Social media in literacy education: Exploring social reading with pre-service teachers

Abstract

The rise of digital media affects literacy practices, notably how literary fiction is read and discussed in online environments. Traditional notions of literacy and interpretations of what it means to act as readers or literature teachers can be re-examined within this new configuration of literacy. Starting from a perspective of teachers-as-ethnographers, the authors of this article study how pre-service teachers describe their roles and opportunities to act in social media environments. They present a framework which charts an evolution toward an understanding of reading as social practice. The authors present an exploration of reading practices within the social reading environment Goodreads that was set up with 79 student-teachers. The participants collaboratively composed an autoethnographic document consisting of multiple discussion threads that detail their experiences and reflections on social reading practices. Content analysis revealed seven themes, divided into two clusters: social reading and the implementation of social media in literacy education.