Discourses in conflict: The relationship between Gen Y pre-service teachers, digital technologies and lifelong learning

Abstract

This paper analyses Gen Y pre-service primary school teachers' conceptualisations of lifelong learning. It is situated within a context of improving the provision and delivery of pre-service teacher education. This paper argues that Gen Y's understanding of lifelong learning has been influenced by their engagements with digital technologies and that while they may have appropriated the Discourse of change in this context, it does not necessarily indicate an overall capacity for change agency. This is a concern for programs of teacher education whose mission, arguably, is to prepare future activist teaching professionals. This paper argues that higher education and teacher education programs of study need to consider the relationship between Gen Y, lifelong learning and change agency when aligning pedagogy and curriculum with the new generation of students.