Dynamic Change: Shaping the Schools of Tomorrow in the Digital Age

Dear Colleagues,

The digitalization of schools has remained a focal point within societal, political, and scientific discourses over several years. Recent events, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequential challenges for educational institutions, have brought this topic even more into focus.

It is important to understand that digitalization transcends the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in classrooms. Established models like the Innovative Digital School Model (Ilomäki & Lakkala, 2018) underscore the necessity of viewing schools as a whole to sustainably navigate the digital transformation. Digitalization-related development processes in schools are crucial to create an environment where ICT can be effectively used for teaching and learning. While all stakeholders within educational settings, including teachers and students, are responsible for advancing institutional development, school management and its leadership are of particular importance in this regard (Dexter, 2018). It is within their responsibility to initiate, support, and shape digital development processes.

This Special Issue aims to bring together both theoretical and empirical research, in the form of literature reviews as well as qualitative, quantitative, and (quasi-) experimental empirical studies, all addressing the theme of school improvement in the digital age. The purpose is to aggregate diverse topics within this Special Issue to gain a holistic understanding of digitalization-related school improvement processes and provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Assessment of the digital infrastructure of schools and the challenges they face, such as resource allocation and organizational responsibilities.
• Exploration of digitization-related developments at the organizational level of schools, for instance, ensuring sustainable technical and pedagogical IT support.
• Analysis of issues and developments pertaining to school culture instigated by digitalization.
• Assessment of attitudes toward digitalization as well as digital competencies among teachers and students and their importance for the integration of ICT.
• Investigation regarding the integration of ICT within teaching and learning processes, alongside the identification of both barriers and facilitators.
• Growing significance of internal and external collaborations among schools in the context of digitalization.
• Examination of the different roles of various stakeholders in driving digital school improvement processes, with a special focus on school management and its leadership practices.
• Consideration of differences and similarities between different school types and levels in primary and secondary education, highlighting distinctions, parallels, and unique attributes.

Prof. Dr. Stephan Schumann
Guest Editor

Andreas Harder (andreas.harder@uni-konstanz.de)
Guest Editor Assistant

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• digital transformation
• educational technology
• technology integration
• school improvement
• school management
• leadership