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1. 1 2022-06-04T15:33:55+00:00 hjdewaard c6c8628c72182a103f1a39a3b1e6de4bc774ea06 List of Abbreviations hjdewaard 7 list and links to definitions relating to acronyms and abbreviations used in this dissertation plain 2023-06-17T16:57:08+00:00 hjdewaard c6c8628c72182a103f1a39a3b1e6de4bc774ea06

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• 1 2022-06-08T18:22:01+00:00 Background 36 describing confluence of fields of study and influences of the lived experiences of the research plain 2023-10-27T15:36:50+00:00 I design and teach about teaching and learning in a teacher education program in Canada. I am a life-long practitioner of the art and science of teaching and learning. It is through this research that I aim to understand the lived experiences of teacher educators as they apply media and digital literacies (MDL) within Canadian teacher education, as evidenced within their open educational practices. This is of interest because I am a Canadian teacher by profession and a teacher educator by choice.
  
            Critical literacies is an important research focus, as evident from the growing political and public demands for literacies in all areas of education (CMEC, 2020b; OECD, 2018; Zimmer, 2018). Calls for educational responses to ‘fake news’ (Gallagher & Rowsell, 2017) and the teaching of digital citizenship to combat cyberbullying (Choi et al., 2018; Jones & Mitchell, 2016) increasingly influence educational landscapes in Canada (DeWaard & Hoechsmann, 2021; Hoechsmann & DeWaard, 2015).
  
            Digital literacy and competency frameworks have been developed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), where the notion of education as a common good(s) is amplified, and shifts from previous notions of education as individualistic and economically entangled good(s). UNESCO promotes a focus on open educational practices and networks as mechanisms for change (Daviet, 2016; Law et al., 2018). Common good(s) and contributing to societal well-being are undergirded with a humanistic and holistic belief system (Daviet, 2016). This is echoed in the European Union (EU) documents where efforts enhance education for citizenship (Carretero Gomez et al., 2017; Law et al., 2018).
  
            Although research focuses on MDL in the K-12 education sector (Buss et al., 2018; Gallagher & Rowsell, 2017), on teachers in the classroom (Choi et al., 2018), teaching and learning in higher education contexts (Castañeda & Selwyn, 2018); and, teacher candidates being prepared for a career in teaching (Cam & Kiyici, 2017; Cantabrana et al., 2019; Cervetti et al., 2006; Gretter & Yadav, 2018), there is little research studying the media and digital literacies or the open educational practices of teacher educators (Foulger et al., 2017; Knezek et al., 2019; Krumsvik, 2014; Petrarca & Kitchen, 2017). From this preliminary review of the literature, I generated a direction for my research study.
  
            The Canadian Council of Ministers of Education (CMEC) and the National Council of Teachers of English emphasizes the need for enhanced literacy development in conjunction with technology competencies in education for all provincial education jurisdictions (Gallagher & Rowsell, 2017). The Canadians for 21st Century Learning & Innovation document Shifting minds: A 21st century vision of public education in Canada (C21, 2012), identified key skills and competencies learners should possess, which suggests that teachers, teacher candidates, and teacher educators should also possess these skills and competencies. In the United States, the development of a set of technology competencies for teacher educators (Foulger et al., 2017) indicated the need for a reconceptualization of current faculty of education (FoE) structures and teacher educators’ practices.
  
            Since a “teacher’s knowledge is an essential component in improving educational practice” (Connelly et al., 1997, p. 674), this research explored the lived experiences of teacher educators who openly share experiences and applications with a consideration toward MDL as part of their teaching practice. Sharing openness in educational practices “does not require overcoming huge technical obstacles, but rather, requires a change in mindset and a differing view of practice, and of how learning can be achieved” (Couros, 2006, p. 188). A better understanding of the contexts of MDL within FoE can emerge when teacher educators’ voices and stories are represented. A better understanding of the contexts of MDL within FoE can emerge when teacher educators’ voices and stories are represented. This investigation adds to the limited research addressing the needs of teacher educators or how teacher educators infuse MDL into their teaching practice (Lohnes Watulak, 2016; Phuong et al., 2018; Seward & Nguyen, 2019; Stokes-Beverley & Simoy, 2016).
  
