1.
Larsson Hult, Karin, 1985-
(författare)
En skola för alla, eller? : Om diskursiva dilemman i ett (o)möjligt värdegrundsprojekt
2023
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The aim of this thesis is to discuss the possibility for schools in Sweden to be “a school for all”. More specifically, the study follows a four-year long project at a secondary school, aiming at implementing the idea of being “a school for all.” The Swedish education system has long engaged with the idea that education systems should be for all pupils and that teaching should be adapted according to pupils’ differentials needs. There is wide recognition for such adaptive and inclusive education within Sweden and internationally. However, there is little conceptual consensus, among scholars and educators, on the practical educational and administrative characteristics of “a school for all”. This openness means that the efforts to be ”for all” can be interpreted in different ways and be translated differently by actors within schools. This dissertation is based primarily on document analysis, observations, and interviews with actors related to the project. The study shows that “a school for all” is variously understood by school staff through discourses of rationality, giving rise to discursive dilemmas related to justice and inclusion. As the Swedish education system is founded on the notion of an “ideal” pupil, these dilemmas make “a school for all” a practical impossibility. This study contributes the conceptual framing of “a school for everyone’s learning”. This is supported by a model depicting the dimensions forming schools’ possibilities of being “for everyone’s learning”. Also, the discourses underlying the understanding of “a school for all” need to be discussed. The combination of these measures is suggested as a means to increase the possibilities of reaching an education system fit for all pupils. That is where the discussion needs to start. If it does not, it will be difficult to reach consensus regarding how the Swedish school will be “a school for all”.
2.
Olofsdotter, Gunilla, 1957-
(författare)
Flexibilitetens främlingar : - om anställda i bemanningsföretag
2008
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Temporary Work Agencies (TWAs) are an example of a trend towards flexibility in the labour market. By hiring staff from TWAs organisations can keep their staff numbers down. This however, refers to the client companies´ use or temps, and omits the intermediary, the TWA, which also needs various flexibility strategies in its activities. The main purpose of this thesis is to study the organising of TWAs supply of manpower to different clients companies, and how managers and temps experience their terms of employment, working conditions and relationships with regular employees at the client companies. Two qualitative case studies were conducted. In study one, interviews have been carried out with managers and temps in a TWA and a client company in Jämtland. In the second study, managers and temps in an international TWA in Sweden were interviewed. The results show that both managers and temps work under complex conditions and demands on flexibility. The managers shall, by flexible prioritising, satisfy demands from the TWA on profitability, demands from client companies´ for an adaptable workforce and temps need of employment and community. The results also indicate that temps have to balance between a position as stranger and outsider, and handle insecurity of the assignments duration and spatial location. They have to be able to manoeuvre between the power inequalities, stigmatisation and exclusion they encounter in working conditions and social interactions in client companies. To handle such situations the ideal temp and manager have to be able to vary between distance and nearness in spatiality and indifference and involvement in social relations.
