Deliberation and Decision-making on the Place of Computing and Digital Literacies in Teacher Preparation Programs (Poster 11)

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

Abstract

Overview
While there’s broad recognition of the need to support K12 students with the computational and digital literacies (CDLs) necessary in an increasingly technologically-mediated world, preparing teachers across subject areas and grade bands to teach these skills requires reimagining teacher education programs (Foulger et al., 2017). Through a case study of five colleges of education across a large, urban teacher education institution, this paper examines colleges’ processes of deliberation around what their pre-service teachers should learn in their programs vis-a-vis CDLs, highlighting the factors impacting their decision-making processes and key steps for institutional change.

Theoretical Framework
This study approach focuses on the dynamic processes implicit in achieving coherent instructional systems (Cobb et al., 2020), ones where alignment is at play between key elements such as broad motivations for instructional change, instructional priorities (i.e. student learning goals, guiding pedagogies), instructional materials, and professional development supports. We draw on scholarship that highlights how educational institutions must contend with external ideas and demands to effectively incorporate and address them (Farrell & Coburn, 2017), and “craft coherence” in ways that bridge to their own institutional context (Honig & Hatch, 2024).

Data and Methods
Our study addresses the following research questions: 1) What factors impact how college teams define what teacher candidates should learn related to CDLs in their program learning goals and scopes and sequences? And 2) How do these factors mediate (hinder and support) the decision-making process of creating meaningful, equitable and coherent learning goals related to CDLs?
Qualitative case study methods were used to examine group decision-making processes of five colleges as they outlined new learning objectives around CDLs for their teacher education programs. Data sources, including meeting observations and interviews with faculty involved in these institutional change efforts, were analyzed first to draw the timeline of activities that each college engaged in, followed by open coding to elevate themes in college decision-making processes. These themes fell into categories related to external/institutional impacts, team dynamics, team roles, and college educational values. Themes across colleges were compared and contrasted across the research team.

Findings
Findings describe the different activities and timelines pursued by each college, with key decision-making points categorized into specific areas of influence: 1) institutional barriers and affordances, 2) inter-team dynamics, and 3) external factors beyond the colleges. Similarities and contrasts between how colleges responded to different sites of pressure and support are described, with connections to how these pressures/supports ultimately shaped what colleges decided their pre-service teachers should understand and be able to do in their future classrooms.

Significance
This poster illuminates the factors influencing institutional change efforts at the intersection of computing and teacher education, highlighting the kinds of barriers and supports that need to be taken into consideration during these change processes. It contributes to both broad understandings of systemic change efforts for entire college systems, but also specifically to computing education efforts seeking to prepare both teachers and students for a rapidly changing technological landscape.

Authors

• Jean J. Ryoo, University of California - Los Angeles

• Rafi Santo, Telos Learning LLC

• David Phelps, Telos Learning LLC

• Jessica Velez Tello, Brooklyn College - CUNY

• Sara Vogel, City University of New York

• Aankit Patel, City University of New York