Balancing Competing Contexts: Fine-Tuning a Critical Digital Literacies Project in a Reading Methods Course (Poster 1)

• In Event: Expansive Views on the Role of Computing and Digital Literacies in Teacher Education

Abstract

Summary
While literacy educators have been charged to teach students about how to interact with and construct meaning while they read, the focus of this instruction has generally been on traditional print-based texts. Yet, people increasingly interact with various digital resources, which they have never been taught to interpret, analyze, or create. Many are unaware of the relationship between algorithms and digital information, and how algorithms influence the type of information that readers are exposed to. It is essential that literacy programs within teacher preparation programs equip teacher candidates to understand digital literacies vis a vis the aforementioned issues and to design critical literacy instruction through digital texts.
This poster delves into the influences that shaped the refinement of a critical digital literacies (CDL) project - a series of related activities - within a reading methods course for undergraduate elementary educators. The CDL project was designed to address future teachers’ interests in digital literacies and engagement in the digital world. It also aims to fill in the gap in literacy education and pedagogy in teacher education about digital literacies from an equity perspective.
Implementing the CDL project over three semesters, it became clear that refinement would be necessary given the competing contexts in which the project operated. For example, teacher candidates come with their own knowledge and values about the role of digital literacies within elementary classrooms. Furthermore, the classrooms in which teacher candidates complete their fieldwork requirements are entirely print-based and do not incorporate digital literacies.

Objectives and significance

This study seeks to document how competing influences - across students, school contexts, and program objectives - influenced the design and implementation of the CDL project. This documentation was critical for not only understanding sustainability and alignment for this course, but also to identify a process in which other teacher educators could balance programmatic goals, clinical experiences, and student backgrounds in their assignment design.

Theoretical framework

While the ways in which children and adults engage in literacy is continually changing, reading instruction in schools remains squarely focused on skills that are pegged to an age when print-based resources were the only ones available (NCTE, 2019). It is critical that teacher candidates thoughtfully engage in critical digital literacies and also know how to design critical digital literacy instruction. It is clear that digital literacies can be centered on a commitment to create counter-narratives for agency, self-representation and authorship in digital spaces. (NCTE, 2019; Price-Dennis & Sealey-Ruiz, 2021).

Data and methods

A longitudinal retrospective self-study was undertaken to document and analyze three different iterations of the CDL project. Data include written curricular designs, curricular frameworks, powerpoints, and reflective memos written by the researcher.

Results

An analysis of the data indicates that there are tensions between the CDL project and both students’ attitudes as well as the clinical conditions where students are observing and directly working with students. Notwithstanding, the CDL project was refined to reflect the need for teacher candidates to understand the connection between digital literacies, bias, and equity for both themselves and their students.

Author

• Laura Ascenzi-Moreno, Brooklyn College - CUNY