Are you interested in responsible behaviour around digital technology? The way in which schools embed values such as privacy and transparency in the selection and use of digital technologies affects their teachers and students. As a PhD Candidate, you will investigate the implementation and usage of digital technologies in Dutch secondary schools.
Digitalisation in schools has a profound impact on the educational experiences of both teachers and students. Many digital technologies have been designed specifically for educational purposes, but more generic platforms such as social media and app groups are also used in educational activities. This use may be either endorsed by the school, chosen ad-hoc by teachers (shadow IT), or initiated by students, leading to an intertwinement of formal and informal technology use. It appears that public values such as privacy, transparency and independence are not always taken into account in adoption decisions for these generic technologies. As a result, these values may be compromised when such technologies are selected and used.

We are looking for a PhD candidate to investigate how Dutch secondary schools currently select and use digital technologies, and how they can be assisted in safeguarding these values and norms in their decisions through organisational and technical interventions. To this end, a mixed-methods approach is foreseen including interviews, literature analysis, surveys and choice experiments. The project will combine the disciplinary perspectives of ethics, law, social sciences and design science in studying how ethical, technical and legal factors translate into organisational responsibilities around technology selection and use. We aim at answering the following questions:

1. What is the current status of the digital technology landscape in Dutch schools for 12-18-year-olds, and how are formal and informal technologies intertwined?
2. Based on what factors and decision processes do schools, teachers and students decide which generic technologies to use and how to use them, and how do they perceive the responsibilities and consequences for such use? Which values are overlooked?
3. How can interventions in the organisational and technical landscape give public values and legal/social norms a more prominent place in the technology selection process?

This is a joint project between iHub, Radboud University's interdisciplinary hub for digitalisation and society, and the Behavioural Science Institute of the Faculty of Social Sciences. This PhD position involves 10% teaching and the opportunity to obtain a teaching qualification.

• You have a Master's degree related to social sciences, or a Master's degree in a different relevant programme and demonstrable experience with social science research methods and statistics.
• You have a demonstrable affinity with digital technology and associated moral values and legal rights. 
• You are proficient in English and have demonstrable writing skills.
• You have good cooperation skills in interdisciplinary settings, but also the ability to manage your own project.
• Preferably, you have knowledge of the Dutch language at a level suitable for contact with schools and interviews.

Fixed-term contract: You will be employed for an initial period of 18 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4 year contract) or 3.5 years (5 year contract).

• Employment for 0.8 - 1.0 FTE.
• The gross starting salary amounts to €2,443 per month based on a 38-hour working week, and will increase to €3,122 from the fourth year onwards (salary scale P).
• You will receive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
• You will be employed for an initial period of 18 months, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4 year contract) or 3.5 years (5 year contract).
• You will be able to use our Dual Career and Family Care Services. Our Dual Career and Family Care Officer can assist you with family-related support, help your partner or spouse prepare for the local labour market, provide customized support in their search for employment  and help your family settle in Nijmegen.
• Working for us means getting extra days off. In case of full-time employment, you can choose between 29 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the legally allotted 20.

Additional employment conditions
Work and science require good employment practices. This is reflected in Radboud University's primary and secondary employment conditions. You can make arrangements for the best possible work-life balance with flexible working hours, various leave arrangements and working from home. You are also able to compose part of your employment conditions yourself, for example, exchange income for extra leave days and receive a reimbursement for your sports subscription. And of course, we offer a good pension plan. You are given plenty of room and responsibility to develop your talents and realise your ambitions. Therefore, we provide various training and development schemes.

The Behavioural Science Institute (BSI) is a multidisciplinary research institute and one of the three research institutes in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Radboud University. Our researchers collaborate across the boundaries of psychology, educational science, and communication science. Our mission is to strengthen people through understanding the foundations of human behaviour, by creating synergy between different paradigms and by facilitating craftsmanship, curiosity and connection in scientific research. BSI has seven research programmes covering three major research themes: 1) development and learning, 2) health and mental health, and 3) social processes and communication. BSI conducts fundamental as well as applied/translational research and has excellent facilities and support for lab and field research. This project will include BSI researchers from the programmes Learning and Plasticity, Communication and Media, and Work, Health and Performance.
iHub brings together a diverse range of academics from across the humanities, social sciences, engineering and natural sciences to tackle urgent questions raised by the increased digitalisation and datafication of science and society. iHub's mission is to better understand the effects of digitalisation on our society and to help steer digital transformations in ways in which public values are central. We seek to do this by:
1. Bringing disciplines from across the humanities, computer and social sciences together to address the challenges raised by digitalisation.
2. Focusing on the core values which are destabilised and need protection in digitalisation processes.
3. Adopting a critical and constructive approach.

You will be employed by the Behavioural Science Institute, within the programme that best fits your background and interests. You will spend two days of your working week at iHub and another two days a week at BSI.