| 1. |
- Dahlén, Ewa
(författare)
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Rektorn och den dubbla styrningen : en studie om gymnasierektors uppdrag i styrkedjan
- 2023
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In a global education policy context, school leadership has grown in importance in relation to improving school outcomes as well as equity in education. At the same time, during the last decades, the Swedish school system has undergone several large-scale national education reforms. Reforms that have changed the relations between the different levels in the decentralised Swedish school system and at the same time created debates about the purpose and goals of the school system. These debates are based in different perspectives and shaped by various school discourses. The result discourse connected to the perspective of marketization and the democratic discourse connected to the perspective of social inclusion and equality. These are two central discourses who proclaim different views on how challenges within the school system should best be solved. The purpose of this study is to contribute to knowledge about the mission and responsibilities of principals in upper secondary schools in the Swedish school system. The study takes its point of departure in observations of follow-up meetings between principals within upper secondary schools and the local education authority (LEA). This study has three theoretical contributions. The first contribution concerns knowledge of the principal’s mission, assignment, and work tasks. The second contribution is knowledge of how the result discourse and the democratic discourse are used in conversations about the principal’s mission, assignment, and work tasks. The third contribution is knowledge of the interaction between the principal and the LEA, different levels in the decentralised Swedish school system, in the context of follow-up meetings. The results show that LEAs describe the principal’s mission in three parts – economy, administration, and pedagogy. The two discourses are used in all three of the missions where they sometimes collide, creating a discursive conflict and sometimes co-exist without conflict. The results also show that the LEA and principals often have a common view of the purpose and goal of the school system, but there is seldom a common strategy for how these goals are to be achieved. This study contributes to an understanding how LEAs and political governance shape the role of the principals, but more studies are needed.
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| 2. |
- Gejard, Gabriella, 1962-
(författare)
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"Jag kan göra matte å minus å plus" : Förskolebarns och pedagogers deltagande i matematiska aktiviteter
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This licentiate thesis examines mathematical activities in a preschool. More precisely, the aim is to create knowledge of how mathematical activities emerge and are constructed in children's interactions with each other and with their teachers. The empirical material consists of video recordings and field notes collected through participant observations during a six-month period in two preschool units for children 3-5 years old. Theoretically the study is based on an ethnomethodological (EM) and conversation analytic (CA) perspective. Video recordings were analyzed using conversation analytic methods, involving a close and detailed analysis of sources in situated mathematical activities. Through the use of an EM and CA perspective this study contributes with new theoretical and methodological approaches to research on mathematical activities in preschools. In the close analysis of children's actions in interaction, an active child with ideas, interests, and commitment emerges, a child who uses a variety of communicative resources when participating in mathematical activities. Whether it is the children or the teachers who initiate the activity the children are actively involved in the construction of the mathematical content.Geometric shapes and concepts as well as different aspects of children's number sense are a couple of the mathematical topics covered in the study. In the activities the childrens display knowledge of math verbally as well as with their bodies, something that is analyzed by using the concept of epistemic stance. The preschool teachers sometimes used occasions when children display specific knowledge as an educational resource for other children's learning. The study also shows that children as well as their teachers follow each other's initiatives in the activities. This means that children change and enlarge the mathematical content within the activities and that the teachers follow the children's initiative. Through this reciprocity the mathematical content of the activity is maintained.
