A Collaborative Self Study of Critical Digital Pedagogies in Teacher Education

This article explores the critical digital practices and pedagogies of two novice teacher educators. Employing self-study research methodologies, we examine our collaborations and integrations of critical digital practices into two literacy methods teacher education courses. Seeking to emphasize the ‘critical’ aspects of critical digital literacies, we co-planned and designed learning opportunities, which deliberately considered social, cultural, and ethical issues related to learning with and from digital technologies. Data were collected from the memos and shared on-line reflections recorded from our weekly meetings over the course of four months. This self-study helped us to understand our conceptualizations and enactments of critical digital pedagogies for teacher education. We developed a deeper understanding of the opportunities and challenges present when integrating critical digital texts into the curriculum. The planning, ongoing reflection and revisions of the course were meaningful, however, were time-consuming in nature. We argue this work should not be left solely to teacher educators; rather, teacher preparation programs must play a larger role in preparing and supporting teacher educators with both the technical and pedagogical know-how of meaningfully designing and integrating critical digital practices into their courses.