Katrina Bartow Jacobs | University of Pittsburgh (original) (raw)

Uploads

Papers by Katrina Bartow Jacobs

This article explores the potential of using multimodal texts—particularly comics—as a way of eng... more This article explores the potential of using multimodal texts—particularly comics—as a way of engaging teacher education students in critical inquiry around literacy and ELA assessments. We describe a qualitative study into the use of a multimodal comics-form article within an ELA/literacy assessment course in an MEd program. Our findings suggest that teacher preparation students were able to effectively remix and play with both comics tropes and more traditional " academic " writerly discourses. The use of multimodal texts in teacher preparation helped students engage in dialogic and critical forms of inquiry around issues related to classroom practices and policies. We end by suggesting ways that English teacher educators can include similar texts and activities in their courses and teacher preparation programs.

Urban educational contexts are increasingly complex, both in terms of what count as " urban " com... more Urban educational contexts are increasingly complex, both in terms of what count as " urban " communities, and in regard to the increasing diversity of schools in these settings. Given that school-based learning experiences are a core element of nearly all teacher education, it is critical that we develop a better sense of how early career teachers are conceptualizing these experiences within urban contexts. This issue is of particular importance given the fact that the majority of teachers being prepared today do not have personal or educational experiences in urban settings (Sleeter, 2001). Findings from this study demonstrate not only the pervasiveness of deficit perspectives in teacher learners' 1 conceptualizations of " real urban schools, " a term that emerged from the participants' group discourse, but also the power of critical inquiry as a framework from which to begin disrupting some of these assumptions. The article concludes by offering suggestions for how field experiences can be reframed in order to function as sites of possibility and change, rather than as living laboratories that uphold current institutional and societal inequities.

While scholars have recognized the importance of page breaks in both the construction and compreh... more While scholars have recognized the importance of page breaks in both the construction and comprehension of narrative within picture books, there has previously been limited research that focused directly on how children discuss and make sense of these spaces in the text. Yet, because of their nature as dramatic gaps in the narrative, page breaks offer unique and exciting opportunities to understand how children make meaning of picture books (Sipe in Storytime: young children’s literary understanding in the classroom, Teachers College Press, New York, 2008). This study explores how explicitly inviting young children to discuss page breaks offers insights into how these spaces function within the children’s readings. Drawing on transcribed audio-recordings of a series of read-aloud sessions held with a group of children ages five to eight, the analysis focused on coding themes within the children’s talk around page breaks in picture books. Specifically, the children referenced the role of page breaks as aesthetic choices; the utilization of page breaks to comprehend word/picture relationships; and the negotiation of these gaps in the story as they worked construct a cohesive understanding of the narrative. Overall, the data represents the rich possibilities for educators to include explicit talk around page breaks during picture book read-alouds as a pathway toward better understanding children’s sense-making of these texts.

Campano, G., Ngo, L., Low, D., & Jacobs, K. B. (2015). Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. Th... more Campano, G., Ngo, L., Low, D., & Jacobs, K. B. (2015). Journal of Early Childhood Literacy.

This article, part of a four-year research partnership with a multilingual faith community and its school, explores what happened when we invited young children in an aftercare
program to inquire into the university from their perspectives. Through a sociocultural literacy framework and realist theories of identity and experience, we examine the children’s organic forms of sense making through what we describe as critical play.
The children took up our invitation to represent their inquiries into college by using humour and imagination to demystify the university and make it their own. We conclude with some specific recommendations for colleges and universities interested in supporting access to higher education, especially for those young children who may not have the economic means or the entitlement of institutional legacy as part of their social habitus.

Scholarship on field experiences often addresses issues of integration with coursework and the de... more Scholarship on field experiences often addresses issues of integration with coursework
and the development of students’ pedagogical knowledge, with less focus on their role
in the development of teachers’ professional identities. Drawing on data from a yearlong
qualitative study, this article addresses a central concern for students in a literacy
teacher preparation program—fieldwork as a lonely venture. This research suggests
that traditional field experiences explicitly and implicitly perpetuate images of teaching
as a solitary act. These findings highlight the need to reconceptualize field experiences
as sites of inquiry in order to disrupt narratives of isolation within teacher education.

Fieldwork has historically played an important role within teacher education. Most often these ex... more Fieldwork has historically played an important role within teacher education. Most often these experiences in schools are depicted as sites for developing teachers to gain insight into the practice of teaching. Research into fieldwork as a context for teacher learning, however, has traditionally focused on the learned outcomes, and less on how teachers have experienced and self-described these places of study (Zeichner, 2010, 2012; Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Ball & Forzani, 2009). This year-long study explored how students in a literacy education program conceptualized the space of fieldwork as part of their teacher education program. Specifically, the study explored how students made sense of—individually and collectively within an inquiry community—field experiences in relation to coursework, to their own ongoing inquiries, and to their developing identities as teachers. I approached this work from a conceptual framework grounded within three strands: literacy as sociocultural practice; narrative inquiry; and critical feminisms. Data sources included fieldnotes, analytic memos, interview transcripts, and artifact analysis. ^ The research provides insights into how fieldwork is conceptualized as a space of learning within teacher education. During their participation in an inquiry group, and in individual interviews, participants routinely described their goals for fieldwork, their impressions for what was expected of them, and how classroom experiences influenced their perspectives on literacy education, urban education, and teaching more broadly. In particular I analyzed how fieldwork functioned as a space that was both integrated and separated from other spaces of learning in the teacher education program. I critically examined how these narratives were embedded within larger discourses around schooling, teacher education, and school-university partnerships; these stories offer new insights into how fieldwork experiences are integrated into teacher learning, and present a far more complicated image of fieldwork learning than is often reflected in the literature. Furthermore, the collaborative learning within the inquiry group demonstrates the importance of creating spaces for sustained, critical dialogue in connection to field experiences. The study offers new ways of conceptualizing fieldwork that takes into account the inherently relational work of these spaces, highlighting the importance of how fieldwork is integrated and framed within teacher education.

Campano, G., Jacobs, K. B., & Ngo, L. (2014). A CRITICAL RESOURCE ORIENTATION TO LITERACY ASSESSM... more Campano, G., Jacobs, K. B., & Ngo, L. (2014). A CRITICAL RESOURCE ORIENTATION TO LITERACY ASSESSMENT THROUGH A STANCE OF SOLIDARITY. Reclaiming English Language Arts Methods Courses: Critical Issues and Challenges for Teacher Educators in Top-Down Times, 97.

Campano, G., Ngo, L., Low, D., & Jacobs, K. B. (2015). Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. Th... more Campano, G., Ngo, L., Low, D., & Jacobs, K. B. (2015). Journal of Early Childhood Literacy.