Abstract:

School leaders are important for teachers’ professional development and for their digital competence (Islam & Gronlund, 2016; Lindqvist, & Pettersson, 2019). In Norway and beyond, there is an increasing trend to equip schools with 1:1 coverage of digital devices for teachers and students. This calls for teachers’ digital competence to ensure good classroom practices (Erstad, Kjällander & Järvelä, 2021). In other words, due to this trend, schools are under pressure to ensure that teachers develop their professional digital competence, and school leaders are important stakeholders to support teachers in these processes.

Nonetheless, there is limited research that suggests or explores how school leaders can support teachers in these processes, nor what skills and competence they consider as crucial for themselves (Lindqvist, & Pettersson, 2019; Dexter & Richardson, 2020). However, a key message would be that both institutional support and competence development are important for teachers to adopt and use digital technologies for pedagogical purposes (Ertmer, 1999; 2005).

We believe that school leaders’ own digital competence may affect how they see their role in supplying institutional support and competence development for teachers. Unlike the professional digital competence for teachers which are strongly related to classroom practices, school leaders are responsible for adequate digital infrastructure at schools, ethical and juridical dimensions on the use of digital technology, along with leadership skills including easing and/ or fostering the development of teachers’ professional digital competence. The present paper is guided by the following research question: How do school leaders consider their role in pursuing teachers’ professional development for digital competence?

In the paper we’ll bring in empirical examples from an ongoing qualitative study on professional digital competence for school leaders from a Norwegian context. The paper will contribute with updated knowledge on the role of the school leadership in schools with 1:1 coverage.

References:
[1] Dexter, S., & Richardson, J. W. (2020). What does technology integration research tell us about the leadership of technology? Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 52(1), 17-36
[2] Erstad, O., Kjällander, S., & Järvelä, S. (2021). Facing the challenges of ‘digital competence’ a Nordic agenda for curriculum development for the 21st century. Nordic Journal of Digital Literacy, 16(2), 77-87.
[3] Ertmer, P.A.: Addressing first- and second-order barriers to change: strategies for technology integration. Educ. Tech. Res. Dev. 47(4), 47–61 (1999)
[4] Ertmer, P.A.: Teacher pedagogical beliefs: the final frontier in our quest for technology integration? Educ. Tech. Res. Dev. 53(4), 25–39 (2005)
[5] Islam, M. S., & Grönlund, Å. (2016). An international literature review of 1: 1 computing in schools. Journal of educational change, 17, 191-222.
[6] Lindqvist, M. H., & Pettersson, F. (2019). Digitalization and school leadership: On the complexity of leading for digitalization in school. The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, 36(3), 218–230. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijilt-11-2018-0126.

Keywords:

School leaders, teachers, professional development, digitalisation, digital competence.