Grant Doherty '24 G'26, along with faculty members Scott Morrison and Jeff Carpenter, co-authored an article in the "Journal of Research on Technology in Education."
William S. Long Professor and Professor of Education Jeff Carpenter, Associate Professor of Education Scott Morrison, and Grant Doherty ’24 G’26 published their peer-reviewed research, titled “Social media and pre-service teachers’ apprenticeships of observation,” in the “Journal of Research on Technology in Education.”
Doherty is an Elon Teaching Fellows program alum who completed his undergraduate studies in 2024, majoring in history with teacher licensure. As a current classroom teacher at Southern Alamance Middle School, he is a participant in the Teach for Alamance program and a student in the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education’s Master’s Degree in Innovation program. And now he’s a published author as well.
Doherty began his contribution to the research project as a part of his participation in the Elon Teaching Fellows program, and took undergraduate research credit hours with both Drs. Carpenter and Morrison. He also participated in the Elon Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURE), which provided him dedicated time to work on data collection and analysis, as well as funds to compensate study participants.
The article can be found online, and its abstract is as follows:
Before pre-service teachers (PSTs) enter educator preparation programs, their experiences as K-12 students shape their understanding of teaching. Additionally, many aspiring teachers are exposed via social media to ideas, resources, and narratives about teachers and teaching. To help explore and conceptualize how social media may be adding to PSTs’ knowledge and expectations of teaching, we interviewed 28 PSTs about factors, experiences, and role models contributing to their understanding of teaching. Participants reported having learned about teaching through social media and demonstrated some awareness of the complexities and challenges of such learning. Most PSTs also valued content shared by teachers on social media but did not see these teachers as role models.
The reference for the article is as follows:
Carpenter, J. P., Morrison, S. A., & Doherty, G. T. (2025). Social media and pre-service teachers’ apprenticeships of observation. Journal of Research on Technology in Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2025.2504359