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Strategic ambiguities: exploring the role of digitalisation strategies in university teachers’ engagement with educational technology

Author: Laufer, M., Kuper, F., Deacon, B., Sievering, M., & Schäfer, L. O.
Published in: European Journal of Higher Education, 1-19
Year: 2025
Type: Academic articles
DOI: 10.1080/21568235.2025.2486788

Is a digitalisation strategy a necessary first step towards implementing digital teaching or just another document that remains unread? Analysing the experiences of 30 university staff members of three research universities in Germany, Estonia, and the United Kingdom, we explore how digitalisation strategies impact their engagement with educational technology (EdTech). Using the theoretical concepts sensemaking and sensegiving, we identify how digitalisation strategies can both build and undermine a collective understanding of EdTech among staff members. We observe how mixed messages about the value of digital teaching from university leadership can lead to a deprioritisation of EdTech and make staff members take on roles as sensegivers when central sensegiving fails. On the other hand, a digitalisation strategy can augment already present acceptance of technology and become another sensemaking device to successfully encourage staff to embrace EdTech in the classroom. Lastly, the role of the digitalisation strategy can shift over time and a balance between sensegiving and sensemaking can be disrupted. This study adds to our understanding of the nuanced role that digitalisation strategies play within educational institutions and highlights how internal and external dynamics contribute to how staff members perceive and experience digital change.

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Connected HIIG researchers

Melissa Laufer, Dr. (on parental leave)

Head of Research Programme: Knowledge & Society

Freia Kuper

Former associated Researcher: Knowledge & Society

Bronwen Deacon

Researcher and project manager: Knowledge & Society

Marvin Sievering

Former student assistant: Organizational Resilience and Creativity (ORC)

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