1.0 Chapter 1: Introduction, Rationale, Questions

This post includes Chapter 1 of the dissertation research proposal, including sections

• 1.1 Introduction
• 1.2 Rationale
• 1.3 Research Questions
• 1.4 Researcher Positionality

This dissertation research proposal outlines my intention to explore how teacher educators in Canadian faculties of education (FoE) describe their lived experiences of media and digital literacies within an openly shared teaching practice. Because I stand within the confluence of three fields of study, this research emerges from my own lived experiences as a teacher educator, open educator, and explorer of critical media and digital literacies. For me, this research answers my burning need to bring teacher education into the open, and to bring teacher educator’s voices into prominence within the field of education, while examining the living literacies (Pahl & Rowsell, 2020) found within the field of media and digital literacy. This research supports the growing demand for digitally and media literate educators demonstrating global competencies (CMEC, 2020) and is a response to global calls for open educational practices (Bates, 2019; Montoya, 2018).

For this research, I propose to apply a post-intentional phenomenological methodology to explore media and digital literacies (MDL) within open educational practices (OEPr) through teacher educators’ stories of their lived experiences within their participatory, collaborative, networked, shared, and public-facing educational practices (Cronin & MacLaren, 2018; Lohnes Watulak, 2018; Lohnes Watulak et al., 2018; Tur et al., 2020). Current research in the field of OEPr has limited exploration in the field of teacher education and has yet to explicitly examine the critical role played by media and digital literacies (Bozkurt et al., 2019; Cronin, 2017), which prompts my wonderings about how teacher educators’ OEPr are impacted by the application or absence of media and digital literacies?

As suggested, this research is positioned at the confluence of three fields of study:

• literacy – it’s many definitions, forms, and trends as reflected in the field of education with specific attention to media and digital literacies as applied to, and studied within, the field of education;
• teacher education, particularly from a teacher educator’s perspective, examining practices and trends in digitally enabled teaching and learning; and
• open educational practices – the definitions and conceptions of the term ‘open’ in the field of education, specifically teacher education, and its impact on teaching practices, pedagogies, and resources.

First, because I teach a course in the teacher education program, I seek to understand the role of MDL in current research and educational contexts in Canada from a teacher educator’s perspective. Critical MDL is an important research focus, as evident from the growing political and public demands for literacies in all areas of education (Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, 2020; OECD, 2018; Zimmer, 2018). Calls for educational responses to ‘fake news’ (Gallagher & Rowsell, 2017) and the teaching of digital citizenship to combat cyberbullying (Choi et al., 2018; Jones & Mitchell, 2016) will increasingly influence educational landscapes in Canada (Hoechsmann & DeWaard, 2015). Digital literacy and competency frameworks have been developed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the European Union to further education for citizenship (Carretero Gomez et al., 2017; Law et al., 2018). While research focuses on MDL in the K-12 education sector (Buss et al., 2018; Gallagher & Rowsell, 2017) teachers in the classroom (Choi et al., 2018), teaching and learning in higher education contexts (Castañeda & Selwyn, 2018); and, teacher candidates being prepared for a career in teaching (Cam & Kiyici, 2017; Cantabrana et al., 2019; Cervetti et al., 2006; Gretter & Yadav, 2018), there is little research on the MDL of teacher educators (Foulger et al., 2017; Knezek et al., 2019; Krumsvik, 2014; Petrarca & Kitchen, 2017).

Second, because I am a Canadian teacher by profession and a teacher educator by choice, I seek to understand the lived experiences of teacher educators as they apply MDL within Canadian teacher education, as evidence within their OEPr. UNESCO amplifies the notion of education as common good(s), shifting from previous notions of education as individualistic and economically entangled public good(s), with a focus on open educational practices and networks as mechanisms for change (Daviet, 2016; Law et al., 2018). Common good(s), contributing to societal well-being, are undergirded with a humanistic and holistic belief system (Daviet, 2016). The Canadian Council of Ministers of Education and the National Council of Teachers of English have emphasized the need for enhanced literacy development in conjunction with technology competencies in education for all provincial education jurisdictions (Gallagher & Rowsell, 2017). The Canadians for 21st Century Learning & Innovation document Vision for 21st century learning in Canada, 2012, identifies key skills and competencies learners should possess, which suggests that teachers, teacher candidates, and teacher educators should also possess these skills and competencies. The development of a set of technology competencies for teacher educators (Foulger et al., 2017) indicates the need for a reconceptualization of current FoE structures and teacher educators’ practices.

