Towards expedient digital reforms as sustainability in Finnish universities
Japola, Veeti (2024)
2024
Yhteiskuntatutkimuksen maisteriohjelma - Master's Programme in Social Sciences
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2024-06-18
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202406056747
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202406056747
Tiivistelmä
According to the politically produced strategic narrative on digitalization, digital solutions will make university education not only more accessible and personalised, but also more sustainable. However, this kind of strategic narrative ignores the fact that previous research has also recognised that it tends to use technology to solve problems that are not technological in nature but, for example, pedagogical or, as in the case of sustainable development, complex. Thus, the aim of this study is to challenge the beliefs of the politically produced strategic narrative of digitalization in universities and to seek routes to expedient digitalization in the university context.
The study sought to identify the real conditions for the implementation of a strategic narrative of digitalization at the university by answering the research question: “How is sustainability understood within the context of expedient digital reforms at the university level?”. The research was carried out as a qualitative case study, using thematic analysis as a methodology. A total of seven university teachers and lecturers were interviewed about the links between digitalization and sustainability in university context.
The results of the study show that the technology currently in use is unable to meet the expectations of those involved in the teaching situation in terms of teaching quality, due to both technological limitations and a lack of digital skills. Economic benefits were identified as the driving force behind digital reforms, manifested in, among other things, increased economic rationality in the university. The rise of economic rationality and digitalization has led to an increase in teachers' workload, which the study refers to as the paradox of efficiency. According to the study, sustainable, expedient digitalization in the university context is currently not taking place, as there is an axiological vacuum where the strategic narrative on digitalization does not share the same ideals as its target of application.
This study suggests that to fill the axiological vacuum, any kind of university reforming should be tied to values that are more enduring than electronics, political agendas or economic growth. Furthermore, to cherish the ideals of subject staff and meet the needs of disciplines, the scale should be in the digital reform of subjects rather than the university as a whole.
The study sought to identify the real conditions for the implementation of a strategic narrative of digitalization at the university by answering the research question: “How is sustainability understood within the context of expedient digital reforms at the university level?”. The research was carried out as a qualitative case study, using thematic analysis as a methodology. A total of seven university teachers and lecturers were interviewed about the links between digitalization and sustainability in university context.
The results of the study show that the technology currently in use is unable to meet the expectations of those involved in the teaching situation in terms of teaching quality, due to both technological limitations and a lack of digital skills. Economic benefits were identified as the driving force behind digital reforms, manifested in, among other things, increased economic rationality in the university. The rise of economic rationality and digitalization has led to an increase in teachers' workload, which the study refers to as the paradox of efficiency. According to the study, sustainable, expedient digitalization in the university context is currently not taking place, as there is an axiological vacuum where the strategic narrative on digitalization does not share the same ideals as its target of application.
This study suggests that to fill the axiological vacuum, any kind of university reforming should be tied to values that are more enduring than electronics, political agendas or economic growth. Furthermore, to cherish the ideals of subject staff and meet the needs of disciplines, the scale should be in the digital reform of subjects rather than the university as a whole.