| 1. |
- Eilard, Angerd, 1962-
(författare)
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Modern, svensk och jämställd : om barn familj och omvärld i grundskolans läseböcker 1962-2007
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the thesis has been to explore representations of gender, ethnicity and generation in school readers used in the Swedish compulsory school since 1962, to find which ’discourses’, linked to equal opportunities, integration/diversity and childhood, underlie these constructions, and in which ways they may have contributed to the (re)production of different gendered, ethnified and generation-specific subjects. The thesis was written within the frame of a Swedish national research project that explored late modern processes of changing sex- and gender orders in schools and education, particularly in multiethnic environments, which is why, the study is not limited exclusively to sex/gender. These aspects were instead considered in an intersectional perspective, in their interplay with dimensions such as ethnicity and generation. The adopted perspective combines a historical and a discourse analytical approach. This means that the reader texts have been viewed as social constructions in the historical context of their periods, shaped by norms, ideals and values prevailing at the time. One of the ambitions of the thesis has been to bring these texts to life, using a broad and varied theoretical frame, and also to let the texts speak for themselves as far as possible. The theoretical framework was therefore developed in the course of the analysis, in interaction with the analysed texts. The analysis incorporates structural and post-structural theoretical influences and concepts, including feminist and postcolonial notions. The basis is formed by critical multi-modal applied discourse analysis. By using discourse analysis, theory and method are considered as the same. The approach does not aim to produce a homogenous or general picture, but rather strives to highlight the heterogeneity of the texts and to make discursive changes visible. The mutual relationships and correspondence between the texts and their historical contexts has made this possible. More than 60 readers were examined. The process of reading involved two stages: an initial reading, searching for structures, followed by a deconstructive reading. The results are presented in five chapters, contextually linked to the corresponding national curriculum periods. The long period of time examined has meant that several shifts in discourses within the discourse orders in question could be described and elucidated. The thesis also clearly shows that the reader texts have become more heterogeneous and ambiguous over time, and how their subject constructions are characterized by a succession of older as well as more recent discursive fragments. Yet the most noticeable finding of the analysis is that the ’colonial white Western’ discourse remains comparatively unchanged throughout the period. It can be seen as the most stable and unchanging discourse order exhibited in the material, although a certain shift can be perceived in the most recent readers. The earliest readers set out in upper middle-class environments. As the policy of recognition and identities develops, the perspective turns towards solidarity, equal opportunities, and working-class views, in the 1970s and 1980s. By the turn of the millenium, the readers again depict what could be considered as a new middle-class perspective, developed through the emergence of discourses, and characterized by reversed generation hierarchies. The second very prominent discourse observed in the material is a ’hetero-normative discourse of difference’, that paradoxically has evolved within the discourse order of equal opportunities. On the one hand, contemporary readers appear to advocate equal opportunities. Girls and women are frequently positioned as strong individualists, compared to apparently softer boys and men. Nevertheless, a tendency of positioning the otherwise independent girl as a partner to the actual protagonist, the reader boy, can be noticed in the millennium readers. This is basically a question of a traditional hierarchy, where women are subordinated to men. The striking point is that the old nuclear family ideal has progressively been replaced by another ideal of heterosexual twosomeness. Subordination is therefore today a question of a more or less sexist Western discourse, highly influenced by a massmedial discourse. Possibly it could be argued that the displacement is partly also a matter of a reversed generation perspective. The earlier white middle-aged bourgeois patriarchal perspective is thus replaced by a white Western new middle-class teenage ideal, tracing its roots back to an originally masculine youth culture. In the couple relationship – by contrast to the family – contemporary, more individualized ideals are expressed.
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| 2. |
- Vuorinen, Tuula, 1965-
(författare)
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Mötet mellan föräldraansvar och förskollärarkompetens - föräldrasamverkan i förskolan
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to explore the experience of parental collaboration in preschool, by addressing preschool teachers’ competence and parental responsibility as described by preschool teachers and parents. The results are based on in-depth interviews with 30 preschool teachers and 10 parents. Data were gathered and analysed by means of conventