Building Preservice Teachers’ Capacities in Integrating Computational and Digital Literacies: Faculty Values and Beliefs (Poster 3)

• In Event: Expansive Framings of “Capacity Building” in Computing Education: Agency, Infrastructuring, and Advocacy

Abstract

Objectives
Teacher educators play an important role in supporting pre-service teachers to build their capacity to teach computing and digital literacies (CDL) and to integrate these into their teaching (Yadav, Stephenson, & Hong, 2017). We analyzed interviews with teacher education faculty for the values and beliefs driving their design and implementation of CDLs into coursework.

Theoretical Framework
Numerous studies have highlighted the need to develop pre-service teachers’ technological pedagogical and content knowledge (Niess, 2011; Baran, 2019). Nevertheless, the role of teacher educators in developing teacher candidates’ capacities to teach computational and digital literacies is under-studied. Prior work has demonstrated that the values of the instructor as well as their own proficiency influence quality and manner of instruction (Gudmundsdottir, 1990) and on their perception of barriers to incorporating technology into their classrooms (Vongkulluksn, Xie, & Bowman, 2018). This study aims to explore teacher educators' perceptions and experiences regarding the integration of technology in their classrooms, as well as how teacher candidates might learn and integrate CDLs in their future classrooms.

Data and Methods
Thirty-two faculty participants in a multi-year capacity building initiative at an urban university system in the northeast were interviewed about their experiences and rationale for incorporating computing content and pedagogy into teacher education. These interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed (Braun & Clarke, 2022) for values and beliefs.

Results
The research team found six preliminary themes common across the faculty interviews:
- CDLs Intersect with (In)Equities: Faculty discussed CDLs' dual role - exacerbating and alleviating inequities, highlighting the issue of accessibility and algorithmic biases, and the need to have equity conversations with students.
- CDLs Enhance Subject Teaching: Faculty strongly advocated for the value of CDLs in teaching content across specific subject areas. For instance, one faculty member highlighted how pre-service teachers were able to deeply utilize CDLs in presenting ideas in content areas such as Math, Biology, etc.
- CDL Significance for Pre-service Teachers: Faculty shared ways CDLs have a positive significant impact on specific areas of pre-service teachers’ learning. (e.g., having pre-service teachers analyze the language options in tools like Google Translate to consider the experiences of multilingual students).
- Use of CDLs for Faculty Learning and Productivity: Faculty emphasized how computational and digital tools helped them with course organization and problem solving.
- CDL Faculty Learning Challenges: Some of the challenges faculty members shared include the frustration they experienced while trying to “get under the hood” when engaging in computational practices.
- Faculty Learning Goals: Faculty emphasized desire in developing their CDLs skills in order to teach them.

Significance
These findings contribute to the expanding research on enhancing pre-service teachers' capacities to learn and teach CDLs in their future classrooms. The study has important implications for integrating CDLs into teacher education, including the important aspects identified by teacher educators in teaching CDLs, addressing equity concerns, and providing professional development opportunities for faculty.

Authors

• Olamide Boluwatife Ogungbemi, Michigan State University

• Aman Yadav, Michigan State University

• Spence J. Ray, Cornell Tech/Michigan State University

• Michelle C. Fraboni, Queens College - CUNY

• Line Saint-Hilaire, Queens College - CUNY

• Marta Cabral, College of Staten Island - CUNY

• Nadia S. Kennedy, CUNY - New York City College of Technology