Technology Use in Russian High Schools: The Returns and the Risk

Abstract

There is a widespread belief that technically re-equipping high schools will result in a better quality of education and in the improvement of educational outcomes. In this article, using comparative international data from PISA, we show that the digital transformation of schools in European countries and in Russia does not correlate with improved student competencies in different subject areas. However, in a sociological sense, this technical transformation which has occurred over recent decades promises the most profound and far-reaching change for teaching and for school social relations in the past 100–150 years. In the literature, it has been hypothesized that the use of technology by itself and access to digital devices do not necessarily lead to the development and improvement of educational practice if they are not supported by pedagogical and organizational changes. To show this, we conducted a study of Russian teachers focusing on the qualitative characteristics of changes in Russian schools. The study reveals attitudes of Russian teachers to digitalization, describes current education practices, and teachers’ fears and expectations regarding the potential institutional transformation and the transformation of the teaching profession. We show how digitalization is enacted within Russian schools, and how the implemented technologies tend to support and reproduce previous practices rather than develop new ones. In the discussion, we consider the reasons for the current situation and provide recommendations on how to avoid the failure of the digital transformation of schools.