Charting the Course: Teacher Agency and Institutional Change in the Digital Transformation of Education
Creators: name: Wohlfart, Olivia
name: Wagner, Ingo
Publisher: name: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
Year: 2024

description: The ongoing digital transformation poses a substantial challenge to the education system, requiring sustained adjustments across all levels, including instruction and school administration (European Commission, 2020; Eickelmann &amp; Gerick, 2017). In the realm of such transformative processes, educational stakeholders assume diverse roles with varying degrees of influence (Stoll &amp; Seashore, 2007). Extensive research underscores the pivotal role of teachers in general transformation processes (Leander &amp; Osborne, 2008; Sebastian et al., 2016), particularly in the realm of digitalizing education (Wohlfart &amp; Wagner, 2023). In our study, we understand teachers (as employees of governmental educational institutions) to be institutional agents for education due to their influence on educational practices, curriculum development, classroom culture, and student development. Fundamentally, teachers, as agents, wield substantial influence over whether and how institutionalized practices evolve over time or persist unchanged (Bridwell-Mitchell, 2015).
The aim of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamic relationships between teacher agency and institutional and infrastructural changes in the context of the rapid digital transformation initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent two-year period by answering the following research questions (RQ):
RQ1: Which institutional and instructional changes toward digital transformation were induced by the COVID-19 pandemic?
RQ2: How is teacher agency associated with institutional and instructional changes?
Method
To answer our research questions, we conducted a longitudinal interview study over two years in the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, conducting three rounds of interviews with the same teachers at secondary schools in 2020, 2021 and 2022. For this purpose, we developed three interview guidelines with a small variation in focus over the years. The interview guidelines consisted of five to eight main questions focusing on adaptation to distance teaching, technology acceptance and implementation, transformation processes of the role of teachers, and digital transformation on instructional and institutional changes. In addition, we used a short questionnaire to obtain the sociodemographic information of the participants. The interviews lasted between 34 and 71 minutes each and were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim according to specific transcription guidelines which resulted in 396 pages of single-spaced transcribed text.
We performed an iterative qualitative content analysis on the 30 transcripts according to Mayring (2022) with deductive categories based on how structure, culture, and agency influenced the digital transformation process of their school setting (e.g., leadership), as well as the inductive categories that emerged from the transcribed interview material and described specific changes in instruction and institutions (e.g., modification of instructional formats). 
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings
The analysis reveals significant changes in teaching and organization during the Covid-19 pandemic. Overall, the interviewed teachers, as captives of digitalization in times of the COVID-19 pandemic, made use of their agency and “stepped up” to pandemic-induced changes (Buchanan, 2015, p. 710). According to the interviewees, adjustments to formats, the development of teaching materials, changes in assessment practices, and a transformation of the role of teachers were identified in teaching. Regarding organization, infrastructure was improved, workspace design was adjusted, leadership and media concepts were developed or revised, and collaboration was strengthened. The findings highlight the importance of both individual and collective transformative agency in initiating and sustaining instructional changes. However, the success of the transformation process depends on the presence of supportive structural and contextual conditions. In addition, the analysis emphasizes the challenges and complexities associated with system-wide changes in teaching and learning. Instructional and institutional changes driven by teacher agency during the pandemic demonstrate the need for extensive infrastructure, coordinated materials, teacher training, and professional development. We present these findings as a heuristic model of interconnected dynamics of teacher agency in digital transformation and its impact on institutional and instructional changes.
References
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