Preservice teachers’ perceptions of teaching news media literacy

Abstract

PurposeThis study explores social studies preservice teacher’s orientation toward teaching news media literacy in the era of fake news. Previous literature indicates that many social studies teachers express a desire to maintain neutrality in the classroom. As such, this study focuses on the preservice teachers’ articulated pedagogical practices around news media literacy, as well as the described forces and factors that influence their described stances.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses work from the field of political communication to analyze course assignments, semi-structured interviews and survey responses in order to consider the ways 39 preservice social studies teachers articulated their anticipated and enacted pedagogical practices around news media literacy.FindingsFindings suggest a prevalent desire among the participants to pursue neutrality by presenting “both sides,” echoing traditional journalistic pursuits of objectivity. The possible consequences of this desire are also explored. Additionally, the study suggests that parents, administrators and the content standards are viewed as forces, which will constrain their practices.Practical implicationsUsing theorizing about the civil sphere, this paper considers implications for teacher educators. The civil sphere may provide a lens with which to analyze news media and may help preservice teachers adopt practices they view as risky.Originality/valueThis study aims to extend conversations around the teaching of news media, controversial political and social issues and the preparation of social studies teachers in the current social and political ecology by working to align the field with growing conversations in the field of political communication and journalism.

Pre-Service Teachers Confronting and Examining Media Bias

“…The lack of explicit attention to race mirrors what other researchers have discussed about PSTs' lack of comfort with controversial topics and topics of race (e.g., Hess, 2004;King, 2017;McAnulty, 2020). The PSTs in the border security and police brutality groups focused on general political biases that they noticed rather than an explicit attention to race.…”

“…Looking specifically in social studies education, controversial issues are not new to the field (Ho et al, 2017;Journell, 2011;LeCompte et al, 2017), and continue to be on the forefront of recent studies within the field. According to Hess (2009), controversial topics are largely based around political issues, but social studies teachers are likely to avoid these topics (McAnulty, 2020). Because Hess and McAnulty focus on the connections between democratic pedagogy and practice, discussions of controversial (political) issues serve to enhance students' democratic thinking.…”

“…For example, when teachers pre-select topics that their students will discuss, they may influence their students' beliefs about issues that are important (Hess, 2004;Stoddard, 2009) or deemed as controversial (Journell, 2011). More often than not, social studies teachers are less informed about the positions they adopt concerning controversial issues and current event topics (McAnulty, 2020).…”

“…While there are benefits to CML approaches, educators have conflicting perspectives of the mass media and how it should be taught, which directly impacts pedagogical approaches to instruction in the classroom (Hobbs, 2004). In addition, teachers have historically avoided discussions of race and marginalization within their classrooms (Hess, 2004;King, 2017;McAnulty, 2020). These hesitations may help to explain why pedagogies that include discussions of controversial topics impacting marginalized or underrepresented groups are not prevalent in classrooms.…”

EFL students’ participations and teachers’ roles in online discussion forum for critical media literacy learning

“…Based on the nature of CML learning, which involves media selection, information understanding and analysis, and media production (Afrilyasanti et al, 2022;Akinbadewa & Sofowora, 2020;McAnulty, 2020),…”