Since “teacher’s knowledge is an essential component in improving educational practice” (Connelly et al., 1997, p. 674), this research will explore the lived experiences of teacher educators who openly share experiences and applications with a consideration toward MDL as part of their teaching practice (Watt, 2007). Sharing openness in educational practices “does not require overcoming huge technical obstacles, but rather, requires a change in mindset and a differing view of practice, and of how learning can be achieved” (Couros, 2006, p. 188). A better understanding of the contexts of MDL within FoE can emerge when teacher educators’ voices and stories are represented. Teacher educators (TEds) will be invited to participate in interviews and media production to document their OEPr while focusing on their expressions and awareness of media and digital literacies. This will add to the limited research addressing the needs of teacher educators or how teacher educators infuse MDL into their teaching practice (Lohnes Watulak, 2016; Phuong et al., 2018; Seward & Nguyen, 2019; Stokes-Beverley & Simoy, 2016).

Third, because I espouse to be an open educational practictioner and promote open educational practices in the courses I teach, I seek to further understand the role of OEPr within teacher education in general, and within the lived experiences of others who work openly as teacher educators. Through this research I will explore, revise, and add to current definitions of OEPr (Couros, 2006; Cronin & MacLaren, 2018; Nascimbeni & Burgos, 2016; Paskevicius, 2017; Tur et al., 2020). In this proposed research, I will attempt to uncover connections between current conceptualizations of OEPr with understandings of critical MDL (Gee, 2015; Hoechsmann, 2019; Stordy, 2015) and living literacies, as defined later in this proposal. (Pahl et al., 2020). This proposed research responds to a call from Zawacki-Richter et al., (2020) to “re-explore the benefits of openness in education to respond to emerging needs, advance the field, and envision a better world” (p. 329). Cronin (2017) reveals some connection between OEPr and digital literacies which I believe to be essential to the work of open educators. Through this research I hope to reveal stronger connections between MDL and OEPr within the lived experiences of TEds as they navigate and negotiate their teaching practices into the open.

This research will not only add to rapidly evolving discussions about OEPr but may also contribute a much needed focus on teacher educators (Zawacki-Richter et al., 2020). I believe that teacher educators bring experience in educational teaching practice to the nexus between OEPr, teaching, and MDL. This may be revealed through this research whereby teacher educators from diverse, Canadian FoE sites will be invited to participate in interviews, to “story” (Clandinin, 2015) their OEPr, and reflect on their MDL landscapes. The ubiquity of electronic technologies in the functional milieu of today’s educational environments suggest that digital tools are both field and method for research studies (Burrell, 2009; Markham, 2016).

In this research proposal I will first present the rationale and research questions driving this investigation. Then, my positionality as an educator and scholar in the field of teacher education is considered. This is followed by the literature review which includes the theoretical and conceptual frameworks grounding the teaching and research of MDL in teacher education from an open educational lens. I present key research on open education and OEPr, and a taxonomy of literacies which helps position MDL within the plethora of definitional combinations available in the field of literacy education. This research proposal outlines the methods and logistical planning which will be included as part of the ethics review application process. Then, I present a rationale for the alternative dissertation (Alt-Diss) format proposed for this research. The research proposal concludes with potential research implications.

1.1.      Rationale

Educational issues resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the need for literate and digitally proficient individuals within every facet of the education sector. As a learning designer and teacher educator in Canadian FoE, I have a lived experience of working through logistical and navigational elements of planning for a pandemic pedagogy. The rapid emergency online instruction (Hodges et al., 2020), along with around the clock media consumption about educational issues, are compounded by ongoing changes in digital technologies and expectations for the development of global competencies (CMEC, 2020). Prior to these current pandemic related issues, the need for an informed and technologically prepared teaching workforce was identified in policy and position papers nationally and globally:

• The United Nations Leading Sustainable Development Goals – Education 2030 (n.d.) report established teacher education as one of the priorities in the achievement of sustainable development goals;
• The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) continues to examine policies and practices for media and information literacies (Singh et al., 2016), digital citizenship (Law et al., 2018), and open educational resources (UNESCO, 2019a);
• The push for open educational resources (UNESCO, 2019a) and open access are extended through the open consultation process by an international commission from UNESCO on the Futures of Education which highlights the need to “mobilize the many rich ways of being and knowing in order to leverage humanity’s collective intelligence” (UNESCO, 2019b, para: The Aim).
• The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) researches and documents the need for teachers to be “high-level knowledge workers who constantly advance their own professional knowledge as well as that of their profession” (Schleicher, 2012) noting that the demands on teachers are continuing to increase (Schleicher, 2018).
• a position paper from the European Literacy Policy Network indicated that “many teachers lack competence, confidence and knowledge of effective strategies to harness the potential of diverse technologies to enhance digital literacy teaching and learning, and to foster young people’s resilience to the risks associated with digital technology” (Lemos & Nascimbeni, 2016, p. 3); 
• the U.S. Department of Educational Technology released the document Advancing Educational Technology in Teacher Preparation: Policy Brief (Stokes-Beverley & Simoy, 2016); and,
• in Canada, the Pan-Canadian Education Research Agenda Symposium report (Hébert, 2002) identified the crisis and complexity of teacher education in Canada, and the Canadian government report Democracy Under Threat (Zimmer, 2018) outlined the need to address education of digital literacies. The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (2020) provides a systems-level framework for global competencies which further drives the transformation of the educational agenda in Canada.

