DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND MULTIMODALITY IN TEACHERS TRAINING: MEANINGS (RE)CONSTRUCTED IN AN ENGLISH PRACTICUM COURSE
Multiliteracies. Digital literacies. Practicum course. English teachers training.
This research aims to reflect what leads initial teachers' training to (re)construct relationships with digital technologies and multimodality after a semester of practicum course in English debating this theme, in 2021. Theoretically, this work is based on multiliteracies studies, specifically concerning multimodality (CAZDEN, et al 1996; KRESS; VAN LEEUWEN, 2001; COPE; KALANTIZIS 2009; ROJO [2012; 2013]); the studies on digital literacies (BUZATO, 2006; SAITO; SOUZA, 2011; DUDENEY; HOCKLY; PREGUM, 2016;); some works about the relationship between technologies and teaching (KNOBEL; LANKSHEAR, 2007; KENSKI, 2012; BARTON; LEE, 2015; RIBEIRO, 2016; SELWYN, 2017; PAIVA; 2019); and the studies regarding the relationship between teaching/teachers and technologies, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic (LEVY, 1999; COSCARELLI, 2020; RIBEIRO, 2020; ROJO, 2020; TONIN, 2021). From the methodological basis of the ethnographic study (FALTIS, 1997; ANDRÉ, 2005), the research teacher, in partnership with the practicum course in English at the University of Brasília, between August and November 2021, proposed different activities around the theme of multimodality, literacies, and digital technologies, to observe whether these debates had the potential to change the teachers' relationship with this theme. Two intern students were part of the case study, due to their degree of involvement in the proposed activities throughout the practicum course. Among the activities developed in the practicum, it is highlighted the Instagram page for the course, where the participants were invited to bring their opinions on the subjects presented in the Instagram posts. It is also pointed to the participants' lesson plans and the seminars of the practicum course, as they reflect the relationship built with the participants. So, the data of this research is composed of the seminars of the practicum course, Instagram, questionnaires, lesson plans, and online meetings with the participants. The changes in the participants' perceptions about digital technologies and the multimodality in English teaching from the beginning to the end of the practicum course show changes in the relationships with this theme, especially due to the participants' desire to contribute to the teaching of English more contextualized to the school students lives and also the desire for means to encourage the interaction and autonomy of these students, with emphasis to the teaching context that characterized this research: school presential and the practicum course remote. Due to this context, the participants during the regency period were not physically in the school classroom, but through video calls. Some of the challenges arising from this context showed that although promising the activities that were developed with the participants, there is still a gap between what is idealized in the literature on multiliteracies and digital literacies at school and what we actually can achieve in practice, especially due to the lack of school infrastructure. Despite this gap, we can say that the research developed with the participants contributed to their training in the practicum course and are examples of possible actions for the teachers to do when consider the pedagogical integration of technologies in the context of English teaching