| 1. |
- Hellman, Annika
(författare)
-
Visuella möjlighetsrum : gymnasieelevers subjektsskapande i bild och medieundervisnin
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis examines upper secondary school pupils’ processes of subjectivation, resistance and creative becomings in visual art and media education. By using visual methodologies, pupils’ subjectivity is explored as relational and transformative, and as distributed in networks of power and desire. The empirical material was produced through pupils’ video diaries and a visual ethnographic classroom study. The aim of the study is addressed through the following research questions: What subject positions are enabled and made available for pupils in media education at upper secondary school? How is gender produced and negotiated in the visual art and media classroom? What educational human and non-human assemblages emerge, and with what effect for pupils’ becoming? The dissertation consists of three studies based on two empirical productions. The first is the licentiate thesis in which pupils’ becomings were highlighted as rhizomatic and as situated in relational, interlaced processes of learning with gender, affect, materiality, visual culture and informal learning. In the two following studies, visual ethnographic classroom observations were investigated in one study with masculinity as a theoretical lens, and in the other with a posthumanist perspective where the subject is considered an element in a pedagogical assemblage. In these studies, resistance against the pupil position is made visible, and so is the agency of materiality that created lines of flight away from the momentarily locked positions. The result shows that visual art and media education has democratic and pedagogical potentialities. Pupils’ perspectives can be differentiated, and creativity and informal competences can be highlighted through visual art and media education.
|
|
| 2. |
- Andishmand, Catarina, 1963
(författare)
-
Fritidshem eller servicehem? En etnografisk studie av fritidshem i tre socioekonomiskt skilda områden
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In recent decades there has been decreased resources and larger groups of children in the leisure-time centres. Statistics show major differences between leisure-time centres in terms of staff education, group size, staffing levels and the number of children enrolled at each leisure-time centre. The overall aim of the thesis is to study social practices in leisure-time centres providing after-school care. Based on Anthony Giddens' theory of structuration, an ethnographic study was conducted of everyday life at leisure-time centres in three socio-economically diverse areas. Fieldwork was conducted at each leisure-time centre over the course of one semester. The study shows how children and adults talk about their neighbourhoods and schools. It also shows the actors notions about the mission of the leisure-time centres, expressed through the actors' talk and interactions, their day-to-day routines and everyday social encounters. In conclusion, the study shows that the geographic location, resources, staff skills, group sizes and children's socio-economic backgrounds together play major roles in the social practices and activities organised at the leisure-time centres. The social changes and developments of recent decades are noticeable in all leisure-time centres. Housing segregation along with freedom of school choice all had consequences for the leisure-time centres. For children attending the same leisure-time centres, the groups become increasingly homogeneous in line with the children's ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. The results also show that leisure-time centres with large groups of children have reduced opportunities to provide a good learning environment. It becomes evident that the social practices in the leisure-time centres reproduce the contextual conditions, and risk reproducing structural differences in children's lives.
|
|
| 3. |
- Borgfeldt, Eva, 1961
(författare)
-
”Det kan vara svårt att förklara på rader”. Perspektiv på analys och bedömning av multimodal textproduktion i årskurs 3.
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Drawing and coloring have been part of young students text making as long as the writing system has been used, but with the increased use of digital tools and an enlarged focus on accountability of today there is a reinforced educational interest to understand what constitutes multimodal student texts in the context of classroom practice. This thesis project overall aim is to highlight and discuss the opportunities and difficulties in the assessment of language and knowledge-developing multimodal text work in a multilingual educational context. Conceptually the study is grounded in sociocultural theories, in sociosemiotic theory and in multiliteracies research. The methods used consist of qualitative multimodal text analysis and semi-structured interviews with students and their teacher. The three empirical studies were carried out, each having a different perspective. The first study looks at the text production of students in an integrated work of drawing, coloring and writing. The second study focuses how students reason when they choose to draw, write or both draw and write when they report to their teacher what they have learned. The third study discusses what the teacher highlights when assessing her students’ multimodal text productions. Overall, the results show that the semiotic resources, images and color, dominate students’ text productions and that the teacher attaches great importance to the illustrations, but that she, despite the best intentions, has trouble using multimodal criteria when assessing the students’ different ways of expressions and semiotic resources into a whole. It seems to be problematic for the teacher to allow students to freely interpret and independently design the task while she at the same time intends to make an overall assessment of how the content is presented. The results also indicate that it is difficult for the students to verbalize their thoughts on the assessment and in practice; the teacher more often is focused on assessing abilities relating to how thoroughly the students carry out the process of documenting rather than encouraging the students to develop and express their knowledge. Finally, the thesis concludes with discussing the content of an ongoing need for research, especially regarding the consequences it may have for younger students, whatever language background they have.
