as they write; do they visualize the action as a character, an audience member, or an all-knowing narrator? Creating questions within the Twitter formatting limitation provides students opportunities to meet Florida state standards which require students to “produce clear and coherent writing” with an authentic audience. In addition, posing such questions to authors through a class Twitter account and discussing responses received can be utilized as a starting point for in-depth class discussions of literature.
Networks: An On-Line Journal for Teacher Research, Jun 2015
How effective is reflective teaching in increasing the engagement and achievement of pre-service ... more How effective is reflective teaching in increasing the engagement and achievement of pre-service teachers when utilized by a first-year college instructor? This article documents a practitioner inquiry project in which I reflected both on my own observations and student feedback regarding what teaching methods were most beneficial in an undergraduate elementary education class. Data included student feedback, personal researcher journal entries, student quiz scores, and format for presenting material in class. Pre-service teacher engagement and learning were both enhanced by
integration of videos, activities, and higher level questions into class sessions. The results of this research affirm the power of reflective teaching while also reflecting the need to more actively engage pre-service teachers in this practice.
Journal of Reading Education, 2013
Conference Presentations by Sarah E . Pennington
AERA Annual Meeting, 2020
Students with specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia often struggle with reading and rea... more Students with specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia often struggle with reading and reading-related tasks. This mixed-method study investigated the potential efficacy of a musical intervention to support the reading skills and motivation of students with SLDs. Results indicate positive results for participating students, including growth of at least one reading level for all participants.
Presentation at the American Educational Research Association, 2015
How can field supervisors scaffold the inquiry process for preservice teachers? This paper will d... more How can field supervisors scaffold the inquiry process for preservice teachers? This paper will discuss the results of a practitioner inquiry in which preservice teachers’ (PSTs’) initial foray into inquiry was scaffolded with the goal of engaging the PSTs in inquiry in a way which helped them to internalize its importance and assume an inquiry stance moving forward in their professional education. Results indicate that preservice teachers need support to understand the importance of inquiry, modeling in how to navigate the process, and opportunities to collaborate during inquiry in order to recognize its value as a tool for professional growth.
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Papers by Sarah E . Pennington
peer-reviewed studies from 2015 to 2024 that focused on parent interactions with teachers and school environments at the middle level, including parent and teacher perceptions of school environments and parent–teacher relationships and collaborations. The findings revealed a common disconnect between how parents and teachers view school environments, but also showed that intentional, structured communication can help to bridge these gaps. The review also highlights that research on strategies to enhance parent–teacher partnerships is limited and context-specific. Based on this review of the literature, more research is needed on how home–school relationships benefit
diverse middle school communities and how collaboration can support student success, particularly during the critical middle school years.
integration of videos, activities, and higher level questions into class sessions. The results of this research affirm the power of reflective teaching while also reflecting the need to more actively engage pre-service teachers in this practice.
Conference Presentations by Sarah E . Pennington