Blending Culturally Inclusive Practices and Digital Literacy

The COVID-19 pandemic provided an opportunity to learn various ways technology can be integrated in education. From 2020 to 2023, New America hosted a series of roundtables with education stakeholders to discuss education, digital equity, and culturally responsive practices. Whether conversing with school leaders, teachers, students, out-of-school time staff, or developers, two common themes consistently emerged: the need to foster educators’ digital literacy, and for educational materials and practices to support diverse learners. Since educators can start supporting students’ digital literacy in elementary grades and have challenges finding and creating culturally responsive and inclusive materials, teacher education programs can meet these needs by integrating digital literacy and culturally responsive education (CRE) in their courses and programs. This post centers on six teacher education programs with pre-service elementary teachers, those enrolled in teacher education programs and have not yet completed degree requirements.

This post describes the types of culturally responsive practices used in programs and then shifts to education technology frameworks. It concludes with summarizing assignments completed by pre-service teachers. Study authors featured in this post are: Alanís and Machado-Casas (2018); Coakley-Fields, Kelly, Cunningham, and Krafick (2022); Hsieh and Yang (2021); Lyublinskaya (2015); Shelby-Caffey (2021); and Song (2022).

Defining Digital Literacy

The Digital Literacy Task Force of the American Library Association describes digital literacy as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.” By combining digital literacy needs with CRE, teacher preparation programs can address issues such as developing virtual and digital lessons that support dual language learners, using digital tools to meet the needs of students with disabilities, and curating online materials that reflect students’ identities and build on their prior knowledge. Since blending these frameworks is not a common practice, teacher preparation programs may be unsure of how to start. Summarizing practices from six teacher preparation case studies provides higher education faculty strategies for blending CRE with digital literacy in courses and assignments.

Culturally Responsive Frameworks Selected

When determining CRE frameworks to use, instructors selected pedagogies that would meet the needs of pre-service teachers’ future students. In Song’s study, pre-service teachers learned both translanguaging pedagogy and funds of knowledge to formulate strategies for supporting linguistic diversity and incorporating the knowledge within emergent bilingual students’ families. Ofelia García, Susana Johnson, and Kate Seltzer define translanguaging as the complexity of bilingualism and multilingualism language practices that support students’ learning, identity, and social emotional development. Funds of knowledge, developed by Norma González, Luis C. Moll, and Cathy Amanti, describes the knowledge and cultural resources contained in households.

Funds of knowledge were blended with CRE and critical literacy in Shelby-Caffey’s study to guide pre-service teachers’ design of literacy and language learning experiences for culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Preservice and in-service teachers in Coakley-Fields and colleagues’ learned CRE practices for making connections between students and literacy content. Alanís and Machado-Casas’ study noted bilingual pre-service teachers took a course on Latino culture and children’s literature and applied this knowledge when engaging with bilingual Latin@ elementary-aged students.

Hsieh and Yang describe how instructors used Social Justice Standards to cultivate pre-service art teachers’ sensitivity to LGBTQ+ representation in children’s media, positive attitude towards students’ multiple identities, and understanding of their impact on classroom and school environments. Pre-service special education teachers in Lyublinskaya’s study became familiar with Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a set of teaching and learning guidelines that recognizes multiple means for engaging in content, representing information, and demonstrating learning.

Technology-centered Theories Used to Inform Digital Literacy

Similar to culturally responsive frameworks, instructors chose technology theories applicable to pre-service teachers’ current and future practices. The TPaCK (Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge) framework was used in both Alanís and Machado-Casas’ and Lyublinskaya’s study. Judith Harris, Punya Mishra, and Matthew Koehler describe TPaCK as a way of framing the knowledge required by teachers for technology integration. TPaCK was used due to its adaptability to diverse settings and learners and its ability to be used with other teaching and learning practices, like UDL.

While Hsieh and Yang’s study did not reference a framework, pre-service teachers likely had familiarity with digital media and technology due to standards set by the National Art Education Association. Stay-at-home orders created conditions in which courses that did not originally emphasize technology had to build pre-service teachers’ digital knowledge and skills. In Coakley-Fields and colleagues’ study, pre-service teachers conducted clinical experience virtually and developed culturally sensitive digital interactions and lessons. Similarly, pre-service teachers in Song’s study virtually worked with emergent bilingual students and their families and used technology to build connections and implement a digital service learning project.

Digital literacy and Culturally Responsive Education Assignments

As pre-service teachers learned about CRE and technology-centered theories, discussions and projects were two common approaches instructors implemented. These approaches allowed pre-service teachers to gather and process course content and apply this information in context.

Discussion

Pre-service teachers engaged in discussions while participating in hands-on assignments or clinical experience. When completing assignments, instructors facilitated discussions about social and cultural aspects of teaching students, code switching, poverty, achievement gap, new literacies, LGBTQ+ representation, and the history and contemporary context of children’s media. These conversations allowed pre-services teachers to examine their biases, work with future students, and design learning experiences. During clinical experiences, discussions were an opportunity to: share experiences, challenges, and lessons learned from working with students, iterate on lessons, and discuss complex issues such as fairness, equity, and access to develop critical consciousness.

Projects

Projects allowed pre-service teachers to apply their knowledge and skills in context, and many required pre-service teachers to develop lessons. Pre-service teachers created: a multimodal, interactive lesson accompanied with a presentation about a young adult author whose work examines power and privilege, original math and science lessons that adapted technology-based tasks for students with disabilities, digital “get to know you” activities, and family literacy bags and lesson plans that used multicultural materials, digital translation tools, and software that allowed multimodal expression. They also engaged in in-person digital experiences with students and used the tool’s features to adjust the amount of information presented, deliver audio in students’ native language, and create auto-narratives. Other projects that were not lessons still required pre-service teachers to demonstrate their knowledge. When designing digital or 2D characters, pre-service teachers composed a character description and explanations of the importance of LGBTQ+ representation and use of this character lesson in practice.

Takeaways

Teacher education programs can provide evidence-based strategies for building pre-service elementary educators digital literacy practices while simultaneously enhancing their CRE knowledge and skills. Using both types of theories better prepares pre-service teachers for working with diverse learners in different contexts. Based on these studies, three takeaways teacher preparation programs can implement in their practice are:

• Select CRE and technology-centered theories based on the type of preparation program and pre-service teachers’ future context and student population. This will give pre-service teachers knowledge and skills they apply after completing their program.
• Incorporate culturally responsive practices authentically in assignments, so pre-service teachers learn the information and interpret the content with peers.
• Provide pre-service teachers the time, knowledge, skills, and experiences to explore and use digital tools in educational settings. Pre-services need to be adaptable, open to learning, and able to generate new strategies.