|
|
| 4. |
- Dahlbäck, Katharina, 1957
(författare)
-
Svenskämnets estetiska dimensioner - i klassrum, kursplaner och lärares uppfattningar
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores aesthetic dimensions in the school subject Swedish in classroom, curricula and teachers’ perceptions. In focus is the question about young pupils’ (7 – 9 years old) possibilities to use different modalities in order to express themselves, communicate and learn. The overarching aim is to highlight obstacles and opportunities to include aesthetic expressions in the subject Swedish. Aesthetic forms of expression refer to both physical and virtual forms of literature, music, fine arts, film and dance. Using data obtained from action research, curricula and interviews, examined within a framework of sociocultural and social semiotic multimodal theory, the thesis provides an analysis of pupils´ possibilities to create meaning through different sign systems within the subject Swedish. To be able to fulfil the aim of the study, the design includes three different part studies. Study one, “Music and Language in Interaction – An Action Research Study of First-Grade Pupils” describes the ways children participate, communicate and interact in a structured program with language and music activities. The result shows how language and music activities in interaction contain a rich variety of communication and semiotic resources. Study two, “Aesthetic interests and communicative forms, a curriculum study of Swedish as a school subject” examines how aesthetic perspectives of the subject Swedish appear in curricula from 1969 to 2011. Critical discourse analysis shows that these communicative forms are included in the curriculum from 1980, but reduced in earlier and later curricula. Study three, “Aesthetic interests and subject content, a study of teachers' perceptions of Swedish as a school subject” consider, through critical discourse analysis, how six teachers position themselves in different discourses regarding their view of language. The over all results of the three studies highlights a tension between different discourses, more specifically between a skill discourse and a multimodal discourse. Thus, different modalities are regarded in a vertical view, with written language as the “highest” form, or a horizontal view where expressions are valued equal, but useful for different purposes. The thesis shows that a skill-oriented subject Swedish dominates in classroom, curricula and teachers´ perceptions, but also that there are teachers, and school communities, who include the aesthetic means of expression in their teaching of Swedish. The result implies a discussion about pupils’ abilities to participate in, and master, literacy in different contexts as a democratic right. Hence, the thesis raises the question of conditions for a multimodal subject of Swedish.
|
|
| 5. |
- Edstrand, Emma, 1981
(författare)
-
Learning to reason in environmental education: Digital tools, access points to knowledge and science literacy
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Digital technologies and environmental education represent two rather new areas in school curricula. The background of the present research is an interest at the inter-section between how students learn about environmental issues (e.g., climate change) and the role digital technologies may play in such contexts. Thus, the aim is to investigate tool-mediated activities in environmental science education. The digital tools that are used in the instruction in this research are a virtual laboratory and a carbon footprint calculator. The study is guided by the questions of how digital tools co-determine activities and students’ reasoning about scientific knowledge and environmental topics, as well as what implications the use of such tools have for the development of science literacy. Analytically, this is studied within a sociocultural perspective on learning and by relating it to Dewey’s view of learning through inquiry. The empirical material consists of questionnaires and video data. The thesis consists of four studies. Study 1 builds on the analysis of questionnaire data from a corpus of almost 500 students’ written pre- and post-test answers to a problem-solving question in which they are required to design an experiment before and after working with a virtual lab. The second set of data comprises video recordings of upper secondary school students’ work with the two virtual tools. The results are presented in Studies 2 and 3. In addition, and in relation to the interest in science literacy more generally, Study 4 focuses on students’ work with an assignment requiring them to evaluate research reported in two scientific article abstracts on climate change. On a general level, the findings show that digital tools incorporate conceptual distinctions and operations that provide “shortcuts” for the students’ reasoning by providing access points to complex knowledge about the environment. This means that the students are able to engage in sophisticated discussions about environmental issues linked to human-driven climate change without requiring too much specific prior knowledge. However, the results also point to dilemmas connected to the use of such sophisticated tools. That is, for students to make meaning in ways that are relevant to understanding scientific argumentation, some of the processes and conceptual premises need to be unpacked by a competent partner (e.g., a teacher). Through engaging in such tool-mediated activities, students develop new cognitive habits, that is, new ways of reasoning which are made possible through the support of the tools. Thus, in sum, the present empirical studies demonstrate that digital tools have the potential to reconfigure learning activities that support students’ development of science literacy in environmental science education. At the same time, the analyses show that the tools are abstract and far from self-instructive. They index complex forms of knowledge that are not always transparent to the users. Thus, to reach curricular goals, the use of such tools in environmental science instruction presupposes guidance and support by teachers.
