Being the first university in the world to provide doctoral program in Work-integrated Learning (WIL), we face the challenge of how to integrate doctoral courses into the WIL philosophy, which is the profile of the University West, Sweden. To exemplify what we mean by such a notion of integration, we introduce and demonstrate our proposed ontological approach to integrate a PhDcourse into the fundamental concepts underpinning WIL. The WIL within the context of informatics research (which is a subfield of the IS discipline) playsfive different roles of (1) the main course content, (2) the target occupation ofthe students and occupational field of the teachers, (3) the analytical perspective of the research activities in the course, (4) the educational method where teachers and students conduct collaborative research activities as a cognitive apprenticeship learning model, and (5) a co-authored research paper as outcome.The outcomes of such a conducted approach and lessons learned from the course will be thoroughly described. In the course, a meta-analysis of WIL informatics research will be performed to examine four dimensions which are: theories relevant for WIL; methods used in WIL research; occupational fields in WIL informatics studies; and roles of technology in WIL research. The course is arranged in the these phases: Local investigation; locally rooted research within the informatics field is examined by the course participants in dialogue with the authors of a number of published articles in order to see the extent and the how aspects of these identified WIL-oriented research work; Local synthesis; both teachers and the PhD students (i.e., course participants) explore the results and synthesize a local WIL-model; Global overview; a number of related international literature is selected and studied; Global synthesis; The local WIL model is compared to the global investigation. Co-authoring; a research paper is co-authored by the course participants and presented at a conference. By doing so, we enhance our understandings and thus contribute to one additional practical application of WIL's pedagogical philosophy, which influences the course content, the course format, the activities, the teaching-learning model,and the outcome of the course.

Genomströmning är ett begrepp som ofta används för att mäta hur lönsam en kursär för lärosätet. Det ger ett ekonomiskt mått på en kurs. Det är också ett mått på kvaliteten i studenternas arbeten. Ju bättre kvalitet och måluppfyllelse en inlämningsuppgift har desto större sannolikhet för ett godkänt betyg. Samtidigt kan det också ge en indikation på huruvida innehållet är svårt att ta till sig eller om kursmål är svåra att uppnå. Kursen Integritet och demokrati i Digitala Media vid Mediaavdelningen, Högskolan väst, har under flera år kämpat med relativt lågt antal godkända examinationsuppgifter vid första examinationstillfälle. Problemet diskuterades i lärarlaget och för att åtgärda problemet bestämde lärarna sig för att lämna feedback till studenterna i ett tidigare skede av kursen, med ett tydlig fokus på vad som behövde förbättras för att bli godkänd. Åtgärden resulterade i en ökad genomströmning och i denna text diskuteras vikten av att ge feedback i tid. Metoden för iterativ feedback ser vi också kan användas vid utbildningstillfällen där arbetsintegrerat lärande är ett kursmål.

Active Learning Classroom (ALC) has been introduced in many universities designed to promote active, student-centered learning to facilitate new teaching and learning situations. However, it is well known that technology per se do not create new teaching practices. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of technology in instructional design created for an active learning classroom. We explore a case of instructional design in an ALC, within the context of a university in Sweden and students at a bachelor's degree program in informatics. An action oriented research approach was applied. Data includes; engaged classroom observations; a student survey; and teachers’ interviews. The results show that technology came to play an important role in the instructional design in terms of affecting the engagement and pace in the teaching situation. Contributions includes unpacking how the functionality of technology can affect the teaching situation in a technology intense ALC environment as well as instructional design suggestions created for a ALC and that is considered fruitful by students and teachers.

Research often defines Work-integrated Learning (WIL) as an educational approach that provides students with work-based experiences. In this article, we argue that this approach definition of WIL is nonsensical and maintains a research terminology that fails to capture what WIL is, namely, a multidimensional learning phenomenon.

Drawing on this argument, this article aims to explore and problematise how the term WIL is used in contemporary research. To achieve this aim, we draw on contemporary research and conduct a text analysis of 48 extended abstracts that were accepted for an international WIL conference in December 2022. The text analysis generated three recurring research phenomena that we relate to research. These are (i) WIL avoidance, when the WIL term is evaded although it could verywell have been used, (ii) WIL washing, when the WIL term is used in a hollow manner, and (iii) WIL ambiguity, when the WIL term is used vaguely. We scrutinise how these research phenomena and the approach definition of WIL pose challenges to establishing a comprehensive research terminology that can bring about an increased understanding of what WIL is. Finally, we call for research to use a more careful and nuanced terminology that acknowledges WIL’s multidimensional nature.

During the autumn, winter and early spring of 2022/2023, Europe faced rapidly increasing energy prices and threats of power cuts. The situation was consequently labelled an “energy crisis”, and one sector that was severely affected was households. In response to the situation, European households made efforts to reduce and time-shift their energy use to mitigate the effects of the crisis. Considering that domestic energy practices are often difficult to change, particularly in the long term, we find this effect of the energy crisis on households important to understand more deeply. In this paper, we use social practice theory to investigate how Swedish households responded to the crisis and what changes they made in terms of re-configurations of their practices. The aim was to contribute knowledge on how households adapt to a changing energy system with volatile prices, limitations in electric power, and threats of energy crisis. We conducted two rounds of semi-structured interviews with 9 households in single-family houses in the middle and south of Sweden during and after the crisis, in total 18 interviews, to examine what re-configurations of practices emerged and which persisted over time. The results show that significant changes were apparent in primarily the practice domains of heating and hygiene. While some of these changes were temporary, other re-configurations of energy practices persisted beyond the months of crisis and high prices, indicating that meanings of frugality and sufficiency were strengthened. Our results demonstrate that households were reminded of certain electricity use that is otherwise typically backgrounded in homes and that the energy crisis stimulated re-configuration and re-examination of norms as well as reflection on electricity use in general. Finally, we discuss the effects of the energy crisis on household practices in comparison with other crises and disruptions, and point to the importance of communicating clearly with households about the societal effects of their efforts, in order to manage the legacy of this crisis for similar future crisis situations.

