Beyond Enactment: Instructional Durability in Teacher Education

Teacher education research has generated substantial knowledge about how novice teachers learn to enact evidence-based practices during preparation and practicum experiences. However, less is known about whether these practices endure once teachers enter professional contexts characterized by competing demands, resource constraints, and reduced supervisory support. This study addresses this gap by introducing the concept of instructional durability and examining how evidence-based literacy practices are sustained, adapted, or diluted during the transition from teacher preparation to professional teaching.
Drawing on a longitudinal explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, the study followed novice teachers from practicum into their first year of teaching. Data were generated through classroom observations, interviews, and analysis of programme and instructional documents. Analysis examined relationships among preparation architecture, enactment capacity, contextual pressures, teacher agency, adaptation quality, and instructional durability.
The findings indicate that practicum enactment alone is an insufficient indicator of preparation effectiveness. Although most participants demonstrated competence in implementing evidence-based literacy routines during practicum, substantial variation emerged during first-year teaching. Teachers who engaged in productive adaptations were more likely to sustain the pedagogical functions and instructional intent of literacy practices despite contextual challenges, whereas diluting adaptations contributed to declining instructional quality and reduced opportunities for learner engagement, assessment, and feedback.
The study advances instructional durability as a framework for understanding the long-term effects of teacher preparation. It argues that preparation influences classroom practice not only through enactment capacity but also through teachers’ ability to engage in principled adaptation that preserves instructional intent across changing professional contexts. Implications are discussed for teacher education, induction, and literacy reform.

instructional durability; teacher education; literacy instruction

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