This spring, digital tools have been in the firing line of criticism of Swedish schools. There are proposals to ban mobile phones in schools and ministers are talking about moving away from using digital tools. Regardless of the debate, pupils continue to spend a lot of time on their mobile phones and computers, and a new thesis from the University of Gothenburg highlights how schools are backing away from their educational mission.
Improvised teaching
The thesis points to several shortcomings in current digital competence teaching. Schools generally have little knowledge of what concrete digital experiences students have and what specific challenges they face in their everyday lives. Moreover, there is rarely a coordinated idea on how to address such challenges.
“Teachers help students more or less ad hoc when digital issues arise. Digital competence training often stops at being able to handle learning material on the computer, or to upload material to digital platforms. Students are also often given non-specific and generalised warnings: ‘Be critical of sources – take everything online with a pinch of salt and be careful!’. And in the higher grades, students have many teachers, who are not consistent in how students should act in the digital landscape,” says Christina Löfving, author of the thesis.
As important as reading and maths
Christina Löfving, a primary school teacher, university lecturer and former IT educator, has studied how schools are succeeding in their mission to develop pupils' digital competence. The European Commission describes digital competence as equivalent to being able to read, write and count, and the current Swedish national curriculum describes it as something that should be included in all school subjects. In her research, Christina Löfving has noted that, despite the importance of the subject, systematic teaching in the area is unusual. Often, it is up to the individual teacher's expertise and interest. The digital competence that students can develop in school is how they can technically use certain parts of the computer's functions and its digital platforms, something that is defined in the thesis as ‘platform bureaucracy’. It becomes like a new, invisible school subject, embedded and differently managed within different school subjects.
Digital citizenship
Digital competence is not just about systematically developing basic technical skills or knowledge of how to research fast information online. It is also about what is known as digital citizenship – ensuring that students are able and willing to engage actively and critically in a digitalised society from a young age, based on knowledge of technical, legal and ethical aspects. Children and young people need to know how to behave online, not just be warned. Can I photograph and share any picture, how do I write a respectful reply to an email? In today's school debate, there are still voices in favour of waiting to teach digital skills. Christina Löfving is hesitant to wait until later school years.
Even if there is a vision within a school organisation, peer learning and support, these are rarely based on what happens in classrooms or on knowledge about students' digital lives. What happens at classroom level therefore needs to be recognised at other levels in a completely different way than today.
“If schools as organisations do not pick up this ball, there is a risk that non-school actors will show students less democratic approaches, or that some students will be excluded from participating in a digitally integrated society. This in turn could pave the way for an unequal society in an already uncertain time, where artificial intelligence has become a tool, which also risks turning many things we have taken for granted on their head,” says Christina Löfving.
Important for curriculum work
The obstacles to students' development of digital competence in schools can be related to the school as an organisation, to policies, school development strategies and the school's role in society's rapid technological development. Teachers are left to deal with a series of dilemmas linked to a fast-paced contemporary world. The focus also tends to be on adapting schoolwork to the design of digital platforms instead of the other way round.
“I hope that my thesis will be read by policy actors who now have to take a position on the recently presented report from the curriculum committee (SOU 2025:19). The result is also important for teachers, school leaders, and for staff with digitalization assignments,” says Christina Löfving.
Thesis: Catering for Student Digital Competence: Teachers navigating the complexities of digital-infused education
Contact: Christina Löfving, PhD student at the Department of Applied Information Technology at the University of Gothenburg, phone: 070-965 03 00, e-mail: christina.lofving@gu.se
