A Digital Turn for Teacher Education? Building Teacher Educators’ and Teacher Candidates’ Technological Knowledge and Digital Competency

Full Paper (Live Virtual) ID: 61174
  1. aaa
    Elizabeth Stringer Keefe
    Stonehill College Graduate Education

Abstract: The pandemic forced universities to shift abruptly to virtual instruction, for which many teacher preparation programs were largely unprepared. At the same time, mirroring larger societal conditions, a festering history of educational inequities were exposed. As teachers' roles shifted to digital practice, an array of new responsibilities arose - learning new technology skills, ensuring access/engagement, building bridges to safeguard mental health, and addressing equity and justice in teaching and learning. For teacher education, this required an examination of the necessary knowledge and skills required for teaching during and beyond the pandemic. In this presentation, we identify “critical tasks” of teacher education (Apple, 2005) and examine how, during the pandemic, they shifted to digital approaches. We suggest this marks a digital turn for teacher preparation and argue that such approaches should be carried forward and elaborated in the preparation of teachers. We utilize three examples from our own teacher preparation program that required interrogation and attention to internal accountability to ensure equity and inclusivity in the shift to a digital model: an online course model; a digital coaching model, and a virtual supervision model. We propose such approaches need to be infused into teacher education as a necessity within the current sociopolitical context and uncertain long-term impacts of the coronavirus pandemic to ensure equity and inclusivity.

Topics

Conference attendees are able to comment on papers, view the full text and slides, and attend live presentations. If you are an attendee, please login to get full access.
x