School-based bullying is a major global social problem affecting societies around the world. It is argued that Virtual Reality (VR) offers benefits and possibilities in social work education. Within this context, a study was carried out with the aim of analysing students’ experiences with a school-based bullying scenario through Head-Mounted Display Virtual Reality (HMD VR), and exploring the pedagogical potential of this technology to support the enhancement of cultural empathy in international social work education. Using cultural competence and social constructivist perspectives focused on empathy theory, this article addresses the following research questions: How do the research participants describe experiencing the bullying scene with HMD VR? How do the research participants account for their HMD VR experiences in connection with empathy? How can the pedagogical use of HMD VR enhance international social work students’ cultural empathic skills? Data for the study were gathered through four Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with 38 volunteer research participants based on their postexposure to a scenario on school-based bullying through HMD VR. ATLAS.ti v.23 software (Atlas.ti, Berlin, Germany) was used to undertake a deductive thematic analysis. The findings reveal that HMD VR plays an important role in enhancing different dimensions of empathy, which is an essential element in transformative learning in social work education. The overall implications of using HMD VR in international social work education for enhancing cultural empathy are discussed. The article concludes that HMD VR has a promising role; however, several ethical, practical, and pedagogical aspects need to be considered for this technology tool to provide the sought-after pedagogical value in social work education.

I kapitlet presenterer vi utfordringer og muligheter med å bruke Virtual Reality (VR) og Agumented Reality (AR) i skolesammenheng. Vi presenterer og gjør rede for hva Virtual Reality (VR) og Agumented Reality (AR) er for noe samtidig som at vi diskuterer disse innovasjonene i lys av begrepet pedagogisk merverdi opp mot læring og undervisning. Vi viser til utprøvende arbeid med bruk av VR og AR med lærere og lærerstudenter ved en digital læringslab som er koblet til lærerutdanning og læringsprofesjon. På denne måten behandler vi; teknologiene som sådan, om de kan brukes til å skape pedagogisk merverdi, og hvilke forutsetninger lærere trenger for å utvikle en profesjonell digital kompetanse som gjør at de kan skape slik merverdi.

Even though in general Swedish pupils have a high level of digital competence (Internetstiftelsen, 2019), a national initiative for a rapid and systematic digitalization of the educational system has been introduced in Sweden. In this context, teacher education is regarded as being of strategic importance for preparing student teachers to teach in a highly digitalized society (Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting, 2019). Here, innovative initiative is important for helping student teachers to develop professional digital competence (Lund, Furberg, Bakken & Engelien, 2014). One example of an innovative initiative is the development of Digital Learning Labs (DLL) that are closely connected to teacher education and offer student teachers and experienced teachers opportunities to explore digital technologies. At the University of Gävle (Sweden), the Digital Learning Lab (2020) offers a number of state of the art technologies, such as robots for programming, media-production and technologies for virtual and augmented realities (VR and AR). In research-based explorative studies, teachers and student teachers elaborate on technologies such as VR and AR (Fransson, Holmberg, & Westelius, 2020). This way, their views becomes involved in principled innovation processes to enact the technology in the best way possible for teaching and learning. 

This chapter presents and problematizes a theoretical design framework for understanding and supporting teachers’ pedagogical reasoning in online contexts. The framework synthesizes existing educational theories to illustrate how digital technologies can be used to create interactional and aligned educational designs and is therefore referred to as the IAED framework. The IAED framework can be used in teacher education and development programs, and by teachers, researchers, educational designers and others. In the chapter empirical examples and analysis are provided to illustrate and discuss how the IAED framework can be used to: (a) support teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and educational design practices, (b) evaluate existing educational designs and design practices, and (c) study educational designs and design practices, as well as (changes in) teachers’ pedagogical reasoning.

In this study, 19 student teachers (of years 7-12) experienced a three-minutelong VR simulation offering a first-person perspective of bullying bymultiple ‘classmates’. Their experiences were observed and afterwardsfive focus group interviews were conducted, with 3-4 student teachersper group. The results show that they experienced the VR simulation asimmersive, albeit to varying degrees depending on their previous experiencesand personality traits. Issues related to what they experienced,learned and reflected on, their thoughts about the potential educationaluses of VR, and the challenges and opportunities with using VR in differentsubjects are discussed.

The use of head mounted displays (HMDs) to experience virtual realities (VR) hasbecome increasingly common. As this technology becomes more affordable,immersive and easier to use, it also becomes more serviceable in educationaland training contexts. Even though the technology, content and feasibility forK-12 school purposes are still being developed, it is reasonable to expect thatthe call or ‘push’ to use HMD VR in K-12 schools will increase, especially asthere is now a greater economic interest in the use of digital technologies ineducational contexts. This article aims to inform the process of implementingHMD VR in K-12 contexts by researching the preconditions and challenges of usefrom a teacher perspective. It does this by analysing the organisational, institutional,contextual and practical challenges and opportunities in the implementationof HMD VR in K-12 school contexts. The data draws on (a) interviews, informalconversations and observations of teachers testing HMD VR and different VRapplications in a Digital Learning Lab (DLL) and (b) data from a project involvingupper secondary school history teachers discussing the planned implementation ofHMD VR in their teaching and being in the DLL. The main findings are relatedto: (a) economy and technology, (b) initial learning barriers, (c) organisation andpractical enactment for teaching and learning, (d) curricula, syllabuses and expectedlearning outcomes and (e) teachers’ competences, professional developmentand trust. The consequences for educational contexts and possible waysforward are also discussed.

