Mid Sweden University

Artificial Intelligence (AI) alters the societal landscape and transforms people's lives. In the realm of education, AI offers many opportunities and challenges in teaching and learning. While AI holds promise in enriching learning experiences and fostering motivation, its successful integration into educational practice necessitates that both students and teachers possess digital competence. Education plays a critical role in preparing future workforces. In South America, Brazil stands as the most populous country, with 212.6 million people. The utilisation of AI generative tools, such as ChatGPT, for teaching purposes in the country, is on the rise, albeit constrained within the educational context. Challenges faced in integrating AI generative tools in Brazil’s education system include the facilitation of plagiarism and teachers’ insufficient digital competence. In an effort to delve into the intricacies of teachers’ experiences and challenges regarding the integration of AI generative tools into their pedagogical practice, a qualitative study was conducted, and nine teachers in an upper secondary school in Brazil answered a questionnaire involving seven open questions. The teachers perceive the integration of AI generative tools into teaching practice as an instrument that enhances opportunities for improving the quality of teaching, stimulating student interest, and enriching the dynamism of the content learning process. Teachers have highlighted ChatGPT as a valuable tool for research and consultation. This tool can simplify teaching tasks and is typically well-received by students. Both teachers and students can utilise this tool to generate materials such as lyrics and textual variations and even produce fully composed songs ready for listening. ChatGPT is also used to prepare and correct assessments, ensuring consistency in evaluation. Teachers use AI to prepare texts, quizzes, and multiple-choice tests. AI-generated images are also used to enhance illustrations, making learning materials more engaging and visually appealing. Although AI simplifies complex subjects and makes the learning process more engaging, it is essential to provide adequate training on AI tools to enhance student involvement and educational results. 

This paper aims to contribute knowledge about the influences of leaders’ perceptions of digitalisation on arrangements for leading the expansion of access to and application of digital technologies in K–12 education. Supporting the digitalisation of K–12 education requires digital competence. School organisers’ and school leaders’ digital competence and perceptions of digitalisation contribute to how digital technologies are employed in schools. Survey and participant observations were used to investigate leaders’ perceptions of digitalisation in K–12 education. The data were analysed using thematic analysis and theory of practice architecture. The results show that perceptions of digitalisation in K–12 education influence arrangements by allowing opportunities for enhanced quality in teaching and equality within and among schools. Further, collaborations between leaders, sharing ideas and experiences, and enhancing leadership are elements that contribute to the shaping of leaders’ perceptions of digitalisation in schools. This paper contributes to the knowledge of leaders’ perceptions of expanding the access to and application of digital technologies in schools.

This thesis aims to identify, describe, and analyse practices in school organisers’ and school leaders’ collaborative efforts to expand access to and application of digital technologies in K–12 education from a leadership perspective. A practice-oriented approach has been used to analyse practices for expanding this access and application. This approach facilitates a deeper understanding of the actual occurrences in municipalities when it comes to the expansion of digital technologies in their schools. The thesis employs the theory of practice architecture as an analytical tool to investigate the expansion of digital technologies in K–12 education from leaders’ perspectives. The research took place in three Swedish municipalities. The data comes from document analysis, participant observations, interviews, and surveys. The thesis comprises four articles, each contributing valuable insights into digitalisation in K–12 education, with the first two focussing on the perspectives of school organisers and school leaders, the third emphasising the expansion of digital technologies, and the last exploring the perceptions of school organisers and school leaders regarding the expansion of digital technologies in K–12 education. School organisers underlined the importance of schools gaining access to digital technologies that are not only usable but also well suited for their intended purposes. At the same time, school leaders explained that the misapplication of digital technologies in K–12 education may generate negative effects. For example, nonuser-friendly interfaces in software may increase users’ workloads and reduce teachers' motivation to use digital technologies in teaching due to a lack of support and digital competence. The school leaders highlighted that their collaboration with the school organiser and IT department has been successful in recent years. At the same time, they pointed out that the reduced number of staff at strategic and operational levels has created challenges in maintaining a productive dialogue with school organisers, consequently impacting digitalisation in schools. School organisers highlighted that leadership for expanding digital technologies in K–12 education should include a complete understanding of what digitalisation entails, which is vital to digital expansion and enhancing teaching quality. At the same time, they pointed out that school leaders need to prioritise their time and that digitalisation leadership training might not be the highest prioritisation in K–12 education. The results have implications for K–12 education leaders striving to expand digital technologies in their schools.

