James McShay and Patricia Randolph Leigh
The purpose of this paper is to describe the double infusion (DI) model, which was developed to offer technology and multicultural teacher educators a systematic process for…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe the double infusion (DI) model, which was developed to offer technology and multicultural teacher educators a systematic process for helping prospective teachers to become proficient in using technology to enhance student learning in K‐12 environments, while they work toward strengthening their own conceptions of critical multicultural education.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports on the implementation and conceptual analysis of this DI model, which was piloted in a 16‐week graduate level instructional technology course for future educators. Data collected for this analysis included student course projects, a focus group interview with students, and an interview with the course instructor.
Findings
The preliminary findings for this pilot project yielded that the participants had the critical dispositions needed to understand and make meaning of the “doubly infused” content, however, the opportunities they had in their graduate programs to reflect upon how these ways of thinking can be reflected in technology‐based applications were few to non‐existent.
Originality/value
The authors found that the organizational structure of teacher education programs plays a critical role in helping students to envision how technology can be used to support the learning goals of critical multicultural education, and conversely, how critical multicultural education, can be used to support learning within a technology context.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to postulate an emerging unified cultural‐convergence framework to converge the delivery of instructional technology and intercultural education (ICE) that extends…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to postulate an emerging unified cultural‐convergence framework to converge the delivery of instructional technology and intercultural education (ICE) that extends beyond web‐learning technologies to inculcate inclusive pedagogy in teacher education.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper explores the literature and a tech‐infused multicultural learning community to identify what a unified cultural‐convergence theory might consist of and how it could be shaped to align instructional technology and critical ICE in teacher education. Four questions are asked: What key learning do these two disciplines make available to teachers and educators that are essential for today's highly diverse, complex classrooms? What can we draw from a convergence of multiculturalism and global education that will help us derive a new theoretical understanding of a unified cultural‐convergence theory to connect IT and ICE education? What knowledge, skills and dispositions comprise three essential components of this literature synthesis? How can this new unified cultural‐convergence theory and relevant components be taught, practiced, and measured? The paper contains several tables, figures and over 50 sources in the research bibliography that were selected from a review and analysis of 100 documents.
Findings
The paper discovered instructional technology and intercultural educators employed web‐learning technologies in very similar ways to position critical ICE strategies into programs or courses in teacher education. The learning technologies models that were attempting to support multicultural education (MCE)/ICE and IT education included corporate, universities, research centers, schools, and government partners. Reportedly, according to the research, teacher educators in IT education do not employ instructional technology practices that differ from practices that are needed or valued by MCE educators to merge critical intercultural structures into teacher education through web‐learning technologies. This was good news as the researcher moves toward a recommendation for a research agenda that could be shared by educators from the two groups.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is limited to literature reviews, reports, and evaluation documents.
Originality/value
The paper offers implications for curriculum development in educational technology and MCE using ICTs