Purpose 

Due to the global outbreak of Covid-19, Swedish teachers in upper secondary education were forced to conduct emergency remote teaching. As of today, there is a stream of research that addresses digitalization in education in light of the pandemic. Previous studies show that the challenges with the sudden intensification of digitalization have been particularly challenging in practical and aesthetic subjects. The research question is as follows: What challenges did vocational teachers experience during the emergency remote teaching caused by Covid-19 and what emergent tactics can be identified invocational teaching practice?

Design/methodology/approach 

The empirical data consists of (1) interviews with two vocational teachers and, (2) workshops with 25 teacher students from different vocational programmes that addressed vocational teaching during the Covid-19 crisis.

Findings 

Emergency remote teaching meant challenges due to the changed socio-material environment that cannot easily be transformed to a vocational teaching setting. The challenges were related to authentic situations and material, problem solving and dexterity. Tactics that emerged as a response to the challenges were mainly connected to attempts to mimic vocational practices.

Originality/value 

Contributions include explaining specific challenges and possibilities in developing vocational competence when teaching is digitalised. Furthermore, it increases the understanding of the relationship between theory and practice in vocational education. By adopting a socio-material perspective onvocational competence, the authors enhance the understanding of the importance of a shared socio-material environment

Vocational education is crucial for providing the labor market with professional vocational competence in a time of societal change, especially considering a technological change (Belaya, 2018). One of the challenges that vocational teachers face is to find, select and sometimes create appropriate teaching material for the pupils' learning (Persson 2020). Although vocational teaching constitutes an under-researched field of study, there is a stream of research that has explored a variety of e-learning tools such as blogs, video-based instructions, e-portfolios, workplace simulations, and hyper-videos (e.g., Belaya, 2018; Hamid et al., 2020; Jossberger et al., 2015;) and identify several possibilities. Thus, it is of interest to explore how vocational in-service teachers select teaching material and if they design their own teaching material. This study aims to explore the use of various teaching materials in vocational teaching in a Swedish context. A qualitative survey was conducted with a total of 22 teachers connected to a vocational teacher education in Sweden. Work-place pedagogy is used as a theoretical concept that can be understood as; “Guidance by others, situations, and artifacts are central to learning through work because the knowledge to be learned is historically, culturally, and situationally constituted” (Billett, 2002, p. 27). Early findings indicate that, what vocational teachers conceptualize as learning material, are varying and are both consisting of analog and digital tools. Vocational teachers also tend to create their own teaching material because of the need for scaffolding for their pupils as well as the need for mimicking the authentic working life. Contributions include identifying what teachers design and what aspects they consider in the design process.

Purpose – The digitalization of schools has intensified in recent years. It is reflected in policy documents as well as in extensive investments in digital technology and professional development initiatives to promote digitalization. At the same time, attempts are being made to “tame” the same digitization sometimes by regulations banning smartphones in class. This study aims to examine how smartphones are interpreted by vocational teachers in Sweden using the theoretical lens of technological frames.

Design/methodology/approach – The data consist of ten semi-structured interviews with vocational teachers, representing eight vocational programs in Sweden.

Findings – The results show breadth in how teachers understand, interpret and relate to the smartphone in vocational education. The authors show how the smartphone often forms an integral part of professional work and is thus difficult to separate from vocational teaching and nurturing vocational competencies.

Originality/value – The authors’ contributions include using technological frames to explore how smartphones are interpreted and understood by vocational teachers by demonstrating how they relate to the nature of the smartphone, the strategy for the smartphone and the smartphone in use. The theoretical framework is used to interpret restrictions on technology use, in this case a smartphone, in education. The results could be of interest to researchers as well as to teachers, school leaders and policymakers.

Introduction

When digital technology is introduced into work practice, it means that vocational practice develops and changes (Castells, 2011). New methods, tools, and processes in working life require vocational teachers to develop fundamental vocational competencies and preparedness for this change for their pupil's employability (Persson, 2020). The concept of vocational competencies is understood in different ways (Billett, 2001) yet is often described as tacit and situated (Gåfvels and Paul, 2019). Vocational competence can be described as a symmetric relationship between knowledge, skills, and attitudes (Hiim, 2020, Baartman and De Bruijn, 2011). As working life changes, it places new demands on vocational competence and the use of different technologies. Various attempts have been made to elaborate on the competence needed for teaching in a digitalized society and a digitalized school (Ferrari, 2012, Hatlevik and Christophersen, 2013, Howell, 2012, Kivunja, 2013, Krumsvik, 2008). Vocational practices are intimately associated with physical materials such as objects, bodies, technologies, and these settings permit some actions and prevent others (Carlsson et al., 2022; Fenwick, 2015). In this study, we explore vocational teachers' perspectives on preparing students for future working life and how they relate to teaching in a digitalized society.

Theoretical perspective

The TPACK framework, expressing Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge, has arisen as a theoretical framework that specifies what knowledge is required for teaching with technology. It emphasizes that teaching involves developing an understanding of the complex relationship between technology, pedagogy, and content and using this understanding to develop suitable context-specific strategies and representations (Mishra and Koehler, 2006; Willermark, 2018; Willermark and Pareto). In this study, we use TPACK as an analytical lens to explore vocational teachers' perspectives on preparing students for future working life and how they relate to teaching in a digitalized society.

Method

The data consists of 10 interviews with vocational teachers from 8 different vocational programs in Swedish upper secondary vocational education. The participants were recruited from a previous survey carried out by the authors (Carlsson & Willermark, 2022) that explored vocational teachers' experiences in using and developing teaching material. A qualitative content analysis was carried out.

Findings and contributions

Findings show how teachers benefit from digital technology to support pedagogical strategies as well as facilitate students' content knowledge. Still, digitalization entails challenges of keeping up with changes in professional life and providing students with appropriate vocational digital technologies. It is clear how intimately connected and intertwined digitalization is with pedagogy and the subject content of vocational education (Koehler and Mishra, 2009). Contributions include increased knowledge about digitalization in vocational education, and how it entails navigating tensions between a) teaching practice and vocational practice, b) between different curricula and c) supportive and disruptive digital technologies.

As working life changes, it places new demands on vocational competence and the use of different digital technologies. It affects vocational teaching, yet digitalization within vocational education constitutes a scarcely researched area. In this study, we explore how vocational teachers relate to teaching in a digitalized society from a socio-material perspective and explore the possibilities as well as the discursive manifestations of contradictions it gives rise to. Data includes semi-structured interviews with ten vocational teachers, representing eight vocational programs in Sweden. Findings show how vocational teachers benefit from digital technology to realize pedagogical strategies and facilitate students’ vocational competence. At the same time, digitalization entails challenges of keeping up with changes in working life and providing students with relevant vocational digital technologies. Contributions include increased knowledge about digitalization in vocational education, and how it entails navigating different contradictions.

Ett av skolans uppdrag är att utveckla elevernas digitala kompetens. Lärande i en digitaliserad värld, som är en konkret och undervisningsnära handbok, är tänkt att stödja läraren i arbetet med detta.

Enligt Skolverket omfattar arbetet med digital kompetens fyra övergripande punkter, som alla behandlas i boken. Dessa är att förstå digitaliseringens påverkan på samhälletatt kunna använda och förstå digitala verktyg och medieratt ha ett kritiskt och ansvarsfullt förhållningssättatt kunna lösa problem och omsätta idéer i handling.Bokens författare konkretiserar och problematiserar vad lärande i en digitaliserad värld innebär i praktiken. I varje kapitel ges konkreta exempel på hur lärare kan designa undervisningen så att eleverna ges tillfälle att använda digitala verktyg för att söka kunskap, bearbeta information, lösa problem, skapa, kommunicera och lära.

Boken riktar sig till verksamma och blivande lärare inom grundskolan. Även lärare på gymnasium och vuxenutbildning kan ha glädje av bokens innehåll. [Förlagets bokinformation]

Food deserts, i.e., socially distressed neighborhoods with little access to healthy food, constitute a growing concern in the United States. In this pilot case study, we explore a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a more equitable and sustainable local food system in the Washington, DC area from a social entrepreneurship perspective. In total, six interviews with employees at the non-profit organization were carried out between September 2017 and January 2019. Additionally, quantitative data from sales and education programs has been used as supplementary data sources. The paper contributes to the literature of social entrepreneurship by analyzing how mobile farmers markets are developed and organized through the theoretical lens of social entrepreneurship.

Purpose – This study aims to develop the understanding of learning processes related to the new ways of interacting in the enforced digital workplace over time.

Design/methodology/approach – A multiple, longitudinal case study of knowledge-based workers in three firms located in Sweden has been conducted from March 2020 to March 2023. In total, 89 interviews with 32 employees in three knowledge-based firms have been collected.

Findings – The study shows how the intricate interaction between rules and norms for interaction and work must be renegotiated as well as un- and relearned when the physical work environment no longer frames the work context. Furthermore, technology can be viewed as both an enable and a barrier, that is, technology has enhanced collaboration between organizational members yet also created social difficulties, for example, related to communication and interaction. The study emphasizes that individuals learned through trial and error. That is, they tried behaviors such as translating social interactions" to a digital arena, appraised the outcomes and modified the practices if the outcomes were poor.

Research limitations/implications – The present study does have several limitations. First, it is based on interviews with respondents within three organizations in Sweden. To broaden and deepen the understanding of both organizational and learning, future studies can contribute by studying other contexts as well as using a mixed method approach in other countries.

Practical implications – Results from the study can provide a practical understanding of how the rapid change from working at the office to working from home using digital technologies can be understood and managed.

Originality/value – Contributions include combining interaction order and un- and relearning among organizational employees. This insight is important given that the rapid digital transformation of our society has changed how work is performed and how the future workplace will be both structured and organized.

The digitalization of work practices has changed the conditions for many professions. In this study, we explore the relation between professional identity and digitalization in the workplace. We join the research stream within professional identity research that views identity as a narrative construction, a story that individuals tell themselves and others to tell who they are, in this case in relation to digitalization. The empirical data derive from two different contexts: Nordic primary school teachers and European hoteliers at an international hotel chain. In total, 72 interviews were conducted. The study contributes to existing literature by providing increased knowledge on digitalization of work practices by illustrating different approaches to digitalization of work that extend over a specific profession. Theoretical contributions involve suggesting four ideal types of categorization to explain the approach to digitalization in professional life.

