A Phenomenological Study of The Experiences of Reading Teachers Instructing Students with Diverse Needs Using The McGraw Hill Direct Instruction Programs

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study is to understand the experiences of reading teachers instructing students with diverse needs using the McGraw Hill Direct Instruction programs in kindergarten through eighth grade classrooms during the first three years of the district-wide implementation in a large school district in Florida. Instructing students with diverse needs using the McGraw Hill Direct Instruction programs is generally defined as using either McGraw Hill’s Corrective Reading or Reading Mastery program to teach students with reading deficiencies. The theories that guided this study were Bandura’s social cognitive and self-efficacy theories. The central research question was “What are the experiences of the kindergarten through 8th-grade teachers in a Florida school district who teach McGraw Hill’s Direct Instruction programs?” This qualitative transcendental phenomenological (Moustakas, 1994) study was developed to capture the essence of the lived experiences of kindergarten through eighth-grade teachers teaching the McGraw Hill Direct Instruction reading program. Data were collected in a natural setting as the teachers shared their unique experiences and allowed their voices to be heard through interviews, artifacts from the participants’ experiences, and focus group interviews. Overall, the participants shared positive experiences centered around students’ improvements with reading and research-based instructional practices, with their most significant barrier being teacher autonomy to make instructional decisions.