Michael K. Thomas

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Associate) at University of Illinois Chicago

Grounded in sociocultural theory and informed by Bakhtinian's notions of dialogism, utterance, heteroglossia, and addressivity, this paper presents findings from a collective case study of the identity enactments and negotiations by way of their literacy practices of three children in the three families of Muslim immigrants (i.e., Muslim-Moroccan,...

Using a framework combining Critical Race Theory and Critical Reflection and Generativity for Transformative Praxis, this book examines both how white preservice teachers conceive of race and racism (habits of mind) and how they react when dealing with race and racism in the classroom (patterns of acting). With firm grounding in real-world data, th...

This chapter returns to the theoretical basis for the book to examine and challenge the toxic habits of mind and patterns of acting described in Chaps. 3 and 4, drawing out the larger social and institutional practices which shape White preservice teachers’ approach to racism. We then consider the implications for teacher education programs, focusi...

This chapter starts with a brief discussion of Mezirow’s notion of patterns of acting, explaining how patterns of acting link to habits of mind. We then go into the data from our research, identifying a key contradiction in White preservice teachers’ classroom behavior between prepared performances of racial equity versus the unexpected appearance...

This chapter begins by summarizing Mezirow’s notion of habits of mind and then goes into the data from our research with White preservice teachers, identifying four common habits of mind found in written and spoken reflections that indicate avoidance of issues of race and racism. The first was camouflaging, the habit of speaking around race using t...

This chapter introduces the theoretical framework for the book, beginning with the basic tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its application in teacher education, arguing that CRT should play a vital role in preparing White teachers capable of recognizing the institutional Whiteness of the US educational system. We suggest that teacher educati...

This chapter introduces the theoretical and methodological foundations for this book, beginning with the overarching social-political problem of how to address educational inequity in the context of an enormous and persistent nationwide gap between the racial diversity of the student body and their home communities with the racial homogeneity of th...

This chapter provides a survey of possible ways in which to restructure teacher education to transform habits of mind and patterns of acting concerning race and racism among White prospective teachers. We briefly revisit the theoretical and practical model, discuss its place in developing anti-racist teacher education, then examine a series of acti...

Call for papers for a special issue on “Reinventing pedagogies and practices of 3D Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) with the rise of blended learning” in the Educational Technology and Society (ET&S) journal

This is a special issue proposal call entitled "Reinventing Pedagogies and Practices of 3D Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) with the Rise of Blended Learning" in the journal Educational Technology & Society (ET&S), which is estimated to be published in April 2025.

This is a special issue proposal call entitled "Reinventing Pedagogies and Practices of 3D Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) with the Rise of Blended Learning" in the journal Educational Technology & Society (ET&S), which is estimated to be published in April 2025.

There is an increasing number of culturally diverse individuals, particularly Asians, identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States. Nevertheless, research on culturally diverse caregivers, especially fathers, of children with ASD is scarce. Thus, this phenomenological study explored the essence of shared experiences of Korean...

In this chapter, the authors argue that the notion of culture must be part of the work of the instructional designer and cannot be ignored or left invisible. This must include a robust understanding of four processes that contextualize contemporary work on culture. These include globalization, neocolonialism, neoliberalism, and instrumentalism. The...

Since 2009, one-third of all US teacher preparation programs have implemented a new, technology-based teacher assessment—edTPA. Intended to replace traditional measures of initial teaching competency, edTPA utilizes a candidate-curated video lesson and ePortfolio. While research shows that these technology-based tools enhance professional practice,...

The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of formative design in the context of the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a collectible card game (CCG) for teaching cybersecurity to middle school students. The approach involved a formative design approach, educational design research (EDR) that evolved from design-based re...

The purpose of this study was to identify motivational elements of an online multi-player educational computer game that uses a 3D multi-user environment to immerse children ages 9-12 in educational tasks. The methodological approach design ethnography, a process that involves using ethnographic methods when the researchers are both observers and d...

This paper reports on a study that examines the learning behaviors and characteristics of students in a mobile applications computer programming class that adopted a “flipped” learning style. By harvesting learning analytics data from a learning management system, we created visualizations of work intensity to explore temporal patterns of students’...

The authors demonstrate how the edTPA-a new teacher certification tool-and its dependence on videotaping and ePortfolio assessment exemplify unintended consequences when such tools are not well aligned to the socio-cultural contexts implementing them. Qualitative interviews, focus groups, and field-observations across eight teacher preparation prog...

The purpose of this study was to validate the Inventory of School Motivation (ISM) (Mainland China), which was developed specifically for use with Mainland Chinese students. Development of the instrument was grounded in personal investment theory and built on the ISM instrument, which has been shown to accurately tap the achievement goal constructs...

This paper reports on a grounded theory analysis of prospec- tive teachers’ online reflections in an ePortfolio system as part of a university-based teacher preparation program re- quirement. results indicate that prospective teachers tend to showcase or “sunshine” their teaching and learning ex- periences rather than reflect on them analytically a...

This study focuses on illuminating the trajectory of professional game players and constructs a practical model that may explain the interactions of professional gamers via activity theory. Further, it may help to explain the relationship between professional gamers and the emerging global phenomenon of esports. Using activity theory, we analyzed i...

In this article, the authors argue that educational technology is chiefly and increasingly being used as a tool for the privatization of education and the commodification of people by way of top down evaluative structures put in place by governments in collusion with neoliberal interests. This analysis began as a study that sought to illuminate the...

This study aims to enhance our holistic understanding of 3D virtual worlds by providing a detailed analysis of the research methods and research trends related to the research of 3D virtual worlds for educational environments. Data was collected by searching for the ubiquitous term, "virtual world," from databases. Snowball sampling was also employ...

This paper reports on a grounded theory analysis of prospective teachers’ online reflections in an ePortfolio system as part of a university-based teacher preparation program requirement. Results indicate that prospective teachers tend to showcase or “sunshine” their teaching and learning experiences rather than reflect on them analytically and cri...

This paper reports on an analysis of public documents produced by the government of Malaysia for the purpose of guiding the enactment of educational technology efforts in Malaysia. The analysis explores the concentration of discourses that make possible certain framings of technology in educational contexts that seek to act upon the notions of citi...

This study analyzes the reporting of the September 11 th terrorist attacks in social studies textbooks from a Muslim perspective and reports on findings from a study of the responses of American Muslim children to the treatment of the events of September 11 th in social studies textbooks. Constructivist grounded theory was used to centralize the pa...

This study used technology-rich ethnography (TRE) to examine the use of game development in a high school computer programming class for the development of 21st century skills. High school students created games for elementary school students while obtaining formative feedback from their younger clients. Our experience suggests that in the teaching...

This study analyzes the reporting of the September 11th terrorist attacks in social studies textbooks from a Muslim perspective and reports on findings from a study of the responses of American Muslim children to the treatment of the events of September 11th in social studies textbooks. Constructivist grounded theory was used to centralize the part...

This article is on the strange confluence of culture, identity, learning, and systemic design. We argue that the work of instructional design is, essentially, work on culture and identity. A person's culture and identity fully and inextricably situate their thought, action, and interaction. For this reason, this inherent situatedness of culture and...

This study examined the tensions surrounding the implementation of a technology-rich educational innovation called Quest Atlantis (QA) in a local public elementary school. Three qualitative case studies of three classrooms implementing the innovation and a subsequent cross-case analysis were undertaken to illuminate: 1) the reasons why teachers cho...

This research investigated expertise development among instructional designers by tracking novice designers' unfolding perceptions of instructional design (ID), design-related self-perceptions, and other individual differences. It examined development toward ID expertise from multiple aspects: processes, product, and cognition, through a case study...

This study used a phenomenological qualitative approach that engaged Black students in discussions about the burden of acting White and its impact on their in-school and postschool outcomes and postschool transition visions. Six seventh- and eighth-grade Black students identified as at risk for school failure, a principal, and five teachers partici...

Although the work of learning scientists and instructional designers has brought about countless curricula, designs, and theoretical claims, the community has been less active in communicating the explicit and implicit critical social agendas that result (or could result) from their work. It is our belief that the community of learning scientists i...

Although the work of learning scientists and instructional designers has brought about countless curricula, designs, and theoretical claims, the community has been less active in communicating the explicit and implicit critical social agendas that result (or could result) from their work. It is our belief that the community of learning scientists i...

This study utilized elements of technology-rich ethnography to create a rich description of a multiuser virtual environment in a high school computer programming class. Of particular interest was the transition that took place in classroom culture from one characterized by a well-defined problem solving approach to one more indicative of open learn...

This research investigated expertise development among instructional designers by tracking novice designers’ unfolding perceptions of instructional design (ID), designrelated self-perceptions, and other individual differences. It examined development toward ID expertise from multiple aspects: processes, product, and cognition, through a case study...

This article describes the Quest Atlantis (QA) project, a learning and teaching project that employs a multiuser, virtual environment to immerse children, ages 9-12, in educational tasks. QA combines strategies used in commercial gaming environments with lessons from educational research on learning and motivation. It allows users at participating...

This article describes critical design ethnography, an ethnographic process involving participatory design work aimed at transforming a local context while producing an instructional design that can be used in multiple contexts. Here, we reflect on the opportunities and challenges that emerged as we built local critiques then reified them into a de...

Conclusion It is the responsibility of instructional designers not only to create good products but, in the process, develop sound theories and do work that is rooted in the notion that we must work to make the world a better place. Design-based research is an approach that can help us to produce theory by putting our design work in naturalistic co...

In this manuscript we describe our “empowerment design” work. Instead of simply building an artifact to help an individual accomplish a particular task, the focus of empowerment design work is to develop socio-technical structures that empower individuals and societies more generally. Essentially, empowerment design is designing with heart. It is a...

Conclusion As culture is at the heart of meaning making, it warrants exacting attention in the systemic design process. As Gustafson & Powell (1991) point out, too often models are not tested for validity and reliability. It is for this reason that we emphasize that research must critically evaluate this expanded ADDIE model. As technology enables...

Like a scene from a Wild West land grab, would-be pioneers in the wilderness of online learning are surging forward with thoughts awash with optimism, trepidation, and a profound sense of staking a claim in this new educational environment. Even for those who live and breathe this new medium, there have been a myriad of successes, failures, and tru...

In this paper, we investigate Taiwanese college English Language Learning (ELL) instructors' central concerns regarding technology implementation for instructional purposes as well as the actions they take in response to top-down decisions in terms of technology implementation. The interplay of teachers' beliefs, actions, and the context in which t...

ABSTRACT , Promoting Critically Reflective Teaching 3

The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University, 2004.