When new Information Technologies (IT) are implemented in an organization, this creates new situations that need to be understood and made sense of. Sensemaking processes are vital when trying to identify the meaning users give when interacting with the new IT. The purpose of this study is to identify how hotel employees make sense of organizational social media over time. The empirical data was gathered overfour years in seven European countries and 14 hotels within an international hotel chain. In total, 37 interviews with 28 hotel employees were conducted. The findings explain how the hotel employees' dailywork routines are disrupted due to the social media implementation, but also what meanings the employees ascribe to social media in an organizational context. The study contributes to existing literature by providing illustrations about how users' sensemaking process concerning organizational social media influences their use over time.

Hardly any organization remains unaffected by the digitalization of society and the whole global economy is shaken by disruptive digital innovations (DDI). This calls for strategic responses from incumbent firms to remain relevant in a changing environment. This study explores the phenomenon of digital transformation and the development of digital business strategy in the context of incumbent firms, in this case, the hotel industry. We address the following research questions: 1) How are hotel organizations disrupted by digital innovations? and 2) How do they respond strategically to these disruptions? The research approach consists of multiple longitudinal case studies of two international hotel chains, offering a rich dataset. “Strategy-as-practice” is used as a theoretical lens. The results show three overall organizational responses due to DDI including: 1) relating to a new digital business environment; 2) translating strategy to practices 3) renegotiating value. Contributions include extending the existing literature on digital strategies and responses to digital disruptions in incumbent firms as well as providing implications to practice.

Teaching and learning design theory are challenging tasks. To solely teach design theory through rules or codes of conduct, could be seen as a static way of approaching a complex phenomenon. In this paper, we argue for the importance of engagement in sensitive design situations, an approach that entails a process of de-emphasizing objectivity and promoting subjectivity through real-life sensitive cases to learn from, to foster reflectiveness for the future designers. This study aims to explore how sensitive design situations can be used when teaching and learning design theory. The research approach consists of a case study in a Nordic university, and a course in interaction design in a software engineering program. The sensitive design situation involves designing a digital artifact that can help children that have been diagnosed with cancer, cope with their cancer treatment. The main contribution is a teaching method for cultivating ethical design, which includes the application of sensitive design situations when teaching ethics to students. We illustrate that by forwarding three characteristics that can be used when teaching and learning ethical design through sensitive design situations.

Pop-ups have been widely used to control users’ attention, causing a high degree of irritation and dissatisfaction. We explore so-called ‘polite’ pop-ups, i.e., pop-ups implemented into the interface eliminating the intrusive and surprising factors. We hypothesize that: H1) Users pay less attention to, and interact less with, polite pop-ups than traditional pop-ups, and; H2) Users perceive a higher degree of trust in applications with polite pop-ups compared to traditional pop-ups. The research approachincludes: i) comparative user tests with 88 participants; ii) observations of user tests; iii) assessment questionnaire, and; iv) data-driven analysis of interaction patterns. We analyze the data through the theoretical lens of trust and show that users pay less attention to, yet perceive a higher degree of trust. Our contributions include conceptualizing ‘polite’ design elements and the research agenda of Polite Interaction Design that aims to capture users’ attention without causing unpleasant experiences or decreased trust

Work is becoming increasingly digitalized and change, underscores a critical dichotomy; the design of the digital infrastructure can either facilitate or impede the efficacy of workers in their everyday tasks. When the digital infrastructure poses obstacles, workarounds emerge and over time, become an integrated component in work routines.

The aim of this paper is to shed light on workarounds in different professional practices through our cross-case study we explore workarounds within the public sector. The contribution is three-fold: (i) we provide and argue for four general types of workarounds, which we derive from the empirical data from longitudinal data; (ii) we conceptualize workarounds as practices of innovation, evolution, and responsibility in contemporary work, and; (iii) we provide a framework for analyzing workarounds as technology-oriented versus task-oriented and individual versus collective dimensions.

The framework can be used by researchers and practitioners to identify tensions and to contribute to an increased understanding of the dilemmas, difficulties, and opportunities that an intensification of digitalization of work through digital infrastructures that call for extensive workarounds entails.

In the user’s interaction with systems, waiting and interruptions often constitute a source of negative experiences. However, system response time can be difficult or impossible to control, due to for example poor internet connection. This study explores “subjective experienced time”, which refers to the users’ assessment of system response timeliness. The aim of this study is to gain increased knowledge of user satisfaction and subjectively experienced time in interaction with mobile applications. Thirty participants used and evaluated three mobile applications, containing unique stimuli in progress indicators. The results show correlation between progress indicators’ degree of feedback and the subjectively experienced time and user satisfaction. Contributions include increased insight into the somewhat complex connection between the degree of feedback, subjectively experienced time and user satisfaction, as well as design implications for user-centred design.

In an increasingly digitalized society cyberbullying of children and young people constitutes a high-profile problem yet there are also reports where teachers become vulnerable in the digital environment. This study aims to explore teachers' experiences of what we introduce as digital vulnerability concerning the teaching profession. An online questionnaire was developed and distributed to teachers via teachers' Facebook groups. The questionnaire was based on open-ended questions where teachers were asked to tell in their own words about their experiences of digital vulnerability, including in which situations, how they affected them, and what support they received. The data analysis was conducted based on an iterative process by qualitative content analysis and the use of ideal type situations. The purpose of the analysis was to create narratives that reflect a reduction to the most important characteristics of different experiences of teachers vulnerable in the digital environment. The contribution of the paper includes empirical examples and a theorization about teachers' digital vulnerability by ideal type situations. 

