Approaching teaching to teach for digital citizenship: social science teacher education through a postdigital lens

Abstract in English

Citizenship education requires well-trained teachers to support young people’s participation in democratic life where digital technologies and social practices are inseparable. Social science teacher educators prepare student teachers for this work amid complex institutional dynamics and rapidly shifting demands for digital citizenship and professional digital competence including artificial intelligence. This thesis aims to contribute knowledge on how these teacher educators approach teaching to teach for digital citizenship in such postdigital contexts, exploring and analyzing the conditions for such teaching within institutional arrangements.

Employing a postdigital lens within an emergent research design, the thesis comprises four interconnected studies. These encompass theoretical analysis of digital citizenship conceptualizations, document reviews and interviews with teacher educators in Core Education Subjects and social science subject courses at a third of Sweden’s teacher education institutions, and a national survey across all institutions. Analytical approaches included qualitative content analysis, reflexive thematic analysis, and convergent mixed methods with quantitative priority.

The results show systematic variation in teacher educators’ approaches to digital citizenship education. Like in literature, conceptualizations vary from instrumental approaches to recognizing entangled sociotechnical relations. Despite general acknowledgment of digital citizenship’s importance, the substantial variation in conceptualizations extends to roles, responsibilities, and professional digital competence. Disciplinary background and schoolteacher experience emerge as key factors shaping both competence and approaches, alongside various institutional arrangements that amplify variation. The compounded result is fragmentation, where digital citizenship risks becoming an institutional blind spot with implications for student teacher preparation equivalence.

Practical implications include institutional support through program coordination, enabling cross-disciplinary collaboration, professional development, and policy clarity. These include a reframing of professional digital competence from person-centered toward ecologically situated capabilities responsive to institutional and sociotechnical contexts.