| 1. |
- Nylund, Mattias, 1980, et al.
(author)
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Socialisation and citizenship preparation in vocational education : Pedagogic codes and democratic rights in VET-subjects
- 2020
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In: British Journal of Sociology of Education. - : Routledge. - 0142-5692 .- 1465-3346. ; 41:1, s. 1-17
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Previous studies of citizenship preparation in upper secondary school, including studies on vocational programmes, have primarily focused on general subjects. Potential and actual roles of vocational subjects in this context have received little attention, so we have little knowledge of what is likely a significant part of the citizenship preparation that occurs in vocational programmes. Drawing on the work of Basil Bernstein and ethnographic data, this study presents an analysis of socialisation processes in vocational elements of three vocational programmes in Swedish upper secondary school. The analysis addresses the formation of pedagogic codes in various vocational programmes and subjects, and how these codes condition students’ practice of citizenship at individual, social and political levels. The results show how different pedagogic codes have different implications for the students’ practice of citizenship, and thus raise questions about factors and processes that may either constrain or strengthen, this aspect in vocational subject classes.
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| 2. |
- Frelin, Anneli, Professor, 1969-, et al.
(author)
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Transitions in Nordic school environments – an introduction
- 2021
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In: Education Inquiry. - : Taylor & Francis. - 2000-4508. ; 12:3, s. 217-224
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In the Nordic countries, with their longstanding tradition of valuing education for the masses, a large number of schools have been built over a more than century-long period and therefore represent a variety of pedagogical and architectonical ideals (Bengtsson, 2011). For example, the school landscape represents traditional and progressive ideals and in terms of the buildings themselves, those that are currently considered as highly innovative exist in parallel with more traditional schools from earlier decades. However, a school design that was considered radical at the time of its construction may be considered old-fashioned and unfit for purpose today. Despite the importance of school buildings for education, research-based knowledge about them is limited, especially in educational research and in the Nordic countries. At present, such research is mostly conducted and published in the Australian, UK and US contexts. The special issue of this journal addresses this knowledge gap by focusing on the relations between educational practices and school environments in the Nordic countries and highlighting the intentions, complexities and negotiations relating to the design, building and use of schools at different levels.
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| 3. |
- Bergström, Peter, 1975-, et al.
(author)
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Making the transition from teacher-centered teaching to students’ active learning : developing transformative agency
- 2023
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In: Creating dynamic places for learning. - : Springer Nature. - 9789811987489 - 9789811987519 - 9789811987496 ; , s. 99-115
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This chapter focuses on a local school development project initiatedby teachers who experienced students’ lack of engagement, passive learning, andabsence from school. In order to achieve more active learning among the students,the teachers built an active learning classroom and set out to develop teaching methodsappropriate for the new classroom. This process turned out to be more complex thanexpected and raised questions not only about the teachers’ teaching, but also abouttheir learning and more specifically about how they as a collective created transformative agency. In this chapter, we highlight how the teachers gained transformativeagency and the situations that characterized this process. Inspired by cultural historical activity theory, we pay attention to stimuli that helped the teachers to bring forthand deal with conflicts of motives that led to break-outs from the teacher-centeredteaching and thereby created transformative agency toward a classroom practicecharacterized by students’ active learning.
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| 4. |
- Ledman, Kristina, 1972-, et al.
(author)
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Being and becoming a female student and worker in gendered processes of vocational education and training
- 2021
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In: Gender and Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0954-0253 .- 1360-0516. ; 33:5, s. 514-530
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article reports results of an ethnographic study of how girls are positioned, and position themselves, in relation to gender regimes in three vocational programmes in Swedish upper secondary education: Restaurant Management & Food, Health & Social Care, and Vehicle & Transport. The comparison shows that there are different possible feminine positions where the girls resist and comply to varying degrees both within and between the programmes, with expectations interrelated with discourses of consumption, caring and production. However, generally the position of emphasised femininity is most prominent and becoming a female worker in the programmes’ settings involves complying with feminine ideals of a caring discourse, regardless of whether the VET is oriented towards education for masculine production work, or feminine consumption work.
