English teachers’ perspectives on school-based media literacy education

From the sizeable body of research on school-based media literacy education, relatively few studies have looked specifically at the role of teachers in implementing media literacy curricula. That teachers’ knowledge, disposition or use of media impact their understanding and teaching of media literacy is often acknowledged (e.g., Greenhow, Robelia & Hughes, 2009) but rarely made the explicit focus of investigation. Media literacy here is understood as primarily involving communication competencies (Hobbs, 2011) and thus deeply relevant for language teaching and learning. This paper reports on findings from a survey of 202 English teachers in Singapore that was designed to investigate teachers’ understanding and pedagogic practice of media literacy. Specifically, this presentation will utilize as data teachers’ responses to an open-ended question of the survey that prompted participants to elaborate whether/why media literacy should be taught in Singapore secondary schools. Data was analyzed following a qualitative inductive approach (Roulston, 2010) to identify common patterns across teachers’ responses. Results indicate that on the one hand, the majority of teacher respondents strongly support the inclusion of media literacy in the school curriculum. On the other hand, teachers’ rationale for supporting media literacy education reveal an understanding of media literacy that leans heavily toward critical analysis, at the expense of creative, expressive or technical aspects of media literacy. The significance of the findings is discussed in relation to teaching media literacy through English as well as media literacy policy in Singapore.