| 1. |
- Fredriksson, Maria, 1979-
(författare)
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Med blicken på möten : Martin Bubers pedagogiska idé i dialog med förskolans praktik
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to develop knowledge and empirical understanding relating to encounters between preschool children and their teachers. Supported by Martin Buber’s philosophy of dialogue and research, it describes the interpersonal encounters between preschool children and their teachers as being the most significant aspect of educational practice as well as foundational for learning. This doctoral thesis comprises two studies, both of which are video-documented observational studies conducted at a preschool that had 53 children and ten teachers.The first study, which is a summarised rewrite of a published licentiate thesis, examines dialogue as being a form of qualitative encounter between teacher and child. The focus of interest is the effect on a dialogue when more children join one already in progress. Results demonstrate that the dialogue can be interrupted; interrupted and then resumed with a new participant; interrupted and then resumed without a new participant; or simply continued without a new participant. It is the action on the part of the teacher in these situations that seems to have the greatest effect.The second study focuses on the preconditions of educational encounters. Of interest here are the following questions: what aspects of a teacher’s actions can be understood as forming the preconditions of educational encounters?; what aspects of teaching are significant when it comes to opportunities for educational encounters?; and how can relationship- and knowledge-building dimensions of educational encounters be considered intertwined?Results demonstrate that teachers’ actions that serve to create the preconditions of educational encounters are often everyday and spontaneous, where attentiveness, tolerance, affirmation and extending are significant. These actions often occur simultaneously and are affected by the actions of the children. Together, the results provide opportunity to put words to and highlight how small everyday actions on the part of the teacher can be considered fundamental for educational encounters that simultaneously build relationships and knowledge.
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| 2. |
- Grundén, Helena, 1968-
(författare)
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Mathematics teaching through the lens of planning : actors, structures, and power
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation explores mathematics teaching by focusing on planning. The planning is seen as a social phenomenon related to surrounding practices and power relations in and between practices. Hence, planning in this dissertation is explored beyond what teachers do when planning.The research questions that guided the studies developed during the research process and address meaning of planning, influence of practices surrounding mathematics teaching, and common ideas about mathematics teaching in society. To answer the research questions, three studies were conducted, individual interviews, focus group interviews, and a study of mathematics education in news media.In addition to the aim of contributing to a deeper understanding of mathematics teaching, this dissertation aims to contribute methodologically by answering research questions addressing consequences different views of meaning have for thinking about interviews and assessment of research quality, and the usefulness of theoretical concepts from Critical Discourse Analysis on interview material about planning for mathematics teaching. In the dissertation, Critical Discourse Analysis is used as a theoretical frame, and theoretical constructs, such as actors, structures, and power, are used to explore planning as embedded in the social practice of mathematics teaching.The findings show that planning is an ongoing emotional process that is considered to be different things, including choosing examples to use or producing manipulatives. Findings also reveal that planning varies between teachers and schools, but also varies for individual teachers depending on, for example, time of the year or students. Another result is that although teachers are responsible for planning, their considerations, decisions, and reflections are influenced by other actors both in terms of how planning is done and what is planned for. These influences are explicitly through actors with formal power and implicitly through, for example, common ideas about mathematics teaching that are prevalent in society.Findings that relate to the methodological questions emphasize the importance of considering theoretical standpoints when assessing the quality of research. The findings also show that concepts such as power, actors, and structures are helpful to see and discuss in what ways mathematics teaching is a socially embedded phenomenon.
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| 3. |
- Jonsson, Linda, 1963-
(författare)
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Mellan tradition och förnyelse : Utmaningar i religionsläraruppdraget
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The current assignment of religious studies teachers is grounded on a confession-free foundation, expressed through the values of Swedish society. However, the subject still carries traces of a confessional tradition. Up until recently, Christianity played a major role in both teaching and teacher assignments. This study focuses on the complexity that emerges when it comes to the assignment of religious studies teachers in Swedish schools. In order to shed light on two traditions of importance – a confessional Christian tradition and an objective religious tradition, an analytical contextualisation is constructed within the time span 1842–1994. Such a long-term perspective is seen as a necessary historical contextualisation for the empirical study, which contains an analysis of the contemporary religious studies teacher assignment, here called the uncertain period (1994-2011). The study is to be regarded as an analysis of a school subject related challenge from a general didactical approach. In order to study the religious studies teacher assignment, religion as a school subject will be a key component in this study. The use of the subject – in the sense of its status, role and function – is clarified, and has implications for the teacher assignment as such. The historical context has its starting point in a literature study of policy documents and texts, and shall be regarded as the study’s secondary literature. The empirical material of the study comes from a journal entitled Religion & Livsfrågor (Religion and Life Issues) from the time span of 1994–2011. The material is analysed and attention drawn to different voices on the religious studies teacher assignment. The challenges that the teacher assignment is facing are summarised in three concluding challenges: Between tradition and renewal, Limitless assignment in limited time, and Pupil-related questions or “when-it-pops-up”-pedagogy. An account is given of the contributions made by two educational philosophers, John Dewey and Wolfgang Klafki, in the latter part of the study. These contributions serve as basis for analyses of the challenges in the uncertain period of contemporary religious studies teacher assignment. Their writings on theory and practice, tradition and renewal, as well as teacher engagement, add a valuable perspective to the analyses in order to understand the challenges the teacher assignment faces. In conclusion, the analyses of the voices on the religious studies teacher assignment and its challenges are summarised and related to their historical context characterised both by a confessional and an objective tradition. The thesis provides a more detailed image on the complexity of the religious studies teacher assignment, through a contextualization of the contemporary assignment in curriculum historical perspective.
