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- 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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Fair and competitive? : Critical perspectives on contemporary Nordic schooling
- 2014. - 1
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Nordic countries have traditionally been regarded as archetypal representatives of social democratic welfare states. But particularly since the 1990s the concept of universal welfare and education has increasingly been infused with neo-liberal ideas and technologies, even if the extent to which this has happened and its expressions vary from one Nordic country to the next. Marketisation, new public management and an emphasis on individualism and individual responsibility have profoundly affected education, with increased focus on competition, knowledge, performance and assessment. This is the context, the educational landscape of this book. Through ethnographic studies in varied educational institutions in Finland, Norway and Sweden we ask, how these political aspects are visible, how they are negotiated and contested in the practices and everyday lives of students and teachers in schools, and what are their implications for democratic influence? Can the competitive school be at the same time fair? The chapters are written from a critical ethnographic perspective, using ethnographic data and analysis to address power relations in education with reference to the political aim of social inclusion and democracy. The authors address diversities and differences and their interpretations are informed by an intersectional understanding of gender, ethnicity and social class.
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- Lundahl, Lisbeth, 1951-, et al.
(författare)
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Justice and marketization of education in three Nordic countries : Can existing large-scale datasets support comparisons?
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 2002-0317. ; 4:3, s. 120-132
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Traditionally emphasizing justice, equality and inclusion, education policies in the Nordiccountries have incorporated neoliberal features during the last three decades, but to varyingextents. These changes have important, multidimensional implications, but the variationshave been addressed in few comparative Nordic studies. Thus, this article explores thepotential to strengthen comparisons of education regimes in the Nordic countries generally,and social justice and marketization aspects more specifically, by using existing datasets anddatabases. It initially elaborates the concepts of justice and marketization of education. UsingIceland, Norway and Sweden as examples, it explores the relevance, accessibility and comparabilityof some of the larger international and national statistical databases, and hence theirpotential to enable such comparisons. These data are complemented with interviews conductedwith officials at the national agencies of education in the three countries. A mainconclusion is that abundant data are generally available (despite substantial gaps andsilences in the datasets) on various aspects of social justice in education. In contrast, thereis very little data on most aspects of marketization. Comparability is often hindered by factorssuch as differences in definitions, white spots and the organization of education. It isconcluded that there is clearly a need to extend and develop the currently limited Nordiccollaboration in the selection and harmonization of educational statistics.
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