Research topic/aim:

Young people’s visions of future education and career possibilities are influenced by the educationallevel and occupations of family members, which may differ significantly between geographical areas. This manifests, for example, by rural youth perceiving their prospects as limited and pursuing tertiaryeducation to a lesser extent than urban youth (Rönnlund, 2019; Statistics Sweden, 2016, 2022). Swedish compulsory education should contribute to ensuring that pupil’s future study and career choices are not limited by social or cultural background. Moreover, digital competence and an entrepreneurialmindset should be fostered, which creates conditions for location-independent occupations in a digitized world. This study aims at providing knowledge about conditions for promoting digital competence andentrepreneurship in education by examining an intervention in which a researcher and municipal officialsin a rural area develop strategies to expand pupils’ visions of their future education and careerpossibilities, by means of digital tools.

Theoretical framework:

Development in practice can be analysed by means of tensions within an activity system constituted by actions among actors, oriented towards an object turned into outcomes with the help of intermediary aids. The actions can be understood in relation to rules (norms and conventions), community (peoplewho share goals) and division of labour (tasks and power) in the specific context (Engeström & Sannino,2010). In this case, the actors are a researcher and municipal officials. The object encompasses strategies to promote digital competence and entrepreneurship.

Methodological design:

A case study (Cresswell, 2007) was conducted where field notes from participant observations, recordsand recordings of conversations and interviews, and documents were collected. Data were continuouslycoded, and themes were constructed.

Expected conclusions/findings:

Preliminary results show that tensions emerged regarding the division of labour, which requiredredefinition of the researcher’s role towards a solution-oriented one. Moreover, tensions emergedregarding the object. Negotiation of the possibilities provided by digital tools as intermediary aids, entailed downplaying the promotion of entrepreneurship, in favour of the development of connectionsbetween the urban school, working life and the surrounding community.

Relevance to Nordic educational research:

Because educational research, in Sweden and other Nordic countries, is dominated by urban studies(Beach & Öhrn, 2019), this study provides valuable knowledge about conditions for developing strategies to utilize digital tools to expand rural youth’s visions of their prospects.