Social media diaries and fasts: Educating for digital mindfulness with pre-service teachers

Abstract

With social media access nearly ubiquitous, teachers and students must explore how to mitigate distractions and unhealthy uses. In this mixed methods study, the authors invited 60 pre-service teachers across two universities to cultivate mindfulness around social media beliefs, habits, and behaviors by completing a social media survey, diary, and fast. Participants identified reasons for regular social media use, including unconscious impulses, and made new realizations about what is gained and lost in social media engagements. Participants were optimistic about teaching similar lessons. The authors recommend pedagogical guidelines for social media mindfulness that allow for complexity, variance, and idiosyncrasy.

Reference

Damico, N., & Krutka, D. G. (2018). Social media diaries and fasts: Educating for digital mindfulness with pre-service teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 73, 109-119.

Journal

Teaching and Teacher Education

Analysis

Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?

Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?

Research Approach

interpretive
mixed methods
Qualitiative
Quantitative

Geographic Setting

Southeastern United States
Southwestern United States

Institutional Context

University based

Certification Level

early childhood
Elementary
Multiple levels of certification across programs
Secondary

Programatic Focus

not stated

Research Location Context

General Methods Course
Language arts methods

Preservice Participants

Graduate and undergraduate

Preservice Sample Size

Duration of Data Collection

1 semester

Data Sources

reflections
Social media
Survey

Data Analysis Tools

chi-square test
coding and memoing for inter-coder reliability
multiple bivariate correlations
Qualitative Analysis
SPSS

Researcher Positionality

inside (staying their own students)

Research Questions

How do pre-service teachers develop personal and professional mindfulness through their interactions with social media?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? No