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This presentation will report from a pilot study using a novel quantitative instrument as a mean for findings of scientific relevance as well as of relevance for school development. The aim of the pilot study was to better understand school leadership in the midst of digitalization in school. The project was based on two theoretical positions for understanding leadership in the context of digitalization: Leadership behaviours according to Yukl (2013) and Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) according to Engeström, (2015). The essence of leadership in organizations is, according to Yukl (2013),“influencing and facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives”. Leaders can improve the performance of a team or organization by influencing the processes that determine performance.

Background: The Swedish government has commissioned a national pilot project to test sustainable collaboration models between academia and the school or school system regarding research, school activities and teacher education for the period 2017 to 2021 (ulfavtal.se). Expectations are to contribute to the research base of the school system, and to conduct research build on equal terms between researchers and schools. In Sweden there is an explicit expectation in the Education Act, that education is to “rest on a scientific grounds and proven experience” (Section 5). This means that teachers and school leaders are to base the exercise of their profession on research and that school development is to be permeated by a scientific approach. Along this argument, a need to develop sustainable collaboration models between the school system and academia resting on common grounds is formulated as a goal of the pilot project. Similar collaborative approaches between practice and academa are adopted in many European countreis. This means embracing a dimension of development work into the approach to research.

The idea of forming collaborations between schools and academia to improve the quality of the educational practice is not new internationally. There is a growing body of initiatives with the aim to connect school improvement with external actors such as universities through networks and collaborative partnerships of different kinds (Chapman et al., 2016). Research shows how this may lead to meaningful changes in the teaching and learning processes in schools (Ainscow, 2012). Literature on initial teacher education, professional development for teachers, and educational research, also acknowledges how school–academia partnerships are powerful collaborations that can result in improved practice and results for students (Day & Smethem, 2010). However, only a limited amount of research tries to understand how such partnerships and collaboration forms stem from strategic leadership (e.g., Murphy, 2017).

In this paper we address the issue of better understanding how such collaborations can be built on strategic decisions about content for collaboration, when it comes to digitalization in schools.  

Digitalization and school leadership: As discussed by Olofsson et al. (2015), school leaders often experience digitalization processes as “challenging and difficult” (p. 117). Chua Reyes (2015) showed that school leaders experience that their role has changed “from leading a team of teachers who have been deliverers of knowledge towards leading a team of teacher facilitators” (2015, p. 378). In Sweden, research on school leadership is rather limited (Ärlestig et al., 2016). Studies at hand argues that leadership is important for implementation of digital visions and reforms (Petersen, 2014). Moreover, that school leaders’ professional development is needed to effectively lead for digitalization in school (cf. Håkansson-Lindqvist & Pettersson, 2019; Pettersson, 2018). In 2012, the Swedish School Inspectorate (Lund, 2012) pointed out that school leaders do not actively lead, and support digitalization and that more knowledge is needed for leading digitalization in school.

Method: The quantitative instrument is based on two constructs (1) notions of leadership (based on the survey developed by Yukl, 2013); and (2) levels of expansive learning with digital technology (based on the theoretical foundations found in Engeström, 2015). The first construct is measured in four meta-categories: Task-oriented behaviours, Relations-oriented behaviours, Change-oriented behaviours, and External leadership behaviours. The four meta-categories consist of a total of 17 specific component behaviours, such as Clarifying, Supporting, Advocating change and External monitoring. In total, this part of the survey consists of 49 questions, all modified to address the current state of leadership at the respondent workplace. The second construct is measured in 18 questions related to three levels 1) how respondents use digital technologies in their daily work, 2) how the use has changed the daily practice, and 3) how the use has changed the way they work, communicate, and operate in the entire organization. The questions concern to what degree the use of digital technologies has developed new ways of organising and talking about daily practice. Item are designed as fixed-response format (Wilson, 2005) and responses are on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (not relevant) to 5 (absolutely essential). A series of background questions of relevance for the different constructs are also asked. The instrument is available online and will be administered as an online self-administered questionnaire. In this pilot study, the survey was distributed to all school leaders in one municipality in the northern Sweden (N = 44 with a response rate of 90 %). As can be seen, the total number of school leaders in municipalities in this region is low, but the tests have been made covering the total number of respondents possible. As such, awareness of this challenge is kept in mind in terms of analysis and inferences possible by use of the data.

