| 1. |
- Larsson, Jonna
(författare)
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När fysik blir lärområde i förskolan
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation includes four separate empirical studies, and is directed towards what happens when physics becomes a learning area in preschool. It is about children and preschool teachers exploring and working with physical phenomena such as friction, sound, floating and sinking. The study is anchored within a cultural-historical perspective which highlights communication and interaction in social contexts and that learning takes place in all types of practices in which the child participates. By the use of a videorecorder, a range of activities conducted in Swedish preschools constitutes the sampled data material. The first study is about children's opportunities to learn about the phenomenon of friction in preschool, the second look into how preschool teachers alters between the context and the concepts and in which way this contributes to emergent science about sound. The third, and the fourth studies aims to generate knowledge about the ways in which children’s understanding of floating and sinking are expressed and how the teacher foregrounds the science content in the same activity. Together the studies’ findings show that abstract phenomena are concretized by the children and teachers in interaction and that there are different characteristics of children's encounters with physical phenomena. Further the studies’ show that establishing intersubjectivity and expanding children’s initial explorations are of importance. The preschool teachers take responsibility for the content without limiting children's opportunities to participate and influence the activities. This means that children and preschool teachers try a variety of pathways in a supportive and moderately challenging environment. Thereby children's emergent science is supported and physics is constituted as a learning area.
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| 2. |
- Johansson, Eva M., 1956-
(författare)
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Det motsägelsefulla bedömningsuppdraget : En etnografisk studie om bedömning i förskolekontext
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study examines the assessment practices and discourses in Swedish preschool in times of changing principles for state control and steering. These practices and discourses are analyzed in relation to theories about state control, and about cultural and social reproduction in education. The study was conducted with an ethnographic approach in two preschools located in areas that differ in terms of socio-economic status and ethnic diversity. The results show that pre-school teachers express ambivalence towards assessment as an aspect of their work. An increased focus on children's learning and on mastery of specific assessment formats and discourses are on the one hand constructed as signs of being professional – and thus function to increase their professional status. On the other hand, by their association with school, the same features seem to conflict with the values and discourses that constitute preschool teachers' professional identity. In their talk about assessments, the preschool teachers tend to focus on how assessments should be expressed (form) rather than what they are targeting (content). Furthermore, the assessments tend to concern social and behavioral aspects rather than the children's learning. As much as promoting institutional development and children's learning, the assessment practice can thus be seen as a sort of assessment game. Finally, the results suggest that the norms and focus of assessments to some extent both indicate and reinforce the institutional culture of different preschools, thereby exposing children to different socializing messages. This is problematized in regard to the role of education to promote justice and equality.
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| 3. |
- Carlsson, David
(författare)
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Vad är religionslärarkunskap? : En diskursanalys av trepartssamtal i lärarutbildningen
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- From an overall perspective, the aim of this thesis is to investigate teachers’ knowledge in relation to Swedish teacher education and to the school subject religious education (RE), by exploring constructions of essential knowledge for an RE teacher. Two research questions are in focus: What RE teacher knowledge is discursively constructed in teacher education supervision trialogue and in interviews with student teachers, teacher educators from school and teacher educators from university? How are those discourses constructed in supervision trialogue between student teachers, teacher educators from school and teacher educators from university? The results are based on empirical material consisting of six observations of teacher education supervision trialogues (three-way conferences) in RE and interviews with RE student teachers, RE teacher educators from upper secondary school and RE teacher educators from university, both before and after each trialogue. This empirical material is worked through and analysed using discourse analysis that mainly draws on the perspectives of Norman Fairclough. The findings give rise to an order of discourse regarding essential RE teacher knowledge. Three discourses are constructed. The dominant discourse is called “Knowing one’s subject” and refers to an RE teacher’s capacity to master the content, problematise it and both know and teach the content in an up-to-date manner. The second discourse is entitled “Knowing and meeting the pupils”. Within this discourse, it is important for a teacher in RE to be familiar with, and use, the pupils’ different pre-understandings and to communicate with the pupils in the RE classroom. The third discourse is called “Knowing oneself”. This discourse highlights the importance of being objective, reflective and being a leader. Moreover, the analysis shows that the discourses are primarily constructed as complementary in relation to one another. There seems to be a common agreement among students and teacher educators about the fact that RE teachers need to know the subject, know the pupils and know themselves. However, discursive conflicts can arise when discourses are initiated in an antagonistic manner. These RE conflicts imply neither consensus nor hegemony. Antagonistic discourses reflect aspects of dominance mainly in relation to discourses, i.e. RE teacher knowledge, but also in relation to positions.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Lagerlöf, Pernilla, 1972
(författare)
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Musical play: Children interacting with and around music technology
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores young children and music learning in the ecology of music technologies. The research is a part of an EU project called MIROR (Musical Interaction Relying on Reflection) that had the intention to develop software for music learning designed to promote specific cognitive abilities in the field of music improvisation. The overarching aim of this thesis is to explore activities where children (and adults) interact with and around the music technology MIROR Impro, and what this participation allows and supports children to learn, including musical learning. The research focuses on the participants’ interaction with each other and in relation to the instrument connected to the software. Participants in the empirical studies are 4-8-year-old (with an emphasis on 6-year-old) children in a Swedish preschool and in an afterschool centre. The theoretical framework is a sociocultural perspective. A point of departure is the understanding of learning as an act of participation in communities of practice rather than as an individual, cognitive process of internalizing knowledge. According to this perspective, learning is situated in a context and mediated by cultural tools (physical such as musical instruments as well as discursive ones) which are included in the unit of analysis. The results are presented in four empirical studies. Together, these studies show that despite the technology being launched as self-instructive and work as an ‘advanced cognitive tutor’, in situations where a more experienced participant is engaged and interact with the children, their opportunities to learn in and about music is enhanced. In these contexts, the teacher is vital to help the children to conceptualize and identify musical possibilities. The make-believe play communicatively frames the activity in a way that creates meaningfulness and helps children make sense. By interacting verbally with the children as a co-creator, the teacher goes into dialogue with them about a musical content and thus provides opportunities for emerging music learning.
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| 6. |
- Ljungblad, Ann-Louise, 1961
(författare)
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Takt och hållning - en relationell studie om det oberäkneliga i matematikundervisningen : Tact and stance – a relational study about the incalculable in mathematics teaching
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This microethnographic classroom study takes its point of departure in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It examines opportunities and obstacles for children to participate in democratic educational relationships, which in this context refers to the emergence of the students’ selves as unique persons. The microethnography explores how the teacher-student relationship is embodied in teaching, in communicational flow as well as when communicational dilemmas arise. Through a relational turn an increased understanding of situated teaching is being sought, by exploring interpersonal educational relationships. Four mathematics teachers and 100 students from compulsory and upper secondary schools and schools for children with learning disabilities have participated. Video-documentary methods have been used to closely follow and record the teachers in the teaching situation. A meaning-making dialogue was constructed afterwards where the teachers had the opportunity to view the recorded video sequences, and to articulate their interpersonal communication. The aim, from a relational perspective, is to provide extended understanding and knowledge of the teachers’ acknowledgement to students in situated teaching. The classroom study shows empirically how teachers relate to students and contributes to knowledge within the relational field, of value for both student teachers and teachers in practice. The study contributes to the field of inclusion by empirically exploring what Biesta describes as the incalculable. Teachers’ acknowledgement to students is explored by micro-analysis when, in a relational creating of meaning, the teachers search for Who the student is. The teachers create pedagogical meetings that embody a curiosity for unique children. The result highlights a moment of particular importance; at that second, when the new and incalculable emerges in the teaching moment, the teacher refrains from assessment, and listens and creates a space for the student to speak with her or his unique voice. In line with Lövlie’s tact the momentary teacher’s glance, tone of voice and gestures emerge as a sensuous aesthetic improvisation. The teacher’s pedagogical tact when meeting unique children can be understood as an incalculable tact, which cannot be planned. A pedagogical art form becomes visible as a creative process in teaching and reveals how the teacher’s pedagogical tact and tactfulness can create a space for the emergence of the student’s self. Hence, the teacher’s pedagogical tact can meet the incalculable and is of great importance in mathematics teaching. The study also provides an understanding that there are no relational differences between teachers’ pedagogical tact in relation to students’ different ages, different levels or different types of schooling. By highlighting existential dimensions, of what co-existence and co-operation as a teacher imply relationally, the microethnography brings out an essential pedagogical dimension for all teachers. The results further show the importance of respectful and trusting teacher-student relationships. The teachers have an open and tolerant pedagogical stance, where what the students bring forth that is new is embraced and can pass into the dialogue. Hence, in the maintaining of a teacher-student relationship a constant tactful act of balance is required from the teacher, in each situation. In the moment, a responsible stance appears where the teacher takes responsibility for both teaching and for their relationship to the student. Thus, students do not end up carriers of the difficulties of teaching. The study points toward the incalculable as a relational alternative, an unfinished process that teachers must live each day – a lived ethic. In accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the results of this study indicate a pedagogical responsible stance providing unique children opportunities to participate in democratic educational relationships.
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| 7. |
- Olsson, Eva, 1960
(författare)
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On the impact of extramural English and CLIL on productive vocabulary
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this thesis, the possible impact of English encountered and used in two different contexts – in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and through extramural English (EE) – on students’ writing proficiency is investigated. More specifically, students’ vocabulary use when writing different text types is explored; in particular, attention is drawn to progress in productive academic vocabulary. Three empirical studies were conducted: a cross-sectional study involving 37 students in grade 9 (aged 15–16), and two longitudinal studies, involving 230 students (146 CLIL/84 non-CLIL) in upper secondary school in Sweden. The nature and frequency of students’ use of EE were investigated using two different surveys. Students’ texts, covering different registers, were analysed, mainly by corpus-based methods. In the cross sectional study, the focus of text analyses was on register variation, whereas students’ use of academic vocabulary was analysed in the longitudinal studies. Findings suggest that effects of EE may be greater at lower proficiency levels than at higher. The results also indicated that register variation was greater among those students in grade 9 who frequently used English in their spare time than among those with infrequent exposure to EE. At upper secondary level, the frequency of EE correlated with productive academic vocabulary only in the first year; for progress over time, high exposure to EE did not predict a more positive development. CLIL students used academic vocabulary to a larger extent than non-CLIL students already when they started their CLIL education, but they did not progress more; the gap between CLIL and non-CLIL students did not widen over three years.
