Entanglement of support and governance in digital curriculum instruments: The case of educational reform in Norway

Abstract

Digital instruments developed to support education practices add new dimensions to education governance. Among such developments is the digitisation of the national curriculum through instruments that govern teachers’ planning practices. In this article, a semiotics of configurations approach is applied to analyse a digital instrument, the Curriculum Planning Tool (CPT), developed with a renewal of the Norwegian curriculum to close the gap between the national curriculum and local enactment. The findings demonstrate how the CPT produces a structured vision of the teaching planning process through a template-like arrangement of planning components. Simultaneously, through enabled forms of action, the instrument controls the teaching planning process while leaving a place for pedagogic autonomy to determine teaching and assessment forms within the limits of the national curriculum. Finally, the CPT operationalises the intentions of curriculum renewal by creating expectations for teacher collaboration which can also contribute to increased process control where teachers control each others’ practice. This article contributes to the understanding of the potential of digital curriculum support instruments to shape relations between hard and soft modes of governance.