Digital Citizenship and Professional Digital Competence — Swedish Subject Teacher Education in a Postdigital Era

Abstract

Teacher education (TE) is not only about skills and knowledge but also about citizenship formation as student teachers are prepared for the democratic assignment of school. In a postdigital era, blurred boundaries between digital technologies and physical reality place new demands on citizenship, teacher education institutions (TEIs), and teacher educators (TEDs). This paper explores Swedish TEDs’ views of digital citizenship and the professional digital competence (PDC) required for teaching subject student teachers to teach for digital citizenship. Seven TEIs participated and 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with TEDs teaching a Core Education Subjects module on education and democracy mandatory for all student teachers. TEDs generally believe that the digitalization of society impacts the democratic assignment and addressing this requires specific PDC. Conceptualizations of digital citizenship tend to foreground source criticism as well as ethical, safe, and sound use of digital technologies, and to some degree also (im-)material means of democratic participation. While generally believing that TE should address questions relating to digital citizenship and that TEDs have an important role in this regard, digital technologies are discussed in the module coincidentally and TEDs are unsure to what degree student teachers receive such training. Challenges include lack of time and unclear Degree Objectives. To develop TEDs’ PDC to include questions relating to digital citizenship in their teaching, support is needed through policy and continuous professional development for TEDs, including reviews of course content and program structure. Future TE research needs to explore digital citizenship in the school subject social studies.

Policy responses to false and misleading digital content

“…There does appear to be a discrepancy in the data between having these skills and actually using them. Overall, the literature suggests that that young people more commonly behave as consumers of the Internet, rather than active participants (Burns and Gottschalk, 2020 [81]; Ofcom, 2021 [78]).…”

Prospective Study on Professional Competence Development Planning of Higher Education Teachers in the Context of Big Data

“…At the same time, the German state governments provide the appropriate form of training for senior teachers according to the actual situation, according to the law: in the training process, senior teachers can choose the required form of training according to the actual situation. At the same time, Herman's goal for companies is to improve remote operating skills in cooperation with intercompanies and to improve the skills of Germans, as well as to establish regulatory system norms [5].…”

Å utvikle digital kompetanse gjennom refleksjon over kroppslige og emosjonelle erfaringer – en lærerutdanners erfaringer

“…Forskning på digital kompetanse i en laererutdanningskontekst inkluderer studier om hvordan laererutdanninger implementerer digital kompetanse i studiene (Amdam et al, 2022;Thorvaldsen, 2020), dokumentanalyser av ulike styringsdokumenter (Arstorp, 2021) og hvilke erfaringer laererstudenter og nyutdannede laerere har med å utvikle sin digitale kompetanse gjennom studiet (Almås et al, 2021;Gudmundsdottir & Hatlevik, 2018;Johannesen & Øgrim, 2020). Empiriske studier om laererutdanneres erfaring med, og utvikling av, digital kompetanse er imidlertid et underforsket område (Hjukse et al, 2020;Lund & Aagaard, 2020;Røkenes et al, 2022;Örtegren, 2022).…”

“…I en nordisk kontekst viser studier at laererutdannere ønsker mer digital kompetanse, og at behovet for å utvikle denne kompetansen økte under pandemien (Lindfors, 2021;Røkenes et al, 2022;Örtegren, 2022;Aagaard et al, 2022;Aagaard & Lund, 2019). Studier viser også at laererutdannere har mer kompetanse i å anvende digitale ressurser i egen undervisning enn i å utvikle laererstudentenes digitale kompetanse.…”