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| 8. |
- Sivenbring, Jennie, 1975
(författare)
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I den betraktades ögon. Ungdomar om bedömning i skolan.
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present study examines how young students in the last year of comprehensive school make sense and use of the formal assessments they are given regarding their school performance. By interviewing 28 students in year nine of the Swedish compulsory school, ”talk about assessments” is analyzed as speech acts enabled by the assessment discourse. The research questions are: What meanings do the students attribute to education and the formal assessments? How are the students affected by assessments? What alternatives do the students have to navigate among the assessments made in school? The study has a specific interest in illuminating how assessments impact on subjectification and condition student’s possibilities in school. The study takes a discourse analytical approach, and a theoretical framework based on the theories of Michel Foucault and Erving Goffman is used to analyze how students’ possibilities are conditioned by assessments. The result shows that students are aware of constantly being under their teachers’ gaze. They consider the assessments to be serious and fair and depict their will to follow the guidelines given to them through assessments. However, the assessment discourse creates and reaffirms teacher and student positions. This means that students adapt to teachers’ expectations in order to receive positive evaluations and better grades. Thus the assessment discourse contributes to disciplining and normalizing students and their everyday life in school. The language used in the assessment discourse is an obstacle for the students when it comes to gaining full access to the tools for improvement and change, which they understand is expected of them
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| 9. |
- Ljungblad, Ann-Louise
(författare)
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Takt och hållning : en relationell studie om det oberäkneliga i matematikundervisningen
- 2016
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This microethnographic classroom study takes its point of departure in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It examines opportunities and obstacles for children to participate in democratic educational relationships, which in this context refers to the emergence of the students’ selves as unique persons. The microethnography explores how the teacher-student relationship is embodied in teaching, in communicational flow as well as when communicational dilemmas arise. Through a relational turn an increased understanding of situated teaching is being sought, by exploring interpersonal educational relationships. Four mathematics teachers and 100 students from compulsory and upper secondary schools and schools for children with learning disabilities have participated. Video-documentary methods have been used to closely follow and record the teachers in the teaching situation. A meaning-making dialogue was constructed afterwards where the teachers had the opportunity to view the recorded video sequences, and to articulate their interpersonal communication. The aim, from a relational perspective, is to provide extended understanding and knowledge of the teachers’ acknowledgement to students in situated teaching. The classroom study shows empirically how teachers relate to students and contributes to knowledge within the relational field, of value for both student teachers and teachers in practice. The study contributes to the field of inclusion by empirically exploring what Biesta describes as the incalculable. Teachers’ acknowledgement to students is explored by micro-analysis when, in a relational creating of meaning, the teachers search for Who the student is. The teachers create pedagogical meetings that embody a curiosity for unique children. The result highlights a moment of particular importance; at that second, when the new and incalculable emerges in the teaching moment, the teacher refrains from assessment, and listens and creates a space for the student to speak with her or his unique voice. In line with Lövlie’s tact the momentary teacher’s glance, tone of voice and gestures emerge as a sensuous aesthetic improvisation. The teacher’s pedagogical tact when meeting unique children can be understood as an incalculable tact, which cannot be planned. A pedagogical art form becomes visible as a creative process in teaching and reveals how the teacher’s pedagogical tact and tactfulness can create a space for the emergence of the student’s self. Hence, the teacher’s pedagogical tact can meet the incalculable and is of great importance in mathematics teaching. The study also provides an understanding that there are no relational differences between teachers’ pedagogical tact in relation to students’ different ages, different levels or different types of schooling. By highlighting existential dimensions, of what co-existence and co-operation as a teacher imply relationally, the microethnography brings out an essential pedagogical dimension for all teachers. The results further show the importance of respectful and trusting teacher-student relationships. The teachers have an open and tolerant pedagogical stance, where what the students bring forth that is new is embraced and can pass into the dialogue. Hence, in the maintaining of a teacher-student relationship a constant tactful act of balance is required from the teacher, in each situation. In the moment, a responsible stance appears where the teacher takes responsibility for both teaching and for their relationship to the student. Thus, students do not end up carriers of the difficulties of teaching. The study points toward the incalculable as a relational alternative, an unfinished process that teachers must live each day – a lived ethic. In accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the results of this study indicate a pedagogical responsible stance providing unique children opportunities to participate in democratic educational relationships.
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