Ittner, Doris; Beeli-Zimmermann, Sonja; Müller, Karin (13 September 2022). Comparing teachers’ and students’ beliefs on subject-integrated digital literacy education (DLE) – an analysis of verbal and visual data. In: Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Bildungsforschung (SGBF), Jahrestagung. Universität Lausanne. 2022.

Competency constructs such as "digital literacy" usually describe a set of transversal knowledge and skills in dealing with digitality, ICT and media. As "slippery terms" they defy clear definition (Colton, 2020). Still, teachers are required to teach those generic competencies according to the curriculum for Swiss upper-secondary schools. Research shows that teaching is closely linked to teachers’ beliefs on the subject matter, their students and on pedagogical or instructional principles (Fives & Gill, 2015). The fit between teachers’ instructional offers and students’ effective use of the them has been identified as a significant factor for successful learning. Since research indicates that teachers’ and learners’ perceptions of education often differ – with possibly detrimental effects on students’ learning, the congruences and differences between teachers’ and students’ beliefs on digital literacy education (DLE) deserve closer attention. Due to English being the lingua franca in the digital world, our empirical study focuses on teachers and students in English classrooms of Bernese upper secondary schools (Gymnasien).
Starting from a literature review on the concept of "digital literacy", its use and function in English language teaching (ELT), we present first results from our empirical study. We analyze teachers’ and learners’ perspectives in a comparative approach, based on the following questions:
1. Which beliefs do English teachers and their students hold about "digital literacy (education)" in the ELT-classroom?
2) Which learning and educational goals do both groups associate with the term?
3) Which differences and congruences are there between teachers’ and students’ beliefs on DLE in the English classroom?
This study is based on a qualitative approach. 24 English teachers of Bernese upper-secondary schools were interviewed about DLE. The interviews included a visualization task. In addition, group interviews were conducted with a total of 24 students. The data collected was analyzed within the framework of content analysis (Mayring, 2019) and against the background of research on teachers’ beliefs (Olafson, Grandy, & Owens, 2014). Since we included visual data (both teachers and students were asked to make visualizations of digital literacy), we also used concepts and analytical approaches from visual social research (Banks, 2008).
The results presented include (1) systematic insight into teachers’ and students’ belief systems on digital literacy (education), (2) a comparative overview of the congruences and differences between teachers’ and students’ beliefs and on DLE-related learning objectives in the English classroom.

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