This paper explores policy related to digital competence and the digitalisation of Nordic K-12 schools. Anchored in some key transnational policies on digital competence, it describes some current Nordic movements in the national policies of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The concept of boundary objects is used as an analytical lens, for understanding digital competence as a plastic and temporal concept that can be used to discuss the multi-dimensional translation of this concept in these Nordic countries. The paper ends with a discussion of the potential to view digital competence as a unifying boundary object that, with its plasticity, temporality and n-dimensionality, can show signs of common Nordic efforts in the K-12 school policy.

Digitalization of schools has been on the agenda for decades and has resulted in new demands on teachers' skills in order to implememt technology into teaching. Despite political reforms, investments in technology and continuing professional development (CPD) initiatives for teachers, research often shows slow changes and unequal implementation. This paper addresses the challenges teachers are facing when participating in a 2-year CPD project using a highly interactive technology in classroom settings. The study is based on 18 in-depth interviwes and 6 video recalled observation sessions. The results show how the actual classroom situation is being very intense for the teacher in their everyday work. We conclude that for teachers to transform their teaching practices using highly interactive ICT-based learning is associated with several challenges related to planning and execution, for the part of the teachers, at the same time as it can be beneficial for student learning.

Digitization of schools has been on the political agenda for decades, but despite all reforms, technology investments and professional development initiatives, the goals are not yet reached. We have examined how teachers? perceive their working situation in order to explore if the conditions are suitable for learning and novel teaching practices. 18 interviews with Swedish primary school teachers were conducted and transcribed, from which 330 excerpts were extracted and divided in two characterizing categories: fragmentation reflecting working rhythm and density reflecting working tempo. The working condition had char-acteristics known to cause stress and less wellbeing, which counteracts teachers? sensitiveness to adapt to novelties and a reflective practice. This may jeopardize future professional development and thus digitalization of schools.

 This paper addresses the challenge of how to reach an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) competent teaching faculty in the Swedish compulsory school. Continuing professional development (CPD) can be a means to reach ICT-competence among teachers. In order to achieve successful CPD it is important to understand what teachers’ perceive they need in their professional development, which is examined in this paper. The study was performed in order to get a better understanding of the challenges associated with achieving ICT-competence. 17 teachers have been interviewed to investigate how they perceive needs regarding professional development and how they want these needs to be met. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by learning theories suitable for professional practices. Teachers’ expressed needs were interpreted as well aligned with CPD methods advocated in research literature, but less aligned with previous CPD initiatives. Their expressed needs were highly divergent, depending on individual competence, motivation and learning preferences. Previous ICT initiatives may therefore have been too uniform to be effective.

Technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK) is a well-known conceptual framework for what knowledge teachers need in order to teach successfully using technology. Most recent TPACK studies address assessment of teacher TPACK by quantitative self-reporting surveys. Such an approach provides little guidance for teachers in how to develop their everyday teaching practice. We argue for a revival of the original TPACK design-based approach and propose a design-based, operationalization of the framework that is situated in action, context specific, and integrated in practical teaching. The approach has been developed, evaluated, and validated in a school development project in a Nordic Elementary School context using design-based research. The project engaged more than 100 professionals: in-service elementary teachers, school administrators and researchers, and more than 1,000 students during 3 years. The theoretical development evolved from rich descriptions of 38 didactic design as delimited units of teaching including planning, implementation, and evaluation of specified learning tasks acted out in practice. Contributions include framing teaching practice as design activity and a TPACK in situ model and methods targeting reflective practitioners. Our proposed approach addresses current limitations of TPACK and is aligned with advocated professional development methods.

The theory of expansive learning is used in many studies to explore change in inter-organizational and non-traditional settings. However, long-term, fundamental expansive learning is challenging to study due to the amount of data and the duration of object formation over several years. Researchers call for methods for systematic analysis of expansive learning. This paper presents an approach to systematically trace expansive learning in teaching practice. The approach was developed during a three-year school development project in an elementary school context. The participatory project engaged 66 teachers and 32 researchers from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark aiming to develop innovative computer-supported collaborative teaching for a virtual Nordic classroom. The project was arranged in small inter-organizational teams that iteratively created, implemented, and evaluated novel ways of conducting computer-supported collaborative teaching. The project was immensely challenging with conflicts of interests and systemic contradictions between the inter-organizational collaborating teams, but when resolved cultivated the change in practice. To trace the formation of the teaching practice, we used an integrated approach combining the theory of expansive learning with a teaching practice framework, TPACK in situ, which helped us handle complexity and systematize the object formation, as well as examine the type of learning the teachers acquired.

Information Systems (IS) research and practice are constantly facing increasingly complex challenges through the design and development of new technology. The new technology is being researched through continuous engagement. This accentuates the importance of sociotechnical, engaged research through a critical view. However, the role of the researcher, and the engagement in research projects, is less researched. Taking a 'critical' view means to study the underlying mechanisms behind the observable, to understand change, and in this paper, we apply such a view to studying the changes in the researchers' role. This paper is based on the experience from four qualitative research projects, where we have studied four different public organizations and the technology-induced change of the professionals in these organizations.The four cases are conducted in Sweden and based on engaged research methods; an approach that draws on the perspectives of key stakeholders in a real-world problem situation to develop knowledge that might help address it. The underlying knowledge interest in this paper is understanding the driving forces behind engaged research, such as action research, how such research really is conducted and what the action entails and to shed light on some of the difficulties of engaged research while also discussing the complexity of the role. The research question is: what does the role of researchers in engaged research include over time? The main contribution is outlined in an in-depth understanding of the role of an engaged researcher whichis illustrated through four main 'trade offs' within the role.

