A phenomenological inquiry into the technological curriculum making of secondary English Language Arts teachers in rural settings

Abstract

While there have been growing concerns about technological access and its connection to the development of student literacies in classes such as English language arts (ELA), this attention has become more acute in the wake of the renewal process for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESSA). Even though the ESSA named rural access to technology as a top priority, the decontextualized nature of existing studies has not provided much information about the ways in which rural access to technologies informs teachers’ curriculum-making—an essential component of the educational process. Knowing more about this issue has the potential to provide understandings to inform the implementation of the ESSA in rural schools and to support rural teachers generally in their work. The purpose of this dissertation was to conduct a formal phenomenological inquiry into the technological curriculum making of four rural teachers in four different rural settings with four different technological initiatives to develop greater understandings about the experience of teaching ELA in rural settings amid policy shifts that bear on teacher work. The findings of this study suggest the importance of considering the needs of rural ELA teachers differently, although not necessarily in opposition to those of urban teachers. It also suggests a need to develop teacher preparation and in-service support programs that consider teacher thinking and identity formation in relationship to technologies. Further, this preparation might occur alongside the curriculum-making process, rather than separately from it.