This is the first report on a 5-year research project about digitalisation and digital competence in Swedish compulsory schools, from a stakeholders’ perspective. It concerns interpretations, translations and actions of stakeholders on several levels of the educational system, in relation to transformations and transitions of three new policies: The revised curriculum, the national strategy for the digitalisation of the Swedish K-12 school system and its related national plan of action.

The project relates to the global movement in educational governing calling for reformation of policy documents due to the impact of digital technologies in society (OECD, 2010; UN Human Rights Council, 2016). Accordingly, different perceptions of digital technology in the 21^st century influence the establishment of both new curricular frameworks and the ones in process of re-design (Voogt, Knezek, Christensen & Lai, 2018). In the European Union, supportive actions for transforming educational policy have been launched in order to support a less time-consuming policy process and facilitate imminent educational changes (Kampylis, Devine, Punie & Newman, 2016). One such supportive action, the European Framework for Digitally-Competent Educational Organisations (DigCompOrg), concerns learning as well as skills needed in the digital and addresses the responsibility of educational stakeholders to pull through this policy transition (Panagiotis Kampylis, Punie, & Devine, 2015).

In Sweden, a revised curriculum highlighting digitalisation and digital competence in compulsory school was launched in 2018 (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2018). Revision were initiated 2012 when the Swedish government appointed the so-called Digitalisation Commission to analyse and monitor progress in terms of meeting a specific goal – that Sweden should become world leader of using the opportunities of digitalisation. Interim reports by the Digitalisation Commission was the foundation for the revised curriculum. In 2017, the Swedish National Agency for Education presented a national strategy for the digitalisation of the Swedish K-12 school system to support the implementation of the revised curriculum. The government then appointed the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKL) to produce a national plan of action to provide guidance on how school organisers and schools shall work with the focus areas in the strategy - digital competence for all in the school system, equal access and use and research and follow-up on the possibilities of digitalisation. This in order to reach the new goals about digitalisation and digital competence in the revised curriculum.

From a theoretical point of view, such policy implementation and formation are often complex and understood as processes of interpretation and enactment (Ball, Maguire & Braun, 2012). Ball (2012) argues that actors on different levels in school take up and are given different positions in relation to policy. Moreover, depending on the type of policy actor, agency becomes affected, which implies a shift in power balance in the meaning making processes and the constructions of responses to policy change.

With this backdrop, the aim is to deepen the knowledge about how national educational stakeholders at SKL talk about their roles as key interpreters of the revised Swedish curriculum and the national strategy for the digitalisation of the Swedish K-12 school system. Moreover, their roles as constructors of the national plan of action and how it shall be implemented in a way making possible to fulfil the goals in the curricula of digitalisation and students development of digital competence. Two research questions:

(1) How do stakeholders at SKL understand the concept of digital competence and its importance in Swedish compulsory school for the 21^st Century?

(2) How do they understand their role in the ongoing process of implementing and support the national plan of action?

This first report of the 5-year project draws on data collection in the context of one major educational stakeholder of compulsory schools in Sweden, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKL). SKL represents every municipality in Sweden including the authorities of 85% of the students attending Swedish compulsory school. SKL has a leading role in the process of implementing and realizing the goals in the revised curriculum for compulsory school. As mentioned above the Swedish government appointed SKL to recommend a plan of action for the national strategy for the digitalisation of the Swedish K-12 school system including guidance to all school organizers and schools. This in order to subsidy a smooth transition, from policy to practice, that in the end will secure schools’ digitalisation and students development of digital competence. In early 2018, a project group at SKL was set up in order to put together the plan of action. In this work, a central part has been to establish dialogue and consultations with different stakeholders in the Swedish educational system. The plan of action is scheduled by SKL to be reported in March 2019, and in work before summer 2019. Data in this study is collected through semi-structured interviews with four key persons at SKL. All four are deeply involved in compiling the plan and hence playing a part in the curricular translation. The interviews will be carried out in April 2019. Each interview is scheduled to last between 90-120 minutes. The four key stakeholders are responsible for the actions in relation to each one of the focus areas in the national strategy - digital competence for all in the school system, equal access and use and research and follow-up on the possibilities of digitalisation. In attempt not to intervene the translation process, the interviews will be performed after the report of the national plan of action has been presented by SKL. The interviews will be transcribed verbatim. Data will be analysed with help of the software NVivo in which codes will be created based on content analysis (Miles, Huberman & Saldaña, 2014). The results will qualitatively analyzed in relation to Ball (2012) as presented above. Research data will then be stored according to the data management plan (DMP) set up for the study and follow the ethical rules for research stated by the Swedish research council.

While research on educational policy often takes top-down approaches, less research interests has been directed to the delivery chain, as being the case in the study reported on in the paper. It will contribute with knowledge on what Ball (2012) talks about in terms of a disciplinary linear logic change and a developmental creative process. More specifically, this is done by presenting early results from the first out of four studies in the longitudinal 5 years study on digitalisation and digital competence in Swedish compulsory school. The paper will provide tentative insights into the following: (a) national educational stakeholders’ understanding of digital competence, (b) their role as key interpreters in the ongoing process of implementing and supporting the Swedish national plan of action for the fulfilment of the goals related to digital competence, now present the national curricula for the compulsory school and (c) how this process can be attained through supportive actions. Moreover, the findings concerns insights into the complexity of such a policy implementation and formation including processes of interpretation and enactment (e.g. Ball, Maguire & Braun, 2012). The forthcoming three studies to be done in the remaining delivery chain will also be presented. Finally, the findings will be discussed in relation to similar educational policy initiatives and processes going on in several European countries right now (e.g. DigCompOrg).

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