Date of Award

Spring 5-2016

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Campus-Only Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Advisor

Dylan B. Dryer

Second Committee Member

Pat Burnes

Third Committee Member

Ryan J. Dippre

Additional Committee Members

Charlsye Diaz

Abstract

This thesis investigates English teacher preparation at State U. It presents a review of literature and research pertaining to teacher preparation from the field of Education; it reviews theory from the field of Writing Studies, particularly Rhetorical Genre Studies (Miller, 1984, Bawarshi (2003), Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (Prior, 1998; Russell, 1997) and from Sociology, Institutional Ethnographic methods (Smith, 2005). Findings from archival work focused on the history of the English and Education departments at State U., along with ethnographic interviews and close readings of texts produced by English teacher-apprentices, show a fraught relationship between teacher-apprentices’ coursework and their practical student teaching experiences. Teacher-apprentices project ambivalences about their work back onto the program itself. Recommendations are made for ways in which the practices employed by the State U. College of Education and English department might be improved to better help students in their transition to being English Teachers.

Download

Share