            Because I espouse to be an open educational practitioner, promoting open educational practices in the courses I design and teach, I aim to further understand the role of OEPr within teacher education in general, and within the lived experiences of others who work openly as teacher educators. Through this research I aim to explore, revise, and add to current definitions of OEPr (Couros, 2006; Cronin & MacLaren, 2018; Nascimbeni & Burgos, 2016; Paskevicius, 2017; Tur et al., 2020). In this research, I aim to uncover connections between current conceptualizations of OEPr with understandings of MDL (Buckingham, 2020; Gee, 2015; Hoechsmann, 2019; Stordy, 2015) and living literacies. (Pahl et al., 2020).
  
            This research responds to a call from Zawacki-Richter et al., (2020) to “re-explore the benefits of openness in education to respond to emerging needs, advance the field, and envision a better world” (p. 329). Cronin (2017) reveals connections between OEPr and digital literacies which I believe to be essential to the work of open educators. Through this research I endeavour to find connections between MDL and OEPr within the lived experiences of teacher educators (TEds) as they navigate and negotiate their teaching practice into the open.
  
            This research not only adds to rapidly evolving discussions about OEPr but also contributes a focus on teacher educators (Zawacki-Richter et al., 2020). I believe that teacher educators bring experience in educational teaching practice to the nexus between OEPr, teaching, and MDL. Teacher educators from diverse Canadian FoE sites were invited to participate in interviews to “story” (Clandinin, 2015) their OEPr, and reflect on their MDL negotiations. The ubiquity of electronic technologies in the functional milieu of today’s educational environments, particularly in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic, suggested that digital tools are both field and method for research studies (Burrell, 2009; Markham, 2016).
  
   
• 1 2022-06-04T15:43:12+00:00 Glossary 19 alphabetic listing of glossary items with links to notes that describe each item plain 2023-06-28T15:29:30+00:00 Here is an alphabetic listing of the glossary items included in this dissertation document. Each item is linked to a note where the item is defined, described, and/or examples provided. These glossary items are also embedded throughout the document as notes within pages, where they provide 'just in time' clarification for you, the reader.
  • Actor Network Theory
  • Affinity Spaces
  • Alternative Dissertation
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Black Box technology
  • Block Chain
  • ChatGPT
  • Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS)
  • Creative Commons
  • Cynefin framework
  • Data Gathering
  • Digital Rights Management (DRM)
  • Educommunication
  • Emirec
  • Episteme / Phronesis
  • Faculty of Education (FoE)
  • #FemEdTech
  • Free and Open Software (FOSS)
  • Homo Faber
  • Hupomnemata
  • Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)
  • Learning Management Systems (LMS)
  • Makerspace
  • Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
  • Media and Information Literacy (MIL)
  • Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
  • Open Educational Practices (OEPr)
  • Paywall
  • Platforms
  • PDF
  • Portable Graphics Network (PNG)
  • Post-Intentional Phenomenology (P-IP)
  • Practice - both noun and verb
  • Research Ethics Board (REB)
  • Safety, Security, Privacy, Permission (SSPP)
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada (SSHRC)
  • Teacher Candidates (TCs)
  • Teacher Educators (TEds)
  • Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs)
  • TPACK
  • Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans
  • UNESCO
  • Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
  • Universal Serial Bus (USB)
  • Visitors / Residents
  
   
• 1 2022-06-08T18:24:54+00:00 Rationale 18 key elements that led me to this research plain 2023-10-30T14:38:54+00:00 Educational issues resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic heightened awareness of the need for literate and digitally proficient individuals within every facet of the education sector. In my role as a learning designer and teacher educator in Canadian faculties of education (FoE), my lived experience is immersed into my work designing logistical and navigational elements for teaching within digitally enabled learning environments. Rapid emergency online instruction (Hodges et al., 2020), around the clock media consumption focusing on educational deficit narratives, and ongoing changes in digital technologies and expectation are shaping the push for the development of global competencies (CMEC, 2020). 
  
