What are information literacy skills? Western Australian primary teachers' interpretations of the ICT curriculum

Louise Moroney
Edith Cowan University, Australia
Vaille Dawson
The University of Western Australia, Australia

Teachers must equip students to navigate an increasingly complex world of unique challenges and opportunities, necessitating the development of a diverse range of transferable skills. These skills are embedded in the General Capabilities (GC) of the Australian school curriculum. Upper primary school teachers' interpretations of one of the GC, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) learning progressions, was examined, as these skills have become increasingly important with the rise in generative and assistive artificial intelligence. Using an interpretivist paradigm, an exploratory study was used to determine the areas where 36 teachers differed in their interpretations of the learning progression. Data collected through an online questionnaire were analysed using thematic analysis. Results indicated inconsistent interpretations. This research aims to determine whether the learning progression for ICT skills is understood consistently in curriculum documents as divergence in interpretations may indicate targeted areas for revision of the curriculum documents or professional development.
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Authors: Louise Moroney (corresponding author) is a science teacher and ICT integrator. She lectures in education at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia and has previously lectured at the University of Western Australia, and the University of Notre Dame Australia. Her research interests focus on transferable skills education and assessment. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2781-1449 Email: l.moroney@ecu.edu.au Vaille Dawson is Emerita Professor in the Graduate School of Education at The University of Western Australia where she has taught preservice secondary science education, supervised doctoral students and conducted educational research in the areas of climate change education, genetics education, socioscientific issues and argumentation in Australia and internationally. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1754-9086 Email: vaille.dawson@uwa.edu.au Please cite as: Moroney, L. & Dawson, V. (2026). What are information literacy skills? Western Australian primary teachers' interpretations of the ICT curriculum. Issues in Educational Research, 36(2), 599-618. http://www.iier.org.au/iier36/moroney.pdf