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| 3. |
- Sandberg, Karin, 1981-
(författare)
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Möte med det förflutna : digitaliserade primärkällor i historieundervisningen
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In recent years, the Swedish educational system has undergone considerable change. A new curriculum and swift digitization via the implementation of the "one-to-one" system have increased the call for new teaching methods in schools. Previous research indicates that working with primary sources can enhance students’ historical thinking and historical empathy. The present licentiate dissertation aims to investigate Swedish upper secondary school students’ use of critical thinking and historical empathy when utilizing digitized primary sources, such as the parish registers stored in the Demographic Data Base at Umeå University. Five classes in grades 1-3, comprising 110 students, in the ages 16 to 19, and three teachers participated in the study. The students were assigned with compiling a report based on the digitised primary source material and presenting their findings in a written paper or oral presentation. The study was evaluated through (1) interviews with students and teachers, (2) classroom observation of the students while working with the material, (3) questionnaires on the students´ view of history, and (4) the completed assignments. The study shows that all the students achieved some result based on the information found in the digitised primary sources. While they applied historical empathy and historical thinking, it was mixed with presentism. The majority did not make use of corroboration, but those who did displayed more examples of historical thinking and historical empathy, primarily evident in grades 2 and 3 and in the free discussions held after the presentations. The students’ perception of primary sources shifted as a result of this exercise: Their preference for using primary sources had increased, although their trust in primary sources had simultaneously decreased. Teachers and students alike were generally satisfied with the assignment but argued that the database needed improvement in order to enhance its usefulness. Over the course of the assignment, students frequently expressed that the individuals in the digitized material came to life for them, generating feelings of empathy. The study’s contribution to history didactics is twofold. First, it clearly demonstrates how upper secondary students can make use of historical thinking and historical empathy when studying digitised parish records, even though they have difficulty contextualizing their results. Secondly, it provides insight into how Swedish students learn history and the kind of history that interests them. The results are predominantly in agreement with those from previous studies but this study is pioneering in basing its findings on primary sources that are digitised.
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| 4. |
- Wistrand, Anna, 1971-
(författare)
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Mellan närhet och distans : Lärar-elevrelationen som kunskapsinnehåll i grundlärarutbildning
- 2023
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This licentiate thesis takes its point of departure in a relational perspective on education, which means that the relationship between teacher and student is seen as fundamental for students’ knowledge- and personal development. The aim is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the teacher-student relationship in teacher education at national and local levels and the different meanings of closeness in this context. The theoretical basis of the study is curriculum theory-based didactics, where questions about knowledge content and teaching as offering meaning are central. The thesis consists of three separate studies. The first investigates closeness in the teacher-student relationship by means of a thematic conceptual analysis of the field of research in educational science on teacher-student relationships. Four different dimensions of closeness were identified: closeness as presence, closeness as care, closeness as feeling and closeness as responsibility. The results show a nuanced way of understanding closeness in the teacher-student relationship and that closeness is challenging for teachers in that it makes their relational work more complex.The central question in curriculum theory - ‘What opportunities do students have to learn about the teacher-student relationship in teacher education?’ - is used as the point of departure in the analysis of educational policy documents at national and local levels. The second study investigates content knowledge at the national level and shows a limited and simplified view of the relationship between teacher and student. By using the dimensions of closeness as analytical tools, a multifaceted teacher-student relationship is constructed as an alternative meaning offering. In the third study, eleven Swedish universities participated in the study of curriculum documents at the local level. The analysis showed three types of knowledge content: relational theory, relational work and relational quality. In this study, the local documents together provided a broad range of knowledge content, but individually a reduced and simplified knowledge content. The study also confirmed the differences between universities in their teacher education programmes and that there are often discrepancies in the knowledge content that is offered.The thesis as a whole contributes to a nuanced understanding of closeness in the teacher-student relationship and provides a set of theoretical tools that can be used in an analysis of different types of research studies. It also indicates that the policy documents relating to teacher education at the national and local levels contain simplified and limited notions about the teacher-student relationship and teachers’ relational work as knowledge content. This restricted knowledge content could limit student teachers’ abilities to create, build and maintain good and close teacher-student relationships and to address the relational challenges in their complex relational work.
