Remote teaching – a new organizational challenge for swedish schools?

Remote teaching is important for schools’ and their possibilities to ensure that all students have equal access to education, not least in rural areas with long distances, lack of qualified teachers and diminishing birthrates. Research into remote teaching have mainly focused on the pedagogical situation in the classroom.

Less is known about how remote teaching is organized, within and between participating schools, and how this form of education influence and is influenced by the larger school organization.

The aim of this project is to analyze and understand challenges and changes in school organizations when remote teaching is conducted.

Two research questions are posted:How do the conditions for remote teaching develop and change?What characterizes the organization of remote teaching within and between school units and how does it challenge previous traditions of school?Framed by cultural-historical activity theory, the project will be carried out in two sub-studies.

In sub-study 1 (RQ1), a validated questionnaire is used to analyze and understand the basic conditions for remote teaching in school.

The questionnaire is distributed to all schools in ten municipalities in northern Sweden at the beginning and at the end of the project. In sub-study 2 (RQ2), a case study is carried out. Three school organizations are selected and followed as cases for 2.5-years. The project ends with coherent analyzes of both sub-studies.