            Prior to, and emerging from the global pandemic, the need for an informed and technologically prepared teaching workforce is identified in policy and position papers nationally and globally:
  • the United Nations Leading Sustainable Development Goals - Education 2030 (United Nations, 2015) report establishes teacher education as one of the priorities in the achievement of sustainable development goals;
  • the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) continues to examine policies and practices for media and information literacies (Singh et al., 2016), digital citizenship (Law et al., 2018), and open educational resources (Sobe, 2022; UNESCO, 2019), and information and communication technology competencies in teacher development (UNESCO, 2022, 2023);
  • the push for open educational resources (UNESCO, 2019) and open access extends through the open consultation process by an international commission from UNESCO on the Futures of Education which highlights the need to "mobilize the many rich ways of being and knowing in order to leverage humanity’s collective intelligence" (UNESCO, 2019, paragraph "The aim ...");
  • the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) researches and documents the need for teachers to be “high-level knowledge workers who constantly advance their own professional knowledge as well as that of their profession” (Schleicher, 2012, p. 108) noting that the demands on teachers are continuing to increase (Schleicher, 2018); 
  • a position paper from the European Literacy Policy Network indicates that teachers may “lack competence, confidence and knowledge of effective strategies to harness the potential of diverse technologies to enhance digital literacy teaching and learning” (Lemos & Nascimbeni, 2016, p. 3); 
  • the U.S. Department of Educational Technology released the document Advancing Educational Technology in Teacher Preparation: Policy Brief (Stokes-Beverley & Simoy, 2016); and,
  • in Canada, the Canadian government report Democracy Under Threat (Zimmer, 2018) outlines the need to address education of digital literacies. The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (2020) provides a systems-level framework for global competencies which further drives the transformation of the educational agenda in Canada (CMEC, 2020a). The Digital Learning in Canada in 2022 report identifies digital literacies as a pressing issue (Irhouma & Johnson, 2022).
  These identified needs from global and national levels are ever more pressing during current priorities for online and remote educational instruction. I suggest that pressures resulting from the pandemic will continue to push the field of teacher education and the application of media and digital literacies (MDL ) within FoE into the forefront. Yet the field of teacher education, and more specifically the MDL of those who teach in FoE from an open educational stance, remains a misunderstood and ignored field of endeavour. This research will add insights into the impact of these influences and pressures on teaching and learning within teacher education programs since these are rarely researched.
  
            These are not new issues, despite the many changes that occurred in the light of the response of educational systems, particularly in FoE, to the global health crises precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, these are not new issues. Along with a public outcry for media literacies in the face of fake news (Singh et al., 2016) and increasing demands for technologically and digitally literate populations, there is a push to change teacher education generally and the teaching practices of those who teach in teacher educator programs more specifically (Beck, 2016; Ellis & McNicholl, 2015; Foulger et al., 2017; Stillman et al., 2019). Connected to this issue is the revitalization of teacher education programs in order to “prepare teachers who will teach in transformative ways and leverage technology as a problem-solving tool” (Schmidt-Crawford et al., 2018, p. 132). The paucity of research relating to the MDL work of teacher educators practicing in open educational spaces is a disadvantage when evidence for the effectiveness of educational practices is increasingly demanded (Beck, 2016). 
  
            It is in this context, from my lived experiences as a teacher educator and learning designer in Canadian faculties of education that my investigations were shaped. My purpose for this research was to add to the corpus of research focusing on teacher educators and aims to expand understanding of open educational practices (OEPr) from teacher educator's contexts by examining the lived experiences of teacher educators who reveal their teaching practices openly, with a specific focus on their understanding and practice of media and digital literacies. I intentionally selected Canadian FoE since this was contextually familiar and where I engaged and share materials openly within my professional learning networks. I initially considered conducting the research to only include Ontario FoE but realized I may not find enough participants that fit the established criteria within that limited context. Limiting the participant pool would also exclude some of the voices in Canadian open educational contexts that I hoped to include in the research. Although I understood that each FoE in Canada is unique, it was this dissimilarity that I hoped would add nuance and richness to the lived experiences of the participants. I also considered global FoE contexts but determined that this wider scope would hinder the research; the extent of the dissimilarities would interfere with finding commonalities in the stories of lived experiences within MDL in the OEPr of TEds in FoE. These delimiting factors helped me frame the research questions.