Intersection Of Social Justice And Educational Technology In Teacher Preparation

To address diversity and equity in education, there is increasing research investigating how to prepare educators to establish inclusive, technology-rich, and 21st-century learning environments (e.g., Selwyn, 2017). Researchers suggest that when integrating technology, teacher educators should instill the disposition of using technology for knowledge construction into teaching, prioritize pedagogic action, as well as incorporate modeling and practical experience (Belland, 2009). A lack of considerations of socially constructed factors, such as race, in teacher development and technology beliefs might influence technology integration in practices (Heath & Segal, 2021).

Drawing upon a review of recent literature (2018-2019) on educational technology and social justice, Marcovitz (2021) identified five broad themes including digital democracy, digital divide, STEM/makerspaces, online learning/instructional design, and media literacy. Marcovitz analyzed connections of the identified categories to social justice within the model of Social Justice Pedagogical Content Knowledge (SJPCK) developed by Dyches and Boyd (2017). Marcovitz found that most reviewed studies grounded theoretical underpinnings within culturally relevant pedagogies (Ladson-Billings, 1995). However, disability was not visible within this literature. Interestingly, another article investigating research on social justice in teacher education indicated that disability was typically treated as an isolated marker of identity with little consideration of intersectionality (Pugach et al., 2021). Moving forward, Pugach and colleagues suggest that promoting instruction that connects multiple learner identities supported by diverse instructional strategies will help transform teacher education for social justice.

In this brief, Dr. Marcovitz provides a context within which he developed the Educational Technology Social Justice Matrix that categorizes reviewed studies using the SJPCK model. He uses several studies as examples of how researchers and practitioners can use Matrix to analyze existing research-based practices from the lens of social justice. In addition, Dr. Marcovitz suggests that future research on educational technology can look at the intersection between social justice and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) that serves as a framework for guiding inclusive instructional designs.