Abstract
This paper examines emerging epistemologies in the wake of increased digitalization and the extent to which student teachers are prepared for such epistemologies in their teacher education (TE) programs. Although there are a number of studies on digital epistemologies, few have examined the implications of digitally extended, embedded, and embodied cognition and the ensuing epistemic practices. This study’s analytic focus is partly on a number of project proposals that reflect some of these trends and partly on two surveys of (and some interviews with) student teachers at two universities who were engaged in developing their professional digital competence (PDC) as part of the TE programs. The surveys and interviews indicate that TE tends to focus on the use of digital technologies and less on addressing deeper, epistemological issues in efforts to foster student teachers’ PDC. These findings signify a gap between emerging epistemological trends and how student teachers are prepared for such trends. We conclude by suggesting a focus on digital, epistemic, and transformative agency for TE to cope with the increased digitalization of epistemic practices.
Highlights
Digitalization and epistemologyHistorically, digitalization in teacher education (TE) has equaled preparing future teachers to work in technology-rich environments and to master diverse digital applications to promote, for example, collaboration, presentation skills, and subject-specific knowledge production (Lund et al, 2014)
We have identified and exemplified some trends in digitalization that involve shifts and expansion of epistemologies and, in epistemic practices
We have shown via surveys and interviews with student teachers that neither the surveys themselves nor the student teachers’ responses to them connect to or correspond with the digital challenges that are currently on the rise
Summary
Digitalization in teacher education (TE) has equaled preparing future teachers to work in technology-rich environments and to master diverse digital applications to promote, for example, collaboration, presentation skills, and subject-specific knowledge production (Lund et al, 2014). 57 Digitalization of teacher education classrooms and leisure activities, Stefan Heim (1987) noted how the word processor afforded a type of writing unconstrained by linear progression; the writer could experiment with structure, words, and syntax Heim showed that this impacted people’s writing and how people think when writing. Digital literacies have come to equal a set of social practices that involve meaning-making This involves dealing with change in the world, change in our concept of knowledge, and change in ourselves as knowers (Aagaard & Lund, 2020; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006). We argue that the relationship between humans and digital technologies is shifting This has severe implications for how people construct knowledge and arrive at valid responses to complex challenges. To what extent does TE prepare student teachers for epistemic work in digitalized contexts?
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