Abstract:

How do we enable the capacity to foster digital literacy among pupils and students at levels in the school system? The question encompasses a number of complex issues connected to pedagogical and organizational challenges to the school. This paper look into dimensions from policy, school leadership and teachers’ practice and attitudes in order to better comprehend the impact of ICT in Norwegian schools.

Based on three different scientific papers, results from three different surveys on the use of ICT in schools are presented and synthesized. Two of the surveys are Norwegian national, and one is the international IEA SITES 2006 study. The first paper focus mainly on issues of school leadership, the second paper includes analyses of policy and teachers’ attitudes, whilst the third includes information from both school leaders and teachers.

First, school leadership is put into focus. The question asked was whether different school leaders had different perceptions of their own organizations’ capacity to use digital tools and practices, and if so, could these differences be categorized and aligned with existing bodies of work in the field. The first paper shows that it is possible to construct four indicators on digitally competent schools based on answers from a representative selection of Norwegian primary and lower secondary school leaders. These indicators are on an organizational level and describe core processes and competencies to be achieved in order to build capacity for the pedagogical use of ICT. In turn, these indicators can be predicted by other organization-related actions made by the school leaders, i.e. procurement of subject specific digital learning materials.

Second, teachers obviously differ about their attitudes, perceptions and actual use ICT in the classrooms. These differences are to some degree related to the teachers’ autonomy, their professional culture and to initiatives at national policy-level. The second paper uses a well-established analytical framework of innovative pedagogical practices to explore teachers’ pedagogical orientations and their practices with ICT. The teachers comes from three Nordic countries, and are compared on a backdrop of over-arching policy descriptions. One of the general goals in the policy programmes in question is to get teachers to innovate with ICT in the classrooms, but means, and rationale differs between the three countries.

Third, in the second national survey from Norway, the method of constructing indicators from the principals’ data was replicated. The indicators were used together with data from the teacher part of the survey. Findings suggest that teachers from schools that has a high-level on the indicators, over-all reports more frequent use of ICT in instruction, and more positive attitudes towards the pedagogical use of ICT in schools. These teachers also find it easy to utilize ICT in their classes, and they do not perceive ICT use as a threat to class order and discipline.
All papers offers to their own account some information related to the notion of capacity building for pedagogical use of ICT. But analysed together, a clearer picture of systematic differences between schools can be put forward, and can spur more focused attention on specific challenges to be met.

Keywords:

Digital literacy, school leadership, policy, capacity building for ICT.