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This edited collection presents a Nordic perspective on intensified discussions concerning digitalization and digital competence in the current trends of educational work. Using a multidisciplinary and holistic approach, the book compares Nordic countries’ attitudes toward the digitalization of education and demonstrates the Nordic region’s position as digital front-runners in a European and a global context. The book provides up-to-date cases and future-oriented perspectives on digitalization and digital competence in educational work. Chapters use empirical data gained from policy documents, interviews, and questionnaires to present nuanced discussions, theoretical perspectives, and implications for the future of digitalization in education. Ultimately, this book’s reach far exceeds that of its Nordic contexts and will be of use to postgraduate students, researchers, and scholars across the globe involved with digital education, teacher education, and educational policy and politics more broadly.

The aim of this study was to explore, analyse, and critically discuss conditions for Swedish ICT coordinators working on school digitalisation in a local municipal school context. More specifcally, the study draws on findings from interviews with 13 Swedish information and communication technology (ICT) coordinators working in eight municipalities that have adopted two contrasting approaches to school digitalisation. One is a general approach with a strong element of individual within-school accountability in the work, and the other a specifc approach in which such work is addressed more as an organisational process with involvement of municipal governing officials. Findings show that the two approaches set different conditions in terms of how and with whom the ICT coordinators work and the foci of their efforts although both are framed by the same national educational policy. A conclusion is that the ICT coordinators' role, function, and responsibility should be considered in parity to the level of support, in-school resources, and mandate given to them, not least when organisational instability and reorganisations hamper the work in progress.

Hardly any organization remains unaffected by the digitalization of society. Educational institutions are the pillars of modern society, and teaching has been described as the 'mother of all professions', as building the foundations for all professions. Therefore, teachers are part of shaping tomorrow's citizens and leaders, and the teacher's central role can hardly be exaggerated. At the same time, the development of society challenges traditional educational assumptions and puts traditional practices under pressure. Due to technological and pedagogical advancements, artificial intelligence, as well as virtual reality, has gained momentum in research and education. Digitalization contributes to writings in international, national, and local policy documents. The digitalization of society constitutes a significant force for redefining the role and function of curricula in education system. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.

Increasingly pervasive digital technologies in societies are placing complex demands on the development of young people’s digital citizenship and digital competence. Social science education and teacher education (TE) play important, but poorly understood, roles in this development. Through reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, this paper explores 15 Swedish teacher educators’ (TEDs) views of teaching for digital citizenship, particularly social science TE’s role. We also consider organisational and personal conditions that may influence TEDs’ views of professional digital competence (PDC) for such teaching. Their views are examined through a postdigital lens, with a focus on democratic implications in evolving socio-technical environments. The results indicate that TEDs acknowledge the importance of social science TE in teaching for digital citizenship, but find maintaining responsiveness to societal changes challenging. Challenges are also posed by the multidisciplinary character of social science education, including how personal trajectories shape TEDs’ views of their dual-didactic task of teaching to teach for digital citizenship. This paper contributes knowledge of how TEDs, as ‘street-level bureaucrats’ in social science TE, navigate between written and performed education policy in teaching for digital citizenship, with specific attention to the dynamic character of PDC in social science education.

This chapter explores the building of rural resilience with the influence of national school digitalization policy visible in local policy translations. Focusing on 36 Swedish rural municipalities, the chapter reflects on the ability of rural municipalities to respond and adapt to national school policy and change in a digital age. The findings show that local work on translating national school digitalization policy is a rather challenging endeavor for rural municipalities. The findings in four areas of policy activity of digital technology in school policy – (a) technology resources, (b) use of digital tools in the schools, (c) curriculum concerns, and (d) issues of organization and governance – make it possible to argue in favor of adaptability in rural municipalities in terms of resilience building. We conclude that rural municipal contexts need recognition for their national school digitalization policy work. Moreover, increased national clarity of the intended meaning and desirable outcome of local policy translations could better support the rural municipalities, including further development of strong rural resilience.

Research topic/aim: This abstract explores rural municipality contexts in Sweden and signs of rural resilience in local translation work on national policy on school digitalisation. The goal with this abstract is to contribute with knowledge about rural municipalities and their contextual capacity of responding and adapting to national school policy and change in a digital age. In the abstract, two research questions are addressed: (1) How do rural municipalities work with translating national school digitalisation policies into local and contextual actions? and (2) How can this work be understood from a rural resilience perspective?

