Educational Technology and Student Voice: Examining Teacher Candidates' Perceptions

Abstract

Student Voice is a term that honors the participatory roles that students have when they enter learning spaces like classrooms. Student Voice is the recognition of students’ choice, creativity, and freedom. Seminal educationists—like Dewey and Montessori—centered the purposes of education in the flourishing and valuing of Student Voice. This article examines the relationship between the integration of educational technology and Student Voice. In particular, the article describes and reports on a mixed-methods study of teacher candidates’ (n=63) perceptions of and practices with integrating digital technology and Student Voice. The article has two objectives. The first objective is to examine how teacher candidates construct and define the term Student Voice. The second objective is to describe how teacher candidates integrate digital technology and Student Voice into their lesson plan ideas. The study had three findings. First, the teacher candidates most closely defined and connected Student Voice with creative freedom. Second, although the teacher candidates had learner-centered definitions for Student Voice it was difficult for them to translate their definitions into actual lesson plan ideas that included the integration of educational technology in order for students to create so that their voices could be heard. Third, the student questionnaire data also illustrated how teacher candidates had varied perceptions of the relationship between technology and Student Voice; the candidates were more likely to describe elementary students’ primary use of technology as “using apps or software to practice subject-area skills” or “playing educational games” than any other technology-rich activities. The teacher candidates were disconnected in their perceptions about what Student Voice meant and their proposed pedagogies to enhance Student Voice with digital technologies. To address the disconnection, the article discusses strategies that can guide teacher candidates to integrate educational technology into their lesson plans to allow students to create in order for Student Voice to resonate throughout the classroom community. Keywords: educational technology, learner-centered pedagogies, lesson planning, mixed methodology, student voice