The Dilemma with ICT in Educational Organisations

Abstract

This paper is an outline of a research agenda concerning implementation of information- and communication technology (ICT) in Swedish schools. During the last decade the Foundation of Knowledge and Competence has spent nearly 150 million euros on its school campaign in order to build a better infrastructure for ICT in Swedish schools. The main purpose with these investments was to create conditions for a development of ICT in the school. When the implementation of ICT in school education takes place it becomes embedded in local and historical contexts. The construction of new practice as well as the reconstruction of practices can be understood only in relation to this embeddedness. From this starting-point questions are raised whether the ICT increases or changes the organizational control in line with the New Public Management (NPM) and what implications ICT has on the educational practice. In the paper we use the case study of the municipality of Stenungsund in Sweden in order to analyse the matters of technology, organization of professions and gender identity.