{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132563"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132563","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Belonging and becoming: exploring communities of practice for novice teachers in an online teacher preparation program","abstract":"This qualitative case study investigated how novice teachers enrolled in an online teacher preparation program experienced a purposefully integrated community of practice. Grounded in Wenger’s (1998, 2002) foundations of Community of Practice Theory and Garrison et al.’s (2000) Community of Inquiry Framework, the study explored the intersection of belonging and teaching presence. Data sources included pre- and post-surveys, five weeks of recorded community of practice meetings, and semi-structured interviews with five randomly selected case study participants who were identified as novice teachers. The analysis followed an inductive coding process guided by a living codebook, with themes identified through constant comparison and second-cycle coding. Three themes emerged: 1) Participation in the community of practice fostered a stronger sense of belonging to both the graduate program and the teaching profession, 2) opportunities to receive and reflect on feedback and advice from peers strengthened participants’ teaching presence, and 3) exposure to a range of peer teaching practices supported self-perceived pedagogical growth and identity formation. Findings suggest that thoughtfully structured and integrated communities of practice can mitigate feelings of isolation often associated with virtual learning environments and offer meaningful spaces for collaborative inquiry, reflection, and support for new teachers. Implications for the design of online teacher preparation programs are discussed, with particular attention to the intentional integration of community of practice structures to promote affinity, feedback, resource sharing, and professional learning.","abstract_html":"This qualitative case study investigated how novice teachers enrolled in an online teacher preparation program experienced a purposefully integrated community of practice. Grounded in Wenger’s (1998, 2002) foundations of Community of Practice Theory and Garrison et al.’s (2000) Community of Inquiry Framework, the study explored the intersection of belonging and teaching presence. Data sources included pre- and post-surveys, five weeks of recorded community of practice meetings, and semi-structured interviews with five randomly selected case study participants who were identified as novice teachers. The analysis followed an inductive coding process guided by a living codebook, with themes identified through constant comparison and second-cycle coding. Three themes emerged: 1) Participation in the community of practice fostered a stronger sense of belonging to both the graduate program and the teaching profession, 2) opportunities to receive and reflect on feedback and advice from peers strengthened participants’ teaching presence, and 3) exposure to a range of peer teaching practices supported self-perceived pedagogical growth and identity formation. Findings suggest that thoughtfully structured and integrated communities of practice can mitigate feelings of isolation often associated with virtual learning environments and offer meaningful spaces for collaborative inquiry, reflection, and support for new teachers. Implications for the design of online teacher preparation programs are discussed, with particular attention to the intentional integration of community of practice structures to promote affinity, feedback, resource sharing, and professional learning.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Frederick, Tyra"],"institution":"University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ed.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Kalantzis , Mary","Cope, William","Xhu, Xinran","You, Yu-Ling"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-12","date_published":"2025-12","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:07Z","subjects":["Teacher preparation","communities of practice","communities of inquiry","belonging","teacher presence"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2025 Tyra Frederick"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132563","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Kalantzis , Mary","Cope, William","Xhu, Xinran","You, Yu-Ling"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Frederick, Tyra"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-12","2025-12-03"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text","Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ed.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Teacher preparation","communities of practice","communities of inquiry","belonging","teacher presence"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2025 Tyra Frederick"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132563"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["This qualitative case study investigated how novice teachers enrolled in an online teacher preparation program experienced a purposefully integrated community of practice. Grounded in Wenger’s (1998, 2002) foundations of Community of Practice Theory and Garrison et al.’s (2000) Community of Inquiry Framework, the study explored the intersection of belonging and teaching presence. Data sources included pre- and post-surveys, five weeks of recorded community of practice meetings, and semi-structured interviews with five randomly selected case study participants who were identified as novice teachers. The analysis followed an inductive coding process guided by a living codebook, with themes identified through constant comparison and second-cycle coding. Three themes emerged: 1) Participation in the community of practice fostered a stronger sense of belonging to both the graduate program and the teaching profession, 2) opportunities to receive and reflect on feedback and advice from peers strengthened participants’ teaching presence, and 3) exposure to a range of peer teaching practices supported self-perceived pedagogical growth and identity formation. Findings suggest that thoughtfully structured and integrated communities of practice can mitigate feelings of isolation often associated with virtual learning environments and offer meaningful spaces for collaborative inquiry, reflection, and support for new teachers. Implications for the design of online teacher preparation programs are discussed, with particular attention to the intentional integration of community of practice structures to promote affinity, feedback, resource sharing, and professional learning.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2026-02-19 without embargo terms","The student, Tyra Frederick, accepted the attached license on 2025-12-03 at 08:13.","The student, Tyra Frederick, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-12-03 at 08:49.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-12-03 at 09:39.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #23038 on 2026-02-19 at 18:26:30"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Belonging and becoming: exploring communities of practice for novice teachers in an online teacher preparation program"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Kalantzis , Mary","Cope, William","Xhu, Xinran","You, Yu-Ling"],"dc:creator":["Frederick, Tyra"],"dc:date":["2025-12","2025-12-03"],"dc:description":["This qualitative case study investigated how novice teachers enrolled in an online teacher preparation program experienced a purposefully integrated community of practice. Grounded in Wenger’s (1998, 2002) foundations of Community of Practice Theory and Garrison et al.’s (2000) Community of Inquiry Framework, the study explored the intersection of belonging and teaching presence. Data sources included pre- and post-surveys, five weeks of recorded community of practice meetings, and semi-structured interviews with five randomly selected case study participants who were identified as novice teachers. The analysis followed an inductive coding process guided by a living codebook, with themes identified through constant comparison and second-cycle coding. Three themes emerged: 1) Participation in the community of practice fostered a stronger sense of belonging to both the graduate program and the teaching profession, 2) opportunities to receive and reflect on feedback and advice from peers strengthened participants’ teaching presence, and 3) exposure to a range of peer teaching practices supported self-perceived pedagogical growth and identity formation. Findings suggest that thoughtfully structured and integrated communities of practice can mitigate feelings of isolation often associated with virtual learning environments and offer meaningful spaces for collaborative inquiry, reflection, and support for new teachers. Implications for the design of online teacher preparation programs are discussed, with particular attention to the intentional integration of community of practice structures to promote affinity, feedback, resource sharing, and professional learning.","Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2026-02-19 without embargo terms","The student, Tyra Frederick, accepted the attached license on 2025-12-03 at 08:13.","The student, Tyra Frederick, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-12-03 at 08:49.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-12-03 at 09:39.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #23038 on 2026-02-19 at 18:26:30"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132563"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2025 Tyra Frederick"],"dc:subject":["Teacher preparation","communities of practice","communities of inquiry","belonging","teacher presence"],"dc:title":["Belonging and becoming: exploring communities of practice for novice teachers in an online teacher preparation program"],"dc:type":["text","Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ed.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:07Z"}