The European Commission’s 2024 mid-point review of its strategy for high-quality, inclusive, and accessible digital education and training provides an important opportunity to evaluate the progress made and to refine the plan for the future. As part of this process, the Commission has called on organisations to submit position papers assessing the effectiveness of the Digital Education Action Plan and offering insights on how it can be improved for the next phase of implementation.
This position paper responds to that call, addressing the question: In your experience and expertise with the Digital Education Action Plan, what actions/policy areas have been effective in achieving their objectives, and which actions/policy areas should be strengthened in the next phase of implementation? By drawing on practical experiences we aim to provide constructive feedback on both the successes and the areas that require further development to ensure the strategy continues to meet its goals in an evolving digital landscape.
In this position paper we would like to reflect on “Priority 2: Enhancing digital skills and competencies for the digital transformation’’ “Action 7: Common guidelines for teachers and educators to foster digital literacy and tackle disinformation through education and training”
According to the action description, these guidelines for teachers and educators published in 2022 on addressing disinformation and promoting digital literacy provided practical guidance, including tips, activity plans, and insights on effective approaches to digital literacy in education. The goal was to enhance understanding of digital literacy, promote responsible and safe technology use, and increase public awareness of disinformation. However, given the growing importance and urgent need for properly training and supporting teacher trainers and teachers, these guidelines require updating, further development and more concrete and practical application.
The recommendations that follow are based on research conducted by the Teacher Education in Digital and Media Literacy (TeaMLit) project funded under EMIF. TeaMLit’s mission is to provide guidance, resources and support for teacher trainers in media literacy in Europe. TeaMLit employed a MIL framework conceptualised through academic discussions and insights from partners and specialists. This framework defines MIL as the competencies and knowledge required to access, analyse, evaluate, and produce media, aiming to develop citizens who are critical, well-informed, and responsible in democratic societies.
One of the key outputs from TeaMLit is a series of publicly available reports investigating the current status of teacher education and training in media literacy in many European regions and countries. Data for these reports was gathered over 18 months (January 2023 – June 2024) from policy papers, academic publications, and interviews with stakeholders across 18 European countries and regions.
Key findings indicate that:
- disinformation and fake news are major drivers for recognising the importance of MIL education at all levels, especially in contexts like Lithuania and Finland, where MIL is linked to national defence and resilience building.
- MIL is generally considered a cross-disciplinary competence acquired across all subjects and educational levels. However, there is significant variability in how MIL is integrated into education systems, both between countries and within them. For example, Finland incorporates MIL into its national core curricula, allowing schools to contextualise it locally, while countries like Spain, Italy or Cyprus face challenges in consistent implementation despite policy efforts.
- a crucial finding is the disparity in MIL education for pre-service teachers, with countries like Austria offering limited compulsory courses. In-service training, often provided by NGOs, is more prevalent, as seen in Finland and France, where extensive resources are available for current teachers. However, there is a lack of coordination between pre-service and in-service MIL education across all researched countries.
According to these findings, the project recommends the following:
- the need for a more coherent and effective MIL education framework to equip teachers with essential skills and empower students to navigate the complex media landscape critically and responsibly – meaning integration of MIL into national curricula with the establishment of clear MIL learning outcomes to provide resources and professional development. Additionally, the development of comprehensive national MIL strategies.
- encourage teacher training colleges to make MIL mandatory in pre-service and offer continuous professional development for in-service teachers.
- shift teacher training from tech-centric approaches to include critical media literacy which is significant considering the dynamic and constantly changing media field and leverage NGOs and journalists’ expertise by strengthening multisector partnerships.
- allocate budget and adequate resources and reduce teacher workloads.
- measure effectiveness by creating guidelines, standards and recommendations on evaluation to assess MIL initiatives and programmes and promote best practices.
To ensure that policy changes regarding media literacy education are implemented effectively at the EU level, several strategies can be employed. First, fostering collaboration between EU institutions, national governments, and key stakeholders (such as educators, NGOs, and the media industry) can enhance policy coherence and alignment across member states.
A structured evaluation framework should be developed to track progress and measure impact, ensuring continuous adaptation of policies based on evidence. The new evaluation framework being developed by Ecorys is a positive step, but much more effort is required to promote the take up of such initiatives to support an evidence based approach to MIL.
The European Commission could also actively promote to member states the integration of MIL into national curricula and offer technical support, best practices exchange, and policy guidance tailored to diverse educational contexts. Additionally, providing targeted funding and resources for skills development initiatives and cross-border collaboration can address disparities in MIL education that are noted across Member States. Some countries such as France and Finland have national support services in place to promote and support the development of MIL in schools and elsewhere while in other countries this is clearly not the case.
The Media & Learning Secretariat thanks the TeaMLit project members and the members of our SIG on Teacher Education in Digital Media Literacy for their valuable input and feedback on this position paper.
