The Complexity of Teachers’ Use of Digital Technologies in Everyday School Practice

Abstract

The doctoral research, briefly presented in this paper1, include four teachers, two school leaders, three representatives from the Department of Education and head of the municipal IT-unit. The research followed a focused ethnographic approach, and has applied Systems Thinking, specifically Soft Systems Methodology in combination with Cognitive Mapping with the aim to illuminate and advance the understanding of the complexity of teachers’ everyday practice using digital technologies. Major investments have been done in Sweden providing and equipping schools with digital technologies. However, the digital technologies are reported not being fully used to support teaching and learning, but are mainly used as administrative tools. In order to enable teachers to fully adopt and use of digital technologies it is crucial to understand their worldviews, their everyday practice, as well as external influences and underlying perspectives.