| 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. |
- Neiman, Daniel, et al.
(författare)
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Multiplexing DNA methylation markers to detect circulating cell-free DNA derived from human pancreatic β cells
- 2020
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Ingår i: JCI Insight. - : American Society for Clinical Investigation. - 2379-3708. ; 5:14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It has been proposed that unmethylated insulin promoter fragments in plasma derive exclusively from β cells, reflect their recent demise, and can be used to assess β cell damage in type 1 diabetes. Herein we describe an ultrasensitive assay for detection of a β cell–specific DNA methylation signature, by simultaneous assessment of 6 DNA methylation markers, that identifies β cell DNA in mixtures containing as little as 0.03% β cell DNA (less than 1 β cell genome equivalent). Based on this assay, plasma from nondiabetic individuals (N = 218, aged 4–78 years) contained on average only 1 β cell genome equivalent/mL. As expected, cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from β cells was significantly elevated in islet transplant recipients shortly after transplantation. We also detected β cell cfDNA in a patient with KATP congenital hyperinsulinism, in which substantial β cell turnover is thought to occur. Strikingly, in contrast to previous reports, we observed no elevation of β cell–derived cfDNA in autoantibody-positive subjects at risk for type 1 diabetes (N = 32), individuals with recent-onset type 1 diabetes (<4 months, N = 92), or those with long-standing disease (>4 months, N = 38). We discuss the utility of sensitive β cell cfDNA analysis and potential explanations for the lack of a β cell cfDNA signal in type 1 diabetes.
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| 3. |
- Nordin, Andreas, 1972-
(författare)
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Kunskapens politik : En studie av kunskapsdiskurser i svensk och europeisk utbildningspolicy
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In recent years knowledge has been brought forward as an important political issue both in the EU and in Sweden. It is said to be of the uttermost importance not just for education but for society as a whole. As a result of increased globalization and a European striving for economic growth, knowledge has come to be associated with both individual and national competitiveness, and education and learning in schools and workplaces have become a political priority. In this global competition the EU has become an important policy actor in the educational field trying to create a common European education policy field. Despite this development, only a limited number of reports relating the European arena to Swedish educational reforms have been published. Against this background the aim of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of the knowledge discourses which struggle for legitimacy in Swedish and European education policy and how these discourses relate to each other and change over time. The empirical material consists of a number of fundamental official policy texts produced by the EU and the Swedish state. The study takes its theoretical point of departure in critical discourse analysis using an analytical grid where production, content and communication are seen as three aspects constituting every knowledge discourse. The result shows a process of silent Europeanization in Swedish school reform where European knowledge discourse is being re-contextualised and in many cases re-interpreted without any declaration in terms of explicit references. It also confirms the general trend towards increased focus on learning outcomes and demands for measurability. Furthermore, the result shows how competition rhetoric dominating the EU contributes to an increased sense of crisis in both European and Swedish educational reforms. As a result of this crisis rhetoric the study shows how the proactive reform-perspective is being replaced by a retrospective where solving already existing problems replaces the planning of an uncertain future.
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| 4. |
- Åkesson, Erik, 1981-
(författare)
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Resultatansvar för likvärdighet : En läroplansteoretisk studie av systematiskt kvalitetsarbete och rektorers sensemaking
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to describe and critically analyze ideas about quality management with in different arenas of the Swedish education systemand how these relate to leadership and the enacted curriculum. The study conceptualizes systematic quality work as a governance tool and a national accountability program created with the aim of solving problems concerning lack of equity and lowered national test scores. Two tensions within the policy program are identified. The first is between external results-oriented forms of control and internal professional trust. The second is between national curriculum goals and local organizational goals.The empirical study consists of a cross-case study of the most different designs of four quality systems enacted by the heads of the school organizations and the principals. The main sources of data are interviews with principals and school leaders and documents and policy artifacts. The data are analyzed from a combined perspective of loosely coupled system, discursive institutionalism and sensemaking.The main conclusion of the study is that while systematic quality work represents an attempt by the state to create a more coherent and centralized accountability system, the results point to a decentralized and loosely coupled education system focused on local organizational goals. The contents of the enacted policy solutions show that the ideational content of quality work is highly malleable to localized uses and interpretations, which also raises questions about how equity is to be understood within the policy program.The enacted solutions show great variance concerning how tensions relating to internal and external dimensions of accountability were handled. The reasons for these differences where related to different leadership strategies, varying pressures from the school market and distinct organizational needs. While the enacted accountability systems in all four cases have created results-oriented frameworks for teaching, their impact on the enacted curriculum was clearly mediated in three of the four cases.
