| 1. |
- Harling, Martin, 1972-
(författare)
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Välja vara : En studie om gymnasieval, mässor och kampen om framtiden
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Avhandlingen kartlägger och analyserar i fyra empiriska artiklar hur elevsubjekt konstrueras i skolans vardag och vilken roll marknadens principer spelar i dessa konstruktioner. I synnerhet fokuseras vilka logiker som konstituerar gymnasievalets praktiker, samt hur dessa legitimeras, tolkas och utmanas. Resultatet visar att gymnasievalets praktiker delar upp både nuet och framtiden för eleverna, som valet mellan en uttalad utopi eller en underförstådd dystopi, där eleverna i hög grad själva görs ansvariga för att lyckas eller misslyckas med att förverkliga den utopi som iscensätts i valets praktiker. Denna uppdelning framstår för aktörerna till stor del som naturlig och apolitisk, vilket i sin tur legitimerar dess effekter i termer av exkludering, ojämlikhet och segregering, ofta på basis av social klass. Den marknadsstyrda skolans diskurser konstruerar och delar också upp eleverna som om de vore varor med olika värde. Begreppet fantasmatiska logiker kan förklara hur elever greppas av marknadsliknande diskurser, samt hur de hanterar motsägelsefulla villkor. Exempelvis hur gymnasievalet för eleverna både innebär att förändras och bli vad man vill, samtidigt som man formas att bli mer av den man redan är, genom att välja att vara den man är. Elevernas problematisering och destabilisering av dominerande marknadslogiker i skolan förekommer i alla undersökta sammanhang, och beskrivs i avhandlingen som både genomskådanden och ifrågasättanden av hur skola och utbildning kopplas samman med marknadens logiker. Genom att genomskåda gymnasievalets förmenta neutralitet synliggör eleverna hur marknadsstyrningen av utbildning i allmänhet och iscensättningen av mässorna i synnerhet tycks ligga i skolornas, snarare än elevernas intresse.
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| 2. |
- Hjelmér, Carina, 1956-
(författare)
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Leva och lära demokrati? : En etnografisk studie i två gymnasieprogram
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study is to acquire knowledge regarding democratic education in upper secondary school programmes with different gender and social class profiles. It covers the teaching in and about democracy, pupils’ power-positions and their attempts to affect routine school activities. A particular focus of attention was processes of influence, through which the pupils themselves pursue issues in school. The analysis is based on theories and previous research focused on gender and class perspectives of fostering democracy. Basil Bernstein’s theories regarding power, control and pedagogic codes, in combination with feminist theories (principally those of Arnot, Reay, Skeggs, Gordon and Walkerdine), form the basis of the theoretical framework. Ethnographic methods have been applied, including participatory observations, conversations, interviews, and analysis of relevant documents over one academic year. Two Swedish upper secondary school classes were followed: one from the vocational Child and Recreation Programme and one from the academic Natural Science Programme. Teaching students about democracy and invitations for them to exert influence appeared generally to be unplanned and were marginalised in school. The few invitations that occurred had an individual stamp and focused on pupils’ choices, responsibilities and duties, rather than on their rights in school. Democracy was presented in the form of facts about formal democracy and formal participation in democracy in the future, while a more critical attitude and possible influence strategies for youths were marginalised. Pupils in both classes wished and attempted to influence teaching, primarily through informal means. There were, however, significant differences between the classes in what they were able to influence. Analysis of pupils’ voices in relation to the pedagogic context revealed that the power relationships in these influence processes depend partly on the focal academic subject. More importantly, they also differ between the upper secondary school programs, which differ in strength of classification (sensu Bernstein), demands, pace and difficulty levels. These differences are related, in turn, to whether the programmes are intended to prepare the pupils for higher education and/or a vocation after school. Generally, the Child and Recreation pupils exerted influence more successfully when they wished to reduce the pace and difficulty of lessons than when they wished to get more out of their education, while the opposite applied to the Natural Science class. Who had influence over what was principally related to the programmes’ gender and class profiles and the pupils’ expected positions in society.
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| 3. |
- Lindblad, Michael, 1957-
(författare)
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"De förstod aldrig min historia" : unga vuxna med migrationsbakgrund om skolmisslyckande och övergångar mellan skola och arbete
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study aims to deepen knowledge of young people with a migration background in Sweden, particularly those with non-European backgrounds, and their transitions from school to work. The focus is on young people with uncompleted upper secondary education (USE), drawing on their life stories, and exploring their perceptions and experiences around school failure, entering the labour market, and/or not being in education, employment or training (NEET).Theoretically the study analyses individuals’ career decisions from an agency-structure perspective, drawing on careership theory, in particular the notions of pragmatic-rational choices, routines, turning-points and horizons of action (Hodkinson & Sparkes 1997), combined with theories on ‘otherness’ (Hall 1990; 1999, Anthias 2002, Balibar 2004, Trondman 2007), and the notion of socio-geographic space (Bourdieu 1986a; Bourdieu 1999, Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1996).Methodologically, the thesis is based on narrative research, and the empirical material comprise life stories of twenty young people (men and women) about their lives, school experiences and time after leaving school. The careers of the young people were developed in fields where they had subordinate positions, based on their family’s mostly limited social, economic and cultural capital, their own short education and limited experience, and the otherness they encountered. Against this background, their educational and labour market career choices are understood as pragmatic-rational, enabled and limited by the resulting horizons of action. However, the collected narratives suggest that their horizons of action developed from the time they left school when they made different pragmatic-rational choices that changed their positions. Nevertheless, career choices were often made within a bounded agency and reduced opportunities as a consequence of school failure and their own scarce resources. The learning and interaction taking place within the routine periods are both crucial for understanding processes that result in school failure and the subsequent extended period of establishment in working and adult life, and change of horizons of action and habitus.The narratives of the young people showed that school failures and dropout are complex and extended processes that are related to education and family, as well as access to power and capital. They also encountered difference-making through the predominant images and discourses of 'immigration' as a social problem and by being located in a specific socio-geographic space that limited their possibilities for action. The family was highly significant and, in most cases, represented security and continuity. The family’s present situation and future was crucial to the young adults, which affected their choices. Hence, their own horizon of action also included the family’s opportunities and horizon of action. The study indicates that there is sometimes reason to speak of a collective horizon of action rather than just an individual one. Institutional and informal support together with young people’s agency may enable positive career development in spite of a lack of resources provided to the young, particularly if schools and other institutions would provide more professional and timely support. The overall conclusion is that it would not have taken much investment of resources and effort to have prevented school failure for a large proportion of the twenty young adults in this study. That is the good news.
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| 4. |
- Lundström, Ulf, 1954-
(författare)
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Gymnasielärare - perspektiv på lärares arbete och yrkesutveckling vid millennieskiftet
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to contribute to knowledge about how the work and profession of upper secondary school teachers is understood and shaped by the teachers in the beginning of the 21st century, and to relate that understanding of work and professional development to the strivings of the teachers’ trade unions and the state. With the implementation of an innovation as a starting point, the teachers’ narratives also described their work in a broader sense. Connections and contradictions between those descriptions of everyday work are analysed in relation to central ideas in research and state and trade union policy. The empirical data were mainly generated through interviews and studies of state- and teachers’ trade union policy documents. Twenty-three teachers at four upper secondary schools were interviewed twice, with a one year interval. Five school leaders were also interviewed. A minor questionnaire added data concerning professional development. 102 documents published by the State and the teachers’ trade unions between 1964 and 2004 were analysed using critical discourse analysis.The analysis is eclectic, drawing on perspectives and conceptions from theories on professions, organisations, school development and the frame factor theory. The overall approach of the study is practice related research and includes an intention to draw attention to connections between micro and macro levels.The analyses of the teachers’ narratives on implementation indicate that they were able to do the job despite unsatisfactory conditions thanks to high work morale and extensive experience. The infrastructure provided by the frame factors was weak or working at cross purposes. The school-wide support for development was stronger at one of the four schools.The teachers’ formal freedom of action was substantial. In practice it was restricted by frame factors and the fact that the potential freedom was not fully used. Thus, the actual autonomy was more limited than it appeared to be. The school culture included elements of balkanised and contrived collegiality. Many tasks were delegated to the interdisciplinary work teams, but the teams did not seem to live up to expectations. Primarily, they lacked time and an appropriate group composition. There was a clash between the interdisciplinary work teams and the teachers’ need to co-operate within subject work teams. The teachers did not regard interdisciplinary work teams as useful for school or professional development.Supportive conditions for long-term, shared learning and dialogue between researchers and practitioners were largely lacking. Visions such as learning organisations were far removed from the everyday life in the schools. Changes in organisational structures at the schools have partly been counterproductive.The far-reaching restructuring of the Swedish upper secondary schools implemented from the end of the 1980s and during the 1990s was in line with international reform trends. It also had specific national characteristics. The concept professional teachers was introduced in some Government bills around 1990. The teachers’ trade unions adopted the concept and it became increasingly significant in trade union policy during the 1990s. At the turn of the millennium it was a dominant idea in their documents.During the 1990s several influential discourses became established as shared views between the State, trade unions and some researchers, e.g. what I have called change and professional discourses. They were rarely problematized in state and teachers’ trade union policy documents. The two agreements between the teachers’ trade unions and the employers, in 1995 and 2000, constituted another component of what has been termed a system-shift in the Swedish school system. They influenced the teachers’ working conditions and implied new strategies for the trade unions. The professional, change and management discourses salient in the documents were brought into schools with insufficient opportunities for the teachers to develop a deep meaning of the discourses.The study emphasizes the importance of practice oriented studies, related to wider contexts, in order to provide insights into teachers’ work and professional development. It also brings nuances to, and problematizes theoretical conceptions and discourses in the field.Key-words: teaching profession, upper secondary teachers, change, school reform, professional development, school development, frame factors, school governance, school policy, trade union
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| 5. |
- Andersson, Birgit, 1953-
(författare)
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Nya fritidspedagoger - i spänningsfältet mellan tradition och nya styrformer
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study is to increase the knowledge and understanding of how leisure-time pedagogues´ professional identity is changed as a consequence of altered governance and resulting new tasks. More specifically the study is oriented towards understanding how external demands for quality accounts, assessments and documentation in leisure-time centers and schools, affect leisure-time pedagogues´ practice of their profession and professional identity, and how the leisure-time pedagogues relate to these demands. The empirical data are generated through interviews with 23 leisure-time pedagogues, 8 school leaders, document analyses, and a survey among 105 leisure-time pedagogues. The analysis draws on profession theories perspective and concepts like knowledge base, jurisdiction and discretion to understand what is central in the leisure-time pedagogues’ profession and in what direction the profession is developing: de-professionalization, professionalization or re-configuration. Bourdieu´s sociological theories with concepts of field, capital and habitus are also used for understanding of the leisure-time pedagogues´ positions, actions, and explicit relations to other professional groups. The results indicate dilemmas that the leisure-time pedagogues face related to far-going decentralisation, introduction of new public management, reduced resources, and closer links between leisure-time centres and schools. Working with traditional methods creates problems and it becomes hard to balance the work between leisure-time centre and school. The thesis shows that leisure-time pedagogues constantly conduct independent individual assessments that are mainly hidden. This has not been pointed out before but is linked to the leisure-time pedagogues´ professional identity. Assessment as an accounting task has on the other hand been added in connection with the transfer to the educational sector and altered forms of governance. Leisure-time pedagogues are both ambivalent and critical to these demands for transparency and accountability. Even though the leisure-time pedagogues are subjected to increased control and expected to work more with assessments in different forms, and are forced to reduce their professional work in leisure-time centres, we cannot entirely talk about de-professionalization. Also features of professionalization and signs of reconfiguration of the profession are visible. The thesis illustrates that the profession of leisure-time pedagogue is being reshaped and that the leisure-time pedagogues’ professional identity can be understood in different ways. The thesis also illustrates how a core of traditional knowledge base stands out as central for most of the professionals in the various professional identities that are found. The differences that are found are related to the local governance of schools’ organisation; to what extent the leisure-time pedagogues’ work is placed in the compulsory school day; and how strong the leisure-time pedagogues’ collective base is in the school unit.
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| 6. |
- Arnesson, Daniel, 1982-
(författare)
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PISA i skolan : hur lärare, rektorer och skolchefer förhåller sig till internationella kunskapsmätningar
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis addresses the local reception and use in Sweden of the major international large scale assessments (ILSAs) of student performance: Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS). The aim is to describe and analyze how Swedish teachers, principals and school directors interpret and possibly use ILSAs in their professional practice. ILSA is treated here as a new idea or a new social technology defining what constitutes good (or bad) education. The theoretical framework combines a top-down perspective provided by Rogers’ (2003) Diffusion of Innovation theory, and a complementary, more critical Policy Enactment approach (Ball et al. 2012), stressing the import-ance of context and local actors’ perspectives. Empirically, the thesis is based on 40 semi-structured interviews carried out in the 2011-2012 school year with teachers, principals and municipal school directors in five municipalities and 12 compulsory schools, selected to cover diverse municipalities, schools, and respondents.The respondents perceive ILSAs as valid evaluations of the Swedish school system. Most think it is important to compare results of different nations, although ILSA is not expected to cover the whole curriculum. Most interviewees are aware that Swedish ILSA results have been declining for years and perceive an urgent need to reverse this trend. However, few of the directors, principals or teachers believe that Swedish schools are in a deep crisis, as described in Swedish media. The participants frequently regard schools as primary determinants of ILSA results, and few blame family, socio-economic, cultural and contextual factors for the Swedish decline in ILSA rankings. There are significant differences between the three occupational groups in their reception and use of ILSA. Municipal school directors who are very well-informed emphasize the influence of ILSA on their local development efforts. Principals and teachers say that ILSAs have had modest direct effects on their work, but they argue that poor Swedish results in international assessments have had indirect effects, for instance by prompting the introduction of a new national curriculum.
