Equitable access to TPACK research: Tensions about using social media to disseminate scholarship

Abstract

Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) was established in the literature in 2005 as a valuable framework for researchers and educators to conceptualize technology integration. The rapid adoption of TPACK has produced an abundance of scholarship that applies to the TPACK framework. Research has also served to advance the framework itself. Despite the flurry of activity surrounding TPACK, not all practitioners and researchers are able to access the TPACK literature. The authors of this study wondered if traditional dissemination practices may be creating an access gap for researchers and practitioners. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods survey design, the authors investigated the perceptions of a diverse sample of 88 participants to characterize how they view access to and dissemination of TPACK research. Since social media has become a common approach to professional learning, the dissemination of research-based strategies for technology integration is limited when social media is not encouraged or when it is discouraged. Yet, a diverse group of higher education professionals stated they rarely share research on social media because it is a practice promotion and tenure hardly rewards. The findings also indicate the participants exhibited a tension between their beliefs about research access and dissemination and their dissemination practices. The authors believe this may be what Kuhn has identified as an essential tension, a precursor to a paradigm shift in how researchers disseminate their scholarship. This study has implications for future practice, policy, and research regarding the ethical and equitable practices for the dissemination of scholarship.