Adequate digital competence: a close reading of the new national strategy for digitalization of the schools in Sweden

In this paper, the notion of ‘adequate digital competence’, as it is used in the 2017 Swedish strategy for digitalization of the school system, is in focus. Based on a close reading of the strategy, three dimensions are formulated for discussion: time, context, and interpretation. These dimensions open a more general discussion about the content of policies regarding digital competence. The notion of striving for an ‘adequate digital competence’ for children, students, teachers, school leaders, and other school staff is loaded with a variety of possible meanings. The strategy provides guidance in some aspects, but leaves a lot to local enactment of the strategy.

"The use of ‘adequate digital competence’allowsdifferent actors to interpret the meaning of what is to be regarded as ‘adequate’, dependent on context and circumstances related to all aspects of the educational system and to different aspects of time.... As such, ‘adequate’places the enacting of a policy in the hands of different actors in the K-12 school system –the local school authorities, the school leaders, the teachers, and all other staff members who areinvolved in education." (Authors, 225-226).