Expected Outcomes: The possibilities for the results of the survey to be used as a basis for school development is discussed, as is the possibilities for the approach to be a way of conducting research, and thus also development work of relevance for school practice with the outspoken intention to improve the quality of the educational practice. Even if the data at the moment is not fully analyzed yet, there are some interesting trends in the material. For instance, due to the participant school leaders, Task-oriented and Relations-oriented leadership behaviours are more important than Change-oriented behaviours, when it comes to leading digitalization in school. There are also some interesting discrepancies between what is judged as important for their school organisations on one hand, and what is important in their leadership on the other. These trends seem to be of importance for strategic decisions about content for continous collaboration, and thereby for school development when it comes to digitalization in school. For the approach to be a collaboration form that provide genuine possibilities for research to be the scientific ground that educational quality should rest on, as is intended in the education act, there are a number of possibilities as well as challenges such as the inconsistency of the educational practice as such and the contextual boundaries of knowledge of what works and improve the quality of practice.

This feature describes an ongoing research project on remote teaching in the rural north of Sweden. Remote teaching is a form of teaching in which the teacher and students are separated in space but not in time, and students are accompanied by a designated supervisor at their location. The project is conducted within the framework of the national initiative Development, Learning, Research (DLR) to try out sustainable collaboration models between academia and school practice. At Umeå University, this relation has been described as complementary and symmetrical: complementary in the sense that each part brings unique competencies into the work, and symmetrical in the sense that each part is valued as equal in the work, which allows for a dimension of development work into the research approach. The feature elaborates on opportunities and challenges in conducting complementary and symmetrical research, seeking to promote knowledge built on collaboration between academia and school practice.

This paper deals with an ongoing digitalisation process in Swedish police education seen from a teacher perspective. It is based on a one-year study conducted at a police education unit, which has undergone major changes as a result of the implementation of new technology-rich environments. The study is focused on teachers' use of digital technology and their perceptions of its value for teaching, student learning and education quality. In order to describe and analyse the teachers' perceptions of these aspects and whether they changed during a one-year period, data was collected using questionnaires administered in two stages, one 3 months after the implementation and the other after 15 months. The results obtained from the questionnaires show low use of the technology by the teachers, low estimated value for teaching and student learning, and only marginal changes in teacher perceptions during the period. The results indicate that teachers' use of digital technology is highly dependent on the equipment functioning properly, the quality and complexity of the technology, and its ability to support teachers' educational needs. The results are discussed and problematised in the conclusions section of the paper.

Pedagogiska institutionen vid Umeå universitet har sedan 2016 två pedagogiska ledare som ansvararför att stötta institutionens utbildningsuppdrag, en pedagogisk ledare ansvarar för utbildningarnainom samhällsvetenskaplig fakultet och den andre för utbildningar inom lärarutbildningarna.

I Pedagogiska ledarens (PL) uppdrag ingår att vara ett strategiskt och operativt stöd för institutionensutbildningsverksamhet på grund- och avancerad nivå. Institutionen har gjort en poäng av att särskiljade personer som är pedagogiska ledare från studierektorerna, det finns goda skäl att de som agerarstöd till lärarna inte är samma person som är ens närmsta chef. Som man kan se iorganisationsschemat så arbetar vi dock tätt ihop med institutionens två studierektorer. Samarbetetmed studierektorerna utgör bland annat stöd vid kompetensväxling, bemanning, budgetarbete,verksamhetsplaner, kompetenskriterier samt inventering av kompetensbehov (Alvesson &Sveningsson, 2014).

PL genomför och anordnar även fortbildningsinsatser för kollegor på institutionen. Dessa fortbildningar har exempelvis handlat om quiz som examinationsform, formativ bedömning, kollegialhandledning samt flipped classroom. Vi verkar även som stöd till kursansvariga lärare samt övriga lärare utifrån de behov och önskemål som dessa personer har, kan exempelvis handla om frågor som rör examinationsuppgifter, kursplanearbete och undervisningsupplägg. Vi arbetar även kontinuerligt med att ta fram stödmaterial till lärarna, bland annat en så kallad ”Handbok för lärare” som innehåller rutinbeskrivningar, regler och tips. Men vi tar även fram annat stödmaterial som exempelvis kursplanemallar, inspelat material samt stöddokument till kursansvariga lärare.

Vi har nyligen infört veckovisa fredagsmöten tillsammans med Biträdande prefekt med ansvar förutbildningsfrågor samt IT-pedagogerna för att kontinuerligt planera samt stämma av utbildningsfrågor. Vi arbetar även tätt tillsammans med institutionens TA-personal (främst IT-pedagogerna), vi har bland annat en pågående satsning för att höja personalens Pedagogiska digitala kompetens (PDK). I detta samarbete är det vi som PL som sätter de pedagogiska målen samt en plan för att nå dit, medan IT-pedagogerna finns med som stöd för att genomföra särskilda aktiviteter/fortbildningar. Pedagogiska ledarna fungerar även som en länk mellan lärare och studierektorer/prefekt vad gällermöjligheter och utmaningar inom utbildningsområdet. Det kan handla om såväl strategiska somoperativa frågor som bland annat berör resurstilldelning, kompetensbehov och möjligheter till olikaformer av stöd till lärarna (Northouse, 2018). Inför starten av höstterminen 2018 så planerar vi nu innehåll till institutionens personaldagar i augusti.

