Defining the electronic portfolio implementation process in postsecondary teacher preparation programs in the United States

The expanding focus on accountability in K-12 education brings a corresponding change for teacher preparation programs in postsecondary education. Ensuring future teachers have mastered both content knowledge and pedagogical skills is critical for institutions for accreditation purposes and for supporting assertions that teacher candidates possess the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to be effective teachers. The incorporation of performance-based assessment strategies to enhance standardized assessment creates challenges for data aggregation. The use of electronic portfolios offers a potential means to facilitate the collection of performance-based data. The fractured and anecdotal nature of the literature presents challenges for a leader seeking to draw from the existing body of literature to guide an electronic portfolio system implementation as information is widely dispersed and not easily acquired. The purpose of this mixed method study is to generate a theory to explain the electronic portfolio implementation process in postsecondary teacher preparation programs in the United States, and to examine the association between the types of electronic portfolio systems implemented with the common themes identified in student, faculty, and administrative staff feedback. This study was constructed to answer the following research questions: (1) What common themes emerge from student feedback related to the implementation process? (2) What common themes emerge from faculty feedback related to the implementation process? (3) What common themes emerge from administrative staff feedback related to the implementation process? (4) What are the common elements across the implementation process in the cases explored?;This study also attempted to determine that there is a comparative differential association between electronic portfolio usage types and elements of feedback from students, faculty, and administrative staff surrounding the electronic portfolio implementation process in postsecondary teacher preparation programs within the United States. Emergent themes from student and faculty feedback were identified, although limited data availability and lack of a clear definition of the administrative stakeholder resulted in inconclusive findings. Two primary portfolio usage classifications were identified; however, the findings did not conclusively demonstrate differences based upon the association between the portfolio classification and stakeholder feedback.