New teachers, new literacies: examining teacher candidates' understandings, beliefs, and implementation of digital and multimodal literacies

Abstract

This study sought to explore the understandings, beliefs, and implementation practices of preservice teachers during their internship surrounding the use of digital and multimodal literacies in the classroom. This research provides insights into what shapes the understandings and beliefs preservice teachers hold about the use of digital and multimodal literacies and factors that impact their implementation of these literacies into their instructional practices. The experiences of three preservice teachers in their internship semester were portrayed through individual case studies and collectively across cases. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and lesson plans. The data analysis revealed these preservice teachers confused digital and multimodal literacies with technology integration. While they demonstrated positive attitudes surrounding the use of these literacies; their beliefs and implementation practices were affected by their lack of understanding about digital and multimodal literacies. This study contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the connection between preservice teachers’ understandings and beliefs and their instructional practices. Thematic analysis offers richer and deeper insights into the experiences of preservice teachers surrounding digital and multimodal literacies in both their learning and teaching. Findings from this study indicated preservice teachers’ understandings, beliefs, and implementation practices surrounding these literacies were impacted by their K12 school experiences, their teacher preparation courses, and their cooperating teachers. In addition, this study has implications for teacher education programs to include meaningful learning experiences in literacy methods courses that both help preservice teachers to develop deeper understandings and demonstrate connections for implementation in elementary classrooms surrounding the use digital and multimodal literacies. Keywords: digital literacies, digital and multimodal literacies, new literacies, media literacies, preservice teachers, teacher preparation, preservice teacher beliefs