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| 5. |
- Asplund, Jonas, 1971-
(författare)
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Becoming Cyborg Composer : The Ecology of Digital Music Composition Didaktik
- 2022
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this licentiate thesis is to explore the sociomaterial relationality of music composition education with digital hardware/software and its outcomes. Two studies were conducted interleaved as original articles in the thesis. Article 1 explores learning in creational processes involving digital actants and two composers of contemporary art music. The posthumanist concept of the cyborg is enacted as a signifier for learning and becoming in relation with material actants. An interview with a composer and music application creator is analysed through a constructed posthumanist narrative entangled with the researcher’s narrative of a music creation process involving the app. Also, the app’s meaning-making capacities are entangled in the narrative. Results show that alignments between human and nonhuman actants constitute a part of learning in music composing practices. Artefacts move from being evident and present to becoming transparent and in a background relation during a learning process.In article 2 a composing assignment conducted in four year 9 classes in a Swedish compulsory school is explored. Employing the posthumanist concept compositionism as a research approach, educational activities are composed into assemblages of actants performing the outcomes of the activities. Results bring the human/nonhuman actants as hybrid originators of outcomes to the fore. Learning with digital actants also showed to be hardware/software specific when past experiences of music composing were limited, with the risk of reducing pupils to intermediaries of information between functions in the digital software.In the summarising parts of this compilation thesis, a background of the research field of didaktik and subject didaktik is delineated. Also, the distinction between didactics and didaktik is discussed and the reason for employing the Swedish/German spelling is explicated. Furthermore, a background of composing and music creation as subject matter in the Swedish school system is drawn. Theoretical and methodological approaches are further developed in the summarising parts. Posthumanism as theoretical onset has a profound impact on understandings of relationality within educational activities and on how materiality is affecting learning. Methodological approaches are actuated in relation to the research material to find new meanings of sociomaterial relationality in music education.As one outcome of reading the results from the studies through posthumanism, the tentative term postdidaktik is proposed and discussed. Following the ontological turn of posthumanism that re-entangles human with nature and matter, postdidaktik becomes an implication for understanding learning in sociomaterial relationality. This also affects an understanding of didaktik as lesson planning, enactment, and analysis. The practical employment of postdidaktik is thus further delineated and proposed for further research.
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| 6. |
- Wettergren, Sanna
(författare)
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SAM-tal om bedömning och matematikkunnighet : En studie av lärares tankestilar
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Inom ramen för svensk grundskola har enskilda lärare varit betrodda med en högre grad av autonomi än lärare i många andra europeiska länder. Exempelvis har lärare givits ett stort ansvar att bedöma och betygssätta elevers kunskaper. Hur lärares bedömningar går till eller hur dessa bedömningar speglar en elevs kunskap framstår inte alltid tydligt för elever. Som en följd av att svenska elevers resultat i t.ex. matematik sjunkit i internationella kunskapsmätningar, har utvärdering av skolor, lärare och elevernas prestationer ökat – därmed har lärares bedömningsarbete fått mer uppmärksamhet i den skolpolitiska debatten, i såväl partipolitik som media. Utifrån de sjunkande resultaten har flera omfattande reformer inom skolan trätt i kraft sedan juli 2011. Som exempel på dessa reformer kan nämnas en ny skollag, en reviderad läroplan för grundskolan, samt nya föreskrifter för kunskapskrav för grundskolans ämnen med ny betygsskala vilka alla är styrande för lärares undervisning och bedömning av elevers kunskaper fr.o.m. årskurs 1 t.o.m. årskurs 9. Studien beskriver och analyserar svenska matematiklärares tankestilar om bedömning och matematikkunnighet. Det teoretiska ramverk som använts är relaterat till Flecks begrepp tankekollektiv och tankestil. För att studera lärares professionella samtal om bedömning och matematikkunnighet genomfördes semistrukturerade, materialbaserade fokusgruppsintervjuer. Materialet var elevers arbete, t.ex. prov- och matematikuppgifter. Fokusgruppsintervjuerna var sekventiella, dvs. inför respektive intervju användes föregående intervjus utskrift som underlag vid planering av nya frågor. Två fokusgrupper med matematiklärare i årskurs 4-6 från två skolor intervjuades sammanlagt vid åtta tillfällen under ett år. Detta betyder att det genomfördes fyra intervjuer på respektive skola. Intervjuerna ljudinspelades och transkriberades. Lärarna från de två skolorna hade olika förutsättningar i sitt arbete. På en av skolorna fanns redan et fungerande ämneslärarlag – lärarna träffades och samverkade återkommande varje vecka för att planera och diskutera matematik. På den andra skolan hade lärarna endast kommit samman för att delta i fokusgruppsintervjuerna. Resultaten visar att även om respektive lärargrupp hade olika förutsättningar, så kan grupperna ändå betraktas som ett tankekollektiv. Resultaten visar också att två övergripande tankestilar har urskilts: bedömning som borde göras kontinuerligt och matematikkunnighet är när du kan visa och redogöra för ditt resonemang. I återkommande kollegiala samtal kan tankestilen om bedömning och matematikkunnighet synliggöras. I samtalet finns möjlighet att utmana rådande traditioner genom att formulera och omformulera den kunskap och erfarenhet som redan finns för att bygga vidare på ny. Samtalen ger även möjlighet till att problematisera och utveckla lärarnas professionella språk samt visualisera lärarnas bedömningsarbete, vilket bidrar till att utveckla matematikundervisningen.
