| 41. |
- Eriksson, Anita
(author)
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Om teori och praktik i lärarutbildning. En etnografisk och diskursanalytisk studie.
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis takes its point of departure in the discussion about theory and practice relationships in the 2001 Teacher Education Reform Act. In this reform a clear point is made concerning the connections between teacher education to research on the one hand and the teaching profession on the other, through an emphasised relationship between theoretical knowledge and practical experience. The main aim of the thesis is therefore to investigate how the theory and practice relationship appears within teacher education in educational conversations between students and between students and teacher educators. The intention is to record and analyse the content of these conversations in relation to formal policy texts and the content and organisation of the education as a whole and to try to understand more about how students in pre-service teacher education construct knowledge about their coming profession and what role conversations of the kinds focussed play in this process. The questions raised in the research are related to how theory and practice can be brought into a closer and more productive relationship, which is a key aim of teacher education since 2001 according to formal policy texts. The research has used a combination of ethnography and critical discourse analysis as a theoretical and methodological framework. Data production has been founded upon participant observation, interviews, field interviews and an analysis of policy and other texts about higher education in general and teacher education in particular. The field research has been conducted in a teacher education programme for the Swedish pre-school and early school years at one particular Swedish university. In the analysis of written policy the concepts of scientific foundations, proven experience, theory and practice were given particular attention and it was seen that these concepts are used and situated dualistically. Proven experience is the concept that seems to be most problematic of the four in so much that it is not defined in the policy documents and in texts about higher education there are several different definitions. Teacher educators predominantly use two teaching strategies to generate possibilities for students to couple theory and practice and construct professional knowledge. However, some differences were noted in the aims with conversations expressed by school/pre-school and university based teacher educators respectively. These differences created some difficulties for student teachers in constructing their professional knowledge. In their conversations students look for, compare, share, professionally relate, professionally ground, theoretically relate and theoretically ground and analyse content. Practical experience has been pointed out as important for connecting theory and practice and seems to be a precondition for students when they try to professionally ground literature and lecture content. The absence of such experiences made these activities more problematic. A performativity demand in relation to formal examination requirements tended to eclipse discussions about professional knowledge and to a certain extent this obstructed the realisations of the aims teacher educators have had.
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| 42. |
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| 43. |
- Eskilsson, Olle
(author)
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En longitudinell studie av 10-12-åringars förståelse av materiens förändringar
- 2001
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The main aim of this study was to study young people’s ability to use science knowledge when talking about and explaining everyday phenomena involving transformations of matter. Pupils’ individual knowledge was studied both through their spontaneous explanations and through their explanations with appropriate help in discussions with me or with other pupils. The framework for learning in this study involved both pupils’ individual learning and their learning in a social context. In the project, pupils discussed everyday phenomena with peers and with me. The role of the discourse was stressed in the interviews as well as pupils’ use of parallel models of explanations. Data were gathered through four interviews with each one of 40 pupils from five classes during a longitudinal study over two years. The pupils were about 10 years old at the first interview. During the study three instructional units were carried out in the five classes. In the first instructional unit a basic particle model was introduced, to be used when discussing experimental situations during the instructional units. The development of the basic particle model was one of the themes during the instructional units. Other recurrent themes were states of matter, gases and chemical reactions. I decided not to introduce the concept of chemical reaction until the last instructional unit. Pupils’ statements in the interviews were categorised from these themes. The categorizations emanated from presented research on pupils’ conceptions of science but also from the statements of the actual group of pupils. The correctness of the science concepts used was also taken into account in the categorizations. Sometimes I altered a method used before and sometimes I developed a categorization for a special purpose in my study. An example of the category systems is the combined classification of pupils’ conceptions of the particle nature of matter that contains three perspectives: A/ the quality of pupils’ particle model as revealed during the interview B/ the nature of pupils’ use of the concept of molecule during the interview C/ the number of situations in the interview where pupils use the concept of molecule. The pupils did not replace their old models; they put for example a new particle model beside their old everyday model. Then they chose which model to use when they met new situations. Most of the pupils were able to use knowledge of science when talking about known everyday phenomena involving transformations of matter. Almost all of the pupils in the group developed their own thinking models during the project. Pupils’ growing ability to describe features of chemical reactions and the development of their own particle model could help them to understand for example the nature of chemical reactions.
