Wikipedia and Pedagogy: The Experience of Graduate Students in Teacher Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57125/FED.2026.03.04Keywords:
Wikipedia, teacher education, graduate students, uses and perspectives, faculty guidanceAbstract
Although Wikipedia remains a widely utilised information resource for the population at large, its role in academic settings can be contentious. Characterising perceptions of and use of Wikipedia among graduate students in teacher preparation programs is essential for understanding how their experiences may influence their approaches to teaching information literacy to future students and how their prior exposure as undergraduates may have shaped their relationships with Wikipedia. This quantitative study employed a questionnaire as the research instrument. The questionnaire was initially developed based on the extant literature and refined to its final form after review by a panel of content experts to examine the following issues: (a) how graduate students majoring in education used Wikipedia in their academic work, (b) why they use it, (c) how they perceived faculty guidance and support in their use of Wikipedia, (d) how they perceived faculty engagement with Wikipedia in their instructional and scholarly practices, (e) their perceptions of the educational value of Wikipedia, and (f) their interest in training to develop Wikipedia literacy skills. Participants were graduate students enrolled in introductory teacher education courses at an urban university in the United States. Of 92 questionnaires distributed, 78 were completed (85% return rate) and included in the analysis. Overall, the results indicated that respondents were ambivalent about Wikipedia’s utility: they appreciated its convenience but desired more guidance in how to use it effectively. The lack of faculty support in this area represents a potentially significant missed opportunity to enhance information literacy among future teachers.
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