Bridging the Global–Local Divide: University Faculty Perceptions on Adapting International Digital Literacy Frameworks for Teacher Education Programs in Karachi.

Abstract

The study explores the perceptions of the faculty members on the applications of global digital literacy frameworks, i.e., DigCompEdu and ISTE, in the context of teacher education programs in universities of Karachi, Sindh. The teacher education programs (such as B. ED Hons) equip the pre-service teachers with pedagogical competency, providing skilled teachers to the education sector in the province. Adopting the semi-structured interview with 20 faculty members from departments of education, public and private sector universities in Karachi, with an exploratory research design, in addressing a gap between international digital literacy frameworks and local pedagogical practices, connecting to social and cultural realities. The findings suggest that global frameworks for digital pedagogical competencies cannot be totally executed in the current teacher education structure in the universities of Karachi. However, a combined framework using global and local standards to design a suitable framework in connection to the cultural, social, and educational realities can be more effective for teacher education programs in Pakistan. Hence, a direct adoption of these standard frameworks is impractical to train pre-service teachers’ exclusion of locally social and cultural practices. A practical and flexible framework is proposed in this study. The future studies shall analyze the critical implications of global-local digital frameworks, and the assessment of the digital training of the prospective teachers in the teacher education programs in Karachi, Sindh.

Keywords: Global-Local Divide, Faculty Perceptions, Digital Literacy Frameworks, Teacher Education Programs