These identified needs from global and national levels are ever more pressing during the current pivot to online and remote educational instruction resulting from the COVID-19 global pandemic. I suspect that current pressures resulting from pandemic pedagogies will continue to push the field of teacher education and the application of MDL within FoE into the forefront. Yet, the field of teacher education, and more specifically the MDL of those who teach in FoE from an open educational stance, remains a misunderstood and ignored field of endeavour. The impact of these influences and pressures on teaching and learning within teacher education programs are yet to be fully researched. I bring my own lived experiences as an open educator, teacher educator, teacher of critical media and digital literacies, and teacher

While these identified needs have a sense of urgency in the midst of the current global health crises, these are not new issues. Along with a public outcry for media literacies in the face of fake news (Singh et al., 2016) and increasing demands for technologically and digitally literate populations, there is a push to change teacher education generally and the teaching practices of those who teach in teacher educator programs more specifically (Beck, 2016; Ellis & McNicholl, 2015; Foulger et al., 2017; Stillman et al., 2019). The paucity of research relating to the work of teacher educators is a significant liability when evidence for the effectiveness of educational practices is increasingly demanded (Beck, 2016). Connected to this issue is the revitalization of teacher education programs in order to “prepare teachers who will teach in transformative ways and leverage technology as a problem-solving tool” (Schmidt-Crawford et al., 2018, p. 132). It is in this context, with my lived experiences as a teacher educator to ground my investigations, that endeavour to add my research to the corpus of research focused on teacher educators and aim to expand understanding of open educational practices (OEPr) from a teacher education context by examining the lived experiences of teacher educators who reveal their teaching practices openly, with a specific focus on their relationship and understanding of media and digital literacies (MDL).

1.2.      Research questions

I wonder how teacher educators’ perspectives and practices with OEPr are becoming shaped by an awareness and application of a critical lens focused on MDL. The questions for this research include:

• What does it mean to be media literate and digitally literate as a teacher educator? What are the lived experiences of teacher educators with media and digital literacies?
• As a teacher educator in Canada, what is it like to be an open educator?
• How do media and digital literacies inform or shape practices of teacher educators immersed in OEPr?
• What are the lived MDL and OEPr experiences of teacher educators, as evidenced in the ethos and stories of their teaching practice?

For the purpose of this research project, OEPr are defined, following Cronin (2017a), as collaborative pedagogies utilizing digital technologies and authentic learning encounters for “interaction, peer-learning, knowledge creation, and empowerment of learners” (p. 18). In other words, teacher educators will individually or collaboratively select OEPr to support their ways of knowing, designing, planning, and assessing teaching and learning events (Cronin, 2017a; Nascimbeni, 2018; Paskevicius, 2018; Paskevicius & Irvine, 2019).

Through this research I will capture the teacher educators’ storied enactment of MDL within OEPr as shared through their

experiences (what people feel); practices (what people do); things (the objects that are part of our lives); relationships (our intimate social environments); social worlds (the groups and wider social configurations through which people relate to each other); localities (the actual physically shared contexts that we inhabit); and events (the coming together of diverse things in public contexts) (Pink et al., 2015).

 By gathering these stories, I hope my own lived experiences will provide both background and a reflective image against which these stories will resonate.

This post-intentional phenomenological research, as explained later in this proposal, (Rosenberger & Verbeek, 2015; Tracy, 2020; Valentine et al., 2018) will bring critical subjectivity, collaborative action, a pragmatic reality, and an epistemology of experience (Guba & Lincoln, 2005). Through a crystallizing methodology (Ellingson, 2009), my voice, reflexivity and media infused textual representations will be interrogated as I locate my ‘self’ as researcher-participant, both within and outside the research field of study (Guba & Lincoln, 2005).

1.3.      Researcher Positionality

This research is grounded in my experiences in teaching media and digital literacy courses in the FoE where I am both teacher-educator and student, as well as my extensive background as an elementary school educator. My engagement in global networks (Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN), UNESCO Open Education for a Better World (OE4BW), Open/Education Technology, Society and Scholarship Association (OTESSA)), cross-border collaborations (Virtually Connecting; International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Inclusive Learning Network), and open educational spaces (Ontario Extend, Ontario Open Education Fellows, Creative Commons, Mozilla Open Leaders) inform and shape this proposed research. My positionality as a new researcher is supported by my academic persona as a scholarly writer and media-making educator. This post-phenomenological research (Vagle, 2018; Valentine et al., 2018) will apply crystallization methodologies (Ellingson, 2009, 2015) to explore teacher educators’ stories of becoming as revealed in their hupomnemata (Foucault, 1988; Weisgerber & Butler, 2016).  In this research proposal, I will later explicate how these lived experience stories and artifacts as shared by TEds will be gathered and become offerings of research data, since “everything that shows, offers” (Rocha, 2015, p. 6) (emphasis in original).