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| 7. |
- Boström, Johan, 1978-
(författare)
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Teknik i förskolan – att motverka traditionella könsroller : En aktionsforskningsstudie
- 2018
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study shows that developing a gender sensitive technology education in apreschool setting is a very complex and multifaceted task. The preschool, andthe preschool teachers, are expected to help the children develop their technologicalawareness and interest in technology without being limited by traditionalperspectives on gender. However, as research has shown, teachers’ expectationsof children’s behaviour and interest in leisure time activities aregendered and reflect historically developed gendered roles in relation to technology.As this study shows there is a palpable risk of the preschool teacherson one hand focusing on girls and boys as homogenous groups, where a singleindividual gets to represent the group as a whole; and on the other hand, missinggender structures if the mindset is that gender does not factor into theirtreatment of the children at all – that they, automatically in their role astechers, act gender neutral. In this study, the pedagogical conversation wasimportant for the teachers possibility to reflect about their own preconceptions.However, the conversation did not seem to be enough, it was also importantfor the teachers to get to see and reflect on how they actually interactedwith the children in the technological activities. Only then did the teachersactually start to question their preconceptions and began to discuss new waysof acting.
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| 8. |
- Gerholm, Verner, 1978-
(författare)
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Matematiskt begåvade ungdomars motivation och erfarenheter av utvecklande verksamheter
- 2016
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This licentiate thesis deals with some influencing factors to develop mathematicalabilities among mathematical gifted adolescents. Krutetskii’s structureof the mathematical abilities and Mönks’ triadic model of giftedness isused as a theoretical framework.The thesis consists of two articles with different aims. The first aim is toinvestigate to what extent the students had participated in various mathematicalactivities during their years in school and what impact the students attachto these activities. The second aim was to examine some aspects of the importanceof motivation for the mathematically gifted adolescents.To answer the research questions data was collected with a questionnaireand an interview study of a total of 27 finalists in a national mathematicalcompetition for students in Swedish upper secondary schools.Generally the students were positive about the activities they had participatedin. Specifically acceleration in the subject and mathematical competitionsstand out as particularly significant activities according to the students.The study shows the significance of mathematical activities providing aframework to relate to, which will make the progression more visible for thestudents. Such activities could be mathematical competition problem solvingor acceleration in the subject.The results of the study indicates that intrinsic motivation together withextrinsic motivation with integrated or identified regulation are the most importanttypes of motivation. All students in the study had both intrinsic motivationand some type of extrinsic motivation.
