| 1. |
- Adolfsson, Carl-Henrik, 1976-
(författare)
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Kunskapsfrågan : En läroplansteoretisk studie av den svenska gymnasieskolans reformer mellan 1960-talet och 2010-talet
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In a society where the labour market is becoming increasingly knowledge intensive and more differentiated, education has assumed greater importance for the capitalist states integrative functions as for the competitiveness in the global economy. As a consequence, the educational system has become a key governing resource for the state to meet and manage different kinds of social changes and problems. Against this background the thesis raises the main question - “what kind of societal problems are the educational reforms studied here considered to be the solution of?” The aim of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of the changes of the formation of knowledge in Swedish upper secondary curriculum between the 1960s and 2010s. In what way attained these changes in view of knowledge legitimacy in relation to the socioeconomic context? And what do these changes mean in terms of the attribution of the positioning of upper secondary school pupils and teachers? This thesis draws on a “classical” theoretical framework of curriculum theory (i.e. the frame-factor theory) this means that the analytical focus is directed at the relationship between the content of the curriculum and the social context. With theoretical and methodological inspiration from critical realism and critical discourse analysis (CDA) the thesis argue for an alternative way to theoretical and empirical examined this relationship. Three historical reform periods are used to explore the discursive changes in the formation of knowledge in the Swedish upper secondary education reforms. The results show how changes in socioeconomic conditions, such as economic crisis, over time have acted as important triggers for governing mechanisms embedded in the control of the educational system. These changes and mechanisms, in turn, have resulted in some major discursive knowledge shifts between the reforms studied, from the 1960s combination of an economic-rational and an objective-subject knowledge discourse, through the deregulated goal-rational and socio-cultural oriented knowledge discourse of the 1990s towards the 2010s knowledge discourses that are characterized by an increased focus on learning outcomes and measurability. Against the background of these discursive shifts, the analysis also points to some underlying continuities in terms of a general “reform imperative”, based on a number of overarching values such as efficiency and rationality. The result show how this imperative was embedded in all three educational reforms and has ruled the order of discourses about what was deemed to be legitimate curriculum knowledge, a professional teacher and a desirable pupil.
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| 2. |
- Westerlund, Runa, 1976-
(författare)
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Idrottslärare i blivande : meningsskapande, kontinuitet och förändring i övergångar mellan utbildning och yrkespraktik
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Research and quality reports show a relatively unified picture of the school subject physical education (PE) as an educational context in which pupils are at risk of being marginalized or excluded. PE teacher education (TE) has a mission to equip all PE preservice teachers with knowledge and abilities that enable them to teach all pupils based on their individual needs and conditions. In this compilation thesis, I analyze the meaning-making process of becoming a PE teacher. I aim to study meaning-making as intertwined processes of learning and socialization in becoming a PE teacher while transitioning between a university-based and school-based context. The research questions addressed in the thesis include how encounters with PETE and work can be described and understood as well as what meaning-making is enabled and constrained in these encounters. The study employs a transactional understanding of meaning-making and a theoretical framework based on the work of John Dewey and on Occupational Socialization Theory (OST).The thesis comprises four articles, each emphasizing the individual and social dimensions of meaning-making processes analyzed in relation to cultural dimensions. In Article 1, I explore the challenges novice PE teachers face in Sweden and how they manage these challenges. In Article 2, I examine how PE teachers cope with challenges such as reality shock, marginalization, and isolation as novices and as more experienced teachers. Articles 1 and 2 present interview studies, revealing that the socialization process of PE teachers entering the profession relies more on the individual and on informal collegial support than on formal organizational support. In Article 3, I utilized lesson observations to explore how preservice PE teachers produce and reproduce knowledge when participating in PE TE. Finally, in Article 4, I use a series of interviews conducted over a year to investigate how preservice PE teachers make meaning of their participation in a subject didactics course and the practicum. The results in Articles 3 and 4 indicate that preservice PE teachers struggle to navigate dual purposes in the subject didactics course, namely developing movement capability and didactic capability simultaneously. However, through interactions with teacher educators and supervisors, the purpose of didactic theory becomes more accessible to preservice teachers based on their previous experience.Overall, the thesis illustrates that continuity and change are two sides of the coin in meaning-making processes. It demonstrates that preservice PE teachers are teacher oriented but require support in contextualizing their experiences. Furthermore, emotional experiences must be conceptualized to prevent teacher knowledge becoming tacit. The results of the thesis underscore that the development of an inclusive teacher perspective is achievable for PE preservice teachers and PE teachers, but they need additional support to cultivate a norm-critical teaching perspective for ensuring an education for all children and youth.
