Content area literacy and preservice teacher education: Preparing preservice science teachers to view literacy in service of science teaching

The purpose of the current study was to explore the experiences of preservice science education students who were part of an interdisciplinary cohort on content area literacy. By investigating how preservice science teachers describe the relationship between literacy and science teaching while participating in the content area literacy cohort, I identified emerging patterns to seek trends to enact content area literacy in schools, and found ways to reform and rethink how to provide this type of instruction within the curriculum of preservice education programs.;I pursued the question, How do preservice science teachers describe the relationship between literacy and science teaching while participating in the content area literacy cohort? with sub-questions: (a) What misunderstandings about content area literacy exist in secondary school science settings? (b) How do preservice teachers view content area literacy in the practice of student teaching? (c) How can content area literacy advance scientific literacy? (d) In what ways is content area literacy useful beyond the secondary school science classroom? (e) Are there any specific barriers preservice teachers encounter while trying to implement content area literacy in the secondary school student teaching classroom?.;This research was enacted as a mixed methods qualitative study, reported in a case study format. Data were collected over the academic year 2006-2007 from preservice science student artifacts completed during this time. Five findings were reported to address each sub-question presented above. These findings are the presence of misconceptions about secondary student abilities and the need for literacy instruction, the use of literacy as a pedagogical tool, literacy as the mechanism for students to become scientists, literacy as a catalyst for lifelong learning, and the challenges to literacy implementation in student teaching..;In summary, this research informs the science education and teacher education communities by expanding the scope of scientific literacy, addressing challenges to conceptual understanding through literacy strategies, and more generally how to effectively incorporate literacy in the content area classroom.