Principals’ Professional Learning as Praxis-Oriented Change – Leading Digitalisation in Preschool Education

Abstract

This article takes a practice perspective on professional learning to contribute through an empirical example of how professional learning can be arranged to enable change in and for professional practice, as well as for nurturing praxis. The theory of practice architectures is used to analyse the process of an action research (AR) in which principals investigated and changed their ways of leading digitalisation in preschool education. The theorising of the co-production of practices was used to visualise how the changes were enabled in this process, as the practices for professional learning and leading became interdependent through shared practice architectures. The findings describe how such a co-production of practices enabled a process in which the principals went from a technical to a practical approach to change, when leading digitalisation, which further resulted in a critical stance. This was a process that manifested professional learning as praxis-oriented change in which the principals’ professional judgement increased.