Digital citizenship education: Understanding teachers’ perspectives and practices

Dr Reichert, Frank   (Principal Investigator (PI))

Professor Lange Dirk   (Co-principal investigator)

Professor Fu King Wa   (Co-Investigator)

Professor Rao Nirmala   (Co-Investigator)

Professor Law Nancy Wai Ying   (Co-Investigator)

24

2020-01-01

73500

Digital citizenship education: Understanding teachers’ perspectives and practices

Digital citizenship education, perspectives and practices, teachers

Others - EducationEducation: Policy & Administration

G-HKU706/19

Germany/Hong Kong Joint Research Scheme

2019

Completed

There is considerable agreement that teachers’ beliefs about the purposes and goals of education influence classroom practices (Fives & Buehl, 2012; Park & Oliver, 2008). Thornton (2005), for example, has characterized teachers as ""curricular-instructional gatekeepers"" implementing the curriculum according to their own epistemological and ideological beliefs about learning. More generally, teachers’ beliefs can act as filters in selecting topics and classroom activities (Reichert & Torney-Purta, 2019), affecting teaching-related decisions and the quality of students’ learning (Patterson et al., 2012). However, although research has examined teachers’ beliefs about civic education and the associations with classroom practices, the scope of citizenship hasexpanded with the rise of digital technologies such that traditional approaches towards civic education are being challenged. Choi et al. (2018) explored levels of digital citizenship among teachers, yet without examining teachers’ definitions of digital citizenship or their approaches toward digital citizenship education. Other research on teachers is rare as most studies focus on young people. Consequently, little is known about teachers’ concepts of digital citizenship and their beliefs about digital citizenship education (DCE), and how both relate to classroom instruction and perceived challenges for DCE. This project assumes that teachers’ beliefs about DCE matter to their teaching and the quality of students’ learning in the digital era. The main goal is to develop a reliable measurement instrument and to make DCE function in an increasingly connected world through research into two different but related countries. Following are the key objectives of the project: 1. Determine teachers’ understanding of ""digital citizenship"": Political science tends to focus on new forms of participation, and computer science emphasizes information literacy – but what digital citizenship is for those who have to teach it is less clear, even though their concepts are likely to affect classroom practice and student learning. Hence it is necessary to determine how teachers conceptualize digital citizenship. 2. Determine how teachers’ perceptions of citizenship education change in the context of digital technologies: New technologies have expanded the concept of citizenship and teaching needs to address this expansion. Yet education policy is often slow and therefore teachers’ reports about the consequences of digitization of society for citizenship education are crucial to understand ways forward for curriculum development to address the need for DCE. 3. Investigate how teachers address DCE at school and determine opportunities and challenges for DCE: As citizenship education changes in the context of digital technologies, we need to know what teachers do to promote digital citizenship and which challenges they face. 4. Evaluate potentials for DCE at school: The knowledge produced through interviews and surveys of teacher of civics-related subjects will enable us to propose goals for curriculum development and how schools can implement DCE beyond ICT (information and computer technology) education. 5. Connect the German experience with the Hong Kong experience for mutual benefit: Ecological thinking requires us to also consider national contexts, including but not limited to education policy. Gathering information from teachers in two different democratic systems allows us to develop a more robust measurement instrument that can be more sensitive to nuances of DCE, increasing the validity of findings and of recommendations for teacher training and curriculum.