Digital Literacies in Swedish Schools Digital Literacies in the Swedish Curriculum and the Teachers’ Perspective of the Assignment

The purpose of this study has been to look into how the Swedish National Agency for Education define digital literacy and corresponding concepts in the Swedish curriculum for primary and secondary education from 1980 to 2011 and to discover how compulsory school teachers fulfil the mission. This is done by posing the following questions: How is digital literacy defined in Lgr11 and previous curriculums? How is this task defined in the curriculums of the compulsory school? How do teachers working in primary and secondary education fulfil the task of digital literacy? To achieve a comprehensive picture of how digital literacy has been described since the computer made the first appearance in schools, an analysis of curriculums from 1980 until 2011 was carried out. This was done by means of a systematic content analysis concerning how digital literacy was described and a systematic quantitative analysis of how often concepts regarding digital literacy were mentioned. To get an insight into how teachers carried out the task, semi-structured interviews were carried out with six teachers working in compulsory education teaching subject related to digital literacy in the curriculum. Furthermore, an interview with a counsellor for educational affairs was carried out to learn how the Swedish National Agency for Education reflected upon the notion of digital literacy. The result shows that the National Agency for Education has been and continue to be careful and vague when it comes to phrasing the task of digital literacy in the curriculum. In the curriculum from 1980, computer science was introduced and extra lessons were allotted. But this disappeared in the following curriculum from 1994. In 2000 the curriculum emphasized the possibilities with information technology without the task being defined any further. The latest curriculum from 2011 has a less vague assignment regarding digital literacy but the Swedish government has nevertheless given the National Agency for Education a commission to add programming and digital literacy into the curriculum. The commission will be finished by the end of July 2016. Internationally, the concept “digital literacy” is used, this concept has a wider definition compared to the concept “digital competence” chosen by the Swedish National Agency for Education. Moreover, The National Agency for Education has chosen not to use the concept of media literacy in the curriculum. The interviews show that the informants have good knowledge of the task given to them by the curriculum regarding digital literacy but lack of resources as well as appropriate digital equipment and infrastructure stand in the way of the work. The informants call for a more specific curriculum, commentaries and support for assessment from the National Agency for Education to ensure equal education within Sweden. The lack of adequate in-service training regarding digital literacy was mentioned as well as the request of subject-specific in-service training when it comes to digital literacy