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| 7. |
- Dunkels, Elza, 1960-
(författare)
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Bridging the distance : children’s strategies on the internet
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis deals with the following questions: What do children find negative on the Internet? What counter strategies do they use? How have they developed these strategies? The method used is one-to-one online interviews and the analyses are qualitative in nature. The sample is children in grade 6 of the Swedish compulsory school, aged between 11 and 13. 104 children, 52 girls and 52 boys, from different parts of Sweden were interviewed.The media debate seems to display consensus regarding what threats the Internet poses to young people. The conclusion of this thesis is, however, that children’s views of the Internet in many ways differ from the media related adult view. The children of this study do not express a great deal of anxiety about the negative sides of the Internet. They are aware of, and can describe many downsides but these are not present in their everyday use of the Internet. Digging deeper it turns out that many children have in fact well-developed counter strategies. However, these strategies are not conscious in the sense that the children discuss them. Instead, they seem integrated in their online environment. The counter strategies have been developed by the children alone or together with peers. In some, but remarkably few, cases adults have been giving tips or teaching the children strategies. Nevertheless, the study does not paint a picture of naïve children, unable to see actual threats, but of responsible young citizens who are aware of the threats that exist in their online setting – sometimes from personal experience – and have developed methods to avoid such threats.
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| 8. |
- Edström, Charlotta, 1974-
(författare)
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Samma, lika, alla är unika : En analys av jämställdhet i förskolepolitik och praktik
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to describe, critically analyse and provide information about gender equality in Swedish preschools, in relation to policy and practice. The main focus is on pedagogues’ gender equality work with children. The study includes a comparison between state gender equality policy in Scottish and Swedish preschools. The theoretical starting point for the analysis is a policy and gender perspective. Based on Bacchis’ (1999) and Marshalls’ (1997) work suggesting that gender equality policy issues and problems are socially constructed, a contrasting analytical framework is devised and used in the analysis. The main emphasis in the analysis of gender equality constructions is on underlying assumptions, competing constructions and “areas of silence”, relating to what is missing from a gender perspective. There is also some consideration of the agreement between constructions and concrete measures. The time-period studied was from the end of the 1960s onwards; emphasis was placed on the last fifteen years. The main empirical data consists of: Swedish and Scottish state official policy documents and interviews with Scottish researchers; Swedish local authority official documents and interviews with local authority officials from four municipalities; and interviews with pedagogues from three work-teams in three preschools. This information is complemented with documentation about the preschools’ gender equality work. In state preschool policy, pedagogues are depicted both as part of the solution to the gender equality problem but also part of the problem because there are “too few men”. Local authorities consider that pedagogues need more knowledge about gender equality. The pedagogues themselves make a distinction between the past, when their treatment of children was founded on gender-based stereotypes, and the present, in which they are aware but need to keep up the work. In both Swedish preschool policy and practice, gender equality has mainly focused on treating girls and boys similarly, based on assumptions that this is desirable; and this is still the approach. This similarity discourse has been quite constant in Swedish state policy since the 1960s. One exception, however, was the attention to biological differences which gained influence in the mid 1990s in policies mainly relating to compulsory schooling. Gender equality is, with respect to both policy and practice, largely constructed as a pedagogical preschool issue. Discussions about wider society mainly concern the public sphere and the labour market, whilst the private sphere is seldom considered. Children are mainly positioned as “girls” or “boys” and as recipients of pedagogues’ gender equality measures. In general, little consideration is given to hierarchies and variations among groups of girls or boys, or about intersections between gender and other socially constructed categories. Intersections were most clearly visible in practice, especially in one preschool studied; they concern gender equality, age and space. Issues concerning power and gender order are usually missing, and there seems to be a clear influence of gender role theories. Even though there is clear current emphasis on increased similarities, there is a tension concerning whether gender equality is about treating everybody exactly the same, treating everybody in quite similar ways or treating children as unique individuals. This also involves a tension relating to whether gender equality concerns girls and boys as individuals, or as groups, or both. The study demonstrated that the emphasis on gender equality is stronger in the constructions than in concrete measures. In practice, work-teams’ discussions about gender equality were more nuanced than the somewhat compensatory methods that these practitioners applied during their work with the children.