Digital technologies have increased worldwide in the last years. In addition, the pandemic has strengthened digital technologies’ roles in education, requiring twenty-first-century skills, such as digital competence, and indicating a new normal. Digitalisation in education creates opportunities that could lead to positive effects if digital technologies are applied correctly. However, applying digital technologies can incorrectly trigger a negative development – for example, increasing workload due to nonfriendly user interfaces in software and reducing the motivation to apply digital technologies in education due to a lack of digital competence. Teachers require access to digital technologies and digital competence related to educational issues that influence equality within and among K–12 schools, thus making school leaders’ roles crucial in digitalising education. Three group interviews and a survey were used to collect the data in a network of three municipalities in Sweden. The data have been categorised and analysed with thematic analysis. The results show that school leaders describe the digitalisation process in the form of digital competence for teachers, access to hardware and software, and a shared culture. School leaders explain that clear guidelines, collaboration between teachers, and enough time enable digitalisation in education. However, the lack of support and the lack of resources constrain digitalisation in education. At the same time, school leaders do not often discuss their own digital competence. The school leaders’ roles in the digitalisation of K–12 schools are important, requiring digital competence for leading the digitalisation process. 

This study aims to explore the practice for leading the expansion of the access to and application of digital technologies in K–12 education at the municipality level. Participant observations were used to collect the data in a network with three Swedish municipalities. The study drew on the theory of practice architecture as an analytical tool to understand the practice. The findings indicate that leadership in digitalizing K–12 education should involve collaboration and a comprehensive viewpoint that facilitates the expansion of access to and application of digital technologies and a mutual understanding of the challenges and opportunities digital technologies present in K–12 education. Understanding the significance of digital technologies in K–12 education holds great importance for how digital technologies are prioritized in schools. Further, the findings show how school organizers’ support of teachers and school leaders affects how digital technologies are expanded in K–12 education and how digital technologies are applied in teaching, affecting equality within schools and the quality of teaching. Therefore, school organizers’ digital competence is important.

School leaders are responsible for creating the right conditions for schools and, through dialogue, understanding schools' needs and prerequisites, distributing resources, and following up on the schools' development. School leaders are also important for supporting schools in realizing a top-down policy. One example of such policy is the digitalization policy aimed at implementing digital technologies in teaching, where strong school leaders is necessary. Thus, leadership is a crucial ingredient for a good digitalization process in schools. However, there is little written about school leaders' practice. Further, school leaders' practice may contain more networked leadership despite the fact that they often assumed a top-down leadership role, which would be especially clear when viewed through a networked learning perspective. Further, different countries have different school systems where the school leaders may be referred to by different names in their roles for supporting the schools.

A common area in need of support is the digitalization of schools. Students may not get the skills they need in the future as challenges to ensure the advancement is enacted continue to broaden. Thus, it may be interesting to delve deeper into the structures of countries that may differ in general structure for school systems. In conjunction with a networked collaboration between the University of Brazil and Mid Sweden University, connections between the school systems in both countries will be made in this paper to distinguish parts of their leadership strategy for the digitalization of schools. Leadership within schools is closely connected to the pedagogical implementation of technologies. In one dimension of school leadership related to digitalization, there exists a notable aspect known as the networked dimension, which is intricately linked to assessment policies and roles associated with ICT. Given the assumption for the networked dimension, this paper is written for two primary purposes. The first purpose is to investigate the networked leadership dimension according to various leadership roles for school leaders' digitalization work. The second purpose is to prepare a comparative study of the school systems of Brazil and Sweden by reviewing literature that analyses these regions.Thus, in this short paper, we assume that school leaders' practice when compared across two countries different in size from a networked leadership perspective may comprise a research gap, indicating the relevancy of a literature review investigation of this gap.

Purpose This paper is aimed at describing and analysing what school organisers express when they network to expand the access and application of digital technologies in educational systems. Digital technologies develop rapidly in society, creating challenges and opportunities in people's lives. Schools have an important task: to prepare young people for a future permeated by digital technology. Design/methodology/approach Participant observations and semi-structured interviews were used to describe and analyse how school organisers describe digitalisation work in the educational system. Findings The findings show that school organisers describe digital competence and providing support to schools as being important for expanding the access and application of digital technologies in the educational system. They also talk about equality connected to digitalisation work, changes in organisations, the importance of a holistic perspective, and a gold thread. They furthermore explain that networks, a sharing culture, good relations, and good communication enable digitalisation work. In addition, they point out that the lack of time, attitudes towards digital technologies, the lack of digital competence, and resistance to change are some of the constraints for digital technologies in the educational system. Practical implications School organisers need to implement digitalisation policies, which can be problematic because they work strategically to support operational activities. Originality/value This paper contributes knowledge about school organisers' work to expand the access and application of digital technologies in the educational system.