Highlighted Presidential Session: Overcoming the digital divide: Identifying and describing unexpected high performing schools around the world based on ICILS 2023

Group Submission Type: Highlighted Presidential Session

Description of Session

In light of the ongoing digital transformation of society, the acquisition of digital skills is becoming an increasingly crucial aspect of personal and professional development. The related educational mandate of schools is to facilitate the targeted promotion of this key competence for all students (Eickelmann et al., 2024; Hübner et al., 2023). Notwithstanding this mandate, evidence from the International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) indicates that students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds exhibit lower average digital skills around the world (Fraillon et al., 2020; Forthcoming, 2024). Nevertheless, there are a few high performing schools that have demonstrated resilience in the face of challenging student populations, and their students have exhibited above-average digital skills (Drossel et al., 2020). In terms of the psychological trait of resilience, these schools are regarded as organisationally resilient (Henderson & Milstein, 2003).
The extant literature on organisationally resilient schools in other educational domains (reading, mathematics, science) indicates that such schools differ from non-resilient schools in terms of school level characteristics (Muijs et al., 2004). However, the relationship between these characteristics and students' digital competences at resilient schools remains relatively unexplored (Eickelmann et al., 2019; Drossel et al., 2020). Therefore, this contribution will focus on differences in school-level characteristics such as school leadership and professionalisation including the use of ICT for teaching and learning (Rožman et al., 2023) of resilient schools in the domain of digital competences by focusing on different countries around the world.
The following research questions are addressed in this contribution:
1. What is the current state of digitally resilient schools in different countries and continents?
2. What factors characterise digitally resilient schools in different countries?
3. Which key factors of digitally resilient schools should be considered particularly important in a cross-country analysis?
The aim of these research questions is to identify clues as to how the digital divide can be overcome and which key factors are necessary for this in a digitalised world. The research question is addressed through the analysis of data from ICILS 2023. This provides current results for 35 countries/education systems around the world based on representative skills tests of students’ digital competences (N = 132,889; Fraillon, 2024) and surveys of teachers, principals and IT-coordinators. Based on these data in the initial stage of the investigation, an overview of the performance outcomes of students’ digital competences categorised according to the HISEI (Highest International Socio-Economic Index of Occupational Status) across all ICILS participating countries is presented using descriptive statistics. Subsequently, in-depth analyses are conducted on selected countries to ascertain the characteristics of resilient schools, which are then subsumed in a cross-country analysis. In accordance with the criteria established by Drossel et al. (2020), a school is classified as resilient if the mean HISEI aggregated at the school level is in the lower third and the mean digital skills of the students are in the upper third of the sample.
Finally, the findings are presented in the context of how the data from the ICILS study can inform future research efforts to bridge the digital divide (Holmarsdottir, 2024) and address the implications for digital transformation and the transfer (Kozma, 2003) of research outcomes.


Literature
Drossel, K., Eickelmann, B., & Vennemann, M. (2020). Schools overcoming the Digital Divide – In depth analyses towards organizational resilience in the computer and information literacy domain. Large-Scale Assessments in Education (8), 1–19.
Eickelmann, B., Barbovschi, M., Holmarsdottir, H., Parsanoglou, D., Sisask, M., & Labusch, A. (2024). Perspectives of Children and Young People on Their Education as Preparation for Their Future in the Digital Age: In-depth Qualitative Study in Five European Countries. In H. Holmarsdottir, I. Seland, C. Hyggen, & M. Roth (Eds.), Understanding The Everyday Digital Lives of Children and Young People (pp. 321–350). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46929-9_11
Eickelmann, B., Bos, W., Gerick, J., Goldhammer, F., Schaumburg, H., Schwippert, K., Senkbeil, M., & Vahrenhold, J. (Eds.). (2019). ICILS 2018 #Deutschland – Computer- und informationsbezogene Kompetenzen von Schülerinnen und Schülern im zweiten internationalen Vergleich und Kompetenzen im Bereich Computational Thinking. Münster: Waxmann.
Fraillon, J., Ainley, J., Schulz, W., Friedman, T., & Duckworth, D. (Eds.). (2020). Preparing for Life in a Digital World. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38781-5
Fraillon, J. (Ed.). (2024). An international perspective on digital literacy: Results from ICILS 2023. International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). https://www.iea.nl/publications/icils-2023-international-report
Henderson, N., & Milstein, M. (2003). Resiliency in schools: Making it happen for students and educators. Corwin Press.
Holmarsdottir, H. (2024). The Digital Divide: Understanding Vulnerability and Risk in Children and Young People’s Everyday Digital Lives. In H. Holmarsdottir, I. Seland, C. Hyggen, & M. Roth (Eds.), Understanding The Everyday Digital Lives of Children and Young People (pp. 57–82). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46929-9_3
Hübner, N., Fahrbach, T., Lachner, A., & Scherer, R. (2023). What predicts students’ future ICT literacy? Evidence from a large-scale study conducted in different stages of secondary school. Computers & Education, 203, 104847. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104847
Kozma, R. B. (Ed.). (2003). Technology, Innovation, and Educational Change: A global perspective; a report of the Second Information Technology in Education Study, module 2. Eugene: Int. Society for Techn. in Education (ISTE).
Muijs, D., Harris, A., Chapman, C., Stoll, L., & Russ, J. (2004). Improving Schools in Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Areas – A Review of Research Evidence. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 15:2, 149-175.
Rožman, M., Fraillon, J., Dexter, S., Bundsgaard, J., & Schulz, W. (2023). Contextual framework. In J. Fraillon & M. Rožman (Eds.), IEA International Computer and Information Literacy Study 2023: Assessment Framework (pp. 53–66). IEA.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Greta Björk Gudmundsdottir, Universitetet i Oslo - Institutt for lærerutdanning og skoleforskning

Plenary Speakers

• Birgit Eickelmann, Paderborn University

• Jan Niemann, Paderborn University