Promoting critical digital literacy in the leisure-time center: views and practices among Swedish leisure-time teachers

This article focuses on the leisure-time center (LTC) as an arena for developing critical digital literacy. The main research question concerns how Swedish leisure-time teachers (LT teachers) work to promote critical digital literacy. In addition to this, the article directs attention to one specific aspect of critical digital literacy, namely, critical understanding of Internet advertising. The second research question thus concerns how LT teachers approach Internet advertising in the LTC, and whether their approaches to advertising encourage a critical understanding. The study is based on 20 in-depth interviews with Swedish LT teachers, and Buckingham’s (2015) conceptual framework for critical digital literacy is used to analyze and discuss the data. The results reveal a broad range of approaches and practices, from not promoting critical digital literacy at all, to planned learning activities and spontaneous discussions that encouraged critical reflections about digital media. The participants concentrated on source criticism, photo manipulation, and discussions with children about their digital media usage. There were also different approaches to Internet advertising, from not addressing this issue to critical reflections regarding the role of advertising. The participants also described uncritical ways of relating to Internet advertising, such as approaching advertising as a form of entertainment. The article discusses the implications of these results for policy, teacher education, and future research.

"The results of the study reveal a broad range of approaches and practices, from not promoting critical digital literacy at all to planned learning activities and spontaneous discussions that encouraged critical reflections about digital media.... The analysis shows how the LT teachers primarily concentrated on the question of true and false information online. However, broader questions concerning, for instance, ideology and power – also central aspects of critical digital literacy... – were not highlighted by the participants." (Author, 143)