Leading learning through digitalization in Swedish schools: beyond school leaders?

Abstrakt

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.