Media literacy instruction in today’s classrooms: A study of teachers’ knowledge, confidence, and integration

Teachers play a critical role in helping to ensure that students leave school with the skills needed to not only be critical consumers of media, but to also be thoughtful and knowledgeable producers of mediated messages. Despite the important role of teachers in media literacy education, we still know very little about teachers’ knowledge of and experiences with media literacy in the classroom. This information is a critical piece in understanding how to best support teachers as they integrate media literacy education within PreK-12 classrooms. The current study seeks to add to the growing body of research in this area by examining secondary teachers’ knowledge of media literacy, confidence incorporating it in classes, and actual integration of media literacy education in courses. Results of a survey of 71 teachers found a relationship between knowledge, confidence, and integration of media literacy. Implications of the study results are discussed