Critically Examining Education Digitalisation – Nordic Empirical, Conceptual and Methodological Contributions

• Symposium participants: Discussant(s): Neil Selwyn - Monash University, Australia 1 ‘We just have to trust them’ - Professional Responsibility in Digital Practices - Ida Martinez Lunde, University of Oslo 2 Lost in Digital Transformations? - Cathrine Tømte, University of Agder 3 Tracing Global Platformisation Locally: Differences and Inequalities in Teachers’ Digital Work in Publicly and Privately Owned Schools - Annika Bergviken Rensfeldt, Catarina Player-Koro, Thomas Hillman & Mona Lundin, University of Gothenburg 4 The Desires of Privatization in Ed-Tech Assemblages - Antti Paakkari, Anna Siippainen 5 Speculative Fiction of Digital Futures in Higher Education, Hanna Teräs, Marko Teräs & Juho Suoranta, Tampere University This symposium aims to draw together researchers engaged in research on education digitalisation in the Nordic countries who share an interest in critically examining how digital technologies are integrated into education systems, policies, institutions and practices. The overall question raised is: What are the critical issues on education digitalisation raised from the Nordic countries, and how can they be examined empirically, conceptually and methodologically? There are two important starting points for this symposium. Firstly, that the politico-economic push for education digitalisation is a decades-long process both on a global scale and within the Nordic countries. The ongoing push has had wide-ranging consequences for the power relations between public education, educational practices and actors as new alignments with private ed-tech businesses and digital platforms have been established. Secondly, that research on the topic is fruitfully based on the premise that many education practices nowadays are deeply interwoven with digital technologies and that new forms of inequalities and power imbalances appear. As the boundaries between digital and non-digital practices are blurring, this suggests that we re-think concepts and methods in line with the transformations referred to as the “postdigital turn” (Jandrić & Knox, 2022). The critical approaches often used in Nordic research on education digitalisation share interests in seeing digital technologies as mutually shaped with social practices, and education digitalisation as a dynamic and complex matter, played out socially, politically, economically and culturally. The research to be presented in this symposium includes, but is not limited to, explorations of concepts like relationality, processuality, network, assemblage, socio-materialism, and performativity (c.f. Castaneda & Williamson, 2021). As a part of this, a commonly shared interest is how different forms of education policy processes, regulations and discourses on digitalisation are enacted, translated and re-shaping education and educational practices. The research presented draws on ongoing discussions within critical and digital research in education, and on discussion of what the relevant contributions from the Nordic contexts are whether they be empirical, conceptual or methodological. The research to be discussed will include themes such as: –Platformisation, datafication and AI –Digital and non-digital inequalities and new power imbalances –Sustainable (post-)digital education work and futures The aim of the symposium is to address the NERA 2023 theme by: –providing empirical, conceptual and methodological contributions from scholars critically investigating opportunities and challenges related to the digitalisation of education. –identifying and discussing the critical questions and issues on the digitalisation of education that must be raised in the Nordic countries to create sustainable education systems that can contribute to the common good for both individuals and society.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

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

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

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

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

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)