I denna avhandling undersöks grundskollärares arbete med att utveckla sin undervisningspraktik med digital teknik. Mer precist undersöks hur en sådan utveckling kan identifieras, förstås och stödjas. Empirin härstammar primärt från ett treårigt aktionsorienterat skolutvecklingsprojekt i nordisk grundskola. Inom projektet samarbetade lärare från Sverige, Norge och Danmark för att utveckla nya undervisningsaktiviteter över nationsgränserna med stöd av digital teknik. Lärare organiserades inom olika ämnesspecifika designteam för att planera, implementera och utvärdera undervisningsaktiviteter, så kallad digital didaktisk design, vilket avser utformandet av en undervisningssekvens, som adresserar ett specifikt ämne inom ett visst ämnesområde. Det empiriska underlaget utgörs av dokumentation över den digitala didaktiska designen, deltagande observationer, intervjuer och innehållsanalyser samt en enkätundersökning. Två teoretiska ramverk används, TPACK (akronym för Technological Pedagogical And Content Knowledge) och verksamhetsteori. Resultaten påvisar en utveckling av lärares undervisningspraktik. Med stöd av digital teknik skapar lärare digital didaktisk design över nationsgränser, som ger upphov till nya aktiviteter, situationer och möten. Det krävdes dock både omfattande arbetsinsatser och ett praktiskt experimenterande under lång tid, för att lärarna skulle kunna utveckla digital didaktisk design som upplevdes meningsfull i den nya kontexten. Motsättningar och organisatoriska gränser mellan de samverkande lärarna identifierades som avgörande för utvecklingen, genom att ge upphov till förhandlingar, kompromisser och reflektion. Avhandlingen bidrar med ett verktyg för att identifiera och stödja lärares arbetemed att utveckla sin undervisningspraktik med digital teknik. Vidare föreslås en strategi för att identifiera och analysera lärares utveckling över tid. Avhandlingen bidrar också med kunskap om hur olika typer av spänningar och gränser vid samarbete kan stimulera till lärande för en digitaliserad undervisningspraktik, liksom rekommendationer för hur utbildningsinsatser för lärare kan utformas i syfte att stödja lärares utveckling av undervisningspraktiken.

The digitalization of higher education has been on the political agenda for decades. Many universities have invested in Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) which is a technology intense environment designed for collaborative teaching and learning. The aim of this paper is to explore students' interaction with each during computer supported collaborative learning in an Active Learning Classroom. An action-oriented approach was applied within the context of a university in Sweden. The framework of interaction order and the concept of 'involvement' and 'mutual monitoring' is used as an analytic lens to examine student collaboration. The results show that the classroom arrangement including the technology set-up played an important role in students' collaboration, causing transparency in activities and makes it more difficult for students to become passive. Contributions includes unpacking the role of collaborative technology and suggesting the concept "involvement disclosure" to shed light on the mechanisms that conditioning students' engagement in this setting.

We discuss key findings inspired by concepts of expansive learning theory by illustrating results from empirical research on technology-mediated cross-border collaboration in an educational setting. The study reports from a three-year school development project and aims to examine what factors that influence expansive learning and how we can design for it. 

This chapter addresses the questions of how to explore the knowledge and skills teachers need for effectively integrating technology in their teaching in an international study. It begins by underlining the importance of including technology-related knowledge in an assessment of teachers’ pedagogical knowledge for teaching in the 21st century. Then, it outlines the type of knowledge and skills teachers need for effectively integrating technology in their teaching and how these can be measured across countries. Drawing on previous research, different measurement approaches will be discussed. Despite a focus on teacher knowledge, the chapter includes suggestions for exploring teacher knowledge in the broader context of teachers' overall conditions, attitudes, and application of technology in teaching practice.

Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) has been introduced asa conceptual framework for the knowledge domains teachers need to master to teach successfully using technology, and has drawn much attention across the educational field. Yet, the framework has been criticized for not being practically useful, due to inaccurate and insufficient definitions. To better understand the critics and the usefulness of the framework, an investigation of how the framework has been applied to show teacher TPACK is needed. This study is a systematic literature review of107 peer-reviewed journal articles concerning the use of TPACK in empirical studies published from 2011 to 2016. The study supplements previous review studies with more recent work on general characteristics of TPACK studies as well as contributes an analysis of how the framework has been applied to identify teacher TPACK inrecent literature. Findings show a variety of approaches and instruments to examine teacher TPACK. Most common is to identify teacher TPACK via self-reporting, while performance evaluations of teaching activities are rare. Additionally, the ways TPACK is operationalized as a measuring instrument are often implicit and make comparison of results difficult. Future directions for research are discussed.

