Recommendations
The goal of this research study was to generatively catalyze new ideas about the connections between MDL, OEPr, and teacher education. Yet, there is still more to explore. While I hope this research opens new avenues of thought relative to MDL within the OEPr in faculties of education, it will require further study in broader categories and crossing boundaries of fields of study beyond the field of teacher education, for confirmation and conversation. This hinders the potential implications but does not negate the importance of this research.A teacher is a professional, one who must constantly seek to improve and to develop certain qualities or virtues which are not received but must be created. The capacity to renew ourselves every day is important. (Freire, 1985)
Recommendations emerging from this research follow Freire’s (1985) quoted provocation to seek improvement in TEds’ qualities and virtues in MDL and OEPr through creation and renewal. My first recommendation emerging from this research is to refocus on open education as a goal, as a sustainable means of renewing professional practice. With a focus on OEPr, TEds create ways and means to infuse MDL into FoE programs while increasing awareness of the transformational potential of communication, connectivity, creativity, and criticality to promote future-ready teaching practices in faculties of education. Second, I make a recommendation for the application of P-IP as theoretical construct and methodology for subsequent research in open educational practices. Finally, I make recommendations for areas of further research.
Frame OEPr goals when infusing MDL
When MDL is infused into OEPr within FoE, a cultural transformational process can occur within teacher education programs, one that “requires time, appropriate pedagogical and technical support, as well as care for the educators own personal professional development pace” (Redecker & Punie, 2017, p. 108). This shift in practice requires not only encouragement and rewarding the efforts of TEds when they enact change in how MDL become infused within their practice, but alternatively providing mentoring and ongoing professional learning within open and global networks (DeWaard & Chavhan, 2022; Oddone, 2019). As echoed in the words of one participant, this is an opportunity to center the voices of teachers who are already doing this work since these are the voices who can drive what we’ve learned (SH, interview transcript).Pangrazio (2016) suggests conceptions of critical digital literacy that overcome binary tensions that seek to constrain, often described within ideological vs personal, collective concerns vs individual practice, and/or technical mastery vs critical dispositions. As seen in this research, when framing OEPr goals within MDL practices, teacher educators offer a range and continuum of opportunities and alternatives for visualization, critical self-reflection, re-articulation of digital concepts, and transcendental critique (Pangrazio, 2016). Nichols et al., (2021) adds to this notion when TEds “work to remake these systems, inserting flexible and responsive structures to better support the autonomy and flourishing of those impacted” (p. 349).
Considerations for P-IP in educational research
Expanding the application of post intentional phenomenological methodology as part of an open dissertation in open educational research in teacher education calls researchers to be deep, critical and variational (Ihde, 2012). Those who answer the call to pursue phenomenological research “in the name of professional practice seek to gain insights into the meaningfulness of human experiences and contribute to more thoughtful practice” (van Manen, 2020, p. 489, emphasis in original). Since this research is conducted from a researcher and practitioner in the field of teacher education, I seek to be “other-oriented to reflect and wonder what lifeworlds may be like for the individuals”, other TEds who are immersed in similar spaces. I heed van Manen’s (2020) call and responsibility to “look beyond our “selves” to the worlds of others, the others we serve” (pg. 490). Applying additional P-IP research to teacher education is an important methodology when seeking to understand the phenomenon of teacher education from the perspective and lived experiences of teacher educators. P-IP can be applied to explore MDL and OEPr skills, fluencies, competencies, and literacies to build understanding and perspective, stepping towards fostering a “culture within which higher education uses of data are ethical, legible, and transparent” (Stewart & Lyons, 2021, p. 66).Relevant research areas
I propose considerations for further research that may be catalyzed by this PhD research. I recognize the need for additional research into the application of crystallization and P-IP since these methodologies for research into MDL and OEPr may be novel approaches for other researchers in these fields. While these methodologies may challenge novice researchers, there is benefit in learning within and among the participants’ stories – within the messiness and complexity of research, as part of the practice of ‘becoming’ an open researcher.The focus on TEds in this research shifts the research lens away from the potential benefits on student learning or the transferability of learning, particularly where TEds apply MDL in their OEPr. Refocusing on student learning within the FoE, as a reflection of the models provided by TEds, would benefit from investigation. Paskevicius points to the challenge “in measuring how and if OEP impacts student learning and in what way faculty evolve their practices over time to engage learners with OEP” (Paskevicius, 2018, p. 172). Researching the impact on students when TEds infuse MDL within OEPr could further determining how TEds, as well as other higher education instructors and learning designers, might engage with MDL as a means of supporting authentic student learning (DeWaard & Roberts, 2021; Oddone 2019).
Research inquiry in the area of MDL and OEPr would benefit from a focus on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and algorithmic learning on the authentic media and digital productions being generated in teacher education since generative text-to-text, text-to-image, text-to-video, and text-to-sound technologies show potential to reconfigure relationships with/through technologies (Bozkurt et al., 2023). While research into the impacts of AI are speculative, emergent, and rapidly released, there is some suggestion that AI in education “could lead to students being more empowered, engaged, and motivated” (Bozkurt et al., 2023, paragraph 5). Narrowing the research to focus on the MDL and OEPr of TEds may lead to further insights into how AI potentially transforms teaching and learning.
Finally, an area of inquiry that addresses current efforts to explore questions relating to the impacts of MDL and OEPr on issues of Indigeneity, diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility practices in teacher education. Nichols Smith et al., (2021) recommend research and praxis into how platform architectures can undermine efforts to address marginalization and decolonization. Research and practical models can attune educators to “places critical literacy can best contribute in a world increasingly mediated by data technologies” and draw from distributed and diverse systems and coalitions to critique, resist, reimagine, and transform platform ecologies (Nichols Smith et al., 2021 p. 351) that benefit all students.