Empowering teachers with critical digital literacy skills and driving change at schools in Turkey

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of and the need for critical digital literacy for teachers in Turkey. Critical digital literacy, by its definition, demands more than operational and technical skills. It includes skills to deepen research, critically interact online, and carefully evaluate information in the digital world. The case study focuses on a project called “Empowering teachers with critical digital literacy skills”. The project has been carried out in Turkey, in collaboration with Teyit, a not-for-profit independent fact-checking organisation, and Teacher’s Network, which aims at teacher empowerment. The project was run directly with the input of 39 K-12 teachers from 19 different urban and rural cities with various professional experiences, who taught in various branches and worked at private and public schools in Turkey. It aimed at critical digital literacy empowerment through three levels; empowerment through asynchronous and synchronous learning experiences; empowerment through peer-engagement and co-creation; and empowerment through application and action. This chapter examines how equipping teachers with critical digital literacy skills can mobilise them to drive change in educational settings during the pandemic.