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| 5. |
- Rönnlund, Maria, 1962-, et al.
(author)
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Life skills for ‘real life’: How critical thinking is contextualised across vocational programmes
- 2019
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In: Educational Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0013-1881 .- 1469-5847. ; 61:3, s. 302-318
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background This article presents an analysis of how critical thinking is contextualised in everyday teaching in three vocational education and training (VET) programmes: Vehicle and transport, Restaurant and management, and Health and social care. Purpose The main question addressed is: What knowledge discourses permeate different VET-contexts, and hence what kinds of opportunities for critical thinking do they offer students? Method The qualitative analysis draws on data from a four-year ethnographic project exploring learning processes that can be characterised as civic education in Swedish vocational education. The analysis presented here used data collected during 85 days ofcobservations of teaching in six VET classes, interviews with 81 students and 10 teachers, and collected teaching material. To explore why some contextualisations provided more opportunities and encouragement for critical thinking than others, we applied Bernsteinian concepts of ‘horizontal and vertical knowledge discourses’ and ‘discursive gaps’. Findings and conclusions Overall, teaching that was observed focused primarily on ‘doing’. However, in all three programmes, the analysis identified that there were also situations that touched upon critical thinking. Three major themes were identified: critical thinking related to ‘Personal experiences’, ‘The other(s)’ and ‘Wider perspectives’. It appeared that the frequency and nature of such situations varied with the knowledge discourses permeating the programme. Furthermore, we discuss the manifestations of critical thinking in relation to the wider context of what Bernstein refers to as pedagogic rights; individual enhancement, social inclusion and development of the competence and confidence to participate in political processes.
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| 6. |
- Rönnlund, Maria, 1962-, et al.
(author)
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Teaching in a non-traditional classroom: experiences from a teacher-initiated design project
- 2021
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In: Teachers and Teaching. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1354-0602 .- 1470-1278. ; 27:7, s. 587-601
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This participatory design-based research study addresses the relational character of the physical learning environment and pedagogical practice in the context of a design project carried out at a Swedish upper secondary school. Three teachers initiated the project with the intent to introduce student centred pedagogy and increase active learning. In collaboration with the research team, they designed and furnished a classroom supportive for communication and intense interaction between students, and where students and teachers could work and construct knowledge together. Drawing on observations, video recordings and design conversations with the teachers, the analysis, which is inspired by Actor Network Theory, concentrates on the six month period when the teachers started to teach in the new classroom with focus on their experiences, asking what they experienced as advantageous and challenging. Considering the new learning environment as a network of socio-material relations consisting of a) physical and spatial agents, b) organisational structural agents, and c) teacher/teaching agents, we conclude that whereas some actors corresponded well and contributed to a well-coordinated classroom practice facilitating the project’s intentions, some actors contradicted each other and challenged the same intentions.
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| 7. |
- Öhrn, Elisabet, 1958, et al.
(author)
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Rural education and migration : a study of the 2015 reception of young refugees in Sweden
- 2023
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In: Australian and International Journal of Rural Education. - : The Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA). - 1036-0026 .- 1839-7387. ; 33:2, s. 1-15
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In the autumn of 2015 a large number of mainly Syrian refugees arrived in Sweden. They were unevenly distributed geographically by the authorities and smaller municipalities received proportionally larger numbers than others. The schools became central in the local reception processes. They faced difficulties but also possibilities, both pedagogical, organizational and in relation to social issues. Based on participant observation and interviews with staff in six rural schools in different rural areas from an ethnographic study, in this paper we explore experiences about how schools received the new refugees and how reception influenced teaching. The analyses indicate some changes in forms of teaching (e.g. sensitivity to language differences, more explicit structuring of tasks) that became permanent as they were considered beneficial to non-migrant students as well. In contrast, there were very few signs of changes in the content of teaching, which appears to have largely remained largely the same as before the refugees came.
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| 8. |
- Bergström, Peter, 1975-, et al.
(author)
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Making the shift from the traditional classroom to the active learning classroom : possibilities and challenge
- 2019
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In: Fjärde nationella konferensen i pedagogiskt arbete i Umeå 19-20 augusti 2019.
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper reports on a case study of a school development project in a Swedish upper secondary school. The project initiators (three teachers), wanted to change their teaching towards student active learning, and as part of that change they designed and prepared a classroom inspired by the Active Learning Classroom model (Baepler et al. 2016). The aim was to increase the understanding of possibilities and challenges when changing the pedagogical practice. The research questions addressed: What characterise the pedagogical practices in the traditional vs newly designed classroom in terms of communication and interaction between teachers and students, and what characterises the pedagogical change? A participatory design-based research (DBR) methodology was applied in three phases: the exploration phase, the development phase and the evaluation phase. This paper focus on a selected sequence of three months of the development phase, exploring teaching in the shift from the traditional classroom to the ALC. The analysis draws on a) video and audio recorded observations of lessons (N=15) in the traditional classroom and in the newly designed classroom, b) teachers’ individual evaluations of lessons based on pre-formulated reflective questions, and c) focus group discussions (N=3) on the topic ‘teaching for students’ active learning’. The data was analysed using Bernstein’s concepts of classification and framing (2000). Preliminary results indicate variations in outcome of pedagogical change depending on how the teachers worked in the traditional classroom. For example, when the students were unaware of working in groups and using digital facilities collectively, this led to challenges in the active learning classroom.
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| 9. |
- Bergström, Peter, 1975-, et al.
(author)
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Upper secondary school teachers’ first encounter with the active learning classroom : What can we learn from a perspective of power and control?
- 2020
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In: IADIS International Conference Educational Technologies 2020. - São Paulo : IADIS Press. - 9789898533982 ; , s. 57-64
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper reports on a research and development project based upon problems in upper secondary school, namely students’ lack of engagement, passive learning and students’ absence from school. Looking to solve this problem, a group of upper secondary school teachers came across and saw potential in the concept, physical space and method of the “Active Learning Classroom (ALC)”, a concept from higher education. The aim of this particular study was to explore teaching in the ALC from the perspective of power and control. The research questions embrace issues on both the physical learning environment of the ALC, teacher practices in the ALC and what kind of teacher practices enhance active learning. The theoretical framework was based on Bernstein’s concepts of power and control. The study applied methods of video recorded classroom observations and field notes. The findings indicate a designed physical learning environment where power was conferred to the students. That placed demands on the teachers with regard to how they handled control in practice. Findings further indicate that when teachers had more active control over pace and sequencing, this increased productivity and more active learning among the students.
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| 10. |
- Larsson, Anna, et al.
(author)
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The History of the Swedish Schoolyard : The Outdoor School Environment as a Pedagogical and Social Space, 1611–2011
- 2014
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Activities on the schoolyard, whether they take place during free recess or as a part of a more structured pedagogical practice, are highly important both to pupils’ social experiences of schooling and to their concrete learning processes. This has been made evident through several studies during the last decades (e.g. Blatchford & Sharp 1994; Pellegrini & Blatchford 2003) and it is today an increasingly common starting point for researchers engaged in the study of contemporary schooling. In educational history however, the picture is somewhat different. Even though the schoolyard seems to have a past almost as long as organised schooling itself, very little analytical attention has been provided this space (and the outdoor school environment as such), especially in the form of long-term historical studies.The main purpose of our study is to contribute to the understanding of the outdoor school environment as a pedagogical and social space by analyzing the history of the schoolyard in a Swedish educational context from the formation of the “modern” state governed school system in the early 17th century up until the very present.The theoretical point of departure is Henri Lefebvre’s (1991) theory of the production of social space. This implies that space should not be seen as a passive physical manifestation or merely a context for material activities but also a producer of subjectivities, mental conditions and social relations. Lefebvre’s three spatial dimensions are highlighted in our analysis, namely a) representations of space (conceived space); b) spatial practice (perceived space) and c) representational spaces (lived space). The first dimension corresponds to the