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- von Brömssen, Kerstin, 1952-, et al.
(författare)
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Newly arrived migrant children in the Swedish school-system : Challenges and Opportunities in a Nordic Welfare State
- 2022
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Background: Sweden has experienced waves of migration into the country since the end of the WWII. Pull-factors for migration were opportunities to get a job in the industries right after the war as Sweden was not much effected, but also due to the world’s conflicts, effects from the climate change and a desire to live a better life.In recent years, there has been a larger increase in the number of foreign-born. In 2020, just over 2 million people were born abroad, which is 19.7 percent of the population in Sweden. The most common country of birth for foreign-born is currently Syria, followed by Iraq. Finland was for many years the most common country of birth, but is today the third most common country, followed by Poland and Iran. The migration from the African Horn is also quite extensive, where Somalis are the largest group from Africa in Sweden (in 2018 there were more than 100 000 Somali people living in the country). Since the start of the new millennium, Sweden has experienced an intense debate over migration and several new laws have been passed in order to restrict migration. This is also the case in several other European countries. However, Sweden used to be described as one of the Nordic welfare states and have enjoyed an international reputation for combining generous welfare state entitlements with rapid economic growth, low unemployment and very high levels of labor force participation, particularly among women. This welfare model, characterized by generous, non-tested benefits, a strong element of redistribution in the systems and thus high taxes, was developed after the WWII, but had ideological roots in the labor movement back from the late 1800s. One example of the welfare model is that Sweden offers free education from age 6 to19 and also free school lunches. Over the last twenty years the welfare model has been challenged due to globalization and migration and an increase in international financial competition which also have affected education with reduced resources. However, a large body of research show that education plays a significant role in the health and wellbeing as well as for integration in the “new society”, and education is pointed out as one of the most important institutions for newly arrived migrant children. This paper builds on research investigating reception strategies and inclusion for newly arrived children in schools in two municipalities in Sweden, as well as the migrant students own reflections on these issues. The research was carried out over the years 2016-2018.Methods: The empirical for the study consisted of two parts. The first part built on interviews with educational leaders at primary schools and staff at reception units in the two municipalities, partly through questionnaires (N=39) with supplementary telephone interviews to the principals (N=24). The second part explored the newly arrived migrant students’ reception and conditions for learning and social inclusion out from their perspective. This part of the study is based on ethnographic work from eight school units with different conditions and way of organizing teaching for newly arrived migrant children.Results: The study showed that there are currently established guidelines and organization for the assessment and reception of newly arrived students in Sweden, however in practice various known and applied. Among the eight school units included in the study were schools with long experience of receiving newly arrived students, and teaching students with different cultural, linguistic and educational backgrounds, but also schools that can be described as ‘monocultural’, whose experience of receiving newly arrived students were very limited. The differences between schools in student composition reflects a school segregation that is linked to housing segregation and strengthened by the free choice of school introduced in the beginning of the 1990s’. The study describes how newly arrived students' everyday lives and conditions for learning and inclusion emerge in the diverse environments and how different structural and organizational conditions have consequences for students' learning and social inclusion.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Åsa, et al.
(författare)
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Work Integrated Learning from the Perspective of Internationalization
- 2012
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Ingår i: The European Conference on Educational Research 2012.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The focus of this presentation is on work integrated learning in higher education that takes place in a cultural context different to that which the student is accustomed to. In higher education internationalization is often stated as a central vision both in relation to education and research. This is commonly expressed in policy documents in statements such as working for an open and border crossing university and having a distinct international perspective in all forms of higher education. The research project “Work integrated learning from the perspective of internationalization” is designed to highlight some of the conditions that surround such visions by examining learning in international settings from students' experiences of practice-related activities abroad. This involves activities that are directly work-oriented or field work carried out within the framework of a university course and / or a bachelor thesis. In the project we are thereby examining students' situated learning and thus highlight the contextual practice community they can access in an international environment. This includes both specific and more general aspects of learning in which different aspects are highlighted. Specific training related to special education programs focus on the development of professional identity while generally learning affects students from all programs in which learning outcomes such as wider perspectives and critical thinking are included.Our research focus is of exploratory nature where the approach is to examine students’ experiences of practice-related learning from the perspective of internationalization. This is being researched from three relating aspects. • Emotional and identity transformational aspects of learning. What does it mean to be in a relatively unknown social environment and there be faced with work-related tasks? What kind of interpretations and understandings of the situations occur? • Communicative aspects of students' practice-oriented learning – the importance of language and cultural codes. • Comparative aspects of students’ learning – the importance of comparisons for perspective taking and development of knowledge.Previous researched has been done on students’ practice-related learning in the field of work integrated learning. The forms of practice-oriented learning are of various kinds. It may be learning through the use of practical training related to establishing a profession-specific knowledge and identity. Other forms are the use of direct working connections or cultural settings outside the university through project work in course moments and / or for a bachelor thesis. What is common to these various forms is an endeavor of higher education to make the arena and cultural settings outside the university to a direct part in students’ learning. Given that the internationalization of higher education has increased, it is important also to examine students’ learning in various international contexts. The relevance of this can be found in theories of learning particularly those focusing on the contextual meaning from the idea that learning originates from the experience of interaction with the environment. Social aspects such as the relational and dialogic qualities are central already in the work of Vygotsky (1962) but according to Cooper (2008), it is only recently that this has been researched from an international perspective.MethodThe study is based on qualitative interviews with post graduate students who have completed internship or field work abroad. We have conducted in depth interviews using a guide with thematic questions focusing on emotional, communicative and comparative aspects of work integrated learning abroad. When processing the raw information the interviews were digitally-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The sample includes 12 in depth interviews, three students from each four different departments (social work, teacher, health promoter, cultural studies and engineering) at a smaller Swedish university. Another category of material is the interviewed student’s written reports from their field work. A content-analysis is performed on all parts of the material according to the three mentioned aspects. The analysis is abductive, which means that it uses theoretical concepts in making sense of the material, but is also sensitive to the participants' own ways of conceptualizing their experiences and learning. Common as well as unique features in the students' stories will be presented and discussed and considered in regard to the students' personal, institutional and cultural contexts.Expected OutcomesPreliminary analysis suggest in line with previous studies that the interviewed students' experiences of practice-related learning in a different cultural context show linkage with the phenomenon of sojourning which means taking up temporary residence in another culture. The previous, more linear psychological explanatory model of "adapting" the self in a new country to study or work does not suffice to explain the students' various experiences and learning in their field of study/professional development or on a more general. Our primary analysis of the material rather indicate that these processes are best understood as a complex web of shifting links between mastery of communication, social interaction and personal development. It is the management of this web which gives the result of cross-cultural adaptation and renegotiation of the "identity". As previous studies in the field have shown, personal, educational and psychological factors are as important as organizational and social-cultural factors for influencing the learning outcome (Qing et al 2010). And when it comes to identity formation practice related learning abroad also shows deeply personal transformative possibilities (Ryanand & Viete 2009).ReferencesCooper, G. (2008) "Assessing International Learning Experiences: A Multi-Institutional Collaboration". In: Phi Kappa Phi Forum/ Vol. 88 Qing, G., Schweisfurthb, M. & Daya, C. (2010) "Learning and growing in a 'Foreign' Context: Intercultural Experiences of International Students" In: A Journal of Comparative & International Education. Vol.40, No. 1. Ryan, J. & Viete, R. (2009) “Respectful interactions: learning with international students in the English-speaking academy”. In: Teaching in Higher Education, Vol. 14, No. 3 Vygotsky, L. (1962) Thought and language. Cambridge: MA: M IT press
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| 5. |
- Henry, Alastair, 1963-, et al.
(författare)
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Generating Engagement : A Content Analysis of the Motivational Qualities in EFL Teachers’ Descriptions of Motivating Activities
- 2015
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Students’ declining motivation to learn English in school presents a major challenge for teachers (Ushioda, 2013) and motivation researchers need to help them “find ways of eliciting, enhancing, and sustaining students’ motivation” (Guilloteaux, 2013: 3). While recent publications (e.g. Dörnyei & Kubanyiova, 2014; Gregersen & Macintyre, 2014) offer theoretically-based, practically-oriented guidance on generating motivation, focus tends to be on the development of language-speaker/user self-concepts over longer timescales. In the research literature on materials design, itself an under-explored area (Gilmore, 2012), focus has been directed to the effectiveness of tasks as classroom input, rather than their motivational qualities. Faced with a daily need to deliver motivating activities, teachers are poorly supported by principled advice. With the aim of contributing to the development of effective practice, and recognizing that “the accumulated wisdom of best practices in the teaching profession considerably exceeds the significance of the findings of empirical investigations” (Dörnyei, 2009: 267), the purpose of the research presented here is to examine the language learning activities teachers themselves consider motivational.An electronic questionnaire was distributed to 325 teachers of English from a randomly-drawn sample of 65 secondary schools in Sweden. An open-ended question invited teachers to describe an activity carried out in the current/previous term which they experienced as generating student motivation. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis techniques were employed in the analysis of these descriptions. Drawing on activity-relevant motivational factors outlined by Dörnyei and Csizér (1998), Ushioda’s (2011) principles for motivating learners ‘to speak as themselves’, and Henry’s (2013) identification of the motivational potential of activities with ‘affinity space’ features (Gee, 2007), analyses were guided by five overarching motivational characteristics; Interest, Personal relevance, Autonomy, Invoking transportable identities and Affinity space features. Recurring themes, frequencies, and exemplar activities are presented and tentative proposals are made for practice development.SUMMARYIn delivering motivational activities, teachers are poorly supported by principled advice. The research objectives were to examine activities teachers consider motivational. Descriptions of activities provided by Swedish EFL teachers from a randomly-drawn sample (N=325) were analysed. Themes, frequencies, and exemplar activities are presented. Proposals for practice development are offered.
