| 1. |
- Adolfsson, Carl-Henrik, Fil doktor, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Data Analysis for School Improvement within Coupled Local School Systems : Which Data and with what Purposes?
- 2023
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Ingår i: Leadership and Policy in Schools. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1570-0763 .- 1744-5043. ; 22:3, s. 714-727
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- From a new institutional theoretical perspective, this article explores school actors’ sense making linked to data-based decision making (DBDM) policy in general and processes of data analysis in particular. The study revealed how actors’ interpretation of and response to DBDM requirements pointed to strong and weak couplings between and within the local school system’s different organizational levels. While teachers primarily emphasized informal, daily analyses, the LEA and principals placed importance on formal, district and school-based analyses. In the same way teachers to a greater extent think that too much resources is spent on collecting and analyzing data rather than on innovation and school improvement.
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| 2. |
- Adolfsson, Carl-Henrik, Fil doktor, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluating School Improvement Efforts : Pupils as Silent Result Suppliers, or Audible Improvement Resources?
- 2018
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Ingår i: International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research. - Flacq : Society for Research and Knowledge Management. - 1694-2493 .- 1694-2116. ; 17:6, s. 34-50
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article contributes to a perspective of school development, where pupils‟ experiences of the teaching they encounter are regarded as a result of improvement work. In a three-year research collaboration with four nine-year compulsory schools in a large Swedish municipality, researchers have continuously conducted group interviews with different actors, collected relevant documentation and reported their preliminary analyses to the schools. In the light of previous research, the results show that the development areas that have been in focus in the schools have in some cases had an impact on the teaching. However, no homogenous change is evident. Rather, the variation between classrooms, teachers and subjects is great, especially if the pupils‟ perspectives are taken into consideration. The pupils‟ experiences and voices on how the improvement work materialises in the classroom contribute to explaining the connections, or lack of them, between the school and classroom levels.
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| 3. |
- Adolfsson, Carl-Henrik, Fil doktor, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluating teacher and school development by learning capital : a conceptual contribution to a fundamental problem
- 2019
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Ingår i: Improving Schools. - : Sage Publications. - 1365-4802 .- 1475-7583. ; 22:2, s. 130-143
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In light of an international policy movement to increase focus on students’ academic achievement, the question of how to improve schools has become an important issue at all levels in the school system. Substantial resources have been invested in reforms to improve conditions for pupils’ learning. Great expectations and responsibility are often placed on teachers in terms of their professional development (PD), the aim being to improve their teaching practices. Consequently, the question of how to evaluate the results of school improvement programmes, including teachers’ PD, has arisen. However, there is a lack of theoretical concepts that can capture the outcomes of such development in a qualified way. Taking inspiration from the research on teachers’ PD and theories relating to teachers’ knowledge and capabilities, the aim of this study is to outline a conceptual framework that can serve as an analytical tool when evaluating both school improvement initiatives in general and school actors’ learning in particular. Four types of learning capital that are intended to reflect the central aspects of teachers’ and school organisations’ learning and the capabilities linked to teaching practice and its development are outlined. This conceptual framework is applied and exemplified based on the results of a three-year research project evaluating a school improvement programme in a Swedish municipality. Finally, some conclusions are drawn regarding the different types of analysis possible with the current conceptual framework related to the evaluation of school improvement efforts.
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| 4. |
- Adolfsson, Carl-Henrik, Fil doktor, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Mötet mellan den statliga och kommunala kvalitetsstyrningen inom ramen för Samverkan för bästa skola
- 2021
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Ingår i: Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige. - : Linnaeus University. - 1401-6788 .- 2001-3345. ; 26:1, s. 15-41
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Inom ramen för det svenska decentraliserade skolsystemet har ansvaret för att bygga upp, utveckla och bedriva ett systematiskt kvalitetsarbete i första hand varit en fråga för huvudmän och skolor att hantera. I ljuset av en ökad re-centralisering av skolan har uppbyggandet av olika kvalitetssystem för uppföljning och kontroll av skolornas resultat också kommit att utgöra ett viktigt sätt för huvudmannen att styra skolan på. I studien benämns detta i termer av kvalitetsstyrning. I och med Samverkan för bästa skola har dessa gränsdragningar mellan det lokala och det nationella kommit att utmanas. Studien bygger på intervjudata inhämtad på fyra skolor som deltar i Samverkan för bästa skola, från skolförvaltningen i samma kommun samt genom intervju med en representant från Skolverket. Utifrån begreppen löst kopplade system och organisatoriska rutiner studeras vad som karaktäriserar den nationella respektive den kommunala kvalitetsstyrningen samt vad som sker i mötet dem emellan på skolor som genomgår insatser inom ramen för Samverkan för bästa skola, samt med vilka konsekvenser. Resultatet av studien visar bland annat på att idéer och metoder om databaserad skolutveckling utgör viktiga legitimitetsgrunder för såväl den kommunala som den nationella kvalitetsstyrningen. Den nationella kvalitetsstyrningen via Samverkan för bästa skola är dock betydligt mer intensifierad och når längre in i skolornas organisation.
