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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.