Digital pedagogies for future school education: promoting inclusion

ABSTRACT

This article develops four school education scenarios to help educators consider the role of digital technologies in future teaching and to provoke discussion of how education might be done differently. The context for these scenarios is a world shaped by the COVID19 pandemic. The development of education scenarios is a useful device for thinking about the future and is often used as a methodology to stimulate discussion about possible variations in education. We use our empirical data from a recent study of Australian schools illustrating exemplary remote-teaching, to generate four alternative scenarios for future school education, with a particular focus on learning agency, and the level of educational technology use. We show how different contexts and different student needs are supported by each of the four scenarios. This set of scenarios challenges the common perception that remote learning is only effective through high end use of online technologies, and suggests there is a role for both student-led and teacher-led approaches, depending on the particular contexts. The article discusses the place of innovation in disadvantaged and technology-restricted contexts. It concludes with an analysis of the ways in which school education might respond to future challenges and opportunities.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital futures
• digital pedagogy
• agency
• inclusion
• innovation

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support provided by the Association of Independent Schools of New South Wales (AISNSW) in Australia, to conduct the four case studies discussed in this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Association of Independent Schools of New South Wales (AISNSW), Australia.

Notes on contributors

M. Kearney

Dr. M. Kearney is Professor of Educational Technology in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. His research projects in the field of technology-enhanced learning investigate how new and emerging learning technologies can be used in pedagogically transformational ways, particularly in school and teacher education contexts. He is currently leader of the Initial Teacher Education discipline in the School of International Studies & Education at UTS.

S. Schuck

Dr. S. Schuck is currently Adjunct Professor of Education in FASS at UTS. Her research interests are all related to her interest in enhancing teacher practice and preparation. They include learning and teaching with new media, the development of mobile pedagogies, teaching and teacher education futures, beliefs and practices in mathematics education, teacher professional learning, and mentoring, retention and induction of early career teachers.

K. Burden

Dr. K. Burden is Professor of Educational Technology in the Faculty of Arts, Cultures and Education at the University of Hull, UK. His primary research focus focuses on the professional development and learning of educators and the role that technology can play in mediating and supporting this learning. He has worked with a large number of national UK providers and government agencies, including NESTA, the New Opportunities Funding ICT for Teachers project; the Training and Development Agency (TDA, DfE), Becta, BBC, HEA and JISC.