| 1. |
- Jonsson, Olof Gustaf, 1954-
(författare)
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Bilden och texten : En studie av ljusets och seendets pedagogik
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis deals with a reading tradition that can be traced to medieval times, a tradition in which images and text, intertwined, convey the message to the reader. The strength of the coupling between image and text has varied over time. Initially closely interconnected, the connections between image and text were later separated. If text and image represent two diverse ways of organizing human memory, one serial and the other structural, we could say that the first focuses on reproduction and the other on detection. The relation between them is essential for pedagogical action as well as for pedagogical reflection. The aim of this work is to illustrate how this variation in strength changed the pedagogy and prevailing understanding of how images and texts are read. During the emergence of the Swedish elementary school, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a form of education referred to as ‘visual experience-based teaching methods’ (åskådningsundervisning, Anschauungs-Unterricht) was introduced, a philosophy of education that revitalized traditions from the Middle Ages, with a strong coupling between image and text. The idea of using the image as a tool for education developed into the tradition of ‘school posters’ (skolplanscher), which were used in Swedish education up the implementation of the comprehensive school system in 1962. The development of visual argumentation expressed through the use of school posters is analyzed by tracing the development of the school posters in parallel with normative texts, such as curricula documents and protocols from the school inspectors and the Swedish parliament (Riksdag). The introduction of visual experience-based instruction in the Swedish elementary school in the curriculum (normalplan) of 1878 gave rise to a tension between the new method and the earlier tradition of how texts and even letters should be read. The new teaching method related to the senses, especially the visual faculty and the visual memory, and served as a tool to break up a strong literacy tradition. This had repercussions for the entire school system. The consequence of an altered basic content of the concept of reading also involved a transfer of the right of examination from the church to the community. With the implementation of the curriculum of 1919 the content of the visual experienced-based teaching methods was moved to a new subject called ‘local history’ (hembygdskunskap) which strongly reduced the linkage to the teaching of reading. The visual lines of this argumentation after the curriculum of 1919 are primarily structural in nature, expressed by using the perspectives in the image.
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| 2. |
- Lundqvist, Eva, 1972-
(författare)
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Undervisningssätt, lärande och socialisation : Analyser av lärares riktningsgivare och elevers meningsskapande i NO-undervisning
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to study teachers’ manner of teaching and its role for students’ meaning making. In order to shed light on this interplay, a methodological approach, based on pragmatism, a sociocultural perspective on learning and Wittgenstein’s later works, is developed and applied. As the methodological approach is designed to study meanings as constituted in action, the empirical material consists of conversations between teachers and students. The practice in focus is science education in Swedish compulsory school. The thesis includes four case studies. In the first study, the method EMA (Epistemological Move Analysis) is developed with the aim of describing teachers’ role for the students’ learning of scientific knowledge. In the second study, another method – CACM (Communication Analysis of Companion Meanings) is developed and illustrated. With CACM, epistemological norms and companion meanings are analysed in order to describe students’ socialisation into a specific practice. In the third study, CACM is used to analyse and describe two central epistemological norms and companion meanings in three teachers’ teaching. The fourth study seeks to describe in full one teacher’s manner of teaching in terms of educational philosophy and selective tradition. Using the developed approach, an analysis of one teacher’s teaching during the course of four lessons is conducted. The results show that, without prescribing teachers and students a specific view of science, it is both possible and fruitful to study how meanings are constituted in action in classroom practice. At the same time as the students learn scientific knowledge, they are also socialised into specific ways of approaching science. Teachers’ epistemological moves, in encounter with students’ meaning making, play an important role for students’ learning in science as well as about science.
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| 3. |
- Murstedt, Linda, 1977-
(författare)
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Lärande, värderingar och statsvetenskap : Studenters tolkningar av genus- och nationsbegreppet
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sociologists and feminist researchers have emphasized the prevalence of taken for granted notions about political concepts. Nation and gender are examples of concepts that are often perceived as non-political and “natural”. Researchers have understood these concepts as related to self-perception, and studies have demonstrated that students tend to perceive gender perspectives as pseudoscientific.From an educational perspective, this raises questions as to how values are involved in students’ learning processes. Over the last 20 years, an increasing number of researchers have characterized conceptual change as affective in nature. However, few empirical studies have put effort into investigating affective aspects of the conceptual change process. This thesis adds to this research discussion by offering an empirically rooted conceptualisation of the value-oriented dimension of the learning process. The thesis is based on three empirical studies that investigate how students interpret tasks challenging them to adopt a critical and structural perspective of ‘nation’ and ‘gender’. Drawing on qualitative analyses of tape-recorded group discussions and written home exams, the thesis argues that students bring in other ideas than those advocated in the specific teaching settings with regard to three topics. Firstly, students express values relating to power, meaning when and how it is legitimate to speak about power. Secondly, students express values that concern how science should be practised. Thirdly, students express values related to identity that revolve around how “I” relate (or not) to the concepts taught in the particular course setting. These results suggest that students enter the classroom with personal ideas and principles of what is “good” or “right” when practising political science, and that values can be seen as a key aspect in understanding the complexities of students’ learning processes in this particular subject area.
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| 4. |
- Svärd, Ola, 1946-
(författare)
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Examensarbetet – en kvalitetsindikator inom högre utbildning? : exemplet högskoleingenjörsutbildning
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis focuses on the concept of quality in higher education, more particularly quality of the degree project. The overarching issue is whether an assessment of the quality of a degree project can be used for evaluating the quality of the entire programme where it forms a part. The subject is partly initiated by the design of the quality evaluation system in Sweden introduced in 2011, in which a quality indicator function of the degree projects is vital.The notion of quality in degree projects is analyzed through three perspectives – as articulated in the research literature, as stated in the policy documents and curriculum documents regarding a Swedish engineering programme, and as experienced by the actors – examiners and supervisors – of this same programme. If the three perspectives testify with reasonably equal meaning to the concept of quality, an indicator function of degree projects can be considered appropriate.Different methods have been combined. The policy documents are investigated by a qualitative and quantitative textual analysis, while the perceptions of the examiners and supervisors are explored by in-depth interviews. Results are interpreted by using an arena concept proposed by Lindensjö & Lundgren, and an analysis system suggested by Bernstein.The results show that quality of a degree project is an ambiguous notion, and that different aspects of quality are reflected in the three perspectives. The conclusion is that assuming a quality indicator function of a degree project is problematic and not self-evident.In a formal sense, the degree project course is clearly separated from other modules of the programme, i.e. it is strongly classified. At the same time it is weakly framed and the actors feel near-total freedom in implementing it.Conceivable consequences of the evaluation system used in Sweden since 2011 are also discussed. Uniformity in the design of the degree project course can be expected, as well as undervaluation of the conditions for the programme and the teaching processes of it.
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| 5. |
- Engström, Lizbeth, 1958-
(författare)
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Kliniken flyttar hem : Sjuksköterskans institutionella praktik inom specialiserad palliativ hemsjukvård
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis focuses on the nurse and her practice in end-of-life care in the field of palliative home care. The overall question is how nurses come to do what they do within this practice and where they get the practice, which can also be expressed as the genesis and structure of the practice. The thesis’ social relevance takes its starting point in the Swedish Elderly Care Act (Ädelreformen) and theoretical inspiration from Foucault’s discourse analysis regarding the establishment of the clinic. The thesis has a practice-theoretical approach in which Bourdieu’s habitus concept, explaining how practice is generated, is central. The habitus concept can be described as a set of subjective dispositions in the individual that prompt her to act in a certain way. These dispositions are expressed in attitudes, strategies, and capacities and can be seen in relation to the practice structure. The thesis’ method is based on observations, conversations, and interviews with the nurses about their work, education, and social background. Conversations between the nurses and the spouse living with the sick person were recorded and transcribed. Encompassed by the study were six nurses, whose work was followed for seven months in 13 private homes. The actions performed by the nurses in their practice proved to be homogenous, a circumstance they were not aware of. There was agreement between the nurses’ underlying structure and how they handled their practice, i.e. the end-of-life care in the private home. The nurses had similar ideals and had developed similar habituses as they grew up and during their adult lives. The thesis is empiric in that the reader follows the nurse in her work in private homes. The nurse organizes this care in the home in consultation with the patient and the person living with them in an extraordinarily cautious manner. How the nurse handles difficult situations and conversations with spouses and often dying patients, is viewed in relation to the nurse’s habitus and dispositions. Key words: nurse, palliative home care, practice theory, habitus, observation, pedagogical practice, Bourdieu, Foucault
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| 6. |
- Granberg, Magnus, 1970-
(författare)
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Kognitivt stöd för lärande i arbetet : En teoretisk modell baserad på en fallstudie av ett svenskt militärt utlandsförband i Kosovo
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge on how formal education gives cognitive support to informal learning at work. The ambition is to combine different theoretical perspectives on learning. Formal learning, mostly within institutions for education, is usually seen from a cognitive or constructivist perspective, and informal learning from situational or socio-cultural perspectives. Combining these perspectives, this thesis is based on a case study of how a formal training program for Swedish military personnel, going on a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, gives cognitive support to their informal, experiential learning during the mission.The case study has an ethnographic research design where 17 military leaders at different levels are interviewed, observed and “shadowed” during three field periods during training in Sweden and during work in Kosovo. The empirical material and the different theoretical perspectives on learning are used to construct a perspective-integrating conceptual model of how the formal training, through different learning resources, helps the leaders to develop a subjective understanding of their coming work. This understanding is then used by the leaders to mentally frame the specific experiences and actions they encounter at work. This mental framing is also prevalent in their reflections in and on their work, and their informal learning at work can be shown to be heavily influenced by the understanding the leaders developed during formal training. However, most of this understanding cannot be related to formal learning resources, but to learning resources the military leaders themselves bring to the training in the way of their earlier experiences, their military professional orientation, and their internal discussions in free time.The main conclusions are that 1) contrary to prevailing dogma, different perspectives on learning can be brought together, and 2) if formal education is going to give cognitive support to learning at work, it needs to address the question of how the conceptual structure of the training content can be integrated with the often private concepts the workers themselves have of their work.
