“And what is relevant?” The Lived Complexity of Digital Didactics in Religious Education : An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Editors’ and Teachers’ Comprehension of Digital Educational Resources and Video Utilisation amidst Digital Transition in Religious Education
This article-based thesis investigates how editors from the digital publisher Elevkanalen and Religious Education (RE) teachers comprehend and relate to digital educational resources and video utilisation within the phenomenon of digital transformation in Norwegian schools. Through an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of semi-structured interviews, the study explores the participants’ professional lifeworlds to disclose how they navigate their lived experiences of three phenomena, respectively video, digital educational resources, and the subject of RE.
The thesis employs an interpretative abductive design. While the findings are generated inductively across four peer-reviewed articles, the extended introduction synthesises these results by situating them within a tripartite didactical framework, respectively Subject Didactics (SD), General Subject Didactics (GSD), and General Didactics (GD).
The inductive analysis reveals that relevance emerges as a governing idea for the editors, who prioritise topical, interdisciplinary, and news-driven content to foster engagement. Conversely, the teachers’ comprehension is characterised by an in-transit experience,
necessitating various adaptive mindsets, ranging from resource-dependent to resourcedetached. In the specific context of RE, teachers navigate epistemological uncertainty through strategies of supportive learning, varying from cautious content selection to facilitating real encounters with religious complexity.
The discussion elevates these findings into a phenomenological reflection organised by five key dimensions. It characterises the teachers’ professional situation in the digitally saturated classroom as (1) a transitional experience and establishes (2) relevance as a phenomenological structure for didactical orientation. Addressing the normative dimensions, the study examines (3) becoming through practice in light of formation (Bildung). Furthermore, it argues for (4) living the questions to navigate epistemological uncertainty and explores (5) the world made present, where video serves as a portal to real encounters and participation.
Ultimately, the thesis argues that while digitalisation offers powerful tools for making the world present, it simultaneously creates a highly complex didactical situation that amplifies the pedagogical paradox, creating a tension between instrumental digital governance and the fostering of genuine pupil autonomy. By actively addressing the pedagogical paradox, professional discernment remains the primary force that transforms digital encounters into processes of formation. The study concludes that navigating this complexity requires a reengagement with the interdependent triad of didactics (why, what, and how), where transversal, and thus cross-curricular, digital methods are not treated as ends in themselves but are continuously discerned in light of the RE subject’s existential and formative aims. The digitally saturated classroom does not make the teaching profession easier; it makes it far more complex.
The thesis employs an interpretative abductive design. While the findings are generated inductively across four peer-reviewed articles, the extended introduction synthesises these results by situating them within a tripartite didactical framework, respectively Subject Didactics (SD), General Subject Didactics (GSD), and General Didactics (GD).
The inductive analysis reveals that relevance emerges as a governing idea for the editors, who prioritise topical, interdisciplinary, and news-driven content to foster engagement. Conversely, the teachers’ comprehension is characterised by an in-transit experience,
necessitating various adaptive mindsets, ranging from resource-dependent to resourcedetached. In the specific context of RE, teachers navigate epistemological uncertainty through strategies of supportive learning, varying from cautious content selection to facilitating real encounters with religious complexity.
The discussion elevates these findings into a phenomenological reflection organised by five key dimensions. It characterises the teachers’ professional situation in the digitally saturated classroom as (1) a transitional experience and establishes (2) relevance as a phenomenological structure for didactical orientation. Addressing the normative dimensions, the study examines (3) becoming through practice in light of formation (Bildung). Furthermore, it argues for (4) living the questions to navigate epistemological uncertainty and explores (5) the world made present, where video serves as a portal to real encounters and participation.
Ultimately, the thesis argues that while digitalisation offers powerful tools for making the world present, it simultaneously creates a highly complex didactical situation that amplifies the pedagogical paradox, creating a tension between instrumental digital governance and the fostering of genuine pupil autonomy. By actively addressing the pedagogical paradox, professional discernment remains the primary force that transforms digital encounters into processes of formation. The study concludes that navigating this complexity requires a reengagement with the interdependent triad of didactics (why, what, and how), where transversal, and thus cross-curricular, digital methods are not treated as ends in themselves but are continuously discerned in light of the RE subject’s existential and formative aims. The digitally saturated classroom does not make the teaching profession easier; it makes it far more complex.
Publisert i 2026
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