| 11. |
- Arnegård, Johan, 1958-
(författare)
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Upplevelser och lärande i äventyrssport och skola
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The physicality of sports and outdoor life offers great opportunities for intensive experiences – participants ”feel” the happening in their bodies. As well as looking upon physical activity mainly as something instrumental, as for example in competitive sports and exercise culture, other aspects can also be central, for instance the pure joy of movement. The existential or expressive side of physical activity is examined in this doctoral thesis.In order to study such experiential quality more thoroughly, the author’s attention turns to adventure sports participants, as they appear to have a capacity for becoming highly involved and seeking very intense experiences. Who is involved in adventure sports? Why are they engaged in a sport that demands such great hardships and risk-taking? What do they get out of it? The overall objective of the thesis is to shed light on adventure sports as a practice and to discuss the educational significance of flow and other experiential qualities in adventure sports and in schools.The analyses are based on three empirical sub-studies. The first began with a questionnaire that 161 adventure sports participants responded to. This was followed by an interview study of eleven men and three women, all of whom had extensive experience in adventure sports. The categories of sport were evenly divided between climbing, off-piste skiing and hang gliding.In the second sub-study a detailed investigation of climbing was carried out. A notable sportification has brought about a very clear and interesting change in parts of this activity. Six traditional/adventure climbers and six sport climbers were interviewed, of which half were men and half women. All the climbers were experienced and very much involved in their sport.The aim of the third sub-study was to seek an answer as to whether pupils have experiences in their daily school life that are similar to those of adventure sports participants. An ESM (Experience Sampling Method) investigation was carried out with 60 pupils in compulsory school year nine (corresponding to UK schools’ year eleven) from four different schools. The pupils’ parents answered a special parent questionnaire including questions about academic and professional backgrounds, living conditions, habits, interests, attitudes and leisure time activities.The results were analysed taking into consideration the phenomenological perspective and structuralistic or more correctly expressed the cultural sociological perspective. Mihály Csikszentmihályi’s theoretical argument on optimal experiences, which in turn is based on the flow concept, constitutes the phenomenological foundation. Pierre Bourdieu’s concept apparatus and theories were used to closely examine the participants’ backgrounds, life histories and current living situations.The study shows that a preference for adventure sports is clearly linked to the participants’ backgrounds and earlier life experiences. A behavioural pattern is incorporated and developed into an embodied capacity to master a practice, a result of a long learning process. Participants were clearly concordant in these respects. Participants emphasise the abundant opportunities for intensive experiences that arise from adventure sports. It is a matter of something multidimentional: the active body, outdoor life in natural surroundings, exacting and clear goals, total focus, and about exercising control. This approach presents a model for identification of content qualities, which together create the dynamics that form the meaningful rewards that result from participation in adventure sports. The dimensions include flow experiences, but also go beyond them.The deep sense of presence, the physical involvement, the fact that they can choose the path and increase the degree of difficulty themselves – and simultaneously counter this new challenge with increased capacity so that they are engaged at the ”right level” – also provide favourable conditions for a stimulating and successful learning experience.The observation was made that it was primarily in the practical and aesthetic subjects that school pupils had the same deep feeling of presence together with a meaningful and pleasurable holistic experience as the adventure sports participants had. Here they were actively involved with their hands or with their whole bodies, and they could make their own choices and be in control of the activity, which for most pupils led to a strong feeling of satisfaction.
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
- Bjuremark, Anna, 1950-
(författare)
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Att styra i namn av akademisk kollegialitet
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of the study can in greater detail be described as makingan analysis of the role of knowledge, as well as the assumptions inscribedin knowledge, in the practices of governing academic subjects liketeachers and researchers. The point of departure is the new concepts of theinteraction between individual freedoms and social norms that emergedrecently in the context of the political governance of higher education(Management). The study also includes genealogical analyses of how thenew forms of governance are related to historical imaginaries of the Academy(past times), and how such historical material is reproduced and operatesin today’s Swedish University settings.The historical material consists of texts regarding the history of theUniversity, public material such as official reports of the State (SOU) andgovernment bills and it also includes reports from a national symposium onthe university in the middle of the 1980’s.The empirical material consists of an impressionistic ethnographic fieldstudy from 10 meetings of the deans’ council in the second part of1998 (Study 1), 27 in depth interviews; 10 interviews with deans (Study 2),11 interviews with the members of the university board and finally 4 interviewswith external informants (Study 3).The theoretical guidelines, along which this research is organised,are based on Michel Foucault´s notion of gouvernmentalité (governmentality),Nikolas Rose’s reflections regarding the emergence of new liberalrationalities of governing (advanced liberalism) and Judith Butler’s poststructuralfeminist perspective. This theoretical framework is used as apoint of departure to study how power and governance operate in thepractices of the deans’ council; how the assumptions and concepts of thedeans are inscribed in those practices where power and governance areexercised; how the deans construct themselves and each other and finallyhow the construction of identities in those practices are related to the forcesof power that operate inside and outside the university setting.The self-governing practices of the deans’ council, that are part ofthe university’s governance policy, are understood by the actors as a movementtowards increased autonomy. A closer scrutiny of those practices,however, reveals that the new management discourse governs the practicesfrom behind, as it were. The activities of the university, it seems, arenow directed towards the aim of realizing the future needs of manpower insociety, preferably within the technological, scientific and medical sector.In order to ensure oneself about efficiency and quality, the previous confidencesystem is replaced by a quality follow-up (quality control) systemwith the starting point in an economic administrative thinking.