Våra erfarenheter efter två år som pedagogiska ledare är mycket goda. Lärarna verkar särskiltuppskatta att ha personer som dom vet att man kan vända sig till vid olika frågor och utmaningar,samt en funktion som tar till vara på deras önskemål och har en röst i ledningsgruppen. Syftet medpresentationen är att visa och ge praktiska exempel på hur pedagogiska ledare kan bidra till att skapaen länk mellan ledning och medarbetare, utan formellt personalansvar. Ytterligare ett syfte är attvisa ett alternativt sätt att verka som pedagogiska konsulter åt lärarkollegor i rollen som pedagogiskaledare. Följande frågeställningar kommer att diskuteras under presentationen.

•  Hur kan pedagogiska ledare vara ett stöd för ledningen?
• Hur kan pedagogiska ledare vara ett stöd för kollegor?
• Hur kan pedagogiska ledare initiera och driva pedagogiskt utvecklingsarbete?

Bilaga 1: Delegationsordningens definition av uppdragetPedagogisk ledare utses av prefekt. I uppdraget ingår att:

• initiera och driva pedagogiskt utvecklingsarbete
•  ansvara för institutionens övergripande kursplanearbete
• arbeta med utbildningsstrategi, aktivitetsplan och tillämpliga delar av verksamhetsplaner ochverksamhetsberättelser
• säkerställa att institutionens utbildningsuppdrag utgår från Umeå universitetskvalitetssystem
• bistå Studierektorer vid upphandling av interna och externa utbildningsuppdrag
• arbeta med kursuppföljnings- och kursutvecklingsarbete tillsammans med Kursansvariga ansvara för och leda regelbundna lärarträffar delta i utbildningsutskottet
• föredra kursplaner och andra ärenden i utbildningsutskottet

Referenser

Northouse P.G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and Practice. 8. ed. Sage Publications Ltd: LondonAlvesson M & Sveningsson S. (2014). Förändringsarbete i organisationer: om att utveckla företagskulturer. 2.,[uppdaterade] uppl. Stockholm: Liber

Denna presentation handlar om ett utvecklingsprojekt som genomförts i en campusbaseradprogramkurs vid pedagogiska institutionen, Umeå universitet. En ny kursdesign baserad på flippedclassroom och peer-review implementerades ht 2015, med syftet att öka studenternas aktivitet ochfördjupa deras lärande. Arbetet enligt flipped classroom (jmf. McLaughlin et al., 2014; O’Flaherty &Phillips, 2015) innebar att föreläsningar ersattes med workshops och att studenterna förväntadeskomma förberedda till dessa genom att ta del av nätbaserade inslag som exempelvis inspeladeföreläsningar, öppna lärresurser samt vetenskapliga artiklar som gjordes tillgängliga påkursplattformen. Under workshopsen bearbetades innehållet gruppvis tillsammans med lärare medstöd av digitala quiz, tillämpningsövningar och caseuppgifter. Vidare användes peer-review (jmf.Nicol, Thomson & Breslin, 2014) med syfte att utveckla studenternas förmågor att utifrån angivnabedömningskriterier kritiskt granska varandras texter. Studenternas preliminära tentamenstexterfördelades digitalt på plattformen och granskades därefter enligt ett gängse oppositionsförfarande.Den sammantagna bedömningen, som baseras på kursutvärderingar, skriftliga studentreflektionersamt inloggningsstatistik från lärplattformen, är att målsättningen avseende högre studentaktivitetsamt fördjupat lärande har uppfyllts. Flipped classroom med dess digitala lärresurser (filmer, quiz,etc) bidrog till att studenterna var väl förberedda inför workshops, vilket resulterade i högrestudentaktivitet, högre kvalitet på studenternas diskussioner samt ökad fysisk närvaro, jämfört medtidigare kursdesign. Peer-review bidrog till att kvaliteten på studenternas texter förbättrades, vilketäven gav betygsmässiga förbättringar. Vår bedömning bekräftas även av studentutvärderingar, vilkavisar att det teknikstödda upplägget anses ha främjat deras lärande. I synnerhet pekar de påbetydelsen av den interaktion med såväl medstudenter som lärare som möjliggjorts iworkshopformen samt det stöd som peer-review utgjorde vid deras produktion av egna texter.Sammantaget kan vi konstatera att denna teknikstödda kursdesign bidragit till en effektivisering avkontakttiden med studenterna, ökad kännedom om deras lärprocesser samt ett fördjupat lärande,vilket visade sig i högre kvalitet på studenternas prestationer. De lärdomar vi tar med oss berörstudent- och lärarrollen och hur dessa påverkades när en alternativ arbetsordning och arbetsdelninginfördes. Sett ur ett studentperspektiv är vår bedömning att denna design kräver hög grad avansvarstagande och självständighet, vilket inte tycktes stämma överens med alla studentersuppfattningar om vad som kan förväntas av dem i universitetsstudier. En första lärdom är därförbetydelsen av kontinuerliga samtal om vilka förväntningar som kan ställas på studenter och lärare. Enandra lärdom är insikten om att attitydförändringar kräver tid och reflektion och att studenterbehöver ett aktivt och långsiktigt lärarstöd för att kunna utveckla förmågor som främjar ettinteraktivt och fördjupat lärande. Från ett lärarperspektiv är vår slutsats att digitala lärresurser tillstor del kan ersätta läraren som traditionell förmedlare av kunskaper. En sådan förändring skaparutrymme för utökad interaktion med studenterna, vilket kan ge läraren viktig kännedom om deraslärprocesser. Förändringen innebär dock att lärare behöver utveckla andra förmågor, som att designaoch organisera för lärande samt att i konkreta lärsituationer aktivt handleda och underlätta förstudenternas lärande. En tredje lärdom är därför betydelsen av kontinuerlig reflektion tillsammansmed studenterna över både förändrade student- och lärarroller samt designens begränsningar ochmöjligheter ur ett lärandeperspektiv.