The digitalization of schools is a multi-dimensional process, spanning many different areas from infrastructure and administrative routines to pedagogical issues, competence development, and student learning. Recently, digital leadership has been emphasized as crucial to reaching a fruitful digitalization in schools [1, 2]. However, there is a lack of systematic knowledge of what competencies are needed to lead such strategic work [3]. This study is a systematic review of research about digital leadership in schools in studies published from 2009 to 2019. The search was conducted using three databases to cover a board spectrum of relevant publication outlets including; ‘Education Resources Information Center’ (ERIC), Academic Search Premier, and Business Source Premier. Broad search terms were used to get a comprehensive search result, focused on locating results from different perspectives in the educational research field. The findings stress the importance of concretizing policies, having a coherent educational vision, and organizing for school development as key factors for cultivating the digitalization of schools. However, research that addresses what competence school leaders need to lead this strategic work remains limited. The contribution of the paper includes theorization about the meaning of digitally competent leadership in a school context, and future directions for research are discussed.

The Covid-19 crisis changed the educational landscape. In Sweden, as in many other countries, school leaders, teachers, and students faced a completely new situation, as teaching would immediately be conducted remotely. It offered an opportunity to continue teaching in a crisis, while giving rise to new questions and dilemmas. This study aims to explore aspects of interaction in the virtual classroom. The context is four high schools in Sweden. Data includes a teacher survey and ten workshops with teachers and school leaders. The interaction order framework is used as an analytic lens. The results draw a multifaceted picture of interaction that involves both increased and reduced contact with, and control over, the students and their activities. Some students find a place in the virtual classroom that they previously lacked, while others “disappear behind the screen.” Contributions include unpacking the complex role of interaction in the virtual classroom and providing implications for teachers and school leaders.

COVID-19 changed the educational landscape as we know it. Due to the radical transformation of schooling, there is an imminent question of what lessons have been made and which transformations ‘will stick’ and become the ‘new normal’ after the obvious threats of the pandemic subsided [1]. There is a stream of research that addresses experiences from the pandemic [2-4]. In this study, we focus on the experiences of upper secondary schools in Sweden. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize teachers' and school leaders' experiences from the pandemic and, based on that, address implications for practice for future schooling. We conduct a meta-analysis of four studies within a research project in Sweden [5-8] where the data consists of surveys and workshops with teachers and school leaders and explores their experiences of the pandemic. The results show that Sweden has worked well in an international context, at the same time there are distinct differences regarding teachers' and school leaders' perceptions of what work effort was required, the result of the teaching, and its consequences. Contribution includes synthesizing experiences from the pandemic and pointing out its implications for future education.

[Introduction]:

In the digital age, education has undergone a significant transformation. With the proliferation of technology in learning environments, the education sector has witnessed a dramatic increase in the generation of digital data. Consequently, over recent decades, learning analytics (LA) and educational data mining have evolved into significant areas of research, with the purpose of enhancing education at all educational levels (Deeva et al., 2021).  . . .

In 2020, a global pandemic changed the educational landscape overnight and caused an abrupt transition to virtual classrooms. This study aims to gain increased knowledge of teachers’ experiences of facing such radical digitalization through ideal types. The data include a teacher survey with 1109 respondents from 15 high schools in Sweden, containing both fixed and open-ended response types. Educational affordances and digital competence are used as analytical lenses. The results show distinct differences regarding teachers’ perception of how teaching in a virtual classroom has worked and whether they and their students have developed their digital competence during this period. We present four ideal types: a) the enthusiast, b) the skeptic, c) the pessimist, and d) the affirmative, which capture the essence of teachers’ multifaceted experiences, actions, and affordances perceived in the transition to virtual classrooms. Contributions include theorizing about teachers’ encounters with radical cases of digitalization.

The global pandemic, COVID-19 shattered everyday life as we know it and disrupted education globally. In this study, we explore an initiated digital transformation accelerated by the pandemic from school leaders’ perspectives in the context of Swedish high schools. The data consists of a questionnaire with 105 school leaders containing both fixed and open-ended response types. The results reveal significant differences in school leaders’ views on how the transition has worked, whether they and their staff have developed their digital competence, and, how it will affect the school onwards. Contributions include theorising about school leaders’ experiences of navigating an accelerated digital transformation prompted by the pandemic. We introduce four school leader profiles: (a) the enthusiast, (b) the affirmative (c) the skeptical, and (d) the hesitant. These profiles serve to encapsulate the nuanced perspectives of school leaders, thereby enriching our comprehension of their diverse requirements and priorities.

The outbreak of the global pandemic COVID-19 meant an extreme intensification of digitalization in education. Around the world, technology became a prerequisite for continuing education, as schools were to switch to distance education. Drawing on an institutional logics perspective, this paper aims to explore school leaders' experiences and insights from running a virtual school overnight. Data includes a survey of105 school leaders in Swedish high schools. The results show clear challenges for schools as institutions, yet most of the school leaders perceived that the shift to virtual classrooms went well and can lead to lasting value for the school. Still, when facing a new situation, organizational problems are uncovered, and the importance of brick-and-mortar schools becomes visible. Contributions include analyzing an extreme case of digitization in schools and conceptualizing two faces of digitalization, that constitute both a preservative and disruptive force in institutional logic.

Purpose – In this study, the authors explore teachers’ experiences of work during the pandemic using the analytic lens of technostress. More specifically, the authors investigate how the sudden transition to distance education induces technostress among teachers in relation to their teaching practice.

Design/methodology/approach – The data gathering method constitutes a questionnaire that exploreshow teachers’ work situation was affected by shifting to distance education. 286 Swedish teachers answered the open-ended questionnaire.

Findings – The results demonstrate how technostress creators, technostress strains and teachers’ coping strategies are expressed in teaching practice during an extreme case of digitalization.