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| 14. |
- Blomdahl, Eva, 1953-
(författare)
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Teknik i skolan : en studie av teknikundervisning för yngre skolbarn
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main purpose of this study is to find out how technology as a school subject is formed into pedagogical action. Issues addressed are: – How does teaching in the school subject of technology differ in terms of content and process? – How do frame factors influence teaching in technology? As analytic tools, concepts from philosophical thought on technology and education as well as frame factor theory are used to throw light on the way technology education takes shape in the practices of two primary school teachers. The philosophical concepts employed and developed have been inspired by the thinking of Martin Heidegger and John Dewey. These con-cepts are “place” and “shaping of technology,” where the shaping of tech-no¬logy involves the following phases: formulation of the assignment, analysis, visualization/construction and evaluation/reflection. The basic questions are investigated in two case studies over a period of one year. Data is collected based on ethnographic methods and consists of observations, video recordings, documentation in the form of teachers’ diaries as well as pupils’ work, taped interviews with pupils, and interviews with the two teachers both before and after the project was finished. The overall results of the study show that the two teachers, to a different degree, use place, e.g. they try to use the children’s own experiences and the surrounding environment as a starting point in their teaching. They try to organize their teaching as a process of knowledge construction instead of as a process of transmission. In that process, different forms of represen¬tation are used, such as sketches, model constructions and written docu¬mentation, with the element of model construction providing a common denominator given the availability of tools and material. Another similarity between the practices is that the children are given opportunities to work at problem solving in cases where there are no given solutions. However, they enter problems due to their own embodiment in a pedagogy of transmission, which results in the fact that the shaping of technology becomes difficult to organize. Strict borders between subjects, the fragmented timetable of the school, and the organization of the classroom space and scarce equipment and materials all influence the possibilities of teaching in technology.
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| 15. |
- Boström, Agneta, 1948-
(författare)
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Sharing lived experience : How upper secondary school chemistry teachers and students use narratives to make chemistry more meaningful
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation concerns the place of teachers’ and students’ narratives in making school chemistry more meaningful to students. The material was collected at upper secondary school courses and consists of interviews with six experienced chemistry teachers, five adult students attending evening classes and six younger students. The methodological and theoretical approach is mainly inspired by John Dewey’s (1925, 1938) notion of continuity and by narrative inquiry as formulated by Clandinin & Connelly (2000). In defining narratives as a way of knowing, Bruner’s (1996, 2002) distinction between paradigmatic and narrative cognition is used, as well as his ideas about the past, the present and the possible.The findings show how teachers use narratives from their own lived experience as well as from other people’s lives in order to make chemistry more meaningful. Moreover, they use a narrative format to make their scientific explanations meaningful. Students use narratives or stories connected to their own lived experience to make sense of chemistry. These results show how chemistry can be made part of a meaningful context through sharing lived experience by means of storytelling. Narratives are used to make everyday life and chemistry class experiences continuous in the sense suggested by Dewey (1938). In accordance with his thoughts on experience, narratives are of help in the science classroom not only in making science more relevant and interesting, but also easier to understand. In the dissertation numerous examples of such stories are given and their role in learning chemistry is discussed.The stories of the teachers and students in the study are retold and analysed according to additional analytic tools in order to further document their role in teaching chemistry. It is argued that the collected narratives constitute an ingredient in teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, PCK, according to Shulman (1986). How they can be used in different content areas of science and chemistry is discussed. The content of the narratives is also related to the Swedish curriculum, to the findings of the ROSE project and to Roberts’s (1982) knowledge emphases. The content analyses show that narratives make chemistry in class pluralistic in allowing the lived experiences of teachers and students to interact with the scientific facts.The final discussion concerning narrative inquiry is inspired by what Clandinin & Connelly (2000) wrote about “clashes at the boundaries”. The specific boundary in this dissertation is situated between canonical science teaching methods on the one hand and the use of narratives in teaching and narrative inquiry as research method on the other hand. Reductionism alone cannot explain nature and the complexity of life (Dewey 1925, 1938 and Midgley 2004), and the results of this dissertation show that narratives are used by both students and teachers in order to make sense of chemistry. Narratives constitute a way to make the reductionist knowing of science part of a more meaningful whole in accordance with Dewey’s holistic ideas about education.The results of this study suggest that teaching narratives can – and should – be used in science as a complement to other, more scientifically oriented educational methods. Thus, it supports many of the efforts made within context-based approaches, such as Case Studies, LCP (Large Context Problems), PBL (Problem-Based Learning), the Salter’s method and the Storyline method. Further implications of the results for teaching, learning, teacher education and research are explored.
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| 16. |
- Bronäs, Agneta, 1945-
(författare)
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Demokratins ansikte : en jämförande studie av demokratibilder i tyska och svenska samhällskunskapsböcker för gymnasiet
- 2000
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to compare German and Swedish textbooks in socialscience focused on how democracy takes form in the text. What kind ofrepresentations appears through texts and illustrations? What is said and how is itsaid? What is emphasized? What is excluded? How does the text present differentconcepts and relate them to democracy? The study also focuses on how knowledgeand learning is described and to whom the text is addressed.This dissertation has a semiotic-didactic perspective based on the dialogicalprinciple that emanates from Bakhtin’s theoretical perspective and Bakhtin’sthoughts of how to analyze texts.The empirical material consists of textbooks in social science, published since 1950.The study is restricted to books written for upper secondary school and books havebeen selected to achieve variation in the descriptions of democracy.The analysis has focused on themes and concepts appearing in the textbooks.Different themes appearing in the text are the basis for the creation of a time-line.Four different periods have been found in each country, but the division of time isslightly different.The dominant themes in German textbooks are “the good and the evil”, “thegood and bad democracy”, “action groups – to be or not to be” and “unity oreminance”. There is more than one theme in Swedish textbooks, but the mostdominant themes are “governing and obedience”, “governing and autonomy”, “theautonomous citizen”, and “governing or empowerment”.There are many representations of democracy in the textbooks and most of therepresentations are vague and full of contradictions. Some of the images evencontradict the official image of democracy. Citizens in German textbooks aredescribed as active, autonomous and responsible, but the only way to influencepoliticians is through participation in elections. Citizens described in Swedishtextbooks are portrayed as passive, ignorant and irresponsible, except when voting.The dominant view of knowledge and learning is reproductive. Knowledge isportrayed as monological and the students are expected to learn some basics facts,without being able to reflect and deliberate on issues. However, texts can be openand create opportunities for students to reflect and take a stance on their own. Anopen and dialogical text is more common in German textbooks than in Swedishtextbooks.
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| 17. |
- Bäckström, Åsa, 1966-
(författare)
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Spår : Om brädsportkultur, informella lärprocesser och identitet
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Today’s society is subject to an increased importance of aesthetics and an increasing individualism. New trends are adopted early by young people, which make it interesting to focus on how identity is formed and meanings are constructed in a youth culture context and in relation to ongoing societal processes of change.The purpose of this dissertation is to interpret and analyse the construction of meaning within the skateboard and snowboard communities in the social and cultural contexts. In particular, this dissertation is about the relationship between three levels, cultural, practice and individual. The title “Traces” alludes to four analytical themes taking different tracks in the book; consumption, gender, place and identity that are reflected in different chapters. However, the individual leaves traces in culture as culture does in the individual. Furthermore, skaters and snowboarders leave actual tracks in their local geography.Theoretically the study has a culture analysis approach with a semiotic base where five theories are intertwined. Johan Fornäs contributes with his interpretation on culture as system of signs and signifying practices, Stuart Hall adds the concept of representations, Kirsten Drotner provides her argumentation regarding aesthetic practices whilst Ulf Hannerz enriches the dissertation with his discussion on transnational culture-flows and the social diffusion of culture. Roger Säljö proposes a socio-cultural perspective of learning where learning is about participation in knowledge and skills. The method used is ethnographical. The multifaceted empirical material, from field studies and interviews, Swedish skateboard and snowboard magazines between 1978 to 2002, skateboard and snowboard videos, press articles, and websites, has been triangulated. In addition, there are three personal albums of skateboarder, snowboarder and surfer Ants Neo.The study shows that there are stereotyped notions about what boarding means and what it means to be a boarder. These notions both create and are created by the boarders themselves but are also used by advertisers for products not related to board sports at all. These notions, based as they are on ideas of resistance and radicalism, serve to emphasise that boarding is masculine. Resistance takes concrete form in its attitude to organized sports and to multinational brands and in the unusual use of places in the urban environment. To be a boarder is, apart form the boarding skills required, to be also part and parcel of these attitudes.The study explains how meaning and identity are created through informal learning processes in youth culture contexts. In these group-forming processes, both the individual and the community are formulated in social, cultural and aesthetic terms.
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| 18. |
- Cardell, Gunnar, 1945-
(författare)
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Trenätsmodellen : ett systemteoretiskt redskap för att beskriva helhet och komplexitet i pedagogisk praktik : exemplet värnpliktsutbildning
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- On an empiristic level this dissertation is about military training of conscripts. Etnographic research at two units showed manifoldness and complexity, order and chaos, ideas and processes. The aim of the dissertation is to produce a theoretical tool to handle all this. The starting point is the idea of the General System Theory that terms referring to systems may be transferred from one theoretic field or level to another. Following this idea resulted in a set of terms emergence, feedback, homeostasis, and coding.Using such terms in describing educational, e.g. subsystem, self-(re)organization, practice gives a rough description since the terms do not reflect all patterns typical of educational practice. The remedy was to create new adequate terms. Such work gave a set of terms called the Triple Network Model (TNM). This name relates to three aspects of reality: complexes, intentions and processes, here represented by the terms networks of needs, of strategies and of causes. Strategies originates from ideas called strategens; a strategenom is a set of strategens and may be seen as a verbal vision. The strategens reflect the teacher’s ideas about what is needed; a network of strategies reflects a network of needs. A teacher uses both co-ordinated and concurrent strategies. Needs of systems of subsystems give a network of needs that may produce rational and emotional motivation in a network of motivation. Initial and reflexive activities produce disorder, self-(re)organisation, causal spirals and circles.In a network of causes you find not only the teachers’ strategic thinking and acting but also their personal needs etc. There may be conflicts between needs of individuals, overlapping and conducting systems. The TNM-analysis of the military units showed not only relations between needs, ideas, actions, processes, order and chaos, but also that TNM is an adequate and fruitful theoretical tool for such an analysis.
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| 19. |
- Carlsson, Carl-Gustaf, 1946-
(författare)
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Ungdomars möte med yrkesutbildning : en jämförelse mellan ungdomar i kommunal och företagsförlagd gymnasieutbildning
- 2001
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main purpose in this thesis was to study young persons and their encounter with vocational education and training as related to industrial work. Another was to compare the situation for these persons in two school organizations, a municipal upper secondary school and an industrial upper secondary school situated within a private company.The approach was to investigate the interplay in vocational training between the teacher's arrangement of the teaching and the student's view of this situation. The study was analysed using a theoretical model designed to focus on the interaction between student prerequisites and experiences and teacher and school influences.Data was collected from one class at a municipal upper secondary school and another class at an industrial upper secondary school that were followed for three years during their vocational education. The result has been analysed by interviews with teachers and students, student marks, student questionnaire and observa-tions of education.The students had started their industrial training with differing experien-ces. The common factor was an interest in technology. At the beginning of their education a marked difference was noted in the students' self-confi-dence, mainly between the groups in the two school organizations. The stu-dents in the company-based school showed considerably more self-confi-dence than those in the municipal school.The students can be divided into those who are theory-oriented and practice-oriented respectively. The former group had great confidence in theoretical explanations and seldom questioned these, carefully following instructions. The practice-oriented group used a more questioning and examining way of learning.The students at the municipal upper secondary school have difficulties in adjusting to educational situations, which they cannot see the use of, espe-cially those students who are practice-oriented. At the industrial upper secondary school, which has a more restricted educational process, the students adjust to the situations.
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| 20. |
- Englund, Boel, 1947-
(författare)
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Skolans tal om litteratur : Om gymnasieskolans litteraturstudium och dess plats i ett kulturellt återskapande med utgångspunkt i en jämförelse av texter för litteraturundervisning i Sverige och Frankrike
- 1997
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the main study literary anthologies and textbooks used in the mother tongue subjects at upper secondary schools in Sweden and France around 1920 and 1980 are analysed with reference to the conception of literature-what counts as literature and why-and the proposed way of studying literary texts. Conclusions are drawn as to the potential functions of the study of literature, the character of the literary studies and their place in a process of cultural re-production. In the second part of the thesis, the results from the main study are used as a starting-point for an analysis where the characteristics of the different discourses on literature are connected to the educational institution and society. In the case of France, the roots of these characteristics are sought in the very long tradition of an education of the mind of the French secondary school. The results from the study may be summarized as follows:The discourse on literature of the school is understandable above all as part of a cultural re-production which concerns other things than literature; as an element of broader social control.This discourse has undergone great changes in Sweden during the period of study, but not in France, although the transformation of the economic structure in both countries and the increase in the fraction of a generation attending upper secondary school are much the same. One possible part of an explanation is a difference in the social anchorage of the state; another that the French study of literature has all the time represented a socially valid discourse.In France, the conception of literary texts and the way of approaching them, in the second half of the 20th century-according to textbooks accepted by the educational institution-still bore the mark of a tradition which is that of the education of the mind. This conception of texts, and this way of treating them, are such that there seems to have been question of a cultural reproduction in the strong sense, a reproduction of mental structures.
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