Finnish teachers’ experiences with transformative digital agency

Abstract

In this study, we examined educational change and teachers’ continuous learning from the perspective of teachers’ transformative agency within the context of digitalization. We also examined the transformative needs of teachers participating in a specialization program related to digitalization and educational change, as well as experiences and fostering and challenging factors in their transformative digital agency. This study’s data—comprising teachers’ motivation letters, blog posts, and final interviews—were analyzed qualitatively through content analysis. The study found that teachers’ transformative needs involve four interconnected dimensions: competence development; structures; attitudes; and work description. Teachers’ experiences with transformative digital agency are evident through five themes: digitalization in everyday practice and work; roles; readiness for change; competence; and motivation. The fostering and challenging factors in teachers’ transformative agency include resources, peer support, ways of working, and leadership. We suggest that this study’s results interact to create an ecosystem in which teachers can function as agents of change by fostering innovation and the digital transformation of education by integrating digital tools and pedagogies to enrich teaching and learning, and by expanding individual innovations’ scope beyond personal practice to influence the wider educational community and regional or national contexts.

Keywords

• Teachers’ transformative digital agency
• educational change
• digipedagogical competence
• professional learning
• digitalization
• Teachers & Teacher Education