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| 9. |
- Dalgren, Sara
(författare)
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Förskolans pedagogiska praktik som interaktion : Frågor och svar i vardagliga förskoleaktiviteter
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overarching aim of the present study is to elucidate how preschool teachers and children in their interaction accomplish institutional everyday activities in preschool. What is analyzed, more specifically, is how the preschool teachers and children use certain interactional phenomena as resources when they organize their social interaction. The study is a video-based study and ethnomethodological and conversation analytic perspectives are taken as theoretical and analytical points of departure. This means that parts of the video recorded material has been transcribed in detail and micro analyzed.The results of the study are presented in two empirical chapters where it is shown, in detail, how preschool teachers and children in their interaction accomplish everyday activities in preschool. In particular, it is illuminated how the interactional phenomenon question-answer-sequences can function as an important interactional and educational resource for the participants, when they organize their interaction. Further, the detailed analyses show that since the interaction is being organized through question-answer-sequences, it becomes possible for the teacher to capture and direct the children’s attention towards different mathematical, physical and linguistic contents, in line with the intentions of the curriculum, as well as create a shared experience of these curricula contents in practice.Altogether, the analyses of the study thus show how the educational practice of preschool is being accomplished locally – by preschool teachers and children in interaction.
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| 10. |
- Jäder, Jonas
(författare)
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Elevers möjligheter till lärande av matematiska resonemang
- 2015
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- En av anledningarna till varför elever har svårigheter med matematik i skolan är att utantillinlärning utgör grunden för utbildningen för många av eleverna. Procedurella och konceptuella kunskaper behövs för att skapa en bred matematisk kompetens. Eleverna lär sig bara det som de får en möjlighet att lära sig, vilket innebär att de möjligheter till lärande som erbjuds eleverna i skolan måste beaktas. Ett väletablerat ramverk som gör det möjligt attanalysera de resonemang som krävs för att lösa läroboksuppgifter samt de resonemang som används av eleverna vid uppgiftslösning har använts för att undersöka möjligheterna att lära sig resonera matematiskt. Genom att använda ramverket möjliggörs en mer förfinad diskussion av vilken typ av kunskap som används av eleverna. Ramverket skiljer på kreativa matematiska resonemang, där en lösning måste skapas av eleven, och imitativa resonemang som bygger på utantillinlärning eller imitering av en tillgänglig lösningsalgoritm. Möjligheterna att lära sig beror på klassrummets normer som har förhandlats fram mellan elever och lärare. Dessa normer påverkas i sin tur av flera faktorer. I denna avhandling diskuteras läroboken, både som en, av flera bilder, av undervisningen och utifrån hur den används i klassrummet, samt elevernas uppfattningar om matematik. I avhandlingen ingår tre studier. Den första studien består av en analys av uppgifterna, med avseende på kraven på resonemang, i läromedel från tolv länder, i fem världsdelar. I den andra studien har elevers resonemang då de arbetar med uppgifter från läroboken i klassrummet analyserats. I den tredje studien används en tematisk analys för att undersöka de uppfattningar som eleverna visar upp, vilka sedan kopplas till de resonemang som används. Resultaten visar att läroböckerna från tolv olika länder har en liknande andelen uppgifter som kräver att eleverna använder kreativa matematiska resonemang. I genomsnitt krävde ungefär var tionde uppgift ett mer genomgripande kreativt matematiskt resonemang. Resultaten visaräven att elever i den svenska gymnasieskolan främst löser de första, lättare uppgifterna, där andelen uppgifter som kräver ett kreativt matematiskt resonemang är lägre. Eleverna använder också i stor utsträckning imitativa resonemang. Möjligheterna för elever att träna sig på kreativa matematiska resonemang verkar utifrån mina resultat vara begränsade. Då elever guidar varandra genom uppgiftslösning verkar det som att fokus främst ligger på att komma fram till ett svar som överensstämmer med facit. Inte heller då elever får hjälp av en lärare verkar möjligheter till annat än imitativa resonemang skapas. Eleverna indikerar dessutom uppfattningar om att matematiska uppgifter i de allra flesta fall ska kunna lösas genom ett imitativt resonemang och att utantillinlärning därför bör vara en central del av undervisningen. Lärarens roll i klassrummet är viktig för att skapa och utveckla de gemensamma klassrumsnormerna. Stor vikt bör läggas vid vilka uppgifter och vilka läromedel som används i undervisningen. Även elevernas sätt att arbeta i klassrummet måste beaktas i relation till möjligheterna till lärande, och den matematiska förståelsen bör spela en större roll.
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