About the project
This study will analyse curricula across several institutions and explore what teacher educators do to foster student teachers’ professional digital competence (PDC) and how they describe their professional role concerning promoting student teachers’ PDC. The study will also explore how teacher education institutions cooperate with partner schools to ensure coherence and create opportunities for the further and more practical development of PDC.
Research questions
The overarching research question is: How is PDC facilitated in Norwegian teacher education policy and practice?
This question has been divided into sub-questions, and the project will consist of three sub-studies that will answer the parent question.
- In what ways is digital competence addressed in teacher education local curricula, and how does this relate to teacher educators’ professional knowledge base.
- How do teacher educators perceive their role in promoting student teachers‘ PDC in teacher education on campus?
- Which dimensions of PDC are central in teacher education institutions’ cooperation with partner schools?
Objectives
The research project’s primary goal is to gain insight into how initial teacher education programmes for grades 5-10 in Norway facilitate the development of professional digital competence in student teachers. Findings from this project will have implications for the further development of local curricula, the organisation of teacher education study programmes and teacher educators’ professional development.
The project was started in the fall semester 2020 and is planned to be completed after three years. Data will be collected from six Norwegian teacher education institutions.
Project Sub-Studies
This project employs a mixed methods approach, focusing on qualitative methods with a sequential-concurrent design (Johnson & Christensen, 2012).
The first phase (Sub-Study 1) will focus on local curricula as policy documents and provide an overview of the intentions concerning the promotion of student teachers’ PDC on the level of a formal curriculum (Goodlad et al., 1979).
In the second phase, the perspective will narrow down and focus on how teacher educators perceive and operationalise local curricula on campus (Sub-Study 2), and in cooperation with partner schools (Sub-Study 3). The sub-studies will also draw on theory about teacher educators' knowledge base and professional roles.
Cooperation
Research groups: