How Teachers Participate in the Infrastructuring of an Educational Network

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, schools vary greatly in the degree to which they have digitalized. New curricula in Finland have put additional pressure on education to meet the goals set for learning in the 21st century. In information systems (IS) research, digitalization increases an interest for understanding contemporary IS projects as infrastructuring. In this study, we examine how teachers as influential actors in transforming their environment participated in shaping the infrastructuring of the educational network of a Finnish city. A nexus analysis of teachers’ interviews revealed three main discourses. 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. The third discourse highlighted practices that teachers used to share resources as an organizational-balancing effort. The results reveal tensions between collegiality and leadership, submissive and empowered agency, and discontinuities and anticipation in ensuring continuity in infrastructuring. We discuss implications for organizing in-service training and developing local practices as contributing to infrastructuring in the educational network.