Digital Inequities: Promoting Digital Justice during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This qualitative study examines the actions taken by 12 US content teachers during the pandemic to provide their emergent bilingual learners (EBLs) with a digitally just education. When the pandemic forced schools to close their doors and transition to a virtual setting, teachers were faced with the reality that EBLs lacked the digital resources, skills, and literacies to successfully participate in virtual schooling. Based on the theory of digital justice, which seeks to promote digital equity for minoritized populations, this investigation was carried out to better understand how content teachers supported their EBLs during the pandemic. Through a series of semi-structured focus group interviews, data were collected and analyzed through open and axial coding. The findings from this study revealed how teachers provided technology for their EBLs, which strategies they took to support EBLs’ digital literacy development, and how virtual instruction impacted educational expectations. The findings also highlighted the issue of who was responsible for providing digital justice which has large implications on providing socially just educational experiences. This work emphasizes the importance of not only closing the digital divide, but also proactively developing EBLs’ digital skills and literacies necessary for 21st-century careers.