En pandemi, leder till en ökad styrning av teknologi - En kvalitativ fallstudie om gymnasielärares upplevelse av skiftet till distansundervisning under Corona-krisen

Sammanfattning: Abstract Title: A pandemic leads to increased technological control Seminardate: 2020-06-03 Authors: Karin Ericsson, Olle Stenbäck and Albin Waldeck Advisor/s: Jens Rennstam Course: FEKH49, Business Administration: Bachelor Degree Project in Organization Undergraduate level, 15 University Credits Points Key words: Organisational control, technological control, online education, high school teachers, control in school Purpose: The purpose of our study is with the use of a control perspective, try to understand the meaning of technology in school during a sudden shift towards online education, as result of the Corona pandemic. We intend to achieve this by examining how teachers experience and are affected by an imposed technological control. Methodology: The study is a qualitative case study based on semi-structured interviews with teachers and a principal at a high school. The study’s ontological standpoint is social constructionistic with an interpretive approach where an inductive methodology with abductive elements is applied. Theoretical perspectives: In the literature review, a definition of the concept organisational control is first presented. Here, three types of organisational control and different control methods are presented. As the technological control is central in this study, it receives its own heading, where the notion is explained thoroughly. Furthermore, a description of organisational control within the Swedish school is presented in general and later, under a separate heading, more specific research about technological control within the school is presented Empirical foundation: The empirical material consists of quotes from interviews with various high school teachers and a principal of a high school. The quotes present the teachers and the principal's experiences of the imposed online education. Conclusions: The teachers experience a lack of directions from the school board and therefore receive a large amount of responsibility to handle the situation. The increased technological control fosters and encourages a new teaching role. The authoritarian teaching style is replaced by traits that are more similar to a mentor or a coach. Furthermore, the new teaching role is directed to be structured and planned rather than interactive and spontaneous. The teachers' work processes are directed to focus more on the fact that students produce something rather than how they produce it, even though this was not the ambition of the teachers. This can be explained by how technological control has made work more efficient and how teachers want to compensate for the feeling of lost control by showing that the students produce results.