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Research topic/aim: This study situates teacher education within contemporary Swedish society, permeated by generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, including complex algorithmic (dis)information streams and deepfakes (Örtegren & Olofsson, 2024). The study explores how institutional leaders, primarily deans and directors with strategic responsibilities at 20 Swedish teacher education institutions, perceive and respond to generative AI within their institutions, and how they understand their role in creating conditions enabling teacher educators and student teachers to use generative AI in reflective, critical, and ethical ways.  

Theoretical framework: This study adopts a postdigital lens. This lens suggests a shift from earlier views of digital technology (e.g., generative AI) as something exclusive and object-like toward a contemporary understanding of it as deeply integrated into society’s cultural and educational practices. It positions the institutional leaders within a broader understanding of the socio-technical systems in which teacher education is constituted (Knox, 2019, p. 368). 

Methodology/research design: In this national qualitative study, institutional leaders from all Swedish teacher education institutions offering programmes for school years 4–6 (N = 20) were interviewed using a semi-structured format. The participants were identified through their representation in the national body for teacher education, the Teacher Education Convent (in Swedish, Lärarutbildningskonventet). The interviews were conducted between May and August 2025, guided by one theme on “AI in teacher education now and in the future – from a leadership perspective”. A thematic analysis was carried out following Braun and Clarke’s (2019). 

Expected results/findings: The analysis revealed five main themes reflecting how institutional leaders perceive and respond to generative AI in teacher education as well as how they understand their role in creating conditions to use generative AI in reflective, critical, and ethical ways. The main themes were: (1) Organisational culture, policy and capacity for change, (2) Assessment and examination practices, (3) Professional digital competence and generative AI literacy, (4) Responsibility, democracy, and value systems, and (5) Ethics, data, and the limitations and risks of generative AI. The results underscore the central role of leadership in shaping institutional conditions that support critical, ethical, and pedagogically sound applications of generative AI in teacher education.  

Relevance to Nordic educational research: This Swedish study provides the Nordic research community with new and empirically grounded insights into how institutional leadership in postdigital teacher education engages with digitalisation and generative AI. It also offers opportunities for comparative reflection on organisational structures, leadership practices, and ethical considerations in teacher education institutions across the Nordic countries. 

References:

Braun, V., Clarke, V., Hayfield, N., & Terry, G. (2019). Thematic analysis. In P. Liamputtong (Ed.), Handbook of research methods in health social sciences (pp. 843–860). Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.   

Knox, J. (2019). What does the ‘postdigital’ mean for education? Three critical perspectives on the digital, with implications for educational research and practice. Postdigital Science and Education, 1(2), 357–370.  

Örtegren, A., & Olofsson, A.D. (2024). Pathways to professional digital competence to teach for digital citizenship: Social science teacher education in flux. Teachers and Teaching, 30(4), 526–544.

This study explores the outcome of a teacher workshop as part of a larger longitudinal study on a school designed as an innovative learning environment. All teachers were invited to participate in a workshop aimed to equip them with vocabulary for planning lessons grounded in the notion of student-centred learning (SCL) practices (Bremner, 2020). The purpose was to 1) explore teachers’ understanding of how to plan for and deliver SCL practices and 2) measure the impact of the workshop pertaining to expansive learning of SCL practices.​ 

Several theories were employed throughout the study to support various phases. The CHAT theoretical framework provided a scaffold for the workshop’s structure as a formative intervention, including double stimulation and addressing how the concept of SCL evolves within the school, thus facilitating expansive learning (Engeström & Sannino, 2010). During the workshop, Bremner’s (2020) synthesis of SCL research into six categories was used as conceptualization for the second stimuli (Engeström & Sannino, 2010) to mirror the teachers’ understanding of student-centred learning practices. The six categories are: student autonomy, formative assessment, adapting to learner needs, relevant skills, power sharing, and active participation (Bremner, 2020). Bernstein’s (2000) theory of classification and framing pertaining to distribution of power and control in the classroom formed a basis for coding the classroom practices. This theory has been further developed to categorize practices into the TTPC framework (Bergström & Wiklund-Engblom, 2022; Bergström et al., under review). 

A mixed methods research approach of exploratory sequential design was employed (Cresswell & Plano Clark, 2018), in which multiple types of qualitative data (observational data and audio recorded group discussions) and quantitative data (questionnaires and evaluations) were collected at several phases (during workshop and during and after the planned lecture). Hence, the data collection​ was carried out in two phases: 1) during the workshop on student-centred learning (SCL) practices​ and 2) during and after the delivery of the planned SCL lecture​.  

The planned lessons will be observed during November 2024. The analysis will be carried out thereafter, and results will be finalized for the conference presentation.  

This study explores teaching practices in an Innovative Learning Environment (ILE) with the attempt to examine the student-centred ideal emphasised in these kinds of postdigital classrooms. Rather than treating student-centredness as a self-evident pedagogical aim, we explore it through entanglements of human and non-human actors in one lesson analysed iteratively using explanatory sequential research design. Building on Bernstein’s concepts of classification and framing, the first step of analysis investigated how power and control were negotiated within the ILE classroom, where spatial and material flexibility challenged traditional practices. Thereafter, a sociomaterial analysis targeted how humans and material intra-acted attributing agency in shaping postdigital classroom entanglements. The findings show how social, spatial, and material boundaries shape power dynamics and agency. It emphasises the complex, shifting interplay of teacher-student roles in postdigital pedagogy advocating a pragmatic rather than idealised student-centred use of ILEs. Spatial competence involves understanding how boundaries—whether physical or symbolic—can empower or exclude. Teachers play a key role in scaffolding students towards spatial co-regulation, enabling autonomy and response-ability. By extending sociomaterial and postdigital perspectives, the study reveals how agency and authority develop within ILE classrooms, including ongoing safety concerns. The study contributes to discussions on the implications of ILEs for power relations, agency, and student-centred learning in the postdigital era.

The present study explores teaching practices and how teachers navigate the transition to Innovative Learning Environments (ILEs), focusing on the interplay between the physical learning environment and teachers’ practices. The study is situated within a Swedish municipality that embarked on the construction of a new school designed as an ILE. The theoretical foundation of this study relies on the Typology of Teacher Power and Control (TTPC), an analytical tool based on Bernstein’s (2000) theory, offering perspectives on power and control dynamics in the classroom. The study integrates convergent mixed methods, combining classroom observations and retrospective teacher interviews, providing both objective and subjective insights into teachers’ practices. The analysis reveals varied teaching practices in ILEs. Classroom data show teachers clustering based on power and control distribution. Communication patterns reveal distinct teaching practices: Cluster I, identified as the authoritarian mitigator, is teacher-centred, Cluster II, the conservative explorer, exhibits mixed control, Cluster III, the empowering coach, emphasises student autonomy with teacher support, and Cluster IV, the flexible facilitator, promotes broad student empowerment. Interview insights corroborate these findings. The findings may interest researchers investigating teachers’ transition to ILEs and support professional development in teacher education and municipal ILE planning.

This paper is part of a four-year longitudinal research project on teachers played out practice in innovative learning environments (ILEs). This paper reports on findings from the first year of data collection by focusing on the analysis of classroom observation data and teacher interviews. The aim is to examine and unpack emergent and varying practices in the ILE based on two dimensions of teachers’ organisation of the classroom space and communication in practice. A convergent mixed methods study and analysis was conducted. In the ILE school, one teacher from each grade (K-9) was observed and interviewed. Observational data and interview data was analysed in different steps aiming for an integrated analysis in which conclusions are drawn based on a broader explanation of the variations found in the emergent teacher practice. A theoretical informed analysis was conducted on 10 classroom observations by using the Typology of Teacher Power and Control (TTPC). The analysis identifies six teaching practices that reflect student-centred learning, characterized by increased student power and control, and are visually represented in the TTPC-matrix to visualise teachers’ emergent practices. Through thematic analysis of interview data, anticipated findings include themes related to the physical learning environment, teacher communication, and connections between teacher beliefs and their implemented practices, allowing for an integrative understanding of these dynamics.

The substudy presented is part of a longitudinal project investigating student-centred learning practices in a new school built as an innovative learning environment (ILE). This paper describes results on teachers’ experiences based on a compiled teacher questionnaire generating both quantitative and qualitative data. The teacher questionnaire includes items on the following topics: shared values, value consonance, collective teacher efficacy, perceived collegial support, autonomy, belonging, job satisfaction, work engagement, psychological safety in teamwork, resilience, and teachers’ relational competence. All teachers (N=56) in the school subjected to study participated and data has been collected at two times at this point (2023 and 2024). Preliminary findings show, e.g., that teachers’ relational competence correlated positively with student experiences of teacher support. Further, we expect to find team differences that can explain the variation of teaching practices, which characterize each of the teaching trajectory display clusters found in Part 1 (see Bergström et al., EARLI 2025 abstract), which will further be explored in relation to students’ experiences in Part III (see Lindfors et al., EARLI 2025 abstract) in accordance with the convergent mixed methods research design of the longitudinal study. The emergent teaching practice will be scrutinised and correlated to other data sets in integrated analyses, e.g., using teacher interview and questionnaire data, student questionnaire data, teacher team workshop data and further longitudinal observational data. The different types of data and findings will be merged in several phases of analyses, in order to gain a broader understanding of student-centred learning practices in ILEs.

