ABSTRACT This study analyses the interrelation between policy regulation and K–12 remote teaching, an increasingly used pedagogic practice worldwide. By applying Bernstein's conceptual framework, it analyses the struggle between the official recontextualisation field (ORF) and the pedagogical recontextualisation field (PRF) that underpins K–12 remote teaching policy regulations. Data in the study are generated from policy documents, specialised journal articles, news articles and interviews with regional officials, directors and school leaders. The study indicates that K–12 remote teaching is strongly controlled by extensive policy regulations, whose ‘symbolic rule’ imposes pedagogical and educational quality standards derived from traditional teaching on the realisation of the pedagogic practice. However, to ensure quality standards in K–12 remote teaching, policymakers need to consider the multifarious organisational work within the different realisations, as well as regional, municipal and local needs when evaluating educational and pedagogical quality.
Simon Skog (2026) studied this question.