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| 5. |
- Adolfsson, Carl-Henrik, Fil doktor, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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The Local Education Authority’s Implementation of a Capacity-building model for school improvement – obstacles and possibilities
- 2019
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Ingår i: Presented at ECER 2019.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- General description on research questions, objectives and theoretical framework (600 words)In school systems around the world, there is an increasing focus on pupils’ academic achievements and school results. This has resulted in an intensified control of pupils’ levels of achievement (cf. PISA) and increasing demands for school actors and decision-makers to improve schools. In this respect, Sweden is no exception. Ages of declining student achievement, decreased equality between schools have spurred an intensive critique against the Swedish school system and triggered a more state-regulated governing of the school system in terms of several national reforms, which altogether aim to take control over the schools’ outcome (Wahlström & Sundberg, 2017; Adolfsson, 2018). In light of such a policy movement the Local Education Authorities (LEA) and schools’ responsibility for pupils’ achievement and equality have been highlighted and strengthened in Swedish policy. In addition, to ensure the quality of the teaching and the professionalism of the teachers, a revision of the Swedish Education Act was carried out in 2010. This revision stipulated, among other things, that all schools and local school authorities must conduct a systematic improvement work. This had led to a discussion of how school on a local basis can build capacity to improve themselves. In this context, LEA, in the Swedish municipalities, have become important policy actors (Wahlström & Sundberg, 2017b). To strengthen the schools own capacity for improvement, but also to increase the control over the schools’ processes and outcomes, the construction and implementation of different quality systems has been an important strategy for the local education authorities (Adolfsson & Alvunger, 2017; Håkansson & Sundberg, 2016).In this paper, we will put this ‘meso-level’, i.e. the relationship between LEA and the schools, in focus. We mean that this is an important, but many times overlooked, relationship when it comes to understand processes and outcomes related to the implementation of local quality systems and school improvement initiatives (Rorrer, Skrla & Scheurich, 2008). Based on an ongoing three-year research project in a major municipality in Sweden, the overall aim is to investigate a LEA: s attempt to implement a new quality system at the schools in the municipality, as a way to control and strengthen the schools’ improvement work. The following research questions are addressed in the paper:1. How and which central aspects of the schools’ improvement work tries LEA control and strengthened through the implementation of a new quality system?2. In what w ay do school actors respond to LES’s attempt to implement the quality system?3. Which different factors can be distinguished as notably important for the outcome of the implementation process?The relationship between the LED and the current schools are understood and analysed from a neo-institutional theoretical perspective (Scott, 2008). From this perspective, three dimensions can be highlighted regarding how institutions (in this case the LED and the current schools) seek to control and affect other institutions, respond to external pressure and seek legitimacy: regulative (rules and sanctions), normative (prevalent norms, expectations and ideals ), and cognitive-cultural/discursive (shared conceptions and frames of meaning-making). This perspective enable us to elucidate the character of the different strategies and actions that LED undertake in the implementation of the new quality model. To understand the implementation processes that occurred at the different schools, theoretical inspiration is acquired from implementation theory (Fixen et al. 2005; Lundquist, 1987; Lipsky, 1980). This theory put analytical focus on central implementation factors such as clarity, school actors knowledge, legitimacy, time, leadership, organisation, school culture etc, which thus help us to understand the result of the implementation processes of the different schools. Methods/methodology (400 words)The overall research project, which this specific study is conducted within, has a mixed-method inspired design. The aim with such an approach is to deepening the understanding of the current research questions being addressed through obtaining different, but complementary data on the phenomenon that stand in focus for the study (Cresswell, 2010; Cresswell and Clark, 2007). In this specific sub-study, we have followed the education authority’s implementation process at six different schools in the current municipality. The current schools are located in areas with differences in socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds and each school was followed for a school year, which made it possible to contextually place and understand the implementation process within the structure, organization and culture of the schools.In line with the theoretical points of departure and the general aim to elucidate patterns of the local school authority’s implementation of the new quality system and school actors’ understanding and response of the quality system, following methods and empirical data have been used. i) content analysis of central policy documents ii) observations (n=xx) iii) 24 semi-structured interviews with key actors at the different schools (n=50). Accordingly, an extensive empirical material have been collected. To conduct a contextual understanding of each school, central documents regarding the local schools’ organisation, policy and vision, leading and management structure, pupils’ achievement, school improvement strategies were at a first step analysed. This contextual understanding was important for the next step, when data related to LEA implementation of the new quality system at the single schools were collected. This was carried out through participating observations at the different kinds of meetings that occurred amongst LEA and the current schools. Finally, as a way to deepen the understanding of the school actors’ response to the new quality system, semi-structured interviews with central key actors at the single school were carried out. Expected outcomes (300 words)The relationship between the LEA and the schools will finally be discussed and problematized in light of the following preliminary results:- The implementation of the quality system occurred through a number of steps: 1. an introduction meeting between represents from the LEA and key actors from the schools 2. a quality dialogue two months later and 3. a quality seminary arranged by the LEA where the principals from the involving schools were participating. In contrast to a more traditional ‘regulative’ strategy of governing the schools, the LEA’s implementation of the current quality system, in terms of these different activities, was characterized by a more normative and discursive way of controlling the schools’ improvement work (i.e. soft governance).- We could distinguish a variety in the initial stage of the implementation process regarding in what degree the school actors consider the LEA’s quality system as legitimate. The same variety between the schools was notably concerning how they perceived the idea and the purpose behind the new quality system but also how LEA’s system should be incorporated with their own local quality systems.- Factors that may explain these differences in the implementation process is firstly, a notably ‘knowledge-gap’, that existed between the schools. That is, principals and other key actors’ knowledge and competencies about local systematic quality work in terms of, for example, data collection, interpretation and using different methods of analysis, seem to be crucial for the implementation process. A second crucial factor seems to be how the principals organized his or her school improvement work, including delegation of responsibility and how different school actors’ knowledge and competencies were used in an appropriate way.
