Self-tracking as a Method for Exploring Teacher Digital Work

• Recurrently it is reported on worsened teacher work conditions (Education International, 2020) with increased workload and work intensification. Digitalization is often raised both as an opportunity for counteracting time pressure and work more effectively, but it is also seen as a challenge, extending work in time-space also beyond labour safeguards. The question is, how can digital work and work time be investigated and better understood? In this paper, we will discuss the methodological considerations made during the Swedish worklife-funded project Balanced, focusing on teacher digital work (im)balances. We exemplify the challenges of taking an integrative trace ethnographic and computational social science method approach (Geiger & Ribes, 2011), to monitor and using “self-tracking” digital methods to map teacher digital work on platforms, and the deselections of certain methods. The chosen methods allowed the move from ‘the inside out’, by engaging teachers in self-reported activity logs, paired reflexive trace interviews and data visualisation generations, complemented by digital walkthroughs methods, and moves out to infrastructural mappings and policies. The issue raised is what the implications are of inviting teachers to self-track and reflect on the possibilities and constraints of their digital work in terms of improving and developing the understanding and conditions of Swedish teachers’ digital work. The issue raised connects to the emerging debate on monitoring work in more detail (Ball, 2021) through trace data computations, both in work-life and in research, made in the name of improving work conditions, but which nontheless might provide new work-related problems, e.g. of data privacy harms (Hakami et al., 2021), or control loss and distrust experiences (Berstrom & Svare, 2017). References Ball, K. (2021). Electronic Monitoring and Surveillance in the Workplace. Literature review and policy recommendations. European Commission. Berstrom, V.H., & Svare, H. (2017). Significance of monitoring and control for employees’ felt trust, motivation and mastery. Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies 7(4), 29-49. Geiger, R. S., & Ribes, D. (2011). Trace ethnography: Following coordination through documentary practices. In 2011 44th Hawaii international conference on system sciences (pp. 1-10). IEEE. Hakimi, L., Eynon, R., & Murphy, V. A. (2021). The ethics of using digital trace data in education: A thematic review of the research landscape. Review of Educational Research, 91(5), 671–717. Thompson, G. (2021). Global Report on the Status of Teachers. Education International.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Interaktionsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Interaction Technologies (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Arbetslivsstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Work Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogiskt arbete (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogical Work (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Digital work; Self-tracking; Methodology; Digital methods

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