| 31. |
- Allard, Karin, 1953-, et al.
(författare)
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The Education of Special Educators in Sweden and Finland
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The educational policy is inclusive both in Finland and in Sweden. Still special educators are educated. They seem to work both in inclusive and in segregative ways. The more inclusive ways demand co-operation and planning with other teachers. Although the results of such co-operation have been good, there could be even more collaboration at schools. The main questions of our study are: 1) What is the core content of the work of special educators. 2) What is the role of a) inclusion and b) collaboration in their work?Method: The data for the study are current main laws and documents in both countries and curriculums of special educators in 5 universities in Finland and in 10 Universities in Sweden. A content analysis as well as critical discourse analysis are used with these documents and curriculums. Results: The results with regards to the curriculums will show the core areas in both countries as well as the differences in the content of studies. The legal documents will show the similarities and differences in regulations. In a previous study the core areas in curriculum for special education teachers students in Finland were reading, writing, mathematical and behavioral challenges (Hausstätter & Takala 2008). Sweden and special teachers and special pedagogs, Finland just special teachers. Sweden has education on more narrow areas, like mainly just on reading and writing challenges; in Finland special educators are general experts, studying more issues. Conclusions: The results are not ready yet, but we will be able to say about the differences and similarities as well as focus on the demands of inclusion in both countries after we have done the study.
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| 33. |
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| 34. |
- Allard, Karin, 1972
(författare)
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Toward a Working Life. Solving the work-family dilemma
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims at identifying factors important in employees’ strive toward combining work and family in a satisfying way. The thesis relies on four papers that focus on the use of parental leave, experiences of work-family conflict and experiences of work-personal life harmonization. Papers I, II and III are based on several surveys of fathers working at private companies in Sweden. Paper IV is based on data from a survey of employed mothers and fathers working for Swedish national governmental authorities. Paper I examines the effects of organizational culture on fathers’ use of paid parental leave benefits. Paper II aims at examining fathers’ experiences of work-family conflict and their perceived extent of family-supportive organizational culture. The association between a family-supportive organizational culture and work-family conflict was also explored. Paper III explores managerial fathers’ flexible working arrangements and experiences of work-family conflict. The aim of Paper IV was to examine parents’ self-reported health and their experiences of work-personal life harmonization. The results of the present investigations suggest that: a) Men’s use of parental leave is affected by the company’s commitment to caring values, level of father-friendliness and support for women’s equal employment opportunities, as well as fathers’ perceptions of support from top managers, and of work-group norms that reward task performance vs. long hours at work; b) Employed fathers who experience their work organization as family-supportive will likely be better able to combine work and family; c) Managerial fathers experience high levels of work-family conflict despite high access to flexible working arrangements; d) Gender egalitarianism in the family and flexible working arrangements are important factors in managerial fathers’ experience of work-family conflict; e) Work-personal life harmonization is positively related to parents’ self-reported health. This thesis contributes to the discussion concerning how the work-family dilemma should be solved. The results reveal employees’ needs for gender equality and informal flexible working arrangements, as well as to work in organizational cultures based on values supporting employees’ efforts to combine work and personal life in a harmonized way. The thesis concludes that work organizations have to assume their responsibility and make efforts that challenge traditional values. If they have the courage to do this, their employees are likely to have better self-reported health and better possibilities for a life that works.
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| 37. |
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| 38. |
- Allard, Karin, 1953-
(författare)
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VARFÖR GÖR DE PÅ DETTA VISET? : Kommunikativa praktiker i flerspråkig undervisning med svenskt teckenspråk som medierande redskap
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Applying a human rights perspective on plurilingualism as a national as well as a transnational concern, with a focus on the interaction taking place in foreign language teaching and learning practices at a Swedish Special Needs School for pupils with deafness or impaired hearing, the overall aim of this study is to describe and discuss this interaction in performative terms, i.e. in terms of what is said by whom, to whom, why, and with what consequences. Although extensive research has already been carried out within the field of plurilingualism, for example from linguistic, sociological and political points of departure, research on plurilingualism with regard to foreign language teaching and learning interaction in Swedish sign language contexts has been largely missing. The ambition of this work, therefore, is to add to the diversity of research on plurilingualism. It is also hoped that this work will contribute to the debate in educational politics concerning a human rights perspective on plurilingualism, especially with regard to modern European languages as a transnational issue.Methodologically, an ethnographic approach has been employed to document, by means of two video cameras in combination with field notes, the practices of communication emerging from teacherstudent interaction. Using notions from Conversational Analysis and alongside established conventions of sign language transcription, a model of transcription was designed for the specific purpose of describing, in detail, the plurilingual interaction where Swedish sign language is used as a mediating tool.Three lessons in English and four lessons – or lesson extracts – in Spanish, at secondary level in a Special Needs School for pupils with deafness or impaired hearing, have been documented and analysed. The analyses were carried out in two different steps, one describing and one discussing the results of the empirical investigation.The institutionally formalised interaction observed appears to have contributed to the heavy dominance of the teacher, and of the IRE sequence used during the lessons, to a much greater extent than students’ deafness or impaired hearing. Although the aims and objectives of the curricular texts intended for these students, as well as for hearing ones, are expressed in communicative terms – for example, learning to read texts of relatively high complexity, or developing writing skills for communication across linguistic boundaries – almost all the lessons that were investigated concerned the translation of isolated words into sign language, often taken out of their English or Spanish context. Nonetheless, the students took part in the classroom interaction when protesting, joking, asking questions and helping each other. Thus, the teacher dominance noted does not imply suppression, but rather a tendency on the part of the teacher to underestimate the students, as well as reflecting a selective tradition within foreign language teaching and learning practices in a general Swedish school context. However, when viewed from a human rights perspective on future plurilingual European citizens, using their language skills to reach out into the world for mutual understanding, the students involved in the language teaching and learning interaction observed in this study may hardly be expected to reach out across linguistic boundaries, at least not as a result of the language education they have experienced.
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