Primary teachers’ responses to municipal digital investments

This study examines primary school teachers as policy actors through focus group conversations addressing a municipal investment lasting for ten years. This case illuminates how international and national policy is interpreted in municipal policy, aiming to implement one-computer-one-student (1-1) teaching. The data is approached through the lens of policy enactment and ethnomethodology, with special attention to how policy is enacted in local practices. Two common patterns in our data are scrutinised: focus groups for the investment and focus groups against the investment. A third focus group in which teachers disputed the investment is also reported on. In relation to earlier studies, ours shows how the enactment of the municipal policy depends on how the repertoires are shaped and developed in the local context of teachers’ work. It is concluded that if educational policy is to be understood in full, the variety of ways in which teachers respond to and enact policy should be documented and scrutinised.