Halvvägs till 2022. Skolväsendets digitala transformation

Abstract

The following case study analyzes the current digitalization project that is undergoing at municipal schools in Sweden. The government has emphasized the importance of a digitalized society and hopes to achieve this through a more digitalized school system. In an effort to successfully implement the change, the government put forth nationally recognized goals in 2017 that each municipality should strive for. These goals are meant to be reached by 2022 but the timeline is often considered to be too short by people involved in the process. This study investigates how a specific municipality works alongside their schools in their effort to reach the goals. Opinions on the process were collected from individuals involved in the digitalization process, including the head of the project, IT managers, principals, and teachers, through semi-structured interviews. Using theories surrounding institutional logic and digitalization, the study explains that the school system is a complex organization with contradicting interests on how the digitalization process should take place. The inability to reach a common and more centralized logic has caused the organizational change to progress slowly. The current organization of the municipality when involving schools is insufficient for a successful digital transformation that reaches the national digitalization goals.