Local translation work on national school digitalisation policy in Sweden – a challenging endeavour with signs of strong rural resilience

• Research topic/aim: This abstract explores rural municipality contexts in Sweden and signs of rural resilience in local translation work on national policy on school digitalisation. The goal with this abstract is to contribute with knowledge about rural municipalities and their contextual capacity of responding and adapting to national school policy and change in a digital age. In the abstract, two research questions are addressed: (1) How do rural municipalities work with translating national school digitalisation policies into local and contextual actions? and (2) How can this work be understood from a rural resilience perspective?Theoretical framework: The abstract uses a combined theoretical framework to explore signs of rural resilience building in the municipalities. This framework builds on (a) Selwyn’s (2018) areas of policy activity of digital technology in school policy - (1) technology resources, (2) use of digital tools in the schools, (3) curriculum concerns, and, (4) issues of organisation and governance as well as 8b) Roberts’ et al. (2017a; 2017b) central forms in resilience thinking – (1) multi-scalar resilience, (2) normative resilience and (3) integrated policy conceptions of resilience.Methodology/research design: During August until December in 2021, data were in two steps collected from 36 out of 40 Swedish municipalities categorized by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions as C8 (rural, not large on tourism). First, short phone interviews with municipality key persons asking them to describe their work with three recent Swedish national school policies on digitalisation and digital competence. Second, via the key persons collecting any additional written local policy in terms of strategic and/or action-oriented plans for the work with school digitalisation and/or digital competence.Expected results/findings: The findings in the proposed abstract makes it possible to argue in favour of the adaptability in Swedish rural municipalities in terms of resilience building. That rural municipality contexts need recognition in their national school digitalisation policy work, and that increased national clarity of both the intended meaning and desirable outcome of local policy translations could provide a more solid support for the rural municipalities - including further development of a strong rural resilience.Relevance to Nordic educational research: This abstract is relevant due to the rural perspectives have been lacking in Nordic educational research concerned with aspects of local translation work on national school digitalisation policy. Moreover, and in opposite to the abstract proposed here, such research seldom highlights the contextual complexity of this policy work when addressing the various levels of policy, challenges of local mobilisation, and individual approaches to policy.References:Roberts, E., Anderson, B.A., Skerratt, S., & Farrington, J. (2017). A review of the rural-digital policy agenda from a community resilience perspective. Journal of Rural Studies, 54, 372-385.Roberts, E., Beel, D., Philip, L., & Townsend, L. (2017). Rural resilience in a digital society: Editorial. Journal of Rural Studies, 54, 355-359.Selwyn, N. (2018). Technology as a focus of education policy. In R. Papa and S. W. Armfield (Eds.), The Wiley Handbook of Educational Policy (pp. 457-477). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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education

pedagogik

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