a) Research Question

One of the biggest challenges in today's teaching practice all over the world is the question how to grasp and deal with processes of digitalization. Our main research question is: how do teachers construct teaching and learning under the terms of digitalization when they write about their teaching with digital media in practical journals? Follow-up questions are: how are best and worst practices described, connected and contextualized? How are potentially risky processes of innovation and change perceived by the example of digitalization?

b) Objectives

We would like to gain insight into the elementary school teachers’ construction of teaching and learning under the terms of digitalization by analysing how they write about teaching with digital media. We aim at pointing out discourse relevant figurations such as metaphors, discursive formations and trends within this very professional discourse. As secondary objective, we try to map the ways in which best and worst practice models are described and presented in a journal which is composed of articles written by teachers and read by the same group (see below).

c) Theoretical Framework

As a theoretical framework, we make reference to discourse theory (Foucault 1981). In Foucault’s sense, a discourse consists of statements that are interrelated and form a system that is structured by specific rules (cf. Diaz-Bone 2017). Discourse as a regulated system of statements does not arise from the intentions of individual actors (ibid.) and yet it can be assumed that it has powerful effects. With special regard to education journals, every single article can be interpreted as a fragment of a discourse that manifests practices and passes on certain discourse structures – such as limitations of what is sayable and what is not (Klomfaß & Moldenhauer 2018, p. 218). There is a difference, however, between the practice of teaching and the way it is discussed. Discourse participants, both readers and authors of professional journals, thus not just create knowledge but also make use of generalizing and valuing symbols, clichés, myths and images. They develop a certain story (Keller 2011, p. 255) we want to discover and decrypt.

Our research is based on socio-scientific discourse analysis (Foucault [1969] 2002). This method was successfully applied in our previous research concerning slightly different topics within the subject area, i.e. OECD’s construction of digitalization and images of individualized teaching in a different teacher education journal (Klomfaß & Moldenhauer 2018; Moldenhauer & Buck 2019). Our research corpus comprises various editions of the journal GRUNDSCHULE for all elementary teachers in Germany. This journal is widely known among elementary teachers in Germany and addresses this very group. It has been published since 51 years and is issued 10 times a year. Its edition size is around 6,000, its reading circle even higher due to spreading effects in staff rooms. Our research comprises journals from the early 2000s, which can be seen as the moment when the discussion about digitization took off (cf. Moldenhauer & Buck 2019). Some of these are special issues on digitalisation processes and practices in schools or use of (new) media in lessons. We limit the selection of articles to these that reflect and present teachers’ immediate experience and therefore exclude scientific articles.

Independent on the time of publication, our findings can be described as dynamic ambivalences. Teachers’ inferences about processes of digitalisation within elementary schools range from strong rejection to unconditional affirmation. Common lines of argumentation can be outlined as follows: • Digital media is natural part of children’s everyday life and life-world, thus students should learn to reflect on their use and the handling of personal data (lifeworld argument). • Digital media allow for independent learning, thus are good. • Digital media are dangerous and risky (for different reasons, e.g. being a distraction factor or representing a threat to teachers’ routines). • Using digital media must be defended or at least explained to parents. • There is also a striking equation of media competence and digital education. Our preliminary findings allow for various interpretations. There does not seem to be a consensus on how to discuss the topic of digitalisation in general. It seems, there is an almost immediate moralization of the matter (digitalisation is either ‘good’ or ‘bad’) which may refer to both a certain urgency to act and to lack of fundamental research. The journal itself does not seem to have an agenda, neither scientifically nor concerning the realization of digitalisation in lessons. It rather mirrors the practical ambivalence of teachers. Our findings shall be used as groundwork for comparative studies/analyses between different school types and systems on national and sub-national levels. For subsequent publications, we aim at further broadening the scope and include perspectives on the construction of learning and teaching in times of digitalisation in public media (what does the public expect from elementary school teachers?), in teacher training, and within programs for further education aimed at veteran teachers (what are considered relevant skills from the perspective of those who teach teachers?).

Diaz-Bone, Rainer 2017. “Diskursanalyse”. In Qualitative Medienforschung: Ein Handbuch, ed. Lothar Mikos & Claudia Wegener. 2nd ed. Konstanz: UVK/UTB. Pp. 131-143. Foucault, Michel. [1969] 2002. Archeology of Knowledge. Translated by A.M. Sheridan Smith. London, New York: Routledge. Keller, Reiner 2011. Wissenssoziologische Diskursanalyse. Grundlegung eines Forschungsprogramms. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Klomfaß, Sabine & Anna Moldenhauer 2018. Kontrollierte Freisetzung? Eine Diskursanalyse von Darstellungen individualisierten Unterrichts aus der Zeitschrift PÄDAGOGIK. In Individualisierung von Unterricht. Transformationen – Wirkungen – Reflexionen, ed. Rabenstein, Kerstin, Katharina Kunze, Matthias Martens, Till-Sebastian Idel, Matthias Proske & Svenja Strauß. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt. Pp. 214-230. Moldenhauer, Anna & Marc Fabian Buck 2019. The OECD and Digitalisation in Education – A Socioscientific Discourse Analysis of Education Policy Recommendations on Digitalisation. In Comparative Education 54. Submitted.