|
|
| 6. |
- Fauville, Geraldine
(författare)
-
Digital technologies as support for learning about the marine environment: Steps toward ocean literacy : Digital technologies and ocean literacy
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Over the last century the ocean has been negatively impacted by human activities. In order to continue benefitting from marine services and goods, and the qualities afforded to human life through the ocean, citizens need to be informed about their relationship to the ocean and their own impact on it, that is they need to be ocean literate. Marine education is challenging, as most of the ocean is invisible to the human eye and marine processes are spread over large temporal and spatial scales. Digital technologies have the potential to support learning about the ocean as, virtually, they can take learners into the depths of the ocean and help them visualise complex interactions between different factors over time and space. This thesis consists of four studies scrutinising the role of different digital technologies for learning about marine environmental issues with an emphasis on communicative aspects, with two of the studies having a specific focus on ocean literacy. Study I is a literature review of the use of digital technologies in environmental education. Study II investigates the use of a marine research institute’s Facebook page aimed at supporting communication and learning about marine topics. Study III addresses the use of a carbon footprint calculator as an opportunity for students to reason about their greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, Study IV analyses the questions asked by students on an online platform where they engage in an asynchronous discussion with a scientist around the issues of ocean acidification. The four studies show how the use of digital technologies in environmental education can make the invisible visible, allowing engagement with and manipulation of the abstract features of the ocean. As demonstrated in my studies and as is evident from previous research in the multidisciplinary field of environmental science, digital technologies offer new means to make sense of and engage with global environmental issues. These technologies provide a field of action where users can experiment, make mistakes, get feedback and try again in ways that are different from paper-based learning activities. The findings from Studies II, III and IV also illustrate the challenges associated with these technologies, and it becomes obvious that the technical features of a tool do not determine the kind of interactions that will evolve from its use. The contexts in which a tool is used, and what the features mean to the users in situ, are key, and demonstrate the importance of studying not only the outcome of a learning practice but also the ongoing interaction between the users and the tool in a specific context. In conclusion, this thesis offers an overview of the range of impacts that digital technologies can have on the development of ocean literacy, as well as illustrating how technologies open up new ways of learning about marine environmental issues both inside and outside of school. It also provides an account of why ocean literacy is such an important skill for 21st-century citizens living in a rapidly changing world with significant challenges to the environment and our own habitats.
