Drawing on Digital Equity: Cultivating Preservice Teachers’ Digital Equity Mindsets in a Technology Integration Course

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 2:30 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Pre- and In-Service Teacher Development With Technology as an Agent of Change (Table 16)

Abstract

Although access to technology has substantially increased in our nation’s schools, inequities in technology usage persist, especially in classrooms serving disproportionately more minoritized students. Driven by expert recommendations for increased teacher preparation focused on addressing this phenomenon, we sought to cultivate preservice teachers’ (PSTs’) “digital equity mindsets” in an equity-focused, stand-alone technology integration course. A mixed methods analysis of pre- and post-course drawings and written reflections where PSTs indicated their intentions to build digital equity showed a significant evolution of their mindsets in five key dimensions. This study provides novel insight into how PSTs’ digital equity mindsets can be effectively cultivated, and how doing so might engender more equitable technology integration practices.

Authors

• Lauren Weisberg, University of Texas - Arlington

• Kara M. Dawson, University of Florida