Presentation and assignment proposal ideas 4005-2

Name - list supervisors names/subjects (on the presentation slides)

• How can teachers be supported to plan and deliver basic digital accessibility awareness education in the primary school context at Key Stage 2?

Broader background of the study

*1,This research is underpinned by the social model of disability (Oliver, 1983) quote. It refers to addressing this model through the context of digital accessibility.

*1, (Quote) Just like buildings and the physical space has ramps, automatic doors, hearing loops or braille signage, the digital world that we now live in needs to be as equally accommodating (AbilityNet, 2024).

*1, Tim- Berners Lee

In 1997, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web and Director of the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) said, The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.” But accessibility is not a given. It requires work.” (W3C, 1997)

https://www.w3.org/press-releases/1997/ipo-announce/

*2, Legal frameworks in the UK such as ‘reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 and the web regulations 2018 (and international equivalents) means that the accessibility of the web and digital content is now a Social responsibility (ref), social justice (ref) and issue of human rights (ref). These legal channels, specifically the web regulations for the first time offer disabled people a formal route to report inaccessible content or to request being provided with alternative accessible formats (Lewthwaite- ‘at last paper’). 

*2, However, progress in implementing the web regulations and making the digital environment accessible is slow (WebAIM, 2021; 2023; AbilityNet, 2023; Hassell Inclusion, 2022?). Most progress reports are based within the web industry sector and focus on the web regulations and WCAG. But reports do identify training and awareness as one of the biggest challenges contributing to the slow progress as well as more wider adoption of digital accessibility practices across organisations.

Specific context of the study

*1, 

AbilityNet are cited on government websites as the body to go to for digital accessibility support.

Head of AbilityNet, Robin Christopherson (2022) - asserted that the problem isn’t just websites, addressing digital accessibility needs in every content and the wider context is a significant and mainstream issue for those with disabilities. (Echoed by others)

Matt May (2016) recognised that accessibility currently only sits within specialist technical silos, yet we need broader education and wider mainstream awareness (as per Christopherson, 2022) to be able to make scalable progress:

What we have are a few people who know a lot about accessibility, what we need are a lot of people to know a little about it (May, 2016).

*2, This study will specifically relate to the later part of Matt May’s statement and the addressing of a more mainstream and basic digital accessibility awareness education.

Educational context

In education:

*1, Initial reviews of the literature identify the following in the context of teaching accessibility:

• Progress to include education around accessible content creation is also slow
• Studies of teaching digital and web accessibility in HE, Postgraduate or workplace contexts primarily in the specialisms of the computer science discipline (refs)
• Units are not formally included as the norm in the curriculum but are elective, and often dropped quote (refs)
• The concept of ‘accessibility’ as a teaching topic is challenging for learners - (Keates, 2011;15) 
• Studies are primarily small reflective singular case study accounts of learner experiences
• Students arrive from school onto computer discipline courses at college and university with no existing awareness of digital accessibility awareness
• Industry has a demand for these skills but lack of educated graduates meets there is a skills gap and linked to the wider ongoing digital skills gap (PEAT, 2018; Teach Access, 2023; - UkDisStrategy; House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, 2016; other recent DigStrat)
• Other subject disciplines recognising the need to educate around digital accessibility (Libraries, media, disability studies, business, law)
• Only one paper has been identified within the school context within a high school students (ref)
• No papers have yet been identified within the primary school education context - yet calls for earlier awareness education acknowledged

Problem statements for the teaching of digital accessibility

*2, There are challenges for teachers to be able to teach digital accessibility awareness such as:

• Teachers have identified they lack confidence to teach the subject of digital accessibility awareness (refs)
• Lack of current teachers who understand the subject mean the teaching of it is not currently sustainable, e.g. if teachers with that knowledge leave (Bohman, 2012)
• Current guidance surrounding the topic of digital accessibility sits primarily within the technical discipline - Most teaching studies use the web regulations to anchor the teaching
• There are a lack of pedagogical resources to support teaching, such as textbooks and classroom resources (refs)
• Lack of a peer network or community of practice for the pedagogical context to support adoption
• Studies primarily focus on student experiences rather than the perspective of teacher 

The gaps in both practice and literature appear to be in:

• The teaching of digital accessibility at an earlier stage is needed so awareness can be established earlier - only one study at a high school exists and none have been identified at primary level
• Studies show that pedagogical support for teachers is in short supply and has not been fully explored 
• Studies surrounding supporting teachers to ‘initially’ teach digital accessibility awareness as a new subject do not appear to exist, most are reflective accounts of teachers with that subject knowledge delivering it to learners and evaluating their responses 
• Most studies are not in depth studies from multiple perspectives but are small singular reflective accounts

Rationale

Digital by default - no signs of slowing down - we need to prepare our next generation with skills for a digitally inclusive future (quotes)

In our digital society create content regularly within their education and social lives, so at the time of establishing these digital skills we should introduce digital accessibility awareness. Quotes - as early as schools.