This substudy (Part III) is part of a longitudinal project investigating student-centred learning practices in a newly established Innovative Learning Environment (ILE) in Sweden. It is connected to two other abstracts submitted to EARLI 2025, which present different data collections and analyses as part of a mixed methods research approach. This paper focuses on students' perceptions and experiences within the ILE derived from questionnaire data regarding their transition from traditional classrooms to more student-centred learning environments. The study is expected to reveal a meaningful link between students’ perceptions of the ILE and their academic well-being, with anticipated differences across grade levels. The combined results will likely illustrate how teaching practices and student engagement interact to foster student-centred learning in ILEs. This research enhances our understanding of how ILEs can be designed to truly support student-centred learning, with practical implications for creating spaces that encourage active student involvement. Insights from this substudy will be discussed alongside findings from Parts I and II, which examine teachers' practices and perspectives, offering a holistic view of the interactions and dynamics within ILEs.

The paper outlines an ongoing longitudinal study (2018-2026) in a Swedish municipality, examining the relationship between the physical learning environment and teaching practices within an Innovative Learning Environment (ILE). Emphasizing student-centred learning, it acknowledges the complexity of translating physical design features into effective teaching practices. The study employs the Typology of Teacher Power and Control (TTPC) as a theoretical framework and a convergent mixed-method design to collect various data types, including classroom audio, teacher interviews, and questionnaires. The analysis demonstrates two distinct clusters of student-centred learning practices, differentiated by how symbolic power and control are either retained by the teacher or dislocated to the students. 

An increasing number of K–12 students are being offered distance and remote teaching alternatives. As digital technology enables education to reach greater physical distances, to more students, and evolve into various instructional forms, it raises questions about the consistency between different distance and remote teaching modalities in terms of student learning experiences and the role of instructors. In this study, students’ perceptions of the psychosocial environment are analyzed using transactional distance (TD) as a theoretical lens to understand their perceptions of closeness and/or distance in a remote teaching and learning environment. Qualitative and quantitative (descriptive) data were collected using a survey based on What Is Happening In this Class (WIHIC) and the Learning Climate Questionnaire (LCQ). The data represent 271 students (73% response rate) from 25 schools and 44 classrooms. Results show that aspects of TD vary between the learning environments, leading to various design issues for distance and remote teachers to consider. A prominent contribution is that challenges faced in the field of distance education are not solely technical in nature. While students’ evaluations of technology may be quite similar, it is the interaction and perceived accessibility in the learning environment that significantly influence the learning experience. Based on the results, it is also concluded that survey could be used to strategically evaluate TD with the potential to develop remote teaching and learning practices in schools.

Teachers in three schools in a community in the northern part of Sweden tested prototype classrooms designed as innovative learning environments. This was an introductory step before merging the schools into one new school building, whose architecture was “new, innovative, modern, and flexible”. Our study spans six years of following this process with regard to how the aimed concept of student-centred learning develops during this time. The results presented here are based on data from the prephase, while the teachers explored the prototype classrooms to learn how these facilities created new preconditions, but also for preparing students for the move. The mixed data consist of both audio recordings of nine teachers during classes and retrospective interviews with the same teachers.

The analysis is based on our theory-driven framework, the Typology of Teacher Power and Control (TTPC) (Bergström & Wiklund-Engblom, 2022), derived from Bernstein’s (2000) theory of power and control. In TTPC, Bernstein’s concept of framing is interpreted as teacher’s use of control in communicative practice, while the concept of classification represents teacher’s power distribution regarding classroom organisation. Each of the two dimensions include several subcategories, which are our evaluative tool to identify variation of emerging teaching practices. 

In the first analysis, three clusters of teacher practice emerged, ranging from teacher-centred teaching to student-centred learning. These clusters were used in an integrated analysis with interview data, thematically analysed, to illuminate how teachers themselves reasoned. These results show differences in beliefs about power and control distribution in the classroom. The cluster of increased student-centredness had dialogical and relational approaches and beliefs, in contrast to the teacher-centred cluster, which discussed their choices in their practice in relation to controlling students and student behaviour in the environment.