| 1. |
- Pedersen, Helena, 1968-
(författare)
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The School and the Animal Other : An Ethnography of Human-Animal Relations in Education
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- How human-animal relations are expressed and negotiated has significance for the situation of animals in society and offers insights that contribute to our understanding of how we organize relations between humans as well. This critical ethnographic investigation is positioned at the intersection of education research and the interdisciplinary area of human-animal studies. It uses participant observation, interviews with students and teachers and critical discourse analyses of texts and other artefacts used in the schools investigated to contribute cross-curricular perspectives on how human-animal relations are configured in the daily activities of both vocational (animal caretaker) and university preparatory programs. Building on central ideas from the Frankfurt School, the study proposes a platform for a critical theory of human-animal relations in formal education that embraces species-inclusive versions of critical pedagogy as well as gender and postcolonial analyses. In this vein, the study explores how social processes and practices in and outside the classroom enable certain human as well as animal subject positions while disabling others. A primary question is how a species-discourse intersects with categories formed around conceptions of gender, race/ethnicity, and class. A variety of ascribed animal representations and positions embedded in these processes are identified.The study argues that human-animal relations are characterized by indeterminacy and contradiction. While the school may educate to achieve improved conditions for animals inhuman society, it is at the same time involved in a process of social and cultural reproduction that normalizes the accessibility of animal bodies for human purposes. At the heart of this reproduction process lies boundary work around the animal as “other”. Such conceptualizations at times conflict with the views of animals that students bring with them to school and they therefore receive guidance about the “appropriate” position of animals in society; guidance that at the same time allows students to keep intact a sense of self as caring and moral actors toward animals. The school has a repertoire of concrete strategies for achieving this, and the effects of these strategies are identified as key components in a hidden curriculum of human-animal relations. The analyses show that these effects constitute a shared frame of reference of commonsense knowledge about animals in which contradictions embedded in human-animal relations can be comfortably accommodated. In addition, analytical tools borrowed from postcolonial theory are proposed that contribute to understanding the operations of hegemonic discourses of human-animal relations in the classroom as well as the effects generated by resistance to these discourses.
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| 2. |
- Lindahl, Britt
(författare)
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Lust att lära naturvetenskap och teknik? : en longitudinell studie om vägen till gymnasiet
- 2003
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the study was to follow a group of pupils from the age of twelve until they leave lower secondary school at the age of sixteen to describe and analyse how their attitudes towards and interest in science and technology develop and change but also how this and other factors such as ability, understanding of scientific concepts, gender and home background influenced their choice for upper secondary school. The sample consists of 80 pupils, the whole age group in a school. Data was collected using observations, interviews and questionnaires. The analysis built on the theory of planned behaviour and conceptions research. Many pupils have a positive attitude towards science but often a more positive attitude towards other subjects. They have duties to their parents but these are not strongly expressed. Their self-efficacy for science follows the same pattern as their attitude; they think they are good in science but not as good as in other subjects. For most pupils it seems as if attitude together with self-efficacy are the strongest determinant for their choice. These determinants are influenced by different factors. Girls and boys perceive science teaching differently but it seems as if the boys are on their way to developing the same critical attitude as the girls have had since long ago. The social background is important as many of the pupils who choose science are from well educated homes but even this group is loosing interest. Good ability is a necessary factor but does not guarantee science will be chosen. Neither has good conceptual understanding a crucial importance but on the other hand there are many pupils who say that they would not choose science as they do not understand science in the way it is taught. Another finding is that many pupils even at Grade 5 have an idea of their future career which later on is the same as their choice for upper secondary. If science shall have a chance in their lives the pupils must have a positive experience of science from the beginning of primary school through all years. Once they have lost their interest it is very difficult to get them back. The competition for their attention is intensive and the older they get the more difficult it will be to catch their interest and allegiance.
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| 3. |
- Nilsson, Lars-Erik, 1949-
(författare)
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"But can't you see they are lying" : student moral positions and ethical practices in the wake of technological change
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Today it is considered important that modern digital technology be implemented and that all citizens learn to use it. Students already use mobile phones, personal digital assistants, computers, and their applications to do much of their work. This includes searching for and retrieving information, and collaborating on assignments and writing. Recently, claims have been made in both the media and academic research that student technology use is an important factor underlying an increase in student attempts to deceive on exams and other graded work. For example, it is assumed that students sometimes use the Internet to download other people’s essays, then handing them in as their own, and to make patchwork compositions of other people’s texts using the copy and paste functions. Such claims, however, risk not considering other changes that have occurred, for example, changing forms of exams/assessed assignments. Accordingly, one aim of this thesis has been to go beyond the categorization of students as cheaters and their use of digital technology as the use of unauthorized aids when discussing student use of technology in exams/graded assignments, and consider what rights and duties and what other subject positions are being made available for them. Four studies have been conducted, the first into the work of high-school students on research reports and the other three into interaction in disciplinary inquiries. These studies illustrate how exams/graded assignments and assessment in general introduce dilemmas for students and how it is important to consider how these dilemmas are solved in practice before making assumptions about technology use as cheating. As a contribution to the debate about students’ moral values and their use of technology, this work has demonstrated the importance of distinguishing between actions and the meaning ascribed to them as acts. A general observation is that student use of technology is generally met with suspicion. Cheating functions as a device for making good texts appear as possible downloads, texts with uneven quality as possible patchwork, inadvertent textual overlaps (i.e., unintentional near reproduction of the wording of a source) as intentional plagiarism, and student references to technical problems as probable rationalizations. From a methodological perspective, the utility of investigating cheating as an interactional accomplishment is demonstrated. This approach has made it possible to investigate how students reason about using existing texts and asking others for help. As well, the application of a dynamic perspective on subjectivity has made a theoretical contribution. Through this perspective, it is possible to criticize the normalization of students as cheaters based on how they use technology. That their actions could as easily make other positions available to them is shown.
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| 4. |
- Gustafsson, Karin, 1950, et al.
(författare)
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Barns skriftspråkande - att bli en skrivande och läsande person : Early childhood literacy : Becoming literate.
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge of how early childhood literacy can be understood in pre-school and school, focusing on ages 1-8 years. We assume that children are competent and creative and generate meaning in the way they deal with text. Our research question in all the studies is: How should we as teachers in pre-school encourage, react to and contribute to developing early childhood literacy? The theoretical framework of our studies is an example of research inspired by action research. Our didactic starting-point is that children’s learning should be understood from the perspective of the learner. The data is analysed and discussed from the perspective of phenomenography and variation theory. We also apply a sociocultural perspective in order to see learning to express oneself in writing as a communicative process and in the light of social and cultural conditions for children’s knowledge and learning. In two of the empirical studies (I & II), the data were derived from interviews and writing tasks, in one of the studies (III) the data consisted of observations, while in the last study (IV), the data consisted of observations and interviews. The results of the four studies comprising our thesis show that children establish an understanding and an approach to literacy learning at an early age, and that this tends to be stable; in pre-school and school there are traditions and things that are taken for granted with regard to children’s literacy learning that should be rethought in order to realise the goals of the curricula; if pre-school and school fail to collaborate and if the teacher does not take the perspective of the learner/child in learning to express themselves in writing, the individual child will be affected negatively; it is a challenge for teachers in pre-school to create an environment that stimulates early childhood literacy, an environment with rich opportunities for functional literacy; it should be possible to utilise and develop the multimodal opportunities, such as pictures, colours, shapes, design etc. that have been a tradition in pre-school.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Ekborg, Margareta
(författare)
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Naturvetenskaplig utbildning för hållbar utveckling? : en longitudinell studie av hur studenter på grundskollärarprogrammet utvecklar för miljöundervisning relevanta kunskaper i naturkunskap
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this study the concept of sustainable development is discussed and what contribution a science teacher can make. Some scientific concepts relevant for environmental education are defined. To understand the concepts mean to be able to explain phenomena and to be able to use the conceptions as tools when discussing complex environmental issues. The ability to discuss complex issues is discussed. The aims of study were to study how student teachers in a programme oriented towards science for the first seven years in school develop scientific understanding and ability to discuss complex issues. Another aim was to relate the students’ experience of their own learning and the teaching to what they learn. Data were collected mainly by questionnaires and interviews. The whole student group answered questionnaires three times and about 15 students were interviewed three times. In the questionnaires the students answered questions about some ecological concepts. Their knowledge about causes and consequences of two global environmental issues were tested. They drew concept maps illustrating how complex they look upon an issue. In the interviews the students were asked about the teaching and their learning. They discussed a complex issue dealing with weather or not it is ethical to use surplus heat from a crematorium in the far heating system. The teachers were asked about the courses and about the students’ learning. Several learning projects could be identified. All the students had the intention to become teachers for young pupils. Parallel to this they wanted to pass the exams and to understand. Depending on the learning projects the students interpreted both the questions they were asked and the relevance of the contents in the science courses. This could explain why a majority of the students did not develop understanding of the investigated concepts. Most students did not use much science as a tool for decision-making when discussing the complex issue. There was a discrepancy between the students' learning projects and the teachers' learning projects for the students. When the students experienced this gap they went into rote learning to pass the exams. Those students whose learning project was to understand developed a better scientific understanding.
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| 7. |
- Karlsson, Rauni
(författare)
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Demokratiska värden i förskolebarns vardag
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The theme of this thesis is democratic values in pre-school and how these are revealed in the children’s relations in that setting. It describes what the children take responsibility for and how they do it; how they demonstrate care in the sense of consideration, and what they show respect for and how they show it. The study was carried out within the framework of the state pre-school as portrayed in two pre-school departments in a municipality in western Sweden. The daily activity was followed in two pre-school groups comprising children aged 3-6 years, among which field studies were carried out over a total of 36 weeks. Observations focusing on the children’s behaviour and their communication both with each other and the teachers, made with the help of an open research protocol, audio-recordings and diary notes, resulted in descriptive field records, which were analysed in four stages. The understanding of domain theory was used as a conceptual tool for comprehending and explaining how values, value judgement and consensus may be distinguished and sorted. The analytical procedure has been influenced both by a perspective of positioning and power relations and interpretation based on value theory. The analysis has resulted in three thematic values, among which Responsibility is shown in the way the children behave in words and actions, meaning that the children do not speak about taking responsibility but, a fact that is central to this study, initiate responsibility. They show in different ways that they take responsibility for everyday matters both on their own behalf and on behalf of others. Care refers to the perception of others’ needs in an empathic way, and that the children demonstrate by their actions an empathic understanding of someone else. This means that care is a value that the children use in order to support each other within their cultural community as separate from adults’ perspective. In this way, their caring acts sometimes appear to be in opposition to the perspective that the teachers’ positions express. Respect is shown to be a value that means that the children, when encountering another, abstain from what they are doing or change their current position for that other person’s benefit. In certain situations, the children abstain from their self-chosen position in favour of a social convention or an opinion that is asserted, which means that respect is embedded in a complex way. Gender differences have been identified as an all-pervading theme in the empirical material. An important part of the children’s experiences takes place in the group divisions between girls and boys, which is why these affect the affinity that they develop. In the everyday structure, girls and boys participate as social actors with expectations and norms formed with the support of the gender differences that are made. Both girls and boys stress the importance of their fellowship, while at the same time a pattern can be discerned that ascribes girls and boys different degrees of agency.
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