Accompanying Research on Digital Transformation in Switzerland’s Federal Education System

Digital transformation in schools is increasingly understood as a comprehensive transformation process that affects organizational, instructional, personnel, and collaborative development in equal measure. For scientific findings to have an impact in this process, there is a need for individuals who serve as intermediaries between academia, policy, and practice—so-called “interface actors.”

Agents that Matter is a companion research project conducted at the level of the DEEP Coordination Office. The project examines which actors in Switzerland’s highly decentralized education system—with its four language regions, 26 cantons, and approximately 2,100 municipalities—are relevant to digital transformation, what conditions promote or hinder their effectiveness, and how a context-sensitive transfer strategy for the consortium can be derived from this.

Three sub-studies

• Sub-study 1 – Policy Makers: Guided interviews with representatives of education authorities and professional associations identify coordination patterns at various contextual levels as well as cross-contextual interfaces.

• Substudy 2 – Education Influencers: A qualitative content analysis of self-descriptions on Instagram and LinkedIn examines which topics education influencers convey to their followers and what role social media communities play in networking and knowledge transfer within the school sector.

• Substudy 3 – Pedagogical ICT Support (PICTS): Guided interviews with PICTS from various German-speaking cantons shed light on their role as knowledge brokers between digital transformation and school development, as well as the importance of professional and informal networks in knowledge acquisition.

The results show that, for the transfer of knowledge from research to practice, it is not so much individual actors who are decisive, but rather the structures in which they are embedded—such as cantonal subject-matter networks, intercantonal forums, or communities of practice. From this, principles for a context-sensitive transfer strategy for the consortium can be derived: diversified transfer formats, co-design with interface actors, utilization of contextual knowledge, and the targeted development of network infrastructures such as Networked Improvement Communities (NICs).