Teacher Courage and Connected Learning: Contexts and Practices of Connected Learning in Teacher Education

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

Abstract

Connected Learning (CL) focuses on fostering student-led inquiry and seeking equity through connecting students with opportunities and resources available in communities beyond their classroom walls (Ito et. al 2013). Public school teachers have voiced hesitation and fear about applying the CL approach in their classrooms because it challenges their traditional school culture of standardized, socially isolated models of teaching and learning (Baker-Doyle, Whitfield & Miller, In Press). Likewise, teacher education programs that incorporate or teach the CL model seek to provide contexts and strategies for students in their programs to develop the agency to apply CL principles to their practice in institutions that either do not understand or support the approach. Thus, this research explores the question of how public school teachers draw from learning experiences in a graduate program in CL to shape their practice, amid fear from tensions and push-back in their school context.

In this longitudinal case study, we trace the experiences of two teachers that attended a graduate program in Connected Learning for educators and subsequently sought to apply the principles to their practice over the course of three years. We use a socio-cultural lens on agency (Lasky, 2005; Wertsch, Tulviste & Hagstrom, 1993) to analyze the agentive tools and practices that the teachers developed to develop the agency to apply Connected Learning principles, and examine the contexts and practices embedded in the course that supported these practices. The findings of the analysis highlight three key factors: teaching the discipline of “small moves,” encouraging and fostering the development of professional support networks, and promoting the creation of third spaces to try-out and showcase their work. The results of this study have implications for scholars of teacher agency, particularly in better understanding the relationship between agentive practices, social networks, and third spaces. The study also provides important insights for teacher educators on how to construct contexts and practices that empower teachers to seek equity for students and center their teaching on student interests.

Author

• Kira J. Baker-Doyle, Arcadia University