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| 7. |
- Lidar, Malena, 1973-
(författare)
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Erfarenhet och sociokulturella resurser : Analyser av elevers lärande i naturorienterande undervisning
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis contributes to the knowledge about the role of sociocultural resources in students’ learning in Science Education. In the analyses, both individual experiences and situation are taken into account. Different sociocultural resources – the teacher, artefacts and texts – that students encounter in educational settings are focused with the aim to study what role they play for which meaning making is made possible and relevant. To study these encounters, a pragmatist approach called practical epistemology analysis – i.e. an analysis of what students use as relevant information, valid questions and relevant attentiveness – is used and advanced. The empirical material consists of video recordings from Science Education classrooms in Swedish compulsory school. The first paper is an introduction to the line of work subsequently performed. In the second paper, a method for analysing the role of teaching for students’ meaning making – epistemological moves analysis – is developed and illustrated. This method focuses on those actions of the teacher that have a function of influencing what direction students’ learning takes. In the third paper, the practical epistemology approach is applied in order to clarify, within a sociocultural understanding of learning, the role of the interplay between students’ prior experiences and the use of artefacts in students’ meaning making. In the fourth paper, the practical epistemology approach is applied as a method for investigating the role of instructional texts in laboratory settings for students’ meaning making. The thesis shows how individual continuity can be understood and analysed within a sociocultural perspective on learning. The developed methods make it possible to study learning as constituted in action without ascribing teachers, artefacts or texts a pre-determined meaning prior to their use in a practice. The results show that the way sociocultural resources are made intelligible by the students shapes the conditions for further meaning making.
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| 8. |
- Trostek, Jonas von Reybekiel, 1977-
(författare)
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Normativa aspekter av individers begreppsbildning : Hur gymnasieelever och studenter skapar och förhåller sig till idéer om genus och nation
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The cognitive models that research on conceptual change has generated have been the subject of criticism, suggesting that these reflect an unrealistic view of learning as an overly “cold” and isolated process. Accordingly, representatives of this criticism suggest that research on conceptual change should investigate to what extent the cold cognition relates to “warm” affective constructs. In the present thesis, the warmth is not considered as prior to conceptual change, but is inferred from the very process of conceptual change itself. The aim is to investigate and describe how this warmth – in terms of normativity – is expressed in conceptual change and how individuals, in these processes, emerge as subjects in their interchange with the environment. This is done by exploring what students do when they make meaning of gender and nation in interviews and exam papers. The results show that the students mainly relate to two different norm-systems, including six normative aspects of conceptual change. The first system includes the goal to challenge or emancipate, the means to problematize, and engagement in the interviews or exams. Furthermore, it includes critical theory as an ideal, social structures and power as values, and me as a social being and actions as part of a tradition as what to make meaning of. The second system includes the goal to preserve, the means to claim how it “is”, and engagement in the interviews or exams. Furthermore, it includes psychological/biological reductionism as an ideal, essences and a natural order as values, and me as an individual and actions as an outcome of intentions as what to make meaning of. By understanding what the students do as interfering with these normative aspects, it becomes possible to understand them as negotiating norms that are brought to the fore. With this, “coldness” appears to be a misleading epithet of conceptual change.
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| 9. |
- Almqvist, Jonas, 1968-
(författare)
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Learning and Artefacts : On the Use of Information Technology in Educational Settings
- 2005
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to develop and apply an empirical approach that can be used in studies of the relationship between different expectations of, and actual use of, information technology in educational settings. The studies focus on meanings of artefacts shaped in people's talk about and/or use of technology. The aim is based on the twofold ambition to (1) develop an approach that opens the way for empirical investigations on the usage of technology and (2) to make a contribution to research about computers in education. I show how an approach based on a sociocultural perspective on learning, specified by inspiration from a sociotechnical perspective on artefacts, generates new questions about the usage of technology and its influence on learning and socialisation. Furthermore, I show how discourse analyses, inspired by the writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein, can be used in studies of educational processes. The thesis consists of five case studies. In the first study I examine the rhetoric on information technology during the years 1994-1998 (Paper I). In the three following cases I analyse video-recorded conversation between children using computers in science education (Papers II-IV). In the light of the results from the first four studies I return in the fifth to the rhetoric on technology. In that paper different expectations on the usage of technology in education and on the technology users, expressed in the curricula for the Swedish compulsory school during the years 1962-1998, are clarified and discussed (Paper V). The results of the thesis show that expectations are central parts of human action and that different expectations may result in different kinds of practices. The historical studies show that it is in no way obvious for what purposes artefacts are to be used in educational settings, or who is to decide on this issue.
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