Literacy teachers as researchers: Developing small inclusive projects in your classroom

Literacy teachers as researchers: Developing small inclusive projects in your classroom

Literacy teachers have a big job. They are largely responsible for teaching reading and writing not to mention keeping up to date with contemporary literate practices such as those that are multimodal (Barton, 2019). Ultimately, literacy teachers are teachers of effective communication or how we make and create meaning (Barton and Lennon, 2020; Vasquez et al., 2019). Literacy teachers are also responsible for ensuring all students achieve positive learning outcomes, including personal growth (Luke, 2018). How then can teachers of literacy in their everyday busy lives best plan for and address diverse student needs? As teacher educators, we are responsible for teaching Master's level students in a course called Literacies Learning in Diverse Contexts. Student feedback about this course is always very positive and we believe this is because the learning is personal, reflective and relevant. Students are required to identify an issue they are interested in, related to literacy learning and diverse students. They develop a research question, research the topic and plan for implementation in schooling contexts. This short paper will outline the approaches we take in supporting our preservice teachers to become teachers as researchers.

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