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'We have- we had a digital debt': a case of digitalized school leadership practice
Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Education.
2024 (English)In: Learning, Media & Technology, ISSN 1743-9884, E-ISSN 1743-9892Article in journal (Other academic) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

The article adopts a critical approach regarding the political ambition of educational technologies (edtech) in schools. The focus of the article is to understand how school digitalization policy works on people in schools through meaning-making objects for thinking and acting towards digitalization in schools. A case of Swedish principals working with digitalization in schools was investigated in their municipal context of school development, where they were guided by a policy instrument of the Swedish National Agency for Education. Policy documents, from the agency’s instrument, transcribed interviews with principals, and principals ‘development plans’ (local policy), were analyzed with a focus on what objects seem to guide the thinking and actions of the principals. Specifically, the focus of the analysis regards what meaning digitalization school policy may be conveying to principals in schools, what meanings they attribute to edtech, and how they orient their and teachers’ work towards objects of digitalization in schools.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2024.
Keywords [en]
School leadership, education policy, digitalization in schools, activity theory, critical analysis
National Category
Pedagogy
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-215472DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2023.2301099ISI: 001136193100001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85181512427OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-215472DiVA, id: diva2:1806007
Note

Originally included in thesis in manuscript form. 

Available from: 2023-10-19 Created: 2023-10-19 Last updated: 2025-04-24
In thesis
1. Leading learning through digitalization in Swedish schools: beyond school leaders?
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Leading learning through digitalization in Swedish schools: beyond school leaders?
2023 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Alternative title[sv]
Leda lärande genom digitalisering i svenska skolor : bortom skolledare?
Abstract [en]

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.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Umeå: Umeå universitet, 2023. p. 77
Series
Akademiska avhandlingar vid Pedagogiska institutionen, Umeå universitet, ISSN 0281-6768 ; 132
Keywords
Leading, learning, digitalization in schools, cultural-historical activity theory, critical studies, education
National Category
Pedagogy
Research subject
education
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-215336 (URN)9789180702065 (ISBN)9789180702072 (ISBN)
Public defence
2023-11-17, ULED Triple Helix, Umeå, 10:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Projects
Adekvat digital kompetens för skolledare
Available from: 2023-10-27 Created: 2023-10-18 Last updated: 2023-10-20Bibliographically approved

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Siljebo, Josef

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