The suggested presentation will describe findings from the study “ForUSE-digi – Teacher professional development (TPD) and school support systems for school development regarding digitalisation in education” funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany and carried out at the University of Duisburg-Essen. ForUSE-digi provides the status quo of school support systems – strategies, structures, and specific measures, including TPD – in Germany in the context of digitalisation in form of a nation-wide inventory – prior to the forced break caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

As digitalisation changes and challenges societies and education systems globally (Mishra, 2020; Butler et al., 2018), answers and solutions are needed as to how school systems can respond to the concomitant complex responsibility: preparing schools for the digital world. International comparisons like ICILS 2018 and PISA 2018 reveal backlogs in many countries in this regard (Fraillon et al., 2019; OECD 2019). Like other countries in Europe, Germany is facing a challenging situation: whilst information and communication technologies (ICT) are part of everyday life, ICT is still not implemented comprehensively in schools (OECD, 2018). In 2016, all German federal states committed themselves to implementing a strategy encompassing guidelines for school development processes in order to foster students’ “competences in the digital world” (KMK, 2017) in their respective school system. As ICT-integration in schools needs to be understood as an integral part of school development, the question of how schools can best be supported in this respect is most complex.

This complexity can be seen on different levels: 

• On individual level, different frameworks (e.g. TPACK, Koehler and Mishra, 2009) offer an understanding of what teachers need to know in the context of digitalisation. Also, there is a broad body of research findings on what makes TPD effective (e.g. Lipowsky & Rzejak, 2017; Timperley et al., 2007). 
• On organisational level, models of school development (e.g. Eickelmann & Gerick, 2017; Sleegers & Leithwood, 2010) give information on which processes are needed for schools to change.  
• On system level, federal state education ministries and state institutes for school support are responsible for quality assurance in education. To support schools and teachers, also in the context of digitalization, school support systems exist in all federal states, but are structured differently (Daschner & Hanisch, 2019).

Thus, it can be assumed that there is a great heterogeneity underlying the operating principles and offers of support (comprising TPD-measures and guidance for schools and their staff). However, a current systematic overview on TPD and other measures of school support regarding digitalisation in education does not exist (ibid). 

Therefore, ForUSE-digi compiles a systematic inventory of measures and activities instigated in the 16 federal states in Germany as support for schools regarding digitalisation in education and an analysis of their potential for school development. Furthermore, to gain an understanding of how offers of support are developed, the approach of educational governance (Altrichter, 2010) is taken up, following the assumption that a multitude of actors is involved in a multilevel system and that coordination of action shapes support.

The study addresses these research questions (RQ): 

1. In which ways do the German federal states provide measures of support for school development in the context of digitalisation in terms of strategies, structures and specific measures and which understanding of digitalisation is underlying those?  
2. Which specifications, patterns or indications regarding potentials and risks for school development processes in the context of digitalization can be concluded in terms of characteristics of effective TPD, professional teacher knowledge (TPACK), and school development? 
3. How does coordination of action affect the implementation and orientation of school support measures in the context of digitalisation?

ForUSE-digi is designed in cross-sectional design providing the status quo of where school support systems in Germany stand in the context of digitalisation – directly before the forced break caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In order to compile the nation-wide inventory (RQ 1, 2), a collection of publicly accessible documents provided by federal states’ institutions accompanied by a systematic inquiry in all federal states was assembled. 143 documents and – based on a random sample of max. 30 in each federal state – 450 announcement texts of TPD measures are considered. To answer RQ 1, the documents are analysed by way of qualitative content analysis (Mayring, 2015) applying a category system following a deductive-inductive approach using the software “MAXQDA 2020”: First, a selection by an automated coding process indicated the documents that are rather more useful to answer the research questions and therefore more important for the deeper analysis using the varied category system. The following “superordinate” categories make up the category system: general information about the document; concept and understanding of digitalisation; strategies, structures, and range of the school support systems (including TPD, guidance for subject-specific or overall school development, technical support and further measures). To answer RQ 2, the category system is reorganised in terms of characteristics of effective TPD, components of professional teacher knowledge (TPACK) and dimensions of school development to gain insights into specifications, patterns, or indications regarding potentials and risks for school development processes in the context of digitalisation. For answering RQ 3, guided interviews with leaders of state institutes for school support in selected federal states are conducted as an in-depths analysis in the beginning of 2021. The approach of Educational Governance is taken up as an analytical framework to investigate how the stakeholders coordinate their actions to align their support systems. The “expert interview” (Helfferich, 2019) will be applied, to identify which constellations and conditions prevail and which factors have an influence on the implementation and orientation of school support offers for school development regarding digitalisation in education. The selection of federal states is based on the outcome of the content analysis using the inventory. Six federal states were chosen as contrastive cases for the expert interviews to identify different ways to plan, organize and implement offers provided by the school support systems.

Digitalisation is a rapidly changing field which makes it hard to investigate. The education system for the most part, however, is rather slowly changing. Given the break due to Covid-19, ICT-supported teaching and learning is seeing a boost of unprecedented scope. In order to conclude the right lessons from these challenging times and to maintain good experiences, foster potentials and fulfil the obligation to prepare schools, teachers and students for the digital world, schools need adequate support. Updating the school support system as well as the schools is inevitable. ForUSE-digi offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity to assess the state of ICT-related school support in Germany directly before the interruption by Covid-19 circumstances, while confronting the challenging federal structure of Germany and the need to account for – essentially – 16 educational/school systems. As in all federal states heterogeneous support systems are in place, one gain of the study will be the provision of a nation-wide inventory of the status quo in each state. Where and how to go from there will be addressed in the expert interviews, aiming at unveiling certain logics of action. The study may offer vital insights into coordination of action and the processes of transferring and interpreting as well as implementing these decisions on different levels in the complex education system. Other (European) education systems may profit as well, as all countries are facing digitalisation as a societal challenge that needs to be addressed in education. Findings from the nation-wide inventory and preliminary findings from the in-depth analyses (interviews) will be presented. The project is part of the meta-project “Digitalisation in the Fields of Education” funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany, included in the Ministry’s program for empirical education research.

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