University of Oulu

Halkola, Eija; Kuure, Leena: How Teachers Participate in the Infrastructuring of an Educational Network, Communications of the Association for Information Systems 48(1): 265-283. https://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol48/iss1/32/

How teachers participate in the infrastructuring of an educational network

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Author: Halkola, Eija1; Kuure, Leena2
Organizations: 1University of Oulu, INTERACT Research Unit, Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering
2University of Oulu, Research Unit for Languages and Literature
Format: article
Version: published version
Access: open
Online Access: PDF Full Text (PDF, 0.4 MB)
Persistent link: http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe2020092475763
Language: English
Published: Association for Information Systems, 2020
Publish Date: 2020-09-24
Description:

Abstract

The evolution of digital technologies has changed the ways in which people interact with and through technologies. Despite longstanding investment in technical and pedagogical infrastructure, there is great diversity between schools in terms of their degree of digitalization. New curricula in Finland are putting additional pressure on education to meet the goals of the 21st century. In information systems (IS) research, digitalization increases an interest for understanding modern IS projects as infrastructuring. This study examines the infrastructuring of the educational network of a Finnish city from the perspective of teachers as influential actors in transforming their environment. A nexus analysis of interviews foregrounded three main discourses circulating the teachers’ participation in infrastructuring. The first discourse depicted teachers balancing between traditional and new educational solutions when aligning their pedagogy-driven practices with curriculum objectives. The second discourse concerned infrastructuring activities for establishing pedagogical ICT use successfully, and the third discourse highlighted practices of sharing resources as an effort of organizational balancing. The results reveal tensions between collegiality and leadership, submissive and empowered agency, and discontinuities and anticipation in ensuring continuity in infrastructuring. The study provides implications for organizing in-service training and developing local practices as contributing to infrastructuring in the educational network.

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Series: Communications of the Association for Information Systems
ISSN: 1529-3181
ISSN-E: 1529-3181
ISSN-L: 1529-3181
Volume: 48
Issue: 1
Pages: 265 - 283
Article number: 32
Type of Publication: A1 Journal article – refereed
Field of Science: 113 Computer and information sciences
Subjects:
Funding: This work was funded by Jenny and Antti Wihuri foundation.
Copyright information: Copyright © 2019 by the Association for Information Systems.