| 11. |
- Ottemo, Andreas, 1979
(författare)
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Kön, kropp, begär och teknik: Passion och instrumentalitet på två tekniska högskoleprogram : Gender, body, desire, and technology: Passion and instrumentality in two technical university programs
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis addresses the co-production of gender and technology as articulated in two programs at a Swedish university of technology: Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) and Chemical Engineering (CE). It builds on the assumption that the articulation of gender in these programs relates to how technology is articulated. Research on gender and technology often investigates the ‘failure’ of linking women/femininity to technology. In this thesis I, instead, adopt a perspective inspired by queer theory and focus on norms that articulate masculinity with technology. Theoretically and methodologically, the study adopts a post-structural perspective primarily based on discourse theory, as developed by Laclau and Mouffe (1985/2008). I also draw on feminist technoscience research and on Butler’s (1988, 1990/2007, 1993) notion of gender, performativity, and the heterosexual matrix. Empirically, the thesis is based on ethnographic fieldwork and formal interviews with students. Considering the critique that research on gender and technology has failed to address sexuality, I emphasize explicitly the role of passion, desire, and heterosexuality in the production of connections between masculinity and technology. As the thesis title suggests, this focus on passion and desire for technology is combined with recognition of the role of instrumentality in higher technology education. In my analysis, I suggest that the formal education students receive fails, for various reasons, to subjectively engage many students. Consequently, students adopt an instrumental approach to their education, emphasizing the future exchange value of their formal degree, rather than subjective meaningfulness or the significance of the subject matter as such. I also argue that in failing to ‘recruit’ students, formal education can be considered as privileging the already-passionate student, whose interest in technology is not so easily derailed, even when encountering education that fails to engage subjectively. This ‘passionate student’ subject position is articulated primarily in the CSE program, mainly in informal, student cultural contexts. Here, I argue that technology, corporeality, desire, and embodied computer interest, are configured in a manner that derives intelligibility from the heterosexual matrix and contributes to the CSE program’s hetero-masculine connotations. On the other hand, the absence of the ‘passionate student’ subject position in the CE program, appears to contribute to this program’s relative gender inclusiveness.
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| 12. |
- Rocksén, Miranda, 1968
(författare)
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Reasoning in a Science Classroom
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In research on science education, there is a need to further understand the relation between longer and shorter processes of teaching and learning in the classroom. With a theoretical framework based on dialogical theories of communication, this thesis investigates three aspects of the formation of a science classroom practice: the making of conceptual distinctions, classroom organisations and the making of connections between lessons. The empirical material consists of eleven video recorded lessons on biological evolution in grade 9 (15 year old students). The analysis connects different levels of classroom interaction and patterns in the communication over several lessons as well as the details of particular situations. The empirical findings of the thesis are presented in three studies. The first study shows co-existing meanings of the word explanation and three conversational structures that the teacher used for making distinctions between them. The second study shows how small-group activities are used for coordinating the pace of students’ participation in these lessons. The third study shows strategies for link-making and a topic trajectory including questions that were raised in relation to survival and extinction of species. The conclusions point to the significance of coordinating the communication so that patterns such as those described can provide learning opportunities for students.
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| 13. |
- Åberg, Mikaela
(författare)
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Doing project work: The interactional organization of tasks, resources, and instructions
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the Swedish educational system, there is a strong emphasis on student autonomy, active knowledge seeking, and critical reflection. Students regularly work individually or in groups with projects that are organized around problems that do not have a straightforward solution. This thesis investigates how such projects are interactionally and practically accomplished. Through detailed analyses of video recorded material of classroom interaction, and within an approach informed by ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, the thesis examines the interactional organization of tasks, resources, and instructions in project work. In the investigated setting, the students are asked to address whether the greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon or caused by humans, how the environmental policies of different countries change the local and global ecosystems, whether they as individuals can help prevent future environmental damage, etc. A central idea of the project work is that the students should produce texts ‘on their own’ based on information they have found in sources they have selected. Although the students are supposed to work independently with these issues, they clearly rely on the instructional and organizational work of teachers. Teachers set the agenda, plan assignments, formulate instructions, give introductions, and provide guidance. Teachers also evaluate the quality of what the students produce, which means that the students continuously need to address normative issues about what they have done and what they are about to do. Given that students often lack the resources for assessing a chosen course of action, this also means students routinely encounter issues that they themselves find difficult to handle. The three empirical studies of the thesis investigate how instructions are given and received, how students and teachers are dealing with the inherent and designed openness of the tasks, and how the encounters between teachers and students are materially, bodily, and interactionally organized. Study 1 shows how the students interpret a task and how they position themselves in relation to the expectations of this task. Study 2 examines student-initiated instructional interaction and shows some systematic ways in which the actions of students and teachers are contingent on, shaped by, and oriented to these tasks and the associated texts. Study 3 addresses how talk and bodily conduct are coordinated and sequentially organized in the closing of encounters and how teachers and students negotiate the transition from instruction to the closing phase.
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