imagined, planned, conceived space (often the professionalized public space), the second to the material, physically perceived space, and the third to the existential, lived space, which includes actions, experiences and feelings. Although analytically distinctive and useable, we understand these three dimensions as mutually intertwined in practice. Thus, intended schoolyard activities and material conditions merge with actions, social relations and mental structures. Based on Lefebvre, the schoolyard is seen as a physical place, which by nationally and locally formulated formal and informal representations becomes loaded with collective symbolic ambitions and expectations. On an everyday basis, pupils and teachers continuously participate in the forming of the schoolyard and negotiate its meanings and significances. In the ambition to examine and analyze the production of the schoolyard as a social space the following analytical dimensions and research questions will be guiding our study:A) Representations of space (conceived space): How has the conception of the schoolyard been formed and transformed in educational planning on a national and a local level? What central ideas about the ideal uses and features of the schoolyard have marked formal and informal regulation at different points of time, and how has this varied as regards to different parts of the educational system? What influences from dominating discourses (i.e. premises concerning childhood, play, pedagogy, knowledge, and so on) has effected these formal representations?B) Spatial practice (perceived space): How has the schoolyard been formed physically and materially?C) Representational space (lived space): What kinds of social activities have been conducted on the schoolyard, and what cultural and symbolic values have been attached to this space by pupils, school staff and others?Method: The most important sources for our study are formal instructions on national as well as local level, such as school curriculum texts, state regulations, construction plans and blueprints. This will make up the spine of the study. In addition to this, photographs and drawings are also being examined, as well as teacher, pupil and architect magazines. For the more recent parts of the investigated period interviews have been carried out with pupils, teachers and others engaged in schoolyard issues. The sorting and the analysis of the data are based on the three spatial dimensions described above, and has been carried out in a hermeneutic tradition. There are of course several methodological problems that need to be handled in a study like this. First of all, a challenging problem is caused by the long time-span of the study and the different nature of sources at hand at different time periods. The pre-modern sources more or less exclusively consists of formal, national and local decrees on schooling, whereas the sources from mid-19th century and onwards becomes successively richer, and therefore permits more in depth studies on several areas. This, in turn, creates problems as regards to finding a balance in the overall analysis, for example when it comes to studying spatial change. It also has an impact on where the main focus of our study is placed; namely on representations of space and on formal planning on different levels (as this is the dimension where we can achieve a comprehensive long-term study). This imposes an inevitable hierarchisation both between the three general analytical dimensions of the study but also within each category. Secondly, Lefebvre’s grand theory about the production of social space might work well as a joint analytical hub, but needs to be combined and added up with other (spatial and discursive) theories and approaches, and perhaps also with a more common framework for understanding the role of education in society. Finally, methodological difficulties also stems from the schoolyard being an atomized and multi-functional space (including for example a plot, plantations, botanical garden, a play area, a privy, a flagpole, secret places, etc.) and thus also multi-dynamic as regards to change. This creates challenges as to how sort out different patterns of change related to this space.Expected Outcomes: Although the study is far from completed some preliminary conclusions can be discussed against the background of the analytical dimensions presented above. As regards to the schoolyard as a conceived space, it has, to varying extent, been a place for play and sports, for rest and recreation, for teaching, fostering or for moral influence; it has been an instructive and model outdoor space for pupils or the surrounding community due to its aesthetics, as well as an object for economic, safety and health considerations. This has had effects on the physical schoolyard where both changes and continuities over the long investigated period can be seen. The lived schoolyard appears to be highly age differentiated and partly gender differentiated and strongly connected to activities and social relations. The lived schoolyard is both a safe and a dangerous place, and even if it is regulated, it offers possibilities to challenge the rules of the school. The lived schoolyard is also a children’s place - the presence of adults has been minimal except from the latest two or three decades. When intersecting the analyses of the three dimensions can we see that central ideas about the schoolyard, formed in relation to historical changes in school and society, have been materialized in the physical shaping of school sites. We can also see how central ideas have affected the lived schoolyard, but also the other way around. In the presentation the conclusions about the production of the schoolyard as a social space will be discussed in the light of illustrating empirical examples.
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