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| 4. |
- Tryggvason, Ásgeir, 1983-
(författare)
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Om det politiska i samhällskunskap : Agonism, populism och didaktik
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Democratic education can be seen as being constituted by a political dimension in two senses. In one sense, democratic education is political because it has a politically formulated goal to educate citizens. In another sense, the practice of democratic education is in itself political, in that it constitutes a space in which students encounter different visions of and opinions about what society should be like. In the intersection of these two meanings of “the political” we find the teacher. How can teachers navigate and approach “the political” in their classrooms? Which conceptions of conflicts, emotions and identities are useful when approaching the political as an educational problem?This thesis formulates an agonistic perspective on the political in social science education. In four articles, the thesis explores agonism and populism in relation to social science education. In focus are questions about the role that emotions, conflicts and identities should play in democratic education. Three of the four articles are theoretical investigations into the problems and potentialities of agonism and populism. The fourth article is empirically based on interviews with social science teachers and classroom observations. By synthesizing the results from these four articles, an agonistic perspective on the political in social science education is formulated. The agonistic perspective consists of four concepts: political emotions, hegemony, political presence and simplification. With these concepts, the agonistic perspective provides a theoretically informed starting point for teachers to reflect on and approach “the political” in social science education.
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| 5. |
- Irisdotter Aldenmyr, Sara
(författare)
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Mellan tradition, demokrati och marknad : - en analys av lärares identitetskonstruktion, i samtal kring etiska frågor i läraryrket
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis focuses on the construction of teacher identity in the field of tension between teacher tradition, democratization and a free economic market. The main purpose is to analyze what aspects of teacher identity are constructed as teachers talk about ethical questions in their practice. The theoretical framework is inspired by the critical discourse analysis of mainly Norman Fairclough. This theoretical perspective makes it possible to interpret what influences teachers’ construction of professional identity, as they talk about their practice from an ethical perspective. These influences are understood as different discourses.A total of eighteen conversations in three different groups of teachers have been studied. Three main themes were dominating the conversations; talk about the student, talk about the teacher’s fostering tasks, and talk about integrity, limits and private spheres. In the conversations, different approaches and discursive patterns can be identified. The teachers’ discursive practice includes a traditionally dominating, conventional discourse, which can lead to the reproducing of hierarchical power relations in school and in society. The discursive practice also includes elements from a marketisized discourse, in which values of efficiency and goal reaching are central. This discourse also tends to reproduce asymmetrical power relations.A third influence is identified as a dialogical, communicative discourse, which emphasizes equality, dialog, openness to other perspectives and plurality. The aspects of teacher identity that are constructed within a dialogical, communicative teachers’ discourse, can be seen as the result of a promising ambition among the teachers to develop their school practice in a democratic, pluralistic direction. This ambition can however be further developed, explicit, and theoretically well-founded by a discourse ethical approach. The work of mainly Seyla Benhabib is proposed and argued in this thesis, as a fruitful theoretical platform for ethically legitimate fostering and teaching.
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| 6. |
- Morén, Göran
(författare)
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Samhällsfrågor som didaktiskt begrepp i samhällskunskap på gymnasieskolan : En potential för undervisningen
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Undervisningen i samhällskunskap på gymnasieskolan ska enligt anvisningarna i ämnesplanen bedrivas ”med utgångspunkt i samhällsfrågor”. Vad innebär det? I denna licentiatuppsats diskuteras ämnet samhällskunskap och dess potential, analyserat utifrån samhällsfrågor som didaktiskt begrepp. Studien är en sammanläggning av tre artiklar som bygger på tre studier. I den första studien analyseras begreppet samhällsfrågor i styrdokument över tid. Den andra studien bygger på en enkät som 74 gymnasielärare i samhällskunskap besvarat. Den tredje studien är slutligen en intervjustudie med sju av de lärare som medverkat i enkätstudien. Studiens design medger en successiv förflyttning av fokus från struktur till aktör.När analysen riktas mot samhällsfrågor som didaktiskt begrepp framträder samhällskunskapsämnet som ett ämne som är öppet för det oväntade och som låter såväl aktuella händelser som elevers genuina frågor forma ämnet. I uppsatsen diskuteras argument för att undervisning som sker med utgångspunkt i samhällsfrågor kan motverka ett instrumentellt förhållningssätt till ämnet.Göran Morén är verksam som lärarutbildare vid Högskolan Dalarna. Han har tidigare erfarenhet som samhällskunskapslärare i gymnasieskola. Sedan 2013 har han ingått i forskarskolan Skolnära, ett samarbete mellan Karlstads universitet och Högskolan Dalarna.