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| 3. |
- Åström, Peter, 1963-
(författare)
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Included yet Excluded? : Conditions for Inclusive Teaching in Physical Education and Health
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation has examined the conditions for teachers who teach Physical Education and Health (PEH) in elementary school (age 11-12) and their opportunities to pursue inclusive teaching with the aim of reaching all pupils. The compilation thesis consists of four different articles and provides knowledge from the perspectives of pupils and teachers, but it also includes teaching and learning processes that were studied in situ. The first article contributes to knowledge on how different related variables affect learning motivation and how cultural aspects influence and affect shaping patterns of attitudes, beliefs, and values shared by pupils. Based on and selected from the sample of the first study, the second article examines low-motivated pupils’ perceptions about learning in the subject and their representations of teaching, learning and participating in PEH. The third article takes the teacher’s perspective into account and examines teachers’ discursive representations of low motivated pupils and related beliefs regarding inclusive teaching and strategies for reaching all pupils. The last article presents a case study examining teaching and learning in PEH in situ and demonstrating how a teacher’s assumptions about the purpose of PEH and consequent interactions with a student assumed to be “low motivated” had effects that were detrimental to the student’s confidence and capacity to engage and learn in PEH. The general major findings and the suggested implications of the results have been discussed and organized from the two major dichotomies involved in the two fundamental inclusive perspectives: a categorical perspective (problems are sited within individuals) and a relational perspective (perceived problems occur in the interaction between an individual and the surrounding environment). Applying a categorical perspective, pupils categorized as “low motivated” toward learning in PEH experienced little opportunity to influence either content or form and also had difficulties in verbalizing the aim and purpose of the subject. Despite long-term health-related goals, they had difficulties understanding and connecting to PEH. The pupils also had difficulties connecting with their teachers, who were described as being insensitive, uncaring, or inflexible and forcing “unrealistic” goals on them when they did not feel competent at mastering the content relative to their peers. The studies confirm that learning motivation is strongly related to perceived competence, and low learning motivation is related to feelings of anxiety, especially for girls. Teachers, on the other hand, attributed motivation problems to the individual (the pupil) or the context (social background, parents, etc.) rather than the situation, their own teaching in class. Teachers had various strategies for teaching inclusively. Cooperative and collaborative methods, such as using skilled pupils or pupils with the “right” attitude as role models for behavioral transfer or “strategic grouping,” were mentioned as inclusive teaching strategies. Adapting the rules of games or traditional sports so that everyone started on the same level was another strategy. By presenting a multi-activity approach to teaching with many different sports, pupils were assumed to be able to find “their” particular sports. Results also showed that the stereotyping of “low motivated” pupils often is related to the teacher’s own perception of what is experienced as essential learning in the subject. Applying a relational perspective, focus is on the system beyond the individual. Based on the results of these studies, the subject seems to be influenced and guided by two logics or discourses: fostering to sports and related values, and health and fitness. Both logics also highlight the importance of content and form in teaching. The sport discourse seems to create a situation where normative performance-oriented components have negative consequences for certain pupils. A general use of a multi-activity approach for structuring the content with short-term units, using primarily team sports and ball games, can be argued counterproductive for pupils, especially for those pupils who start at lower skill levels. This approach with fragmentary or blurred learning objectives may then contribute to disservice in a long-term perspective. This, combined with the effect of high activity and unilateral focus on exercise risks blurring of other possible learning dimensions in the subject, and may also contribute to the alienation of pupils who lack skill, ability, or interest in the subject. With inclusive intentions abilities in the subject may need to be reconceived and alternative abilities recognized to challenge the established order and normalized ways of thinking in terms of content and form. Teaching efforts that give primary consideration to the individual needs of “marginalized” pupils may be necessary if inclusive intentions are to be met. It is therefore suggested that teachers need to look beyond the traditionally trodden paths and challenge the currently dominating discourses that influence PEH. Reinforcing other learning dimensions and reconceiving abilities to go beyond the emphasis on skill and performance may strengthen pupils in other areas they possess. Differentiated teaching must not lose sight of needs that are common to a group or a class as a whole, but rather, it must also consider the needs of each individual.
