Exploring digital transformation of teacher education in the Western Balkans: Case of Kosovo

IF 1.5 Q3 MANAGEMENT Human systems management Pub Date : 2022-08-26 DOI:10.3233/hsm-220063

Gazmend Qorraj, Fjolla Kaçaniku

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The whole educational system from pre-university to university level has been challenged with the immediate pressure to transform during the lockdown period of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The question of how to ensure digital transformation in universities become topical at policy, institutional, and classroom practice dimensions. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study is to examine and explore how digital transformation in higher education in Kosovo is conceptualised in a changing context. The study focuses on teacher education as a pathway that links pre-university education with higher education system to ensure future teacher preparation. METHODS: The study used a qualitative research design. The data were collected through interviews with management staff (n = 3) and teacher educators (n = 7), and group interviews with student teachers (n = 15), at the University in Kosovo and teacher education institution. Following the principles of the hermeneutical circle, conceptualisations of digital transformation in teacher education were clustered into the following dimensions: (i) policy, (ii) organisation culture and management, and (iii) teaching and learning. RESULTS: The paper analyses the Western Balkans, specifically Kosovo, as the country faced the transition challenges including institutional building, limited administrative capabilities, and other challenges regarding educational process and digitalization. The paper contributes to the discussions with the emerging conceptualisations of digital transformation in teacher education by drawing from thematic areas concerning policy response mechanisms, teacher education policy as isolated from higher education framework, change management process, missing organisational culture, rigidity and resistance in teaching. CONCLUSIONS: The paper concludes that teacher education context should be reconceptualised within the higher education framework to better manage a transition and change settings for a shared conceptualisation and sustainable digital transformation.

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探索西巴尔干地区教师教育的数字化转型:以科索沃为例

背景:在2019年新型冠状病毒病(COVID-19)封锁期间，从大学预科到大学阶段的整个教育体系都面临着转型的紧迫压力。如何确保大学数字化转型的问题成为政策、制度和课堂实践维度的热门话题。目的:本研究的主要目的是研究和探索如何在不断变化的背景下概念化科索沃高等教育的数字化转型。本研究的重点是教师教育作为连接大学预科教育与高等教育体系的途径，以确保未来教师的准备。方法:本研究采用定性研究设计。数据是通过对科索沃大学和教师教育机构的管理人员(n = 3)和教师教育工作者(n = 7)的访谈以及对实习教师(n = 15)的小组访谈收集的。根据解释学循环的原则，教师教育数字化转型的概念被归纳为以下几个维度:(i)政策，(ii)组织文化和管理，(iii)教与学。结果:本文分析了西巴尔干地区，特别是科索沃，因为该国面临转型挑战，包括机构建设，行政能力有限，以及有关教育过程和数字化的其他挑战。本文通过从政策响应机制、孤立于高等教育框架的教师教育政策、变革管理过程、缺失的组织文化、教学中的刚性和阻力等主题领域入手，促进了对教师教育数字化转型新兴概念的讨论。结论:本文的结论是，教师教育背景应该在高等教育框架内重新概念化，以更好地管理过渡和变化设置，以实现共享的概念化和可持续的数字化转型。

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来源期刊

Human systems management MANAGEMENT-

CiteScore

3.50

自引率

30.40%

发文量

期刊介绍： Human Systems Management (HSM) is an interdisciplinary, international, refereed journal, offering applicable, scientific insight into reinventing business, civil-society and government organizations, through the sustainable development of high-technology processes and structures. Adhering to the highest civic, ethical and moral ideals, the journal promotes the emerging anthropocentric-sociocentric paradigm of societal human systems, rather than the pervasively mechanistic and organismic or medieval corporatism views of humankind’s recent past. Intentionality and scope Their management autonomy, capability, culture, mastery, processes, purposefulness, skills, structure and technology often determine which human organizations truly are societal systems, while others are not. HSM seeks to help transform human organizations into true societal systems, free of bureaucratic ills, along two essential, inseparable, yet complementary aspects of modern management: a) the management of societal human systems: the mastery, science and technology of management, including self management, striving for strategic, business and functional effectiveness, efficiency and productivity, through high quality and high technology, i.e., the capabilities and competences that only truly societal human systems create and use, and b) the societal human systems management: the enabling of human beings to form creative teams, communities and societies through autonomy, mastery and purposefulness, on both a personal and a collegial level, while catalyzing people’s creative, inventive and innovative potential, as people participate in corporate-, business- and functional-level decisions. Appreciably large is the gulf between the innovative ideas that world-class societal human systems create and use, and what some conventional business journals offer. The latter often pertain to already refuted practices, while outmoded business-school curricula reinforce this problematic situation.