Teachers’ perspective on school development at German vocational schools during the Covid-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the challenges of teachers at vocational schools with regard to the process of digitalisation in school development during the Covid-19 pandemic. Besides the intrapersonal prerequisites for teaching with technology and the change in learning and teaching attitudes, preconditions concerning schools as part of a learning organisation are examined. A qualitative interview study including N = 18 participants was conducted to identify challenges for teachers, the role of school leadership, and cooperation between stakeholders. The main coping strategies proved to be a clear agenda by the school leadership in connection with reliable technological infrastructure and teachers’ willingness to use digital teaching methods.

KEYWORDS:

• School development
• vocational schools
• digitalisation
• ICT

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jan Delcker

Jan Delcker is a research assistant at the chair of Learning, Design & Technology at the University of Mannheim, Germany. He graduated from the University of Applied Science Mannheim with a Master’s degree in Social Work, focusing on media education and quantitative social research. His current research interests are mobile learning and digitalisation in school development.

Dirk Ifenthaler

Dirk Ifenthaler is Professor and Chair of Learning, Design and Technology at the University of Mannheim, Germany and UNESCO Deputy Chair of Data Science in Higher Education Learning and Teaching at Curtin University, Australia. His research focuses on the intersection of cognitive psychology, educational technology, data analytics and organisational learning (www.ifenthaler.info).