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| 4. |
- Berggren, Jan, 1965-
(författare)
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Engelskundervisning i gymnasieskolan för mobilisering av ungdomars livschanser
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Berggren, Jan (2013). Engelskundervisning i gymnasieskolan för mobilisering av ungdomars livschanser. (English teaching in upper secondary school and mobilization of young people's life chances). Linnaeus University Dissertations No 156/2013, ISBN: 978-91-87427-64-0. Written in Swedish with a summary in English.English is a school subject which every Swedish upper secondary student is required to take. The selection and dissemination of knowledge among students attending upper secondary programmes carries the intention of social integration as well as specialization. The aim of this dissertation is then to show how perspectives on education in English elicited from teachers’ and students’ responses in interviews as well as Swedish education policy (SOU, directives, propositions) contribute to the conditions for the selection of knowledge and teaching, on and between programmes.Inspired by Basil Bernstein’s theories of educational sociology (1990, 2000) and Fairclough och Chouliaraki’s critical discourse analysis, CDA (1999), albeit adjusted to the aim of this study in pedagogics, the focus is on teachers’ and students’ views on teaching and knowledge in English classes on four vocational and academic programmes, establishing varying discourse practices on the different programmes. Moreover, perspectives on upper secondary teaching in Swedish education policy texts are analysed following the same methodology.Results indicate that education policy texts at the time of the interviews strive for adjustment of course content in English teaching to the programme (termed ‘infärgning’ in Swedish). Reflecting this trend in education policy, teachers and students on programmes speak of aspirations for English teaching as being either adapted for mainly academic purposes, or vocational and everyday-life purposes. On the basis of these aspirations it is argued that teachers and students establish either academically oriented discourse or vocational and everyday-life oriented discourse as the dominant pedagogical discourse on the individual programme. Thus, education policy as well as teachers and students reflect each other in striving for knowledge to be adapted for the programme. The two discourses contribute to a movement in favour of differences between programmes, though some of the vocational students complain on not being offered possibilities to analyse and discuss current problems in society. This is to say they complain that they do not receive an education in line with the academically oriented discourse, which is offered to students on academic programmes. At the same time, vocational students are dissatisfied in not gaining adequate knowledge in vocational English.Finally, these perspectives indicate discursive conditions for the selection of knowledge and the organization of teaching in English classes on different programmes. In the last chapter of the dissertation these varying perspectives on programmes concerning the selection of knowledge are analysed but now with a focus on the relationship between programmes. Consequences of the varying dominant pedagogical discourses on the programmes are discussed with regard to how they can be understood to mobilize life chances of young people differently, creating conditions for social integration and differentiation. Keywords: Selection of knowledge, upper secondary education, English, education policy, critical discourse analysis, sociology of education, social integration, social differentiation
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| 5. |
- Lund, Stefan, 1966-
(författare)
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Marknad och medborgare : - elevers valhandlingar i gymnasieutbildningens integrations- och differentieringsprocesser
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Educational restructuring is an international phenomenon which emphasises a voucher system, upper secondary schools’ local decision-making and pupils’ choices in contrast to previous bureaucratic governing. For this reason upper secondary programmes and courses on offer, together with the pupils’ individual choices, have a direct impact on what could be called the upper-secondary education market. In terms of teaching subject matter, upper secondary education is, at the same time, broadened by means of introducing three-year programmes for all pupils as well as core subjects. The aim of this doctoral thesis is to develop a deeper understanding of how pupils’ actions of choice create different sorts of integration and differentiation processes within the restructured upper secondary education. In the light of Jürgen Habermas’ theory of communicative action combined with Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, pupils’ actions of choice have been studied within four pedagogical practices: (i) choice of upper secon-dary school, (ii) choice of upper secondary programme, (iii) pupils’ initial time at an upper secondary