Date

4-29-2026

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD)

Chair

April Small

Keywords

Policy impact, teaching elementary reading, teachers' voices

Disciplines

Education | Law

Abstract

The purpose of this transcendental-phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of reading teachers who implement policy-driven reading practices in elementary schools within urban school districts in Maryland. The theory guiding this study was Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy. The policies governing how teachers teach reading in Maryland's elementary schools informed this study. The Central Research Question was, " How do elementary teachers’ lived experiences of implementing reading policy in the classroom affect reading instruction? A transcendental-phenomenological research design was combined with purposive sampling and involved responses from 10 participants from urban school districts in Maryland. Transcript coding was used to help determine themes and subthemes throughout the research. The data were triangulated through a questionnaire distributed to participants, individual interviews, and two focus groups of five participants each. The findings indicated that elementary teachers do not believe their views on the curriculum used to teach reading are valued. While many of the teachers in the study use components of the Science of Reading, they also add strategies they believe work for their students. All ten participants noted that more time needs to be dedicated to teaching reading.

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