(Ref to lack of awareness prior to college or university - and the school study - the primary context and earliest opportunity to establish this knowledge).

The educational context and rationale for Key Stage 2

• Other similar digital knowledge and skills for social responsibility taught from KS1/2 (Online safety/Data protection)
• Current computing curriculum and guidance covers assistive technology from the accessibility perspective (input and output devices) but not about ‘making accessible content’ for it to work on assistive technology 
• Guidance for teachers around accessible content is sat in context of UDL - making teaching and learning accessible for students
• Piaget - empathy development stage - KS2 age (and other disability papers to support this)
• Citizenship refers to looking after others - KS2 expands on that

Research objectives 

• To develop an introductory lesson on digital accessibility awareness to pilot in the primary school KS2 context 
• To create associated pedagogical resources to support that lesson 
• To explore the support needed for pedagogical content knowledge development to be able to teach basic digital accessibility awareness within the KS2 context 

Research question 

How can teachers be supported to develop and deliver digital accessibility awareness in the primary school context at Key Stage 2?

Literature review

To inform the study the literature review will cover:

• The significance and context of digital accessibility in our society 
• Current definitions and guidance relating to digital accessibility to inform an educational intervention
• Explore current teaching practices for digital accessibility teaching to inform learning objectives for an educational intervention 
• Identity studies surrounding primary teachers existing related knowledge (such as existing practices and awareness e.g. surrounding universal design for learning UDL - to identify existing knowledge to build upon)
• Identify practices and activities within current examples of teaching of digital accessibility awareness suitable for beginners (e.g. for teachers unfamiliar with ‘teaching’ the topic and for learners at introductory level) - help to inform the initial lesson activities taught at the beginning of the DBR and lesson study process

Philosophical position 

• Educational context is human and socio-cultural in context - multiple realities 
• Interpretive philosophy adoption
• Intent is a co-production between researcher and participants to pilot the teaching of digital accessibility awareness education in schools (social constructivist paradigm)

Research design

*1, The research design needs to be able to facilitate:

• A social constructivist approach
• The development and piloting of an intervention for teaching the basics of digital accessibility awareness in the primary school KS2 context 
• Provide an opportunity to facilitate the experience of teaching digital accessibility awareness to ascertain what support is need to develop knowledge and practice in this area

*2, This research will therefore adopt the following:

• Design based research - enables an action research approach using a collaboration between researchers and practitioners to iteratively develop the design of interventions, artefacts and assets 
• Lesson study as a very similar iterative collaborative approach. This will act as the vehicle to provide the framework that drives the experience for the teachers to teach digital accessibility awareness and their development of knowledge in the classroom (Use Dudley 2011;14)
• Lesson study develops knowledge on how learners learn, how to teach the subject and the development of subject knowledge using subject expertise and peer support (pedagogical content knowledge) whereas design based research focuses on the development of the intervention itself.
• Initial teaching session delivered by researcher as digital accessibility subject expert to teacher participants for them to be able to adapt and shape for a primary school context (train the trainer style to inform the first focus group)
• Iterative cycles of participant delivery in primary school context - debriefing sessions to be structured around pedagogical content knowledge development
• To promote the broadest of perspectives for the experience (participants take turns as teacher, teaching assistant and observer)

• Conceptual models visuals x 2 (Dudley and Pedagogy DBR diagrams)

This research takes the position of using at least three teachers to teach the lesson in turn (ref) and also make sure that these teachers get a more varied perspective of the experience by rotating through the roles of teacher, teaching assistant and lesson observer (ref).

The research aims to incorporate a means of pre and post intervention evaluation as well as to explore the development of the research lesson, the associated resources developed and the knowledge development of teachers delivering the unfamiliar subject matter. This intends to be explored through the lens of the three phases of the pedagogical process as a conceptual framework such as teaching as planned, enacting and experienced. To be able to follow the journey of the development through the phases and incorporate the pre and post intervention evaluations the DBR framework will be organised in the following ways:

This research will be broken down into three studies:

Phase one - Pedagogy as planned - teachers will experience learning about digital accessibility awareness for themselves based on lesson activities identified during the literature review as being suitable for beginners to the subject of digital accessibility awareness. (As Anderson and Shattuck (2012; 2013) explain, the initial problem identification, and the content, structure and instructional approaches for a design based research intervention is usually informed through the literature review, and this information is then used to inform the design principles for the first iteration (Anderson and Shattuck, 2013).

