Digitalization and digital transformation in schools : a challenge to educational theory?

Declaration of funding Research was funded via a doctoral research project collaboration between the Industrial Doctoral School, Umeå University, Sweden, and Atea, Sweden.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Leadership in Swedish Public Organizations: A Research Review in Education and Care

This article is a review of recent Swedish leadership research in two large public-sector areas: education and care. By comparing and contrasting research in these areas, we unveil the specifics and commonalities of research in public-sector leadership. We reviewed research articles from 2018 to 2020 and analyzed theories used, data-gathering methods employed, and topics researched. The results show some fundamental differences between the two areas. Compared to research on education, research on care is to a larger extent non-theoretical and is often focused on change management, quality assurance, and leaders’ roles in employee health. Conversely, studies on education are theory driven and mostly focused on leaders’ roles in learning and shared leadership. We discuss the state of Swedish public leadership research and make suggestions for mutual learning and moving forward in this research field

Made in Sweden? Configured digitalized school leadership practice

Few notions seem to capture the imagination of education policymakers today as completely as digitalization and leadership. Through these two, schools are believed to become transformed, and in turn, these transformed schools will transform people and society. This paper critically analyzes a Swedish official digital policy instrument that materializes digitalized school leadership practice. The policy instrument is made available as a ‘helpful tool’ by a Swedish official education agency. The paper scrutinizes the policy knowledge process set to work within the instrument by the agency. Particularly, how the instrument may influence people to come to know and change schools, and how responsibility and risk of digitalization in schools seems to first be transferred to, and then between, people in schools. The paper is concluded by a discussion of how (a) three knowledge phases interact in the knowledge process of the instrument, (b) the technical – rather than social – solution that digitalized school leadership practice is found to be, and (c) implications for digitalization in schools as a social, cultural and historical phenomenon of interest to research.lic

The difficulties of the few and the challenges of the many : Understanding the use of integrated digital technologies in schools with activity theory

The outset of the thesis was in answer to an underdevelopment in the research on integrated digital technologies in schools. The purpose of the thesis was to understand the activity system of using an integrated digital technology in a municipality’s school organization. The research questions regarded different perceptions between organizational levels, as well as contradictions in the activity system and the consequences of these contradictions. A qualitative approach was chosen, where interviews were conducted with seven personnel in the municipal school organization, both principals and development workers. In analyzes, an activity theoretical approach was used to expand the understanding of the activity system. Main findings included a detailed representation of perceptions of informants, as well as contradictions in the activity system. The contradictions were related to many components of the activity system with varying consequences to both organization and individual. Specifically, findings indicate that integrated digital technologies require certain institutional assumptions, and many difficulties and challenges are related to the intent of having many stakeholders of school organizations interacting in the same integrated technology

Leda lärande genom digitalisering i svenska skolor : bortom skolledare?

How can digitalization in schools be led towards positive outcomes? This has for education policy makers in Sweden been a question for decades. In recent years, formal school leaders in schools have come in focus in policy as important not only for schools in general, also specifically concerning digitalizing schools. The expectation is that school leaders leading of digitalization in schools will improve learning in schools by way of ‘harnessing’ the many supposed opportunities of digital technologies for learning. The thesis, in four empirical studies including school leaders, teachers, students and others, investigates how learning is lead through digitalization in schools beyond school leaders. The research questions asked are (RQ1) how can digitalization in schools as learning be understood and (RQ2) who is leading learning through digitalization in schools and by what means? Cultural-historical activity theory is utilized to understand learning as a relation between individual (person) and society. This entails, on the one hand, that (RQ1) how digitalization in schools as learning can be understood is answered by understanding learning as a relation between individuals and society in concrete (real) activities. On the other hand, given the individual learning-society relation, (RQ2) who is leading learning through digitalization in schools and by what means is constituted by many possible whos and means, not just formal school leaders. The results from the capstone’s analysis entail that how learning is lead through digitalization in Swedish schools beyond school leaders, is a process that spans national governing via national education agencies, urbanization in sparsely populated regions, and large-scale municipal digitalization projects. That is, concrete activities where societal needs for learning are different in kind, and yet where the expectation in policy concerning digitalization in schools would entail that any formal school leader, individually, is supposed to be able to deliver on societal needs.Adekvat digital kompetens för skolledar

Skolledare och digitala teknologier : En kvalitativ studie i skolledares användning av och tankar kring digitala teknologier, i arbete och för skolan

