Picturing digital equity in the curriculum: Cultivating preservice teachers’ digital equity mindsets in a technology integration course

Abstract

Although access to technology has substantially increased in U.S. schools, inequities in technology usage persist, especially in classrooms serving disproportionately higher numbers of minoritized students. Driven by expert recommendations for increased teacher preparation focused on addressing this phenomenon, we sought to cultivate preservice teachers' (PSTs') digital equity mindsets in a stand-alone technology integration course. A qualitative analysis of pre- and post-course drawings and written reflections where PSTs indicated their intentions to build digital equity in the curriculum showed a significant evolution of their mindsets in five related dimensions of digital equity. This study provides novel insight into how PSTs' digital equity mindsets can be effectively cultivated, and how doing so might engender more equitable technology integration practices in the K-12 curriculum.