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| 5. |
- Ambrose, Anna, 1970-
(författare)
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Att navigera på en skolmarknad : en studie av valfrihetens geografi i tre skolor
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Avhandlingen beskriver och analyserar hur skolvalfriheten som policy, det vill säga uppfattad möjlighet och hot tar sig i uttryck i vardaglig praktik. Aspekter av diskurser, praktiker analyseras i avhandlingen utifrån olika aktörers handlingshorisonter. Avhandlingens kontext består av en urbant belägen lokal skolmarknad, inom vilken aktörers praktiker och strategier undersöks. Avhandlingen behandlas således hur ungdomar, familjer och skolprofessionella navigerar skolvalfriheten i en alltmer polariserad och storstadsregion. Teoretiskt ramas studien in av Pierre Bourdieu sociologi samt koncept från det kulturgeografiska fältet. Metodeoliskt bygger avhandlingen på empiri insamlat med etnografiska metoder under läsåret 2012-2013. I de fem empiriska kapitlen diskuteras hur föreställda geografier, skolhabitus, rykten och symboliska gränser förhandlas av studiens aktörer. I det avslutande kapitlet diskuteras och analyseras avhandlingens främsta bidrag. Kapitlet lyfter också några frågeställningar som måste adresseras för ett mer jämlikt utbildningssystem.
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| 6. |
- Blåvarg, Ebba Christina, 1967-
(författare)
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Psykologi på schemat : Formeringen av ett skolämne, 1960–2015
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The school subject psychology in Sweden has undergone several extensive transformations during the period 1960–2015. Since the launch of Läroplan för gymnasiet 1965, psychology is a part of the national curriculum for upper secondary level as a standalone school subject in Sweden. However, it has been formulated differently within different discursive practices. This thesis focuses on the formation of the school subject psychology by analyzing texts on the subject from mainly three different practices where the subject is constructed. The first is a bureaucratic space that includes public policy texts developed through cooperation and regulation by way of bureaucratic processes. The second is a practice-oriented space and it includes teaching materials such as textbooks produced by publishers and individual authors. The third practice is a professional space and includes the discourse on the school subject psychology among teachers in the subject teacher’s association, teacher magazines and debate articles. Through a discursive perspective, the source material from these practices have been analyzed both by focusing on each space separately, and in parallel. Overall, the discourse on the school subject psychology has changed dynamically during the focused period, in the different spaces, which is depicted in detail with examples and excerpts. In addition, four overarching discourse orders are presented. First, the overarching empirical and scientific stance that permeated the subject at the beginning of the national curriculum in the 1960s. Later, in the 1990s and 2000s, an inward shift in subject focus, from being useful for understanding the world with a critical view, to critically examining and evaluating various psychological theories. However, perhaps the most unexpected finding are two major orders of discourse that can be seen in between these in time. Firstly, an overall vivid activity in all the practices and the major change that the subject underwent in the 1970s, in conjunction with the subject revision in 1979. And secondly, the extensive and almost absolute silence that followed in relation to the subject psychology. This thesis contributes to the research field by mapping the formation of psychology as a school subject in Sweden through different discursive practices, as well as highlighting various orders of discourse in relation to psychology as a school subject.