Originality/value – The authors contribute to the work on technostress by suggesting the theoretical concept of “technorest” to shed light on alternative effects of the digitalization of work practice. Furthermore, the authors give examples of technorest creators which the authors term “techno-shields” and “techno-security”.

The results could be interesting to enhance the understanding of the digitalization of work practices and cultivate a more favorable work situation

Purpose – This study aims to explore virtual leadership work within educational settings in the light of social disruption. In 2020, a global pandemic changed the way we work. For school leaders, that involved running a virtual school overnight. Although there is a stream of research that explores leadership in solely virtual communities, there is a gap in the literature regarding practices that transition from analog to virtual practices and the changes in leadership in those types of work practices.

Design/methodology/approach – The data gathering method constitutes a questionnaire to explore school leaders’ experiences of virtual work and virtual leadership in light of social disruption. One hundred and five Swedish school leaders answered the questionnaire covering both fixed and open questions.

Findings – The results show that school leaders’ general experiences of transition to virtual school have worked relatively well. We show how the work changes and shift the focus in the virtual workplace.

Originality/value – The author’s contributions include theorizing about leadership affordances in virtual schools and providing implications for practice. The authors summarize our main contribution in five affordances that characterize virtual leadership, including a focus on core activities, trust-based government, 1:1 communication with staff, structure and clarity and active outreach activities. The results could be interesting for understanding the radical digitalization of leadership in the digital workplace.

We make an abundance of choices daily and an increasing proportion of those choices are in an online context. Digital nudges refer to the use of design elements that guide the decision-making process towards a predefined goal. An important consideration when designing digital nudges is the ethical implications. In this study, we examine how future designers perceive ethics and the use of digital nudges as design elements in interaction design. We conducted a case study with 72 design students at two Nordic universities with a focus on the future designers’ perception of ethics and the use of digital nudges as design elements. We show that ethics and reflection on responsibility are highly important aspects of choice architecture design and future designers understand ethics as crucial for design work, yet few reflect on whether a specific design or a nudge is ethical or not. Moreover, when it comes to nudging as a design element, both positive and ambivalent attitudes are common. Our main contribution consists of an in-depth understanding of future designers’ perspectives on nudging, and we forward four fundamental questions which have implications for teaching the ethics of choice architecture to future designers.

For many teachers, the COVID-19 pandemic meant an instant shift from teaching in traditional to a virtual classroom to reduce the spread of infection. It represents a widespread and intensive case of digitalization of teaching practice and many stakeholders are asking the imminent question of which transformations that ‘will stick’ and become a constant in the ‘new normal’ onwards. However, research of online teaching in a high school context remains limited. In this study, we analyze what happens when teaching is redirected from the traditional to the virtual classroom and explore what characterizes educational affordances in the virtual classroom. The context is 15 high schools in Sweden and the empirical data includes a survey with a total of 1109 teachers. Educational affordances are used as an analytic lens to conceptualize what teaching activities that the virtual classroom afford. The main contribution includes theorizing about what activities, interactions, and procedures that the virtual classroom affords by presenting seven educational affordances and contrast these with teaching in traditional classrooms. The affordances consist of (1) Structure (2) One-to-one communication (3) Formalized reconciliations (4) Peace and quiet (5) Hidden back channels (6) Right time and (7) Reaches certain students. The seven affordances can make a foundation for reflection and discussions of how to create a didactic design adapted for different classrooms. Furthermore, we contribute with implications to teachers and school leaders.

Pop-up boxes have been widely used to catch users' attention and highlight specific information. Yet, according to previous research, there is a high degree of perceived irritation and dissatisfaction related to pop-ups. In this study, we explore the user experience of what is referred to as "polite pop-up," i.e., a modal pop-up, created based on click events. The intention was to eliminate negative perceptions that pop-ups usually generate. The research method involves a constructed user test of a prototype of a website where polite pop-ups were placed in the interface. Thirteen users participated, where most of the users noticed the polite pop-up and voluntarily chose to access the information within the pop-up. The contribution includes increased insight into the relation between polite pop-up and user satisfaction, as well as design implications for user-centered design.

Work today consists of complex arrangements of loosely interrelated digital tools that shape work and form digital infrastructures. These digital infrastructures can either support or hinder the workers in their daily tasks. Working in an environment where some digital tools are designed for work purposes, and others without the proposed end-users in mind creates a need for improvisation. The consequence for workers may include finding various types of workarounds when shifting between digital tools. These workarounds become important for how work is performed. Through a multiple case study, this paper explores how workarounds are manifested in different work settings through four cases in the public sector. We conceptualize workarounds as practices of flexibility, efficiency, and responsibility, and show how workarounds result in new and innovative ways of working, which can be understood as a form of infrastructuring.

This edited collection presents a Nordic perspective on intensified discussions concerning digitalization and digital competence in the current trends of educational work. Using a multidisciplinary and holistic approach, the book compares Nordic countries' attitudes towards the digitalization of education and demonstrates the Nordic region's position as digital front-runners in a European and global context. The book provides up-to-date cases and future-oriented perspectives on digitalization and digital competence in educational work. Chapters use empirical data gained from policy documents, interviews, and questionnaires to present nuanced discussions, theoretical perspectives, and implications for the future of digitalization in education. Ultimately, this book's reach far exceeds that of its Nordic contexts and will be of use to postgraduate students, researchers, and scholars across the globe involved with digital education, teacher education, and educational policy and politics more broadly . . .