Theoretical framework: The abstract uses a combined theoretical framework to explore signs of rural resilience building in the municipalities. This framework builds on (a) Selwyn’s (2018) areas of policy activity of digital technology in school policy - (1) technology resources, (2) use of digital tools in the schools, (3) curriculum concerns, and, (4) issues of organisation and governance as well as 8b) Roberts’ et al. (2017a; 2017b) central forms in resilience thinking – (1) multi-scalar resilience, (2) normative resilience and (3) integrated policy conceptions of resilience.

Methodology/research design: During August until December in 2021, data were in two steps collected from 36 out of 40 Swedish municipalities categorized by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions as C8 (rural, not large on tourism). First, short phone interviews with municipality key persons asking them to describe their work with three recent Swedish national school policies on digitalisation and digital competence. Second, via the key persons collecting any additional written local policy in terms of strategic and/or action-oriented plans for the work with school digitalisation and/or digital competence.

Expected results/findings: The findings in the proposed abstract makes it possible to argue in favour of the adaptability in Swedish rural municipalities in terms of resilience building. That rural municipality contexts need recognition in their national school digitalisation policy work, and that increased national clarity of both the intended meaning and desirable outcome of local policy translations could provide a more solid support for the rural municipalities - including further development of a strong rural resilience.

Relevance to Nordic educational research: This abstract is relevant due to the rural perspectives have been lacking in Nordic educational research concerned with aspects of local translation work on national school digitalisation policy. Moreover, and in opposite to the abstract proposed here, such research seldom highlights the contextual complexity of this policy work when addressing the various levels of policy, challenges of local mobilisation, and individual approaches to policy.

References:

Roberts, E., Anderson, B.A., Skerratt, S., & Farrington, J. (2017). A review of the rural-digital policy agenda from a community resilience perspective. Journal of Rural Studies, 54, 372-385.

Roberts, E., Beel, D., Philip, L., & Townsend, L. (2017). Rural resilience in a digital society: Editorial. Journal of Rural Studies, 54, 355-359.

Selwyn, N. (2018). Technology as a focus of education policy. In R. Papa and S. W. Armfield (Eds.), The Wiley Handbook of Educational Policy (pp. 457-477). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

This study is an exploration of the prerequisites in Swedish teacher education policy for teacher educators’ dual didactic task of developing student teachers’ professional digital competence to such a level that they are capable of developing K–12 pupils’ adequate digital competence. Data were collected from 20 Swedish teacher education institutions offering teacher education programs in which student teachers could earn the degree of Master of Arts in Primary Education for School Years 4–6. Overall, the data comprised national guidelines and curriculum regulations for teacher education in Sweden (e.g. the Swedish Higher Education Ordinance; N = 1), program syllabi at the selected teacher education institutions (N = 20), and course plans (for all 240 ECTS, 4-year full-time studies; N = 450), in total N = 471 policy documents. Signs of professional digital competence in policy were few, and most were found in the course plans for mathematics and natural sciences. In the discussion, findings are problematized in relation to the challenging role of teacher educators as second-order teachers seeking to fulfill their dual didactic task.

In a postdigital era, the conditions in Europe for digital citizenship further change as digital technologies pervade societal contexts to the degree where they have become embedded, a blur of relationships between the digital and the physical, the online and the offline, technology and social life (Jandrić et al., 2018), which changes how people interact as members of society (Burbidge et al., 2020). Consequently, digital citizenship is not limited to a ‘digital’ sphere but non-linear and interrelated with the material, being one among other integrated dimensions of citizenship (Choi, 2016), and this places new demands on teacher educators’ (TEDs) preparation of social studies teachers to address questions relating to digital citizenship in their teaching.

TEDs believe that digital citizenship is important to address in teacher education (TE), and some suggest that social studies TE is where such questions ought to be addressed (Örtegren, forthcoming). Some examples illustrating the importance of digital citizenship are digital civic engagement (Lindgren, 2017), partisanship amplified by social media (Hasen, 2020), and the role of artificial intelligence systems and algorithms in relation to citizenship (Burbidge et al., 2020). Digital citizenship has also been highlighted by the European Union, for instance in citizenship frameworks such as DigComp 2.1 (Carretero et al., 2017), and Sweden has established a commission (Government Directive 2018:88) targeting challenges to democracy in relation to digital technologies which includes educational efforts. 