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| 7. |
- Mickwitz, Larissa, 1969-
(författare)
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En reformerad lärare : Konstruktionen av en professionell och betygssättande lärare i skolpolitik och skolpraktik
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This doctoral thesis investigates the interrelatedness between school policy and practice. In the thesis, the construction of “the teacher” is analysed in school policy documents and teacher interviews. I am particularly interested in the relation between school policy and school practice in light of the two latest curriculum reforms 1994 and 2011 and the teacher accreditation registration reform of 2011. The analysis focuses on two topics: grading and the professional teacher. In fact, an analytic link is made between the emphasis on grading and the discursive construction of the teacher in Swedish education policy. The theoretical framework is positioned within institutional theory within which I combine curriculum theory and the sociological new institutionalism with discourse theory. The analyses of policy documents reveals three types of different discursive constructions of “the teacher”. In the period of deregulation and decentralization, a professional teacher is constructed and the need for an autonomous teacher for school quality is expressed. By the 1990s -2000s an unprofessional grading teacher is constructed. In the period signifying the teacher accreditation and registration reform, a quality assured teacher is constructed. It is a teacher who is formally authorized and in need of continuing evaluation. In the focus groups interviews teachers constructs two types of professionalism. One is in line with the professionalism articulated in the policy texts and is about control and formal regulation and the other is about autonomy. Furthermore, the teachers relate to grading and teachers' ability to act in accordance with their overall teaching assignment. Grading were often constructed opposed to teaching. Demands for documentation, quality reports or the requirement of teacher accreditation is described as institutional practices defined from above. These practices make it difficult for teachers to complete their teaching assignments. The study indicates that teachers' ability to operate in an increasingly regulatory schooling culture has, through the types of requirements for transparency in teachers’ work, resulted in the decline of autonomy in their professional practice.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Nordin, Andreas, Docent, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring Curriculum Change Using Discursive Institutionalism : A Conceptual Framework
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Curriculum Studies. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0022-0272 .- 1366-5839. ; 50:6, s. 820-835
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The article aims to explore to what extent and in what ways discourseinstitutionalism can contribute to the understanding and analysis ofcurriculum change in a globalized context. By focusing specifically oncurriculum change, this article proposes how discourse institutionalismcan contribute to the so-called ‘crisis of curriculum theory’ by addressing(i) the non-linearity of change, (ii) the process of the translation of ideasand (iii) actor agency. The text is structured in three sections. In the firstsection, we elaborate on the notion of curriculum change as a vitalconcept for the field of curriculum theory in a globalized context, focusingon processes of recontextualization and the translation of curriculumcontent. In the second, we elaborate on discourse institutionalism as acontributing approach to the analysis of such processes of curriculumchange, constructing a conceptual framework. In the third and finalsection, we give some examples of how the conceptual framework canbe used in analysing curriculum change, using the 2011 Swedish curriculumreform (Lgr 11) as an empirical reference, and the result showsthat the conceptual framework offers a wide repertoire of possibleapproaches to analysing curriculum change, both vertically andhorizontally.
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| 10. |
- Nordin, Andreas, Docent, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Transnational Competence Frameworks and National Curriculum-making : the case of Sweden
- 2021
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Ingår i: Comparative Education. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 0305-0068 .- 1360-0486. ; 57:1, s. 19-34
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Competence-Based-Approaces in Education (CBA) has become an important education policy idea internationally the last decades emphasizing a set of generic key competences as targeted outcomes of education and national curricula. However, a substantial body of research have suggested that in order to understand and explain its evolution there is a need to analyze curriculum-making as a complex and multi-layered practice taking place in a complex interplay between transnational, national as well as local arenas. In order to contribute to such a research this paper turn to discourse-institutionalism (DI) as outlined by Vivien Schmidt (2011, 2016) proposing a stratified understanding of ideas operating at different policy levels, ‘background ideas’ being very stable over time and ‘foreground ideas’ who can change more rapidly, capturing the translation of ideas travelling within and between different policy arenas and used by different actors. In this paper we will (1) compare ideas of competences as expressed in four influential frameworks for CBA, and secondly (2) we will exemplify how these ideas, with special reference to the OECD, have been translated when recontextualized within Swedish curriculum policy making using the most recent Swedish curriculum reform for the compulsory school as an empirical example. The result of the text analyses shows that when recontextualized within national borders transnational ideas of CBC are being translated in ways that enables for national politicians to adapt to transnational discourses while simultaneously maintaining public legitimacy. In the case of Sweden this political act of balancing different policy discourses has led to a national version of CBA, discussed in this paper as ‘hybrid competences’.
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