Teachers’ perspective on the implementation of GDPR in schools: A design-oriented case study

Abstract

In this paper, we are interested in investigating how the introduction of GDPR has affected the teachers, with respect to how the new rules have altered their practices, which issues or challenges they have experienced, and which strategies they have developed to overcome such issues. Proceeding from an ecological perspective, we look at schools as complex ecologies, in which every change, happening at various scales and involvement levels, affects each actor in specific ways and at different degrees, altering their practices and mutual relations. Activity theory is also used, as a critical lens to look at teachers’ practices that have been disrupted by the increasing digitalization of schools. In our data collection, we adopted a user-centered design methodology, supported by ethnomethodology and co-design workshops in situ and online. According to our data teachers are experiencing pressure with respect to three main aspects: educating themselves and their students about GDPR and use of Social Media (SoMe) platforms, which are designed to facilitate data sharing on a global scale; how to handle students’ data avoiding leaks or potential conflicts, and finally the expansion of the boundaries of the school ecology. This last aspect appears of critical relevance, as the increasing digitalization of education and the spread use of SoMe platforms, has compromised the locality of the school as an ecology, leading to increasing uncertainty and lack of overview on the actions undertaken by its actors.