In this paper, we will present a qualitative research project that investigates the propagation of digital education leadership through a conceptual curriculum framework developed by Brown, Czerniewicz, Huang, and Mayisela (2016). This framework is an open educational resource that sits within C-DELTA’s (Commonwealth Digital Education Leadership Training in Action) initiative to promote digital education in commonwealth nations. In this project, core aspects of the curriculum will be implemented through a digital literacy module in a Masters’ level initial teacher education (ITE) programme in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Theoretically, this work sits in a sociocultural space where we frame digital literacy as a social practice (Brown et al., 2016). We asked this research question, “How can we prepare pre-service teachers to become digital education leaders (DELs)?” in order to focus on the growth experiences that we intend pre-service teachers (PSTs) to encounter through our module. Through thematic analysis, we posit that we will be able to scrutinise the views and experiences of PSTs through their work. 

Our interest in digital education leadership is also influenced by Māori values that underpin the praxis and leadership aspects of the ITE programme. This vision for Te Manukura o Te Ako (leadership of learning) is shaped by values of manaakitanga (care for others), ako (reciprocal teaching and learning) and mana motuhake (self-determination) (Fickel, Abbiss, Brown, & Astall, 2018). With these Māori values undergirding our sociocultural approach, we will bring forth contextually-nuanced understandings that shape DELs within the bicultural context of Aotearoa New Zealand. These nuanced challenges can make visible the intangible, tacit learning that could encourage PSTs to become leaders in the digital world. In this way, this research affirms and extends the need exhorted by Brown et al. (2016) for intentional fostering of digital leaders through teaching. By positioning teachers as digital leaders, we enable teachers to educate and empower the digital experiences of others, from students and into their surrounding communities.

In this conference about education in an era of risk, our research into PSTs as digital leaders will be deepen ongoing conversations about cyber risks. We will delve into critical elements of digital identity and literacy to develop and deepen teachers’ understanding of digital knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary in leading the digital education of others. This vision for leadership involves an understanding of the what it means to teach “of, about and with” digital technologies (Johannesen, Øgrim, & Giæver, 2014, p. 300). These distinctions in types of engagement highlight the need for an examined understanding of digital technological usage, with teachers working towards the concept of “bildung” (Johannesen et al., 2014, p. 310). For teachers, we see bildung as an increased sense of self-awareness, critical consideration and thoughtfulness about the digital world.

By positioning teachers as digital leaders, we will contribute to conversations that move beyond framing digital literacy as an array of competencies. We locate ourselves in the realm of cultivating digital citizens who display digital savviness that encompass being self-aware, self-managing and self-sustaining in the digital world. In this realm, we envision teachers as advocates for critical consumption, adoption and creation of digital artefacts that contribute towards the betterment of the digital world.

Our work as teacher educators place us at the nexus of research and praxis. It grants us opportunities to conduct contextualised, practitioner research that enriches ongoing discourse around the complexity of teaching. With a practitioner-inquiry stance (Cochran-Smith, 2005), we look through a sociocultural lens that allows us to infuse the Māori values that undergird our work. This particular lens encourages us to shed light on the localised challenges that PSTs may face in New Zealand as they develop their identities and repertoire as digital leaders. Our module for digital literacy is embedded within an existing online learning management system used by the ITE programme and is designed it to be low-stakes (a pass/fail grade), high accountability (compulsory) and self-paced. Based on current student numbers (at the time of writing), we anticipate the participation of twenty one students in a six-week window. Permission and ethical protocol for research participation has been obtained with the relevant Ethical Board because this project is embedded within an ongoing and larger study into the Masters’ programme. We will collect data from module activities such as forum postings or discussions, reflections, mind maps or pictorial, text, audio or video representations of understanding. We will employ thematic analysis to analyse our data and member checking will take place as feedback summaries to the larger group. We may also further student participation, through invitation, by conducting focus group interviews that will follow up on ideas or areas that require further illumination. As qualitative researchers, we value meaning derived from socially-constructed realities where our participants’ voices are foregrounded. We believe that our thematic approach to data analysis will give us a holistic, contextualised and inductive interpretation of their subjective experiences. Other methods that we intend on employing to ensure trustworthiness and believability are reflexive journaling, peer debriefing and detailed audit trails of our thought-processes during the analysis process. As stated by Nowell, Norris, White, and Moules (2017), adopting these steps can increase the visibility of systematic ways that thematic data analysis is used by qualitative researchers.

As stated earlier, this research project is in its initial stages of implementation. While we are cautiously optimistic about our aim to implement an effective learning experience for our PSTs, the C-DELTA programme itself has been implemented in Sri Lanka, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, South Africa and Bangladesh (Commonwealth of Learning, n.d.). These implementations in diverse cultures and geographical locations demonstrate that the challenge for teachers to become digital leaders transcends physical boundaries. When we position teachers as digital leaders at the helm of digital education, we increase our capacity to better navigate and negotiate the risks, challenges and unknowns of the digital world that we inhabit.

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