In focus in this paper are students’ views on their experiences of an educational design with oral assessment tasks supported by video technology in online university education in Sweden. Questions targeted how the students perceived the impact of oral tasks on their learning. The data were gathered through questionnaires, qualitative interviews and students’ self-reflection documents. Results indicate most students appreciated the oral assessments, and their descriptions of this learning experience indicate that the studied video-based task-design may enhance online students’ learning experiences.

Introduction: In the last ten years higher education in Sweden has undergone major changes related to two specific parallel processes. First a process of digitalization, secondly an academisation process of what has previously been regarded as mainly vocational programmes for professions being delivered by other institutions than the universities. Examples of these are police education (Sjöberg, 2016) and fire-fighter training (Holmgren, 2015). The competence of the educators responsible for such programmes as well as the particular educational context for providing the courses are being re-defined. Central in this paper is the concept of Pedagogical Digital Competence (PDC) (Hall & From, 2013). PDC relates to the ability of teachers to plan and conduct, and continuously evaluate and revise, Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-supported training, based on theory, current research and proven experience in practice. PDC includes both practical (know-how) and conceptual (know-why) knowledge. During fall 2016, intensive organizational preparations as well as training of police teachers took place at the university in question with the purpose of being able to teach police students at a distance in spring of 2017. Important here was a course intended to develop the police educators´ PDC in order to make the move to a distance context and the ability to design distance courses. The course included learning theories and digital tools as well as in-practice training to increase the police teachers’ knowledge and skills in the tools and implement them in their teaching in practice. The attention in this paper is directed towards the PDC needed to be developed by police teachers in the context of the newly re-designed distance-based Swedish police education.

Aim: The aim of this paper is to present a study of the police teachers self-rated abilities according to the model of PDC before and after a professional development course in ICT in education.

Data and research design: Data consists of 21 police teachers who before and after the course made a self-evaluation of their PDC. The survey used consisted of three background questions and 28 statements with likert-scale answers. The statements corresponded to the police teachers’ self-evaluated knowledge in the domains of the so called Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model as it was developed by Mishra & Koehler (2006, 2008). The paper also uses data from the course evaluations.

Context: The plan for the PDC course was based on course development parallel with the police teachers gaining knowledge in new digital tools. During the course different digital tools were used to provide the teachers with ideas and they had the opportunity to work hands on with digital tools. Each course meeting included guest lectures providing good examples and best practice regarding the use of digital tools in the teaching practice. All in all the course consisted of five meetings.

Conclusions: Tentative conclusions from the data shows that following the TPACK model the teachers on average was strongest on their content knowledge (CK) followed by their pedagogical knowledge (PK). On average they were weakest on the four knowledge domains related to technology. After they had finished the course their knowledge in these domains had moved and changed so that they now were stronger than before.