TEDs have a key role in preparing student teachers for the fostering of democratic citizens (Raiker & Rautiainen, 2020), and in Sweden, social studies has a long history of addressing citizenship even if the fostering of democratic citizens concerns all school subjects (Sandahl, 2015). Currently, Sweden’s social studies curriculum for upper secondary school covers among others the use of digital technologies for democratic influence (cf. Swedish National Agency for Education, 2018), which reflects how ideals of digital citizenship are present in the Swedish curriculum (Christensen et al., 2021), and the curriculum is a key document for TEDs to consider when preparing social studies teachers. Therefore, teachers of social studies, and by extension TEDs in social studies TE, require professional digital competence, which are profession-based skills and knowledge of digital technologies in education (Lund et al., 2014) in relation to digital citizenship (Choi, 2016).

The aim of this paper is to examine Swedish teacher educators’ views of digital citizenship in social studies TE, and the related conditions for TEDs’ professional digital competence to teach teaching for digital citizenship. Previous research has identified a need for TEDs to support student teachers of social studies to develop their understanding of democracy, including implications of different conceptualizations of democracy in social studies for classroom practice (Eriksen, 2018). Similarly, research has shown that TEDs in social studies TE need policy support to develop professional digital competence necessary to fulfill their tasks (Miguel-Revilla et al., 2020). This echoes broader TE research which highlights the importance of continuous professional development in relation to professional digital competence (e.g., Lindfors et al., 2021). Thus, this paper addresses calls for more educational research on teaching for digital citizenship (Christensen et al., 2021) focusing specifically on social studies TE (Örtegren, forthcoming).

Method: In Sweden, subject TE prepares teachers for teaching pupils aged 13-19, which requires a Degree of Master (4 to 5.5 years of full-time study, 240-330 ECTS); program length depends on if the students choose the compulsory-school track or the upper-secondary school track. Six of 19 TE institutions in Sweden that prepare teachers of social studies participated, representing variation as to geography, age, and size. By means of purposive sampling, semi-structured interviews were conducted on Zoom at the beginning of the spring semester of 2022 with 14 TEDs, holding various positions, who taught social studies TE that included questions relating to citizenship. Based on prior research, the interviews covered areas such as digital citizenship and professional digital competence to teach for digital citizenship in relation to social studies TE. The manner was similar to in-depth interviewing with follow-up questions and probes, such as ‘What do you think could…?’. The interviews were recorded digitally and transcribed verbatim. Course documents specific to the area of social studies TE taught by the TEDs and the transcriptions were imported into NVivo Release 1.5.1, which was used for search queries, organizing, and coding the data. A Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun et al., 2019) was performed whereby the researcher generated themes. This process comprised iterative phases of close-reading and notetaking, coding, merging and grouping codes based on similarity, and subsequently the formation of subthemes and main themes. The analysis of dimensions of professional digital competence needed to teach teaching for digital citizenship drew theoretically from the Professional Digital Competence Framework developed for Norwegian TE (Kelentrić et al., 2017).

Expected Outcomes: Initial results indicate an agreement among TEDs that questions relating to digital citizenship need to be addressed in social studies TE. Important reasons include the impact on democracy by algorithms, disinformation, post-truth politics, and broadly challenges to democracy where digital technologies are used or facilitate such processes, for instance by extremist groups or authoritarian regimes. Echoing previous research on digital citizenship in Swedish subject TE (Örtegren, forthcoming), TEDs conceptualize digital citizenship in different ways, which the early analysis suggests are linked to the perceived type of impact on democracy linked to digital technologies. For example, an increase in disinformation necessitates a conceptualization of digital citizenship where important features include searching for information, assessing and comparing sources, and drawing conclusions based on available information. Similarly, these conceptualizations are linked to different dimensions of professional digital competence, and TEDs require professional development in this field. Combined, the span of conceptualizations and the subsequent professional digital competence required may impact TE equivalence in relation to how student teachers are prepared to teach for digital citizenship. This could impact not only the skills and knowledge that future K-12 pupils develop in social studies, but the way future teachers address questions relating to democratic work. Therefore, the early results highlighted by this paper indicate that TEDs need continuous professional development in digital citizenship, and it also echoes previous studies emphasizing the need for professional development in relevant dimensions of professional digital competence (e.g., Lindfors et al., 2021). Moreover, the paper highlights the role of TE policy to promote equivalence regarding digital citizenship in social studies TE, and in this regard, an important question is what conceptualizations such TE policy should promote. These early results could speak to other national contexts where digital citizenship similarly is highlighted as important, for instance in the European Union.