Digitisation or Digitalisation - Diverse Practices of the Distance Education Period in Finland

Oct 15, 2026

Case study examining how Finnish primary school teachers organized school days and how teachers and headmasters coordinated virtual workplace collaboration with parents during Spring 2020 distance education forced by the Covid-19 crisis. Data came from interviews with primary and secondary teachers (n=15) across eight Finnish schools and was analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The school is framed as a complex adaptive system, with the crisis as disorder driving rapid adaptation. The study identifies diverse digitalisation practices across structures of school days, teaching forms, teacher-headmaster collaboration, and home-school collaboration, plus three enabler groups.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages29

Reading Time1 h 13 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Distance education and education during Covid-19

doi: 10.26529/cepsj.1125 Digitisation or Digitalisation: Diverse Practices ofthe Distance Education Period in Finland Tiina Korhonen*1, Leenu Juurola2, Laura Salo2 and Johanna Airaksinen2 • This case study explores how Finnish primary school teachers orchestrated school days and how teachers and headmasters organised virtual workplace collaboration and collaborated with parents during a period of distance education forced by the Covid-19 crisis in Spring 2020. The data was collected by interviewing primary and secondary school teachers (n = 15) from eight schools in various parts of Finland. Teachers’ experiences were analysed with qualitative content analysis. In this study, the school is seen as a Complex Adaptive System (CAS) and the Covid-19 crisis as a disorder forcing teachers to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. Teachers are viewed here as innovators who address both pedagogical and digital challenges under abnormal circumstances. We identify diverse practices at different stages of digitalisation during the distance education period within four domains: 1) structures of school days, 2) forms of teaching, 3) collaborative activities of teachers and headmaster, and 4) forms of home and school collaboration. We also identify three groups of enablers of distance education practices: 1) the use of digital technology, 2) digipedagogical competence of the teachers, and 3) the ability of teachers to act as adaptive innovators. We find that teachers’ ability to innovate and to adapt pedagogical and digipedagogical expertise become critical success factors when change is forced upon the educational field. We suggest that the results of this study, portrayed as the enablers and domains of distance education, be utilised in planning post-Covid education. All stakeholders influencing schools at different levels should be included in envisioning and implementing future classroom practices of innovative post-Covid schools. Keywords: Covid-19, digipedagogical competence, innovation, digitalisation, distance education 1 *Corresponding Author. Faculty of educational sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland; [tiina.korhonen@helsinki.fi](tiina.korhonen@helsinki.fi). 2 Faculty of educational sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. 166 digitisation or digitalisation: diverse practices of the distance education Digitizacija ali digitalizacija: različne prakse v obdobjuizobraževanja na daljavo na Finskem Tiina Korhonen, Leenu Juurola, Laura Salo in Johanna Airaksinen • Študija primera preučuje, kako so finski osnovnošolski učitelji organizirali šolske dneve ter kako so učitelji in ravnatelji organizirali virtualno sodelovanje na delovnem mestu in sodelovali s starši v obdobjuizobraževanja na daljavo, ki ga je spomladi leta 2020 vsilila kriza, ki jo je povzročil covid-19 . Podatki so bili zbrani z intervjuji z osnovnošolskimi in s srednješolskimi učitelji (n = 15) iz osmih šol v različnih delih Finske. Izkušnje učiteljev so bile analizirane s kvalitativno analizovsebine. V tej študiji je šola obravnavana kot kompleksen prilagodljiv sistem, kriza covida-19 pa kot motnja, ki učitelje sili v prilagajanje hitrospreminjajočemu se okolju. Učitelji so tu obravnavani kot inovatorji, ki se v nenormalnih okoliščinah spopadajo s pedagoškimi in z digitalnimi izzivi. Na različnih stopnjah digitalizacije v obdobju izobraževanjana daljavo prepoznavamo različne prakse na štirih področjih: 1) sestava šolskih dni; 2) oblike poučevanja; 3) dejavnosti sodelovanja učiteljev in ravnatelja; 4) oblike sodelovanja med domom in šolo. Opredelimo tudi tri skupine spodbujevalcev praks izobraževanja na daljavo: 1) uporaba digitalne tehnologije; 2) digipedagoška usposobljenost učiteljev; 3) sposobnost učiteljev, da delujejo kot prilagodljivi inovatorji. Ugotavljamo, da sposobnost učiteljev za inovacije ter prilagajanje pedagoškega in digipedagoškega strokovnega znanja postajata ključna dejavnika uspeha, ko se izobraževalnemu področju vsiljuj

FAQs

What period and context does the study focus on?

It focuses on Spring 2020 distance education in Finland, forced by the Covid-19 crisis, examining how schooling was organized under that disruption.

How were the research data collected and analyzed?

The study collected data through interviews with primary and secondary teachers (n=15) from eight schools, then used qualitative content analysis to analyze teachers’ experiences.

What does the study identify as key enablers and practice domains?

It identifies diverse digitalisation practices across four domains—school day structures, teaching forms, teacher-headmaster collaboration, and home-school collaboration—along with three groups of enablers: digital technology use, teachers’ digipedagogical competence, and teachers acting as adaptive innovators.

Oct 15, 2026

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