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| 6. |
- Henry, Alastair, 1963-, et al.
(författare)
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Motivational Strategies and the Reframing of English : Activity Design and Challenges for Teachers in Contexts of Extensive Extramural Encounters
- 2018
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Ingår i: TESOL quarterly (Print). - : Wiley. - 0039-8322 .- 1545-7249. ; :2, s. 247-273
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Motivational strategies are underresearched, and studies so far conducted have been in sociolinguistic contexts where English is not extensively encountered outside the classroom. Given also that little is known about strategies relating to the design and content of classroom activities, the purpose of this study is to identify and critically evaluate strategies focusing on activity design and content in classroom activities that, in a setting where students have extensive extramural English encounters, teachers have found to be effective in generating motivation. Using Dörnyei's (2001) taxonomy of motivational strategies as an analytical tool, 112 descriptions of motivational activities provided by a randomly drawn sample of secondary EFL teachers in Sweden (N = 252) were content-analyzed with a focus on design and content. Providing support for Dörnyei's proposals, the results reveal the prominence of activities that enable students to work with authentic materials (cultural artefacts produced for a purpose other than teaching) and in ways that can be experienced as authentic. Activities involving digital technologies which provide opportunities for creativity are also prominent. Use of authentic materials places high demands on teachers' pedagogical and linguistic skills. In contexts where students respond positively to such activities, teachers' language awareness skills become of significant importance.
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| 8. |
- Johansson, Eva M., 1956-
(författare)
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Det motsägelsefulla bedömningsuppdraget : En etnografisk studie om bedömning i förskolekontext
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study examines the assessment practices and discourses in Swedish preschool in times of changing principles for state control and steering. These practices and discourses are analyzed in relation to theories about state control, and about cultural and social reproduction in education. The study was conducted with an ethnographic approach in two preschools located in areas that differ in terms of socio-economic status and ethnic diversity. The results show that pre-school teachers express ambivalence towards assessment as an aspect of their work. An increased focus on children's learning and on mastery of specific assessment formats and discourses are on the one hand constructed as signs of being professional – and thus function to increase their professional status. On the other hand, by their association with school, the same features seem to conflict with the values and discourses that constitute preschool teachers' professional identity. In their talk about assessments, the preschool teachers tend to focus on how assessments should be expressed (form) rather than what they are targeting (content). Furthermore, the assessments tend to concern social and behavioral aspects rather than the children's learning. As much as promoting institutional development and children's learning, the assessment practice can thus be seen as a sort of assessment game. Finally, the results suggest that the norms and focus of assessments to some extent both indicate and reinforce the institutional culture of different preschools, thereby exposing children to different socializing messages. This is problematized in regard to the role of education to promote justice and equality.
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| 10. |
- Jonsson, Anna-Carin, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
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Teachers’ implicit theories of intelligence : influences from different disciplines and scientific theories
- 2012
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Ingår i: European Journal of Teacher Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0261-9768 .- 1469-5928. ; 35:4, s. 387-400
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A sample of 226 Swedish high school teachers from various knowledge domains completed self-report measures of intelligence regarding implicit theories and scientific theories of intelligence. A mixed ANOVA showed that teachers from language, social science and practical disciplines had a significant preference for an incremental theory of intelligence compared to an entity theory of intelligence whilst the teachers in mathematics did not. One of the conclusions was that entity theories of intelligence may be more pronounced among teachers in mathematics. Second there is a significant relation between naïve beliefs in intelligence as fixed and inborn, entity theories, and the scientific g-factor theory. Last, it was the oldest and most experienced and youngest and least experienced teachers who preferred an entity theory of intelligence the most
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