In an increasingly digitized world teachers are expected to take on the role of educational designers and use ICT to design in ways that add pedagogical value to teaching and learning. This thesis adopts a design-based research (DBR) approach to: (a) explore and contribute to the educational design processes of teachers of English as a foreign language in their efforts to use ICT for added pedagogical value, (b) examine how ICT is used in educational designs to create/contribute to what the teachers and students describe as added value and (c) explore, problematize and refine DBR as a research approach.

Literature studies and a collaborative self-study preceded the DBR to guide its focus and implementation. The DBR was carried out over a period of two years in four upper secondary schools in Sweden in which every student had access to their own computer. The research data consists of: (a) audio recorded design conversations, (b) enacted educational designs and design elements as parts of these, (c) reflective log entries written by the participating teachers, (d) focus group interviews with students and (e) the researcher’s field notes.

Six different theoretical frameworks and models are used in combination in the accompanying articles to analyze the data and achieve the three research aims. The findings show how teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and TPACK development are interconnected and reciprocal aspects of the educational design process and how the externalization of, and reflection on, these aspects is necessary to develop the specific and practical TPACK needed to realize design intentions in situated contexts. A number of challenges and opportunities in the educational process have been identified.

Moreover, the findings show how ICT was used to contribute added value in educational designs by facilitating: (a) more authentic and seamless learning experiences in external online contexts with both in-class and out-of-class actors irrespective of time and place, (b) an exchange of digital knowledge representations of understanding and practice between different actors, e.g. for the purposes of modelling, supporting cognitive apprenticeship, meta-cognitive self-regulation and formative assessment and (c) new and extended forms of, and opportunities for, collaborative creation and meaning-making.

The current common focus in DBR on the development of prescriptive design principles is problematized in relation to the findings of the thesis, which illustrate the complex and situated nature of the educational design process. A theoretically and empirically informed design framework (DF) is developed and used as a conceptual tool to guide and analyze educational design processes and enactments. The findings illustrate how the use of the DF and the process of collaborative design reflection contributed to the analysis of the teachers’ design intentions and de facto design practices and to a DBR format that allowed the participants to use their respective competencies in the development of educational designs for added value. The thesis thereby serves as an example of how DBR can be methodically implemented to study and generate increased knowledge about teachers’ design intentions and design practices, develop research-based educational designs in line with teachers’ pedagogical intentions and support their development as educational designers.

The digitalisation of educational contexts has changed the prac- tice of teaching and learning. In this, teachers have a key role in enacting digital technologies for this purpose and have different opportunities to do so. This article explores how digitalisation can affect teachers by focusing on: (a) how teachers manage to capi- talise on digitalisation; and (b) how digitalisation can affect and reconstruct their self-understanding. Two teacher colleagues of English as a foreign language (EFL) in the same teaching team are interviewed and observed. Drawing on the interplay between self-image, self-esteem, job motivation, and task perception, it is shown how the teachers’ self-understanding is played out and changes due to the call for digitalisation. Whereas one of the teachers has been able to capitalise on digitalisation in a way that has been beneficial both professionally and personally, the other has felt pressurised by it. A conclusion is that a limited or extended use of digital technologies should not be taken as an indicator of teaching quality.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of teachers’ reframing of practice in digital contexts by analysing teachers’ pedagogical reasoning processes as they explore ways of using ICT to create added pedagogical value.

Design/methodology/approach

A design based-research (DBR) approach is employed, in which the on-site researcher collaborates with eight teachers of English as a foreign language in four Swedish schools over a period of two years. Multiple data sources are included for thematic coding and analysis. The TPACK framework is used as a conceptual construct in the analysis.

Findings

The findings show that teachers’ pedagogical reasoning is a complex and multidimensional process and is closely integrated with teachers’ reframing of practice. Common characteristics in the teachers’ reframing of practice are identified. The results highlight the reciprocal relationship between developments in teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and TPACK development and the need for a distinction between general and specific, theoretical and practical TPACK.

Research limitations/implications

An increased focus on TPACK research on teachers’ pedagogical reasoning is required. DBR is a relevant approach for this.

Practical implications

The pedagogical uses of ICT identified as adding value could benefit teachers in other contexts.

Originality/value

Rich data from multiple design contexts is collected and analysed over time through DBR. The paper contributes new knowledge about the process of pedagogical reasoning and its relation to teachers’ reframing of practice. The paper also contributes to TPACK theory development.