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| 9. |
- Ekström, Kenneth, 1956-
(författare)
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Förskolans pedagogiska praktik : Ett verksamhetsperspektiv
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since 1960s, preschools have been important parts both of Swedish welfare and of labour market policies. The preschool thus constitutes a very important site for rearing and educating young children. Reforms of the Swedish preschool in the 1990s concerning both accessibility and quality were introduced at a time when the economy of the municipalities dramatically deteriorated because of reductions in State subsidies. The strained economy of the State and the municipalities, has resulted, among other things, in a growing number of children in preschool groups and pressure to change organization and pedagogical content. These changes took place in a time of decentralization where the responsibility for organization of preschools was given to the municipalities. Changes in economy, organization and curriculum form the background for this study. The purpose of the study is to examine and understand how preschool working teams shape and realize the pedagogical practice and how working conditions affect this process. The approach of the study is interpretative, where the interpretative perspective is mainly represented by activity theory and theories of cultural reproduction. Three aspects of the actions are observed: the object of the actions, the instruments mediating the actions and the content of mediating actions. Bernstein’s concepts classification and framing are used as tools in analysing the empirical data. The interpretative, empirical study is based on qualitative data collected mainly by observations and interviews. Three preschools are chosen for the study. The preschools in the study are located in two municipalities in the north of Sweden, representing three different environments. All preschools receive children one to five years old. The personnel consist of preschool teachers and childminders working in teams. Eleven of them where interviewed. The study shows that daily routines both shape and restrict practices in preschools. The work is mainly focused on care giving, where the children are supposed to adapt to and subordinate themselves to the norms and to the existing routines. The children’s influence varies between organized activities, where they have little influence, and play time, where they can choose what to do. It also varies between the preschools, where the preschool with children from more affluent families have more freedom than children from the multicultural, lower-income environment do. The work is collectively oriented toward training adaptation, but also, to a certain extent, training for autonomy and responsibility taking. Organization of learning activities often takes the form of transmitting information. The informants regard themselves as caregivers with the main purpose to mediate security and create conditions for the children to develop socially. The changes in conditions emanating from political decisions have brought new working tasks to the preschools and have reduced the level of resources at the same time as the demands made are experienced as being harder. This creates frustration and tends to result in lower levels of ambition.
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| 10. |
- Forsell, Tobias, 1974-
(författare)
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”Man är ju typ elev, fast på avstånd” : problematisk skolfrånvaro ur elevers, föräldrars och skolpersonals perspektiv
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Aim: The aim of the thesis is to increase the knowledge of problematic school absenteeism by focusing on factors and processes contributing to this phenomenon in compulsory school, but also to identify what helps turningabsenteeism into increased school attendance. The thesis uses Kearney’s (2008a) definition of problematic school absenteeism: absences that adversely affect the student’s social and cognitive development, and mental wellbeing.Method: The thesis investigates problematic school absenteeism on the basis of in-depth interviews with 15 students aged between 16 and 25, 15 parents, and 11 school staff with long experience of working with students in this situation, thereby providing rich information on the complex phenomenon under study. The resulting narratives have been analysed using thematic content analysis.Theoretical framework: Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s (1977, 1979a, 1986a) ecological systems theory of human development, the analytical framework is used to unveil the dynamic interaction between the student and his/herenvironment. In addition, the concept of alienation (Bronfenbrenner, 1986a; Hascher & Hadjar, 2018) is used to facilitate a deeper understanding of potentially important generator of unfavourable conditions in school, which byextension may have negative effects on the students’ ability to attend school.Major findings: Problematic school absenteeism in compulsory school is resulting from a range of factors at different levels interacting over a longer period of time. There is a need to distinguish between underlying, eliciting and maintaining factors. Shorter spells of truancy and absence related to illness may be early warning signs. Feelings of being different and lonely, harassment by peers, and difficulties to live up to the demands in school are commonly described as factors pushing the student away from school. Absence from school for a longer period of time in turn results in problems such as anxiety, depression, reduced social contacts and lagging behind in school-work that maintain and increase the difficulties to go back to school. The students, above all those with extensive and long-term absenteeism, usually need changes in the school environment if their attendance rates are to improve. Such ecological changes may be a question of teaching in an alternative learning environment, a change of school, or that significant others enter the student’s life and contribute to a manageable study situation. Such a conclusion is in contrast to research that one-sidedly points to measures aimed at changing the student’s patterns of thought and behaviour.
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