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| 7. |
- Rosén, Maria, 1976-
(författare)
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Juridifiering som demokratiseringsprocess? : Fallet likabehandling i svensk skola
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The relationship between education and democracy has long attracted political interest. This thesis takes an interest in the political initiative to democratize education through legal means. This initiative is viewed as a wider national and global societal phenomenon. More precisely the thesis aims at developing knowledge on juridification as a process of democratization in education, by studying the Swedish case of equal treatment in school. Through the introduction of the Child and School Student Protection Act (SFS 2006:67) in 2006, discrimination and degrading treatment were prohibited and new legal accountability measures were introduced. Theoretically, juridification is treated as a multidimensional concept, encompassing different empirical processes of shifts towards law (Blichner & Molander, 2008; Brännström, 2009). Juridification as a process of democratization is approached as a multifaceted phenomenon involving potentially both desirable and undesirable consequences (Habermas, 1987; Teubner, 1987). This complexity also justifies the use of a plurality of perspectives and approaches in the thesis. Through and abductive research process (Peirce, 1931; Andersson & Balldin, 2022) the aim is explored through three sub-studies, using critical policy analysis (Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016), abduction (Schwartz-Shea & Yanow, 2012) and an educational philosophical approach (Smith, 2010). The results show how the Child and School Student Protection Act was made possible through an active political practice in which EU-directives on discrimination influenced Swedish education policy. The thesis illustrates a paradox (Brown, 2000) inherent in specifying legal discrimination grounds in the legislation. Furthermore, the thesis proposes a conceptual framework based on six dimensions of juridification, together with an overall understanding of juridification of and in education. This multidimensional concept contributes to an understanding of how different processes are interrelated, which illustrates the complexity and width of the phenomenon of juridification as democratization. Another important contribution is a theoretical illustration of how juridification can enable certain democratic values and processes in school practice at the expense of others, jeopardizing its intended goal.In the discussion I argue that the new legislation can be understood as part of a broader shift towards a juridified liberal democratic tradition and that the juridification of education should be perceived as a new shift in Swedish educational policy. Overall, the thesis contributes insights into the ways in which juridification may enable and hinder democratization, depending on how law is done. Consequently, it contributes to thinking both with and against – as well as beyond – juridification as a process of democratization in school and society.
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| 8. |
- Lebedeva, Nadezda
(författare)
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What keeps play alive? : A Dynamic Systems approach to playing interactions of young newcomer children in Sweden
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The study is a theoretically driven research project with the intention to apply the Dynamic Systems (DS) approach to play in relation to the time of transition of newcomer children to Swedish Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The aim of the study is first to contribute to knowledge about how play emerges and how to understand its dynamics, and second to explore the possibilities of the DS approach in connection to empirical investigations in the field of ECEC. The research questions include following: What are the theoretical and methodological implications of the DS approach to play among newcomer children? How do newcomer children experience playing interactions during their transition to Swedish ECEC? Which play patterns maintain the playing interactions in each new situation for newcomer children during their transition?An explicit tool for analyzing the newcomer children’s interviews is developed in order to get closer to children’s experiences and to decrease possible adults’/researcher’s/cultural influence on children. In addition, a specific soft GridWare (Lamey et al., 2004), developed on the principles and concepts of dynamic systems ideas, is used for exploding the changes and development of playing interactions among newcomer children.The DS approach to play among newcomer children demonstrates that playing activities of newcomer children is an embodied, flexible and self-organizing phenomenon, functioning in response to multiple contexts, which can include both individual, social and material elements. The DS approach also shows a possible way to research dynamics of such a complex phenomenon. Newcomer children communicated what was important for their playing interactions “from inside” of a play, while observations added few vital patterns to it. Thus, the dynamic system of playing interactions among newcomers got its’ shape from relational, embodiment, activities and locational categories (REAL) including multiple patterns within and between each of the category. Emotional category appeared to be a pattern, which both triggers the dynamics and change of play as well as remains the main outcome of it.
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