Today, digital technologies (DT) can be said to play an important role in the Swedish school system. The goal of this essay was to describe DT use by school leaders, in relation to their views on schools’ goals and visions, and teachers’ and students’ use of DTs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five school leaders of secondary schools in Umeå municipality, Sweden. The results show that school leaders’ use of DTs center on three key tasks: communication, information and administration. Further, it is shown that school leaders’ views vary in regards to DTs’ role in school goals, and visions, for digital use. In the discussion/analysis it is argued that school leaders’ views on DTs in schools can be explained as functionalistic, and that this view may inhibit new uses for DTs in schools, and also give a dysfunctional view on the technologies that school leaders do not use. In conclusion it is argued that school leaders might need to reflect more about the DT use of school

Skolledare och digitala teknologier : En kvalitativ studie i skolledares användning av och tankar kring digitala teknologier, i arbete och för skolan

Today, digital technologies (DT) can be said to play an important role in the Swedish school system. The goal of this essay was to describe DT use by school leaders, in relation to their views on schools’ goals and visions, and teachers’ and students’ use of DTs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five school leaders of secondary schools in Umeå municipality, Sweden. The results show that school leaders’ use of DTs center on three key tasks: communication, information and administration. Further, it is shown that school leaders’ views vary in regards to DTs’ role in school goals, and visions, for digital use. In the discussion/analysis it is argued that school leaders’ views on DTs in schools can be explained as functionalistic, and that this view may inhibit new uses for DTs in schools, and also give a dysfunctional view on the technologies that school leaders do not use. In conclusion it is argued that school leaders might need to reflect more about the DT use of school

Skolledare och digitala teknologier : En kvalitativ studie i skolledares användning av och tankar kring digitala teknologier, i arbete och för skolan

Today, digital technologies (DT) can be said to play an important role in the Swedish school system. The goal of this essay was to describe DT use by school leaders, in relation to their views on schools’ goals and visions, and teachers’ and students’ use of DTs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five school leaders of secondary schools in Umeå municipality, Sweden. The results show that school leaders’ use of DTs center on three key tasks: communication, information and administration. Further, it is shown that school leaders’ views vary in regards to DTs’ role in school goals, and visions, for digital use. In the discussion/analysis it is argued that school leaders’ views on DTs in schools can be explained as functionalistic, and that this view may inhibit new uses for DTs in schools, and also give a dysfunctional view on the technologies that school leaders do not use. In conclusion it is argued that school leaders might need to reflect more about the DT use of school

A Methodological Blueprint for Developing Interventionist Educational e-research : the Case of the Digital Change Laboratory

This position paper suggests digital development of the Change Laboratory (CL), a third-generation, activity theo-retical, educational participatory methodology. Moreover, it provides a blueprint of developing educational meth-odology through acknowledging and building upon methodologies foundational assumptions. Examples are givenof the CL in contemporary educational research, where the methodology is seeing continued use for developmentof educational work practice. This is followed by a principled argument for the development of the Digital ChangeLaboratory. By using both synchronous and asynchronous digital technologies, the Digital Change Laboratory maygive educational researchers additional pragmatic, collaborative, and participative-focused research tools that specifi-cally enable collaborative engagements between research and practice to cross the boundaries of time and space. Theunique contribution of the paper is a conceptual development of the CL methodology, which is of importance consid-ering that publications using the methodology with digital technologies for collaboration are hard to find. Moreover,the contribution is to educational research methodology in general, where there may be an increasing need to crossthe boundaries of time and space to meet future societal challenges via digital technologies

Digitalization and digital transformation in schools : a challenge to educational theory?

There is an apparent lack of theoretically robust definitions of digitalization and digital transformation in educational research. This article purposes to contribute to educational research and practice by understanding digitalization and digital transformation through educational theory. The approach to the research problem was first to theoretically define digitalization and digital transformation in schools in terms of human learning and development. This perspective suggested that digitalization may be a requirement for digital transformation but not an enabler. Moreover, it suggests that digitalization and digital transformation in schools are always anchored to human learning and development. Secondly, the approach empirically tests this theoretical development via a quantitative questionnaire survey with seventeen Swedish school leaders. The data indicated the theoretical development seems to hold in school practice as well as conceptually. Limitations to the approach were discussed, and suggestions to future research of remote teaching in rural schools are given. In particular, future research is suggested to develop, contrast, and use the definition.lic