Why digital administrative systems create extra work and demoralize us: A study of performativity and decontextualization caused by Unikum in Swedish preschools.

The study focuses on a digital system, Unikum, which is built around the curriculum for Swedish kindergartens and used by them. The researchers analyse the possibilities of action the system provides, how these are used and how the interfaces are designed.

The study shows that Unikum organises information in a way that limits the interpretation possibilities. It promotes an educational ideology that focuses on customer personalisation and sees children's development in a positive light. This leads to teachers using the system's language and codes to describe children's development in a certain way, and this can lead them to deprioritise their own professional expertise and the children's needs.

The data material consists of screenshots of the interface, but also screenshots from training videos created by Unikum for kindergartens/schools, as these provide simulated data and identities for demonstration purposes, as well as access to the discourses that in turn make the system visible. The analyses were conducted within a theoretical framework called MCDA (Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis).

Ledin, P. & Machin, D. (2021). "Why digital administrative systems create extra work and demoralize us: A study of performativity and decontextualization caused by Unikum in Swedish preschools". Discourse, Context & Media, 49:100469.