Abstract:

Our ever-increasing immersion in a digital world underlines the increasing importance of the meaningful integration of digital technology in the school curriculum and the ongoing development of teachers’ digital confidence and informed technology use. A school is an interdependent ecosystem and teachers’ digital practices are not solely a result of individual competence, but also depend on the extent to which they are supported by school-level digital development. A high level of perceived digital development in a school motivates teachers who are digital-change leaders and innovators and subtly puts pressure on those who are more reticent. As such, a key measure of school-level digital development and integration involves teacher beliefs in the collective digital efficacy of the school and its members.

The aim of this research is to find out precisely which aspects of school life are most closely associated with teacher use of digital technology and teacher beliefs in the collective digital efficacy of their schools. Understanding more about these relationships is necessary for schools to know what areas to prioritize in their digital action plans.

Using the validated SELFIE survey tool, we surveyed 1,346 teachers and school leaders in the twenty-nine compulsory education institutions in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Results of hierarchical and multi-level mixed effects generalized linear regression analyses reveal that leadership, infrastructure and professional development are key factors linked to teacher beliefs in collective school-level digital efficacy and their own use of technology in their professional activities.

A closer look reveals that strategy, support and sharing are crucial to developing collective digital efficacy in schools. Teachers who believe their school has a clear digital strategy that involves them, who feel encouraged by school leadership to experiment with digital pedagogy and to share their digital experiences with others hold higher collective competence beliefs than those who don’t. These factors are considered as important as digital infrastructure requirements, such as internet access and readily available equipment and significantly more important than having the opportunity to follow training. Results of hierarchical regression analyses suggest that baseline “digital hygiene” factors include infrastructure and equipment concerns, but that supplementary “motivational” factors such as leadership vision, action plans, motivation and wide-spread collaboration are necessary to motivate teachers to take the digital plunge and sustain their use of digital technology in teaching.

In terms of teacher use of technology, resources such as adequate infrastructure and time to develop pedagogy that integrates digital technology play a significant role, as do more social factors, such as teachers feeling that their digital needs were listened to by school leadership and the belief that the digital infrastructures were actually being used in the school.

Taken as a whole, these results highlight the fact that digital training for teachers is not sufficient in itself to ensure digital uptake in schools, but that effective digital leadership and digital resources play a crucial role. We discuss how SELFIE results can help school management teams develop strategies that prioritize factors related to building long-lasting digital capacity in their schools.

Keywords:

selfie, survey tool, digital development, digital collective efficacy, digital leadership.