|
|
| 7. |
|
|
| 8. |
- Hellman, Annika
(författare)
-
Visuella möjlighetsrum. Gymnasieelevers subjektsskapande i bild och medieundervisning
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- De demokratiska aspekterna av utbildning får allt mindre plats i skolan. En neoliberal logik som försvårar för kreativa processer att ta plats i skolan har genom ett ensidigt fokus på effektivitet och målstyrning kommit att dominera utbildningssystemet. I denna avhandling riktas intresset mot gymnasieelevers perspektiv på bild och medieundervisning. Det gäller såväl synliggörandet av elevers röster, som bild och medieämnens demokratiserande potentialer. Genom elevers videodagböcker och en visuell etnografisk klassrumstudie syftar avhandlingen till att undersöka elevers subjektsskapande i bild och medieundervisning på gymnasiet. Teoretiskt tar avhandlingen utgångspunkt i både poststrukturalistiska och posthumanistiska teorier. Kombinationen av dessa teorier synliggör elevers subjektsskapande som diskursiv och könad subjektivering, samt som tillblivelser i föränderliga assemblage med materialitet. Studien visar att undervisning med bild och media har en unik demokratisk och pedagogisk potential. Genom estetiska praktiker kan elever uttrycka motstånd, åsikter och kritik, samtidigt som deras upplevelser, erfarenheter och kunskaper synliggörs. Samtidigt visar studien elevers motstånd mot undervisningen, och en begränsad tillgång till maskulina subjektspositioner i bildpedagogisk praktik. Elevpositioner produceras och reproduceras i gymnasieskolan, samtidigt som elevpositioner kan differentieras och utmanas genom elevers arbete med bild och media. Elevers visuella gestaltningar innebär ett materialiserat skillnadsskapande som är tätt sammanflätat med differentiering av tänkande, omvärldsuppfattningar och självet. Vidare innebär elevers visuella gestaltande ett kreativt skillnadsskapande och idémässiga potentialer som berör det som kan komma att aktualiseras och materialiseras i framtiden.
|
|
| 9. |
- Johannesson, Elias, 1972
(författare)
-
The Dynamic Development of Cognitive and Socioemotional Traits and Their Effects on School Grades and Risk of Unemployment : A Test of the Investment Theory
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to examine the dynamic development of cognitive and socioemotional traits and how these traits influence academic achievement and predict risk of unemployment. Data was retrieved from the Evaluation Through Following-up (ETF) database. The data consists of 9,080 students born in 1972, who answered a questionnaire and completed cognitive ability tests in 3rd and 6th grade. In addition, register-based data was used for students’ grades and for various background variables. All analyses were conducted using structural equation modelling (SEM). The dynamic development of the relationships between cognitive and socioemotional traits between 3rd and 6th grade is driven by cognitive ability factors. Support was found for Cattell’s investment hypothesis, which states that fluid cognitive ability (Gf) influences development of crystallized cognitive ability (Gc). No influence of socioemotional traits on either cognitive traits or socioemotional traits was found. The evidence of a Gc reading achievement trait complex was weak. Furthermore, both cognitive and socioemotional traits are related to academic achievement. In the prediction of unemployment risk, effects of almost all cognitive and socioemotional traits are captured by grades. Gc has both a direct effect on unemployment risk and an indirect effect via grades on unemployment risk. All other effects of socioemotional traits and Gf are related to the risk of unemployment via academic achievement. The strongest determinant of unemployment risk is academic achievement, which has a protective effect on the risk of unemployment.
|
|
| 10. |
- Nyman, Rimma, 1983
(författare)
-
Interest and Engagement: Perspectives on Mathematics in the Classroom
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this research project is to illuminate interest manifested as student engagement in mathematics in years 6-9. In particular, the studies capture how engagement is recognised by teachers and researchers and what didactical strategies the teachers use to engage students in an introduction to algebra. Also, tasks seen by students as interesting and engaging are presented and analysed. Unlike other studies, student engagement is discussed in light of the Theory of Didactical Situations in Mathematics (TDS). The most important results are insights into the relational constitution of engagement. These insights are visible in the interplay between the student, the teacher, the task and the mathematics. The results show that teachers have an important role in engaging students in mathematics during the didactical situation. Teachers seem to agree on how engagement is indicated in the classroom. The strategies for enhancing engagement provided and discussed by the teachers are all a part of the meso-contract. Further, working with the target knowledge in the foreground can enhance student engagement and thus contribute to the development of an adidactical situation. These empirical findings seem to support the idea that, in order to engage students in mathematics, it is important to design didactical situations and tasks where enhancing engagement is a part of the macro-contract.
|
|
