Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

First Advisor

Kathleen M. Brinegar

Abstract

Teachers, specifically early career teachers, report that they do not have high selfefficacybeliefs when it comes to teaching writing to adolescent students in the classroom. Previous studies show that early career teachers of writing report not having much in the way of formal education on how to teach writing during their pre-service teacher education courses, therefore leaving them with limited concept knowledge for how to teach writing during their first years in the classroom. Most early career teachers default to a productfocused, teacher-centered approach to teaching writing, one that focuses on the form and function of the writing being produced and where the teacher is the authority on what constitutes good writing in the writing classroom. This approach, however, does not show any reported improvements of self-efficacy for teaching writing by early career writing teachers. This study sought to find whether utilizing a student-centered, asset-based approach to teaching writing, one that decenters the teacher and focuses on the process over the product, leveraging student assets, identities, and interests as the starting place from which to grow the student writer, could have an impact on the reported self-efficacy of the writing teacher. This dissertation is rooted in Bandura’s self-efficacy theory and two theoretical frameworks: student-centered pedagogy and asset-based pedagogy. The chosen methodology was Participatory Narrative Inquiry (PNI) and the study focused on one participant, an early career 7/8 grade teacher of writing. Findings from this study indicate that developing further concept knowledge and utilization of student-centered, asset-based pedagogies had a positive effect on the participant’s perceived self-efficacy for teaching writing. Furthermore, the data collection strategies that included collaboration between the researcher and the participant also had a positive effect on positive perceptions of selfefficacy for teaching writing.

Language

en

Number of Pages

194 p.

Available for download on Friday, June 26, 2026

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