Date

12-4-2025

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)

Chair

Heather Strafaccia

Keywords

Science of Reading, SoR, early literacy, literacy, structured literacy, balanced literacy, simple view of reading, differentiated instruction, mtss, social cognitive theory, reading fluency, reading comprehension, decoding, phonics, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, experienced teacher, K-5, veteran teacher, science of reading implementation, K-5 early literacy

Disciplines

Curriculum and Instruction | Elementary Education

Abstract

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of implementing the SoR for experienced K-5 teachers at Carlton County School System in rural Georgia. This study was guided by Bandura’s social cognitive theory, which was utilized to explore the lived experiences of experienced K-5 educators who were required to implement the SoR strategies into their literacy instruction. This hermeneutic phenomenological study used a qualitative research design to explore the following research question: What are the perceptions of experienced K-5 teachers implementing the science of reading? A combination of experienced K-5 teachers from three Title I schools in the Carlton County School System was selected to participate in this study based on their years of experience teaching literacy. Individual interviews, focus groups, and letter writing were used to collect data. The data collected was interpreted through bracketing and the horizontalization analysis method. The interpretation of the educators’ SoR implementation experiences resulted in three primary themes: Embracing science of reading, professional learning, and implementation support. In addition to the three primary themes, each theme contained three corresponding subthemes. The study identified empirical and theoretical implications, discussed limitations and delimitations, and offered recommendations for future research.

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