Vis sammendrag
This article-based PhD study adopts a post-digital perspective, implying that we have progressed beyond the stage of integrating technology and now reside in a digitally infused society.
This qualitative study explores how teacher educators facilitate the development of student teachers’ professional digital competence (PDC) in Norwegian teacher education and discusses how teacher educators’ professionalism emerges in the post-digital age. It explores policy documents at the institutional level, including programme descriptions, course descriptions, and plans for practicums from six Norwegian teacher education institutions. Furthermore, in-depth interviews were conducted with three teacher educators from each site (18 in total). While the overarching discussion in the extended abstract refers to the theories of professions, particularly occupational and organisational professionalism (Evetts, 2013), the three articles focus on the pillars of professionalism: professional knowledge, agency, and identity.
Article 1, a document analysis, explores how PDC is addressed in institutional policy and what is expected of teacher educators in terms of preparing student teachers for epistemic changes. The findings show that teacher educators are primarily expected to focus on the (pedagogical) use of digital tools. However, they are also supposed to teach student teachers how to foster pupils’ digital skills and digital responsibility. A few documents also state that they are supposed to address the influence of digitalisation on society and culture, subject content and educational practices.
Article 2 is based on the interviews. It focuses on how PDC is addressed in teacher educators’ practices and how they reflect on their PDC facilitation in terms of agency. The findings show that teacher educators primarily focus on pedagogical and didactical use of technology. They pay less attention to issues related to cultural and societal influences or transformative digital agency. The interplay of teacher educators’ understanding of PDC, collaboration with colleagues, task perception, and detailed course descriptions influence their actions.
Article 3 is based on the same interviews as Article 2 and further explores teacher educators’ task perceptions concerning student teachers’ PDC development and its connection to their professional identity. The analysis indicates that the more teacher educators identify with their role as teachers of teachers and are integrated into the professional community of teacher educators, the more they perceive it as their task to go beyond subject-specific teaching with digital tools. Such teacher educators also address profession-oriented aspects, such as critical reflection and the influence of digitalisation on society.
Together, the findings across the three articles underscore the fundamental role of collaboration in PDC facilitation and in developing and negotiating professional knowledge, agency, and identity.
