Pre-Service Teachers’ Critical Digital Literacy Skills and Attitudes to Address Social Problems
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Learning in a Digital Age
1.2. Critical Digital Literacy Skills and Attitudes
2. Educating Critical Teachers
2.1. The Digital World Is Challenging
2.2. A Study Conducted with Pre-Service Teachers
3. Research Objectives and Methodology
3.1. Participants
3.2. Sources and Analysis of Data
4. Research Findings
4.1. Analysis of the First Activity
Martha: “In the first news item you can see how more and more young people are suffering from social exclusion and poverty. And the second one is about the world we live in, where more and more people are struggling to get by each day on the little they have”.
Peter: “The first news item talks about how most child poverty is inherited from the parents, so it’s tied up with problems in getting a good education. The second one gives some solutions to put an end to that inherited poverty and educate people so that they can find a better future”.
Jessica: “The first item emphasizes the human interest part, as it focuses on children at risk of social exclusion [...]. The second item is more about highlighting the materials and projects that La Caixa has offered to these children. It also gives a complete list of the organizations that have collaborated in this initiative, forgetting about the central characters: the children”.
Ann: “My interpretation is that the news item gives some very striking data on poverty in Spain but with the underlying message that La Caixa is closely involved in a project to combat that situation”.
Carol: “[...] we should take notice of who is doing the talking: the interviewee in this case is Jordi Riera, scientific director of Caja Proinfancia. [...] Very often, banks give loans or mortgages to families and if they can’t repay them, they end up even more in debt or get evicted. Debts can even be inherited by the children. In this news report though, they come out as heroes, saying that the foundation has helped a lot of children in programs dealing with remedial teaching, leisure activities, hygiene, or nutrition, when in fact they’re the same banks that cause families to be poor. [...] It sort of looks like the press are mounting an advertising campaign for them, which is really underhand”.
4.2. Analysis of the Second Activity
Frank: “My opinion is that I hope the baby is taken out of these parents’ custody. If it was up to me, life imprisonment”.
Kevin: “The decision to have kids is taken together and there are ways to avoid having them, like contraceptives. In some cases, people have a baby and are then shameless enough to have it adopted. Other times, we get a situation like this, which I can only see one solution for: castration for both parties and prison. If a couple are irresponsible enough to have a child they don’t want, like I said, you’ve got adoption. But the kid shouldn’t have to die through the fault of thoughtless, selfish parents”.
Susan (commentary on the first news story): “I think it’s twisted for parents to be capable of abandoning the one they should love most in the world like that [...]”.
Susan (commentary on the second news story): “The media can be very sensationalist, and they tell stories the way they think they’ll sell the best, even if it’s far from the truth”.
Adam (commentary on the first news story): “I think the parents should get a big fine and go to prison for a while, because there’s no excuse for what they’ve done”.
Adam (commentary on the second news story): “I think the media write too fast sometimes, without knowing properly what has happened, I mean, they hear rumors and assume they’re right straight away”.
Sarah: “They’re directly accusing the parents of something really heavy that’s not ethical and doesn’t make sense to do to anybody, especially your children. They haven’t done any research before writing this story and they’re making judgements. [...] People should be able to read and learn about what’s going on and being talked about in the world, but we should be able to analyze and criticize what we’re reading or what we’re being told. We should be able to judge what we’re being told or at least query it”.
5. Discussion and Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Beginning | Emerging | Mastery |
---|---|---|
They describe the pieces of news, the social issues presented, and the main protagonists. They don’t specify the interests of the bank entity or the agenda of the newspaper. | They analyze the poverty as a social issue and retrieve data from the pieces of news. They pinpoint the prominence of the bank entity in the discourse. They don’t specify the interests of the bank entity or the agenda of the newspaper. | They analyze the poverty as a social issue and retrieve data from the pieces of news. They pinpoint the prominence of the bank entity in the discourse. They uncover the interests of the bank entity and the agenda of the newspaper. |
Beginning | Emerging | Mastery |
---|---|---|
They don’t contrast the piece of news with other information sources. They describe the pieces of news, the social issues presented, and the main protagonists. They judge the parents but not the media or they own uncritical attitude. | They don’t contrast the piece of news with other information sources. They describe the pieces of news, the social issues presented, and the main protagonists. They judge the parents and the media, and their own uncritical attitude. | They contrast the piece of news with other information sources. They describe the pieces of news, the social issues presented, and the main protagonists. They judge the parents but also the role of the media in society. |
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Castellví, J.; Díez-Bedmar, M.-C.; Santisteban, A. Pre-Service Teachers’ Critical Digital Literacy Skills and Attitudes to Address Social Problems. Soc. Sci. 2020, 9, 134. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9080134
Castellví J, Díez-Bedmar M-C, Santisteban A. Pre-Service Teachers’ Critical Digital Literacy Skills and Attitudes to Address Social Problems. Social Sciences. 2020; 9(8):134. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9080134
Chicago/Turabian StyleCastellví, Jordi, María-Consuelo Díez-Bedmar, and Antoni Santisteban. 2020. "Pre-Service Teachers’ Critical Digital Literacy Skills and Attitudes to Address Social Problems" Social Sciences 9, no. 8: 134. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci9080134