2025 Theses Doctoral

From Page to Practice: Inherited Ideologies and the Becoming of Preservice Teachers Through Children’s Literature

Midgette, Lauren B.

This qualitative narrative inquiry explores how recently graduated preservice elementary teachers perceive, negotiate, and enact ideology in the classroom through engagement with children’s literature. Drawing on intergenerational cultural transmission (Tam, 2015) and figured worlds (Holland et al., 1998), the study examines how preservice teachers perceive ideological messages in texts and how these interpretations shape their pedagogical choices as they begin their careers. Using narrative inquiry as both method and stance, the study gathers stories across a focus group, reflective journaling, read-aloud planning, and preservice and inservice interviews to trace participants’ evolving ideological understandings.

Findings reveal that participants’ responses to children’s literature illuminated inherited belief stories, and while all participants valued diversity and belonging, their planning revealed uneven criticality and hesitation when texts carried emotional or ideological weight. Reflection and dialogue prompted shifts in awareness, as participants began to see how their teacher preparation program functioned as its own figured world, shaping ideological commitments. Ultimately, the study argues that when teacher preparation programs engage preservice teachers in sustained reflective encounters with children’s literature, ideologies become visible and revisable, fostering transformations in how teachers understand themselves and how they teach.