The Complexity of Learning to Teach News Media in Social Studies Education

Abstract

This research reports on data generated through an initial teacher certification program for secondary social studies teachers that introduced a specific and program-spanning focus on news media literacy. Growing out of the urgent need for pedagogies that address and promote critical engagement with the kinds of news media sources upon which civic decisions are made, our project follows teacher candidates from their initial certification coursework through the culminating student teaching semester. Our work with teacher candidates over this time was explicitly intended to intervene in and develop teacher candidates' understandings of news media literacy, its place in social studies education, and related pedagogies. However, what resulted, and what we present throughout this paper, was also an intervention in our own understandings of the significant constraints and complexities of addressing these issues in teacher education.

Social Studies Teacher Perceptions of News Source Credibility

“…The variation in teacher definitions of credibility and their relationship to perceptions of source credibility also suggest a need for teacher educators to introduce these concepts in their courses and provide opportunities for application and practice throughout their programs. Our work examining the introduction of news media literacy in social studies teacher education (Schmeichel et al, 2018) highlighted the complexity of learning to teach about news credibility, but further research is needed to understand how news media literacy topics can be integrated into social studies teacher education as well as other discipline-specific programs.…”

Citizenship education: A media literacy course taught in Japanese university

“…In practice, various education initiatives have been organized, focusing on topics such as metacognition strategies and the role of emotion in mindful media consumption (Sivek, 2018); impact of algorithms on media engagement (Cohen, 2018); media literacy education for social studies teacher (Schmeichel et al, 2018); using virtual cross-border exchange for propaganda analysis (Hobbs et al, 2018); youth participation and parental support programs (Bulger and Davison, 2018). In general, studies show media literacy education's positive outcomes in terms of students' critical thinking skill, behavioral change, civic competence (Jeong et al, 2012;Krahé and Busching, 2015;Webb and Martin, 2012).…”

Media Literacy Education to Counter Truth Decay: An Implementation and Evaluation Framework

“…In a nationally representative survey, a majority of teachers reported that pressure to cover core required content, such as reading or mathematics, was an obstacle to promoting ML in their schools (Baker et al, forthcoming). These challenges may be especially salient when teachers perceive ML as extraneous to required content rather than integral to their overall learning goals for students (Schmeichel et al, 2018;Eickelmann, 2011).…”