Dissertation Defense: Lauren Biegley

The College of Education has scheduled the final oral examination of Lauren Biegley for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Teaching, Learning, and Technology. The title of the dissertation is Exploring Public Speaking Education in Middle School.  
 

Public speaking education (PSE) is a critical yet inconsistently implemented component of K-12 instruction. Despite its inclusion in state standards and decades of advocacy from the National Communication Association, empirical research on PSE implementation in K-12 schools remains sparse. Middle school is a particularly important context for PSE, as students experience heightened social self-consciousness, increased public speaking anxiety, and shifting communication norms during adolescence. This qualitative comparative case study examined what factors, including school structures, shape PSE implementation in middle school. Grounded in the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) and sensemaking theory, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with eight educators, classroom observations, team meeting observations, and artifact analysis across two structurally distinct middle schools: one using an interdisciplinary teaming model and one using a subject-departmentalized model. 
 

Findings revealed that all participants valued PSE, yet implementation varied dramatically between schools. Four themes accounted for this variation: Leadership Direction, Distributed Responsibility, Time as an Espoused Barrier, and Normalized Fear of Public Speaking Facilitates Avoidance. This study contributes to a nearly absent empirical literature on K-12 PSE implementation, extends the application of implementation science frameworks to curriculum implementation in education, and offers practical implications for school leadership and organizational design.