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| 6. |
- Delblanc, Åsa
(författare)
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Pedagogiska möjligheter i mångfaldens förskola
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- I denna sammanläggningsavhandling diskuteras tre olika delstudier som alla utgåttf rån förskolepraktik i förskolor som kännetecknas av en mångfald av språk och erfarenheter. Delstudie 1 fokuserar på barns kommunikation i en flerspråkig förskolemiljö och vad som kan hindra eller möjliggöra den. Delstudie 2 undersöker ett aktionsforskningsprojekt i form av en forskningscirkel med målet att i en förskola skapa en flerspråkig miljö i samarbete med föräldrar. Delstudie 3 undersöker ett aktionsforskningsprojekt i form av en forskningscirkel med målet att utveckla förskolans mottagande av nyanlända familjer. Avhandlingen utgår från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv i vilket människor ses som lärande varelser som skapar kunskap gemensamt med tillgängliga kulturella artefakter. Affordanceteorin (Gibson, 1986; Reed, 1993; Barab & Roth; 2006 och Clakin-Philips & Carr, 2012) har använts för att göra analyser av barns och lärares handlingar. Affordance tolkas genomgående som erbjudanden, och tre olika typer av erbjudanden undersöks, kommunikationserbjudanden, flerspråkiga erbjudanden samt nätverk av erbjudanden. Utifrån Barab och Roth (2006) och Clakin- Philips och Carr ( 2012) undersöks sedan hur erbjudanden ger olika typer av möjligheter, tillgängliga, inbjudande och personliga, här rubricerade som pedagogiska möjligheter.Resultatet visar att olika typer av möjligheter uppstår i olika sammanhang. I de sammanhang i vilka det inte finns en planerad eller strukturerad idé om hur ett erbjudande kan användas blir möjligheterna mindre inbjudande. Möjligheter blir personliga då barns, lärares och föräldrars erfarenheter används som en utgångspunkt i den pedagogiska praktiken. Om möjligheter blir personliga finns samtidigt en risk att det blir ett ökat fokus på skillnader och att tankar om att skapa trygghet ses som viktigare än att skapa förutsättningar för lärande.
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| 7. |
- Furåker, Bengt, 1943, et al.
(författare)
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Commitment to work and job satisfaction : studies of work orientations
- 2012
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Bok (refereegranskat)abstract
- People's work orientations and attitudes to paid work are highly important for the welfare of any country. Still, little is currently known about how such attitudes are distributed among different countries, men and women, classes, occupations, age groups and so on. Even less is known about how work orientations have changed during the dramatic social transformations of economies and labour markets during recent decades. What happened, for example, to work orientations in Iceland when the country went bankrupt? The answer is quite surprising. Or, is it true that work is losing its position in people's lives in Western world? What is the relationship between people's attitudes to work and the way they actually behave on the labour market?This timely book deals with these questions - and more - presenting fresh knowledge on changes in work orientations in many countries. It is based on genuine theoretical arguments and thorough empirical studies, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. It is a great source of new knowledge on work orientations and changes in attitudes to work.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Hansson, Mattias, et al.
(författare)
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Artifactual insulin release from differentiated embryonic stem cells.
- 2004
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Ingår i: Diabetes. - 0012-1797. ; 53:10, s. 2603-9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Several recent reports claim the generation of insulin-producing cells from embryonic stem cells via the differentiation of progenitors that express nestin. Here, we investigate further the properties of these insulin-containing cells. We find that although differentiated cells contain immunoreactive insulin, they do not contain proinsulin-derived C-peptide. Furthermore, we find variable insulin release from these cells upon glucose addition, but C-peptide release is never detected. In addition, many of the insulin-immunoreactive cells are undergoing apoptosis or necrosis. We further show that cells cultured in the presence of a phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor, which previously was reported to facilitate the differentiation of insulin(+) cells, are not C-peptide immunoreactive but take up fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled insulin from the culture medium. Together, these data suggest that nestin(+) progenitor cells give rise to a population of cells that contain insulin, not as a result of biosynthesis but from the uptake of exogenous insulin. We conclude that C-peptide biosynthesis and secretion should be demonstrated to claim insulin production from embryonic stem cell progeny.
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| 10. |
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