Across Europe and beyond, many of us are familiar with the contested spaces that media education, sometimes referred to as media literacy, digital and critical literacy and the education of pre-service or student teachers occupies. And in both fields there are multiple international, national and local policy drivers that shape our contexts and our work - all made more challenging and perhaps more vital since March 2020 and the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper describes exploratory research on the role, the challenges and opportunities for critical digital literacy in one teacher education programme at a university in the capital city of Scotland.   Critical digital literacy practice requires that teachers and learners make meaning beyond the text. ‘The teacher’s role is to equip students with the knowledge, behaviour, and skills needed to transform society into a place where social justice canexist’ (Ayers, et. al. 2009, p.590). Much like Freire’s (1970) critical pedagogy this involves examination and exploration of how power works to advantage some groups and disadvantage others.  

This research focuses on students on a two-year, initial teacher education programme designed from a social justice perspective and working to produce graduates who position themselves as activist teachers (Sachs, 2003). Activist teachers are those for whom teaching is a critical and political endeavour (Apple, 2014, hooks, 1994), who seek to make education transparent and accessible, and who engage productively and respectfully with the communities in which their learners live, acting as educators and advocates for their pupils (White, 2020).

As we were all forced to adapt to the pandemic crisis, temporal, social, political, economic and technological factors necessitated a consideration of the place of critical digital literacy in our teacher education programme during the COVID-19 pandemic and an exploration of our plans for a changed future. While some reject the term crisis (Spector, 2019) I use this word in the title to emphasis the decisions that were forced and pedagogical strategies that educators around the world made as we lived through an extraordinary time.  All pedagogies are temporal and exist in relation to social, economic, political and technological factors that prompt and call for different ways of doing and thinking about (or theorising) practice. 

In this research I use a temporal structure to explore the challenges and opportunities for critical digital literacy in teacher education. I begin by contextualising this work, looking to the past in order to reflect and learn from what has already happened, before going on to narrate our present (which is a challenging endeavour in a pandemic) through a case study. The paper concludes with an exploration of the three imperatives that emerge for the future: the importance of policy, of place and of participation.  This kind of mapping is valuable for a number of reasons. Firstly, such work supports the development of geographically diverse teacher education and critical digital literacy communities. Secondly sharing theory, policy and practice allows us to learn from others and finally a critical examination of scholarship across allows us to consider what might be possible in our own location. 

Taking an ‘inquiry stance’ (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) this research uses established qualitative methods to understand the lived experiences of being at the frontline of teacher education during the pandemic, offering empirical data to support the inclusion of critical digital literacy in teacher education and the opportunity to contribute to the knowledge base of teacher education (Vanassche & Keltchermans, 2015) and ‘reshape education, teacher education and educational institutions’ (Flores & Gago, 2020). Stage one of this study, reported here, was designed to be small scale and is characterised by its exploratory nature. Through analysis of student materials, interviews with students and teacher educators and a reflection on pedagogical practice using self-study (LaBoskey, 2004) this work responds to the question: what is the role of critical digital literacy in teacher education when it focuses on social justice and equity and seeks to develop transformational change in education? The research design used a narrative inquiry approach in order to take account of the relationship between individual experience and cultural context (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988) and involved 25 postgraduate student teachers. All students were in the final months of a two-year 2 programme and the research sat alongside teacher education practice. Drawing on the work of Charmaz (2014) data was analysed using an iterative, emergent, and inductive coding framework and the findings presented in the next section comprise three imperatives. Britzman (2003) suggests that teachers (and teacher educators) rarely disclose private aspects of their pedagogy such as ‘coping with competing definitions of success and failure, and one’s own sense of vulnerability and credibility’ (p. 28) and in sharing this case study I am aware of the potential risks, not least of work that takes place in an unprecedented period. Yet, it is through sharing and critical thinking; the reflexive process in which we question ourselves about what we know, believe, and what guides our actions and by using the four lenses suggested by Brookfield (2017) that we can develop our artistry (Stenhouse, 1988) and work in the way that we advocate for our students.

The paper concludes with an exploration of the three imperatives that emerge for the future: the importance of policy, of place and of participation. Despite the recently launched National Framework for Digital Literacies in Teacher Education (SCDE, 2020) throughout Scotland, ‘it is still typical for media literacy programmes to rely on the enthusiasm of the individual teacher, who may teach it as a ‘hobby subject.’ (Hobbs, 2007). Through analysis of student materials, interviews with students and teacher educators and a reflection on pedagogical practice this work sought to understand the lived experiences of being at the frontline of teacher education during the pandemic, providing empirical data to support the inclusion of critical digital literacy in teacher education and the opportunity ‘to reshape education, teacher education and educational institutions’ (Flores & Gago, 2020).

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