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| 44. |
- Frank, Elisabeth
(author)
-
Läsförmågan bland 9-10-åringar. Betydelsen av skolklimat, hem- och skolsamverkan, lärarkompetens och elevers hembakgrund
- 2009
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Title: Reading skills among 9-10 year olds. The importance of school climate, collaboration between school and home, teacher competence and pupils’ home background Language: Swedish, with summary in English Keywords: PIRLS; reading achievement; school climate; safety; parental participation; collaboration; home and school partnership; teacher competence; two-level structural equation modeling ISBN: 978-91-7346-655-4 The main aim of the thesis is to acquire knowledge about conditions in the school and classroom context that are relevant to students’ reading skills. In focus are school and classroom climate and the collaboration between home and school. Also taken into account are the effects of students' home background and teacher competence. The data consists of the grade 3 sample from the Swedish participation in the PIRLS (Progress in Reading Literacy Study) study in 2001 conducted by IEA. The statistical method principally used was structural equation modeling (SEM) where theoretically grounded latent variable models were fitted to the data. The manifest variables used as indicators were selected from the teachers’, the schools’, students’ and the parents’ questionnaires. A standardized reading achievement score was used as an outcome variable. The study includes three broad steps. Based on a comparison of low and high performing classes, it identifies in the first step areas that seems to be important for achievement. In this step, a number of survey questions are also identified, which serve as indicators of the concepts identified in the next step. The second step consists of a literature review in which previous research and theory in selected problem areas are studied. Through theories and/or previous research, a number of concepts are identified whose relationship to reading achievement is examined in the next step. In the third and final step, a series of theoretically based structural equation models are fitted to the data. In the first stage, measurement models of broad constructs such as “parental participation” and ”safe climate” are identified and later included in a two-level structural model. These latent variables are related to achievement both at the individual and at the class level. The results indicate that safety as well as the collaboration between school and home play an important role in explaining differences in reading achievement between classes. Between students in classes safety also seems to be important for explaining reading skills, whilst the effect of parental participation at the individual level seems to be almost negligible. In the final analysis, the relationships between each construct and reading achievement were investigated in separate models where both teacher competence and student home background was included. It is shown that the positive effect that safety as well as parental participation had on achievement was dependent on student home background and teacher competence at the class level, but also to some extent at the individual level. The results also showed that teacher competence and student home background do not seem to be systematically related to each other. To summarise, it can be noted that there are differences between classes not only with respect to pupils’ home background and reading achievement. There are also differences in the form of climates that vary in safety but also in the extent to which the parents participate in schoolwork. It was clear that there were also differences as regards the teaching teacher’s competence. There are many indications that this competence includes not only promoting good reading skills but also creating a safe climate and positive collaboration between school and home.
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| 45. |
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| 46. |
- Grahn, Karin, 1974
(author)
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Flickor och pojkar i idrottens läromedel. Konstruktioner av genus i ungdomstränarutbildningen
- 2008
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to examine how gender is constructed in textbooks used to educate youth coaches in six different sports. Earlier research has given examples of how gender is constructed in different areas of sports, but there is a lack of knowledge about gender constructions in official texts produced by the different sports confederations. A theoretical framework based on theories of gender as social constructions is used. By looking at sports in terms of a gender order and the specific sports included in the study as gender regimes, the textbooks analysed are seen as producers of gender constructions. Relations between women and men and between different types of femininities and masculinities are important in the constructions. A text and discourse analysis was used in the research. In the first part of the study, the number of girls and boys are presented as well as how the texts, as parts of gender regimes, express gender. It also includes an analysis of gender labelling in the language of sports. The second part of the thesis explores what is written about youths in puberty and how the contents are framed by discourse types, genres and the style used to express knowledge. The result shows that gender is constructed both in terms of an equality discourse, where girls and boys are presented equally, and in terms of “the male norm”, where the male athlete is positioned as the general athlete. When not positioned as equal, women are positioned as excluded, different, a gender-specific subject or gender specific and thereby different. In descriptions of girls and boys in puberty, the results show a variety of ways of constructing boys and especially girls. The main picture, however, constructs girls as problematic in sports and boys as functional sport athletes. Yong women and active elite girls are also positioned in relation to a gender-specific female norm. In conclusion, many of the texts use gender-neutral expressions for athletes which can be seen as a potential challenge to the gender order in sports. But when gendered, athletes are constructed in a way that upholds the gender order both by a male norm and a female-specific norm. This construct boys and men as “the athlete” and girls and women as “female athletes”.
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| 47. |
- Granath, Gunilla, 1947
(author)
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Milda makter! Utvecklingssamtal och loggböcker som disciplineringstekniker
- 2008
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The title of this thesis indicates a Foucaultian perspective on power, regarding it as pluralistic and mobile; nobody owns the power, but it is voiced through and in social relations and positions. It also indicates that today’s disciplining techniques are understood to be pastoral and mild. Modern teachers seldom give orders they seem to talk or negotiate. Disciplining, in this case, would be seen as processes to exert influence on students: forming, guiding and developing. These techniques development talks and log books individualising and reflexive, point to new ways of disciplining that particularly seem to reflect the interplay and communication between students and teachers. In Sweden development talks became compulsory in 1994. Log books, generally introduced in the beginning of 1980, have step by step become common in Swedish schools up to year nine. This study has ethnographic features, but the main object of analysis is communication in texts and talk. I have analysed twelve development talks with twelve year old pupils (school year 6) and log books, written by fifteen year old students (school year 9), from two different schools. The results show that development talks and log books are important as educational tools for influencing and stabilising the individualisation of students and their approach to themselves, their schoolwork, their lives and their future. These tools shape "school selves" in varying, yet distinctly normative ways. The teacher’s gaze will, so to speak, be transformed into the student's own internalized watching gaze. The result or the learning which both development talks and log books mediate to students is a kind of reflexivity that might be compared with "double bookkeeping", that is, the gap between the things you find that you ought to be able to achieve and what you actually are able achieve. This "double bookkeeping" is to some extent based on certain conceptions of the world. That world could be summarized in the term "a culture of presentation" which will also lead to a particular outlook on people. According to that outlook the norm would be always to show off a competent self, even when it comes to weakness. You should at least know the noble art of presenting an attractive narrative about yourself.