school and how they cope with the specific culture within a programme as well as choice of courses and subjects, and (iv) pupils’ own sto-ries and points of view on how a core subject, namely Swedish, was taught. Some of the results demonstrate that pupils’ actions of choice can be voca-tion-oriented, career-oriented and consumption-oriented. It is argued that these different types of actions of choice are constituted within a market discourse. The market discourse demands that pupils are able to make suitable choices to achieve an individualistic qualification. From that point of view upper secondary education’s integration and differentiation processes aim at developing citizens' personal opportunities in order for them to benefit to their best ability from what society has to offer. Other results demonstrate that pupils’ group-oriented, inter-est-oriented and tradition-oriented actions of choice are built upon another type of discourse, which is about educating pupils towards active citizenship. It has an inter-subjective point of departure. Pupils are driven into the integration and dif-ferentiation process where they discuss and take a stand in favour of those educa-tional options, which are conceived as the most relevant in relation to a “self-determining ethical-cultural community”. The analysis of these two paramount discourses indicates that pupils' integration and differentiation processes are am-biguous.
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| 6. |
- Sundelin, Åsa, 1965-
(författare)
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Att skapa framtid : En analys av interaktionen i studie- och yrkesvägledande samtal med unga i migration
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is an empirical study that aims to contribute to knowledge about the opportunities the career counselling conversation offers young migrants in shaping their future. Conversations play a central role in career counselling activities in Swedish schools; furthermore, the question of how the Swedish society promotes the inclusion of its immigrants has become an increasingly urgent issue. The study draws on a dialogical framework on interaction and meaning making and seeks to gain insight into how meaning about the future is formed in career counselling conversations. The following questions were formulated:How is the interaction between migrant students and their counsellors formed in counselling conversations?How can the interaction be understood in relation to the participants and their contexts?What seems to enable or constrain students’ meaning making about the future in these conversations?The study was conducted in an introductory course for newly arrived immigrants at the upper secondary level. Researcher followed a series of two career counselling conversations between five students and five counsellors, respectively. The empirical material comprises three parts: audio-recordings of conversations, observations of these conversations and audio-recorded interviews with counsellors and students. The students, three men and two women, have a non-European background and had been in Sweden between one and three years. All except one can be considered a refugee. The material was transcribed, and the conversations were analysed with the concepts of communicative projects and strategies. The conversations are the primary empirical material.The results show that the counsellors’ and the students’ communicative projects primarily are complementary. Both the counsellor and the conversations appear as crucial for students learning about Swedish opportunity structures and meaning making about the future. The analysis also elucidated interactional patterns and interplay that seem to constrain the students’ possibilities to shape a future with their own conditions within the conversations. The conversations focused on Swedish career opportunities and lacked a transnational perspective. Furthermore, the students’ migrant background was not made relevant in the conversations; hence, the conversations risk contributing to students’ stigmatisation. The counsellors’ methods also seem at risk of individualising issues related to institutional preconditions and structural constraints. However, the analysis also displayed how the counsellor can counteract these constraining effects.The result implicates, in alignment with other studies, that the responsibility for the students’ career processes cannot be put on counselling conversations alone; more comprehensive and integrated activities for career learning in the schools are necessary to provide immigrant students with reasonable possibilities for shaping a future. Moreover, the conclusion is drawn that counsellor’s conversation skills are important for the students meaning making about the future but that counsellors also must have, among other things, the ability to comprehend migrants’ feelings and existential issues regarding the future and, not least, knowledge about the conditions of migrants and the ability to both comprehend and actively recognize injustices and different expressions of power. There are seldom others advocating for the rights of migrants.
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