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Digitalization has permeated society and schools. In this process, focus has turned to the importance of school leaders in their leadership for digitalization. The purpose of this paper is to explore how school leaders understand digitalization and the digital competencies needed in leading for digitalization in Swedish schools.

Open questions from reflective learning journals (n=32) and interviews (n=8) conducted with school leaders were used to explore how school leaders understand digitalization and the digital competencies needed in leading for digitalization.

The findings show that school leaders see digitalization as a wide and complex concept including technical, pedagogical, administrational and organizational challenges at all levels of the school organization.

It appears that the role of the school leader, as a complex task, has become more complex as a result of digitalization. How time, resources and professional development are made available to support school leaders in their work with leadership for digitalization in order to support teachers’ and students’ learning.

This paper contributes to the area of school leadership and digitalization. The research contribution is of interest for school leaders and school organizers striving to implement and advance digitalization in schools. This also concerns the prioritization of digitalization as one of many important areas in schools as organizations.

An increasing amount of students’ and teachers’ work in the classroom involves digital technologies such as tablets and laptop computers. The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the possibilities and challenges related to teachers’ use of digital textbooks and, through this work, the conditions for technology-enhanced learning (TEL).

This study was based on interviews with two teachers. In the analysis, The Ecology of Resources Model (Luckin, 2010) was used.

The findings of this study show that teachers see challenges in finding time to review digital textbooks and support the work with the textbooks in the classroom. However, the teachers in this study prioritize this work, seeing it as providing structure and improved accessibility for students.

The findings of this study point toward the need to support teachers in their work with reviewing and using digital textbooks, as well as other digitalized resources. How schools as organizations can support teachers’ activities, both individually and collaboratively, will be important. If this work is supported it may, in turn, have impact on TEL and promoting students’ use of digital textbooks and improving student outcomes.

This small study provides interesting insights into how teachers prioritize their work with digital textbooks to, despite challenges related to time, individualize and support students’ work with digital textbooks and other digital resources. Research on teachers’ use of digital textbooks in practice is limited.