Agency out of Disruption: Shifting Preservice Teachers' Beliefs Through a Connected Learning Framework

• In Event: From Connected Learning to Connected Teaching: Toward a New Vision of Digital Literacy Teacher Education

Abstract

Preservice teachers navigate competing ideologies as they examine student engagement in peer supported and interest driven learning with their own peers and in their imagined future work with students (Britzman, 1991; Ito et al., 2013 ). In this study, we draw on critical sociocultural theory (Lewis, Moje, & Enciso, 2007) and participatory literacies (Rowsell & Wohlwend, 2016; Soep, 2006) to understand how a connected learning approach to utilizing digital tools influences elementary preservice teachers’ beliefs and implementation of multimodal literacy practices in the classroom. Applying mediated discourse analysis (MDA) (Scollon & Scollon, 2004; Norris & Jones, 2005), this study follows preservice teachers’ use of digital tools, their development of lesson plans focused on multimodal literacy, and their beliefs about using digital tools for composition within a semester long hybrid course focused on connected learning and critical literacy in the elementary classroom.

The site of this study is a liberal arts University in a large, Midwestern city. Participants in the study include two instructors and six focal students from two sections of an elementary education literacy methods course. Data was collected from January through May 2017, including lesson plans, transcripts from in-person and online discussions, multimodal student reflections, and student surveys. During the course, students learned about connected learning principles through: course readings, digital applications, creating lesson plans, multimodal responses, and peer supported digital activities. These activities included opportunities to work with high school students and practicing teachers to witness connected learning (Ito, et al., 2013) in action.

The study aims to answer the research question: How does a multi-generational, cross-cultural exploration of digital tool use in a connected learning framework influence preservice teachers’ implementation and beliefs about digital and multimodal writing in the classroom?

Applying MDA (Norris & Jones, 2005), we traced discourses across preservice teachers’ reflective blog posts, in-class discussion transcripts, and interviews, leading to moments of disruption to preservice teachers’ understanding of hierarchies in their teaching settings. Three disruptions occurred after the preservice teachers’ experience with high school students and practicing teachers who led them through connected learning lessons. 1. Building multimodality: increasing recognition of the ways digital tools make space for students’ multimodal practices that extend past technology, such as the audio aspect of many digital tools; 2. Expanding differentiation: learning from youth and practicing teachers who infused differentiation as student choice, rather than as an authoritative move made by the teacher; 3. Recognizing youth creators: witnessing students’ freedom to learn through a variety of means rather than focusing on a specific digital tool.

The disruptions described in this study led preservice teachers to shift beliefs about the purpose of utilizing digital tools for students’ civic participation and digital composition, and the possibilities for educators to implement multimodal practices in their classrooms. Recognizing the competing discourses and pressures preservice teachers experience, the results of this study offer tools to support teachers’ agency through the implementation of connected learning principles in preservice education courses, leading to the potential to expand participatory literacies and civic engagement in school settings.

Authors

• Stephanie Rollag Yoon, The College of Saint Scholastica

• Maggie Struck, University of Minnesota