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?
no
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
- interpretive
- mixed methods
- Qualitiative
- Quantitative
Geographic Setting
- Southeastern United States
- Southwestern United States
Institutional Context
Certification Level
- early childhood
- Elementary
- Multiple levels of certification across programs
- Secondary
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
- General Methods Course
- Language arts methods
Preservice Participants
- Graduate and undergraduate
Preservice Sample Size
60
Duration of Data Collection
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