Online Concientizaçao: How Effective Is E-Learning on Cultural Diversity?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: Twenty-First-Century Teacher Learning and Professional Development

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a descriptive case study that documents the interactions of teachers and learners in two sections of a converted online graduate course focusing on cultural diversity and qualitative research. This paper, which is part of a larger study, answers two research questions: How does an instructor promote critical consciousness in a course devoted to cultural diversity using the Google+ platform? How does an instructor assist students to move in their zones of proximal development and provide means of assisted performance in the virtual world while training professional educators to become qualitative researchers? This study reveals some of the pedagogical and ideological challenges that faculty and students experience in the virtual world.

Author

• Marta P. Baltodano, Loyola Marymount University