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| 48. |
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| 49. |
- Gustafsson, Karin, 1950, et al.
(author)
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Barns skriftspråkande - att bli en skrivande och läsande person : Early childhood literacy : Becoming literate.
- 2005
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge of how early childhood literacy can be understood in pre-school and school, focusing on ages 1-8 years. We assume that children are competent and creative and generate meaning in the way they deal with text. Our research question in all the studies is: How should we as teachers in pre-school encourage, react to and contribute to developing early childhood literacy? The theoretical framework of our studies is an example of research inspired by action research. Our didactic starting-point is that children’s learning should be understood from the perspective of the learner. The data is analysed and discussed from the perspective of phenomenography and variation theory. We also apply a sociocultural perspective in order to see learning to express oneself in writing as a communicative process and in the light of social and cultural conditions for children’s knowledge and learning. In two of the empirical studies (I & II), the data were derived from interviews and writing tasks, in one of the studies (III) the data consisted of observations, while in the last study (IV), the data consisted of observations and interviews. The results of the four studies comprising our thesis show that children establish an understanding and an approach to literacy learning at an early age, and that this tends to be stable; in pre-school and school there are traditions and things that are taken for granted with regard to children’s literacy learning that should be rethought in order to realise the goals of the curricula; if pre-school and school fail to collaborate and if the teacher does not take the perspective of the learner/child in learning to express themselves in writing, the individual child will be affected negatively; it is a challenge for teachers in pre-school to create an environment that stimulates early childhood literacy, an environment with rich opportunities for functional literacy; it should be possible to utilise and develop the multimodal opportunities, such as pictures, colours, shapes, design etc. that have been a tradition in pre-school.
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| 50. |
- Haglund, Björn, 1962
(author)
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Traditioner i möte : en kvalitativ studie av fritidspedagogers arbete med samlingar i skolan
- 2004
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Kan fritidspedagoger bidra till att utveckla arbetet i skolan? I Björn Haglunds avhandling, Traditioner i möte. En kvalitativ studie av fritidspedagogers arbete med samlingar i skolan, studeras fritidspedagoger som arbetar med barngrupper under skoltid. Avhandlingens resultat pekar på att fritidspedagoger kan bidra till att utveckla och integrera fritidshemmens och skolans traditioner. Det finns dock inte någon automatik i att skolans arbete utvecklas enbart för att fritidspedagoger deltar i arbetet. På olika sätt försöker man från politiskt håll att förbättra och utveckla arbetet i skolan. De politiska intentionerna är bl.a. att arbetet ska utvecklas mot att elevernas kunskaper i olika ämnen tillgodoses samtidigt som även fostran och utvecklandet av social kompetens poängteras. Ett sätt att utveckla innehållet på ett sådant sätt anses vara att i högre grad än tidigare anknyta fritidspedagoger till skolans arbete med yngre skolbarn. Avhandlingen beskriver tre olika tillvägagångssätt som fritidspedagogerna använder sig av då man arbetar i skolan. Några av de studerade fritidspedagogerna använder sig av ett innehåll som poängterar både social fostran och kunskaper som av tradition är förknippade med skolans undervisning. Andra fritidspedagoger genomför aktiviteter som enbart syftar till att stärka barns självförtroende, skapa gemenskap i barngruppen och att fostra barnen. En tredje grupp fritidspedagoger använder sig av ett innehåll som syftar till att ligga i linje med vad man uppfattar som skolans traditioner, att anknyta till skolämnen och arbetsdisciplin. Att man bevarar de egna traditionerna eller att man övertar skolans traditioner är dock inte något som kan sägas förnya eller utveckla skolans arbete utifrån de politiska intentionerna. Det visar sig också att den enskilda fritidspedagogen betonar olika sorters innehåll och genomför olika sorters arbete vid olika tillfällen under arbetsdagen. Arbetet verkar på så sätt splittrat och fritidspedagogerna får, bl.a. beroende på deras egna syften med olika aktiviteter, olika roller i arbetet. Sammanfattningsvis kan fritidspedagoger visserligen bidra till att utveckla innehållet i skolan men om deras arbete ska utvecklas till att omfatta både social fostran och mer ämnesinriktade kunskaper är detta bl.a. beroende av deras egna uppfattningar av vad barnen gör i klassrummen och vad aktiviteter i skolan ska innehålla. Dessutom är innehållet i det arbete de utför beroende av de förväntningar som skolledning, lärare och föräldrar har på aktiviteternas innehåll.
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