Fostering Media Education Competence Focusing on Diversity

Societal processes in mediatization and diversity increase demands on initial teacher education, requiring preservice teachers to develop media education competence focusing on diversity. In the third iteration of a design-based research study, an action-oriented pedagogical concept was further developed and implemented at a German university. This study analyzes standard-based pre-post-tasks from 43 preservice teachers and their semester portfolios on selected media education content areas in lesson designs. Results of the pre-post assessment indicate participants’ improvements in outlining significance of media use and its consequences, describing media education approaches, and reflecting on own lesson designs in a more action- and diversity-oriented manner. The analysis of preservice teachers’ portfolios highlighted design characteristics and media influences, while references to the media landscape and its digital infrastructure and production and distribution conditions were less emphasized. Implications for theory and practice of initial teacher education are discussed.