This selection of activities will be taught by the researcher who will play an active role in the research as knowledgeable other and subject knowledge expert (as an experienced expert and teacher within the field of digital accessibility).

This will lead onto the first planning workshop to adapt what they have learned into a lesson/s appropriate for the primary school classroom.

The workshop will include exploring their existing knowledge, their early support needs and any challenges teachers foresee as they plan for their first iteration in the program school classroom. This will be led by a combined and democratically run planning workshop to encourage contributions from all participants. This will also act as a pre-intervention evaluation.

Phase two - pedagogy as enacted to capture the process of iterative development of the lesson and of pedagogical content knowledge, using the debriefing and planning sessions as the means of data collection to ascertain developing knowledge and support needs. Teachers will use learner data gathered and reflections of the lessons and record this (such as observations, feedback and student work) to contribute towards and steer the debriefing and planning discussions. (As per the recommendation that debriefing sessions start from the perspective of understanding the learner experience and response) - this also captures pedagogy as planned, enacted and experienced at a micro-level to drive the lesson study process forward, more inline with the natural process of teaching.

Phase three - pedagogy as experienced to reflect through the entire lesson study process to explore in-depth individual participation perspectives of teaching digital accessibility awareness. Their personal accounts will be triangulated with other participant responses and further analysed against the group data to ascertain both the more personal and joint support needs to be able to plan and teach digital accessibility awareness in the school classroom context and to ascertain when and how they became less dependent on needing subject expert knowledge to focus more fully on the pedagogical aspects of teaching the topic or peer support (reference and nod to social constructivist theory by Vygotsky ZPD) This will also act as a post-intervention evaluation. 

Data collection methods 

Focus groups - with additional influence of nominal group technique to encourage full participation and equal contribution in workshops (before and during the development and refinement of the lesson and contextual knowledge) - first focus group session pre assessment of existing knowledge and support needs and iterative debriefing and planning sessions

Interviews - to consolidate findings and triangulate with focus group findings - post assessment of knowledge development 

Other data collection considerations:

Through the process of the lesson study experience teachers would gather input from learner feedback and work outputs to be able to evaluate lessons and inform their debriefing/planning session focus group discussions

Participant recruitment 

The research aims to combine expertise:

Experienced primary school teachers would be preferred as core participants - collaboration fostering expertise in digital accessibility knowledge (researcher as digital accessibility subject expert) combined with pedagogical expertise and experience of teachers for its adoption in the primary school context 

Participants from ITT would not necessarily have the pedagogical repertoire to combine expertise for this study but as observer participants their insight from a fresh perspective and specifically observing student learning would be useful as it would not necessarily be laden with any pre-existing organisational or contextual practices or politics.

Focus groups 4 - 12 (refs)

Lesson study from 3 - 5 (refs - Dudley, 2014)

Over recruitment to anticipate and compensate for any withdrawals

Data analysis 

Collins, Joseph and Bielaczyc (2004) highlighted that DBR projects often produce a large amount of data as they progress through the various iterations. This data therefore needs an appropriate analysis method.

• Thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006)
• Adopt NVivo to organise and support the analysis of data to code and identity patterns and themes
• Researcher as an active part of the research process and subsequent analysis -  reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2019; 2021)
• Inductive / deductive - pedagogical categories to organise data - inductively explore themes within them in the words of participants 
• Semantic study to identify patterns and themes and explain them in a meaningful way

Ethical considerations 

• Informed consent 
• Disclosure
• Anonymity and confidentiality
• Researcher reflexivity, subjectivity and bias 

Contribution to knowledge 

• Contribute to the research gap to inform the wider body of knowledge regarding the teaching of digital accessibility awareness specifically within the primary school context
• Contribute to studies from the perspective of teachers needs rather than learner experiences and performance
• Inform the gap in practice for teaching of digital accessibility awareness within the primary school context
• In-depth study from multiple perspective of teaching digital accessibility awareness for the first time
• Has the potential to contribute to the current reform of the computing national curriculum
• Has the potential to extend the current curriculum content for EDI and citizenship around supporting others in the digital society 
• Could help to inform wider adoption and suitable resources beyond the KS2 context