From the beginning of the 1990s, there have been arguments for using ICT for learning in Sweden. The primary arguments have been that ICT drives globalization and that it is an issue for the whole country. ICT as a part of a global economy should be made use of with efficiency, and ICT should enhance quality. Students should learn to use ICT, and ICT was to become an integrated tool in all school subjects (Swedish Government Official Reports, 1994). 

Today, in the changing world where democracy is under continuing change and development, digitalization is one of the stronger driving forces for change and it creates both opportunities and challenges on individual and societal levels. Research findings indicate that despite substantial efforts by educational authorities to increase ICT access for pupils and teacher’s digital equity has not been reached (Haltevik et.al, 2015; Hatlevik et al., 2018). The term “digital divide” is often used to describe inequalities in access to and use of ICT. In Sweden, children have access to digital tools in their leisure time regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds. However, a distinguishing aspect is how the digital features are used (Swedish Media Council, 2019). In other words, there is a diversity of content in children’s digital experiences in relation to social economic and cultural backgrounds (Swedish Media Council, 2019). 

During recent decades, several attempts have been made to elaborate    on the digital competencies needed for teachers and pupils in school education (From, 2017; Hatlevik et al., 2018, Olofsson et.al., 2020). Previous research studies indicate the complexity ofdigital competence when applied in educational contexts. However, a didactical question is what it might take to develop digitalcompetence in educational settings and what such competence might look like in today’s digitalized societies? Most researchfocuses on the specific competence needed by teachers and therefore tends to neglect the influence of broader contextual conditions in the wider school settings (Pettersson, 2018).  

With regard to the ongoing discussion of digital competencies in the twenty-first century (From, 2017; Olofsson et.al., 2020), the aim of this paper is to examine digitalization policies, focusing digitalization and education, from the perspective of the Central and Northern European tradition of Didaktik (Hopmann, 2007; Klafki & MacPherson, 2000). We argue that in the era of ICT and competence frameworks, Didaktik and the German notion of Bildung provides ways of thinking about educational questions, which could contribute strongly to pedagogical perspectives in Sweden as well as in other countries. 

The study presented here serve as a sub-study in a larger research project. The empirical data include two K-12 schools with different conditions of demographic and geographic factors, in terms of diversity in the distance to urban areas. The schools are classified as ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ according to the classifications when characterizing demography surrounding schools by OECD standards from 2016. The empirical material consists of local policies at school and municipality levels from 2020 to 2022. The focus is primarily on local policy-making regarding digital policies and teachers’ work, which include in what way digital competences and democratic structures are taken into account in local policies concerning lesson planning and subject matter. The analytical focus is on the different levels of policy, at a transnational, national and local policy level by using the theoretical concept of Discursive Institutionalism (DI) (Schmidt, 2011). A point of departure is that discourse not just is expressed ideas (what?) but they are also context driven (where?) and linked to actors (who?) (Schmidt, 2011). Discursive Institutionalism (DI) gives the ability to explain transformation and continuity in and between different levels of ideas. Here, the analytical focus highlights ideas of digitalization in education at different levels. Moreover, we have modified the analytical framework to include policy-making at local arenas (municipality and schools) in which digital policies is an ongoing work for the actors. The particular focus for the analysis, in this sub-study, is in what way do digitalisation policies at local arenas, at school and municipality level, express digital competencies in relation to teaching and learning?

The analysis of local digitalization policies shows ideas of highlighting pupils’ learning by using ICT in ethical and moralistic ways according to goals expressed in national policy texts. The findings show examples of important factors that are taken into considerations in the policies at local levels, such as: ‘Critical approaches- to the content of webpages, information search, copy-rights and ‘classroom work with source criticism and social media’. Overall, the findings indicate that the local digitalization goals are connected to headlines in the Swedish curriculum and express that teaching should consider pupils’ prior experiences and individual conditions. Additionally, ICT should be a part of subject contents and that teaching should include pupils’ development of elementary computer skills such as: create, share, and revise digital documents, attach files, and animations of texts and images. The findings also show examples of democratic structures on which Swedish society is based, in the local digitalization policies, such as: ‘The pupils will have opportunities to down-load, create, and express themselves in a democratic and charitable way’. However, the findings show tendencies of how local conditions, in the municipalities and the schools, affects the content of the local digitalization policies. The conclusion from this study highlights didactical challenges in relation to societal demands and diversities in forms of demographical, social, and cultural conditions for municipalities and schools. Additionally, digitalization goals expressed in Swedish national policies do not take into consideration didactical challenges as well as teaching and learning in diverse contexts in Sweden. From the conclusions presented here, we argue that the debate of digitalization in Swedish schools must include the variations of local conditions instead of viewing the Swedish schools as similar ones, as the Swedish national policies do.

From, J. (2017). Pedagogical digital competence—between values, knowledge and skills. Higher Education Studies, 7(2), 43–50. Hatlevik, O. E., Guðmundsdóttir, G. B., & Loi, M. (2015). Digital diversity among upper secondary students: A multilevel analysis of the relationship between cultural capital, self-efficacy, strategic use of information and digital competence. Computers & Education, 81, 345-353. Hatlevik, O. E., Throndsen, I., Loi, M., & Gudmundsdottir, G. B. (2018). Students’ ICT self-efficacy and computer and information literacy: Determinants and relationships. Computers & Education, 118, 107-119. Hopmann, S. (2007). Restrained teaching: The common core of Didaktik. European Educational Research Journal, 6(2), 109-124. Klafki, W. & MacPherson, R. (2000). The significance of classical theories of Bildung for a contemporary concept of Allgemeinbildung. Teaching as a reflective practice: The German Didaktik tradition, 85-107 Olofsson, A. D., Fransson, G., & Lindberg, J. O. (2020). A study of the use of digital technology and its conditions with a view to understanding what ‘adequate digital competence’may mean in a national policy initiative. Educational studies, 46(6), 727-743. Pettersson, F. (2018). On the issues of digital competence in educational contexts–a review of literature. Education and Information Technologies, 23(3), 1005-1021. Schmidt, V. A. (2011). Speaking of change: why discourse is key to the dynamics of policy transformation. Critical policy studies, 5(2), 106-126. Swedish Government Official Reports (1994). SOU 1994:118 Vingar till människans förmåga [Wings to man's ability]. Swedish Media Council (2019). Ungar & Medier [Kids & Media]. Stockholm: Statens medieråd. Swedish National Agency for Education (2011; 2022). National curriculum and syllabus, Stockholm: Fritzes Swedish National Agency for Education (2016) Report on the assignment to propose national IT strategies for the school system Dnr U2015 / 04666 / S