Degree of Harmonisation of Simultaneous Use of Many ICT Platforms from Upper School Teachers’ Perspective : A Case Study at Internationella Engelska Skolan Tyresö

Abstract: Teaching is one of the professions suffering from high workload and stressful work environment. The number of different ICT platforms used in school, their similarity in their purpose, complexity and differences in interfaces, make it very complicated for the new teachers to smoothly start effective teaching, due to lack of time and resources for comprehensive onboarding process. There is no time during school year for effective training for the teachers to raise their digital competence and organise training to use ICT platforms. At the same time the teachers are imposed to use specific ICT platforms chosen by the organisation for educational and administrational purposes. They experience pressure to perform from the employer, students, and their parents. It is important for the teachers to harmonise simultaneous use of many ICT platforms. The purpose of this bachelor thesis in Information systems is to identify, describe and explain degree of harmonisation of simultaneous use of many ICT platforms among upper school teachers at one Swedish school. The case study method has been applied and a literature study has been carried out in the bachelor thesis in Information systems. Internationella Engelska Skolan Tyresö has been used as the case study company. The study is concentrated on Swedish upper school teachers, which defines grades 7-9 (students age 13-16). A research literature-based analysis model was developed in order to be able to more precisely investigate the chosen purpose. Based on the literature study, a conceptual model has been designed. In the chosen qualitative approach, a semi-structured interview guide was developed, based on the conceptual model. Five interviews with upper school teachers in the case study school were conducted by personal communication. The analysis of the collected primary empirical data has led to the following conclusions. Amount of administrative work and school’s choice of ICT platforms for this purpose have big impact on teachers. Training in use of all imposed ICT platforms is crucial for the teachers. Hardware in school available for teachers and students is also important factor affecting use of ICT platforms. Degree of teachers' involvement in creating ICT policy, degree of administrative support, degree of leadership involvement towards implementation of ICT policy, degree of accessibility to ICT were identified as the most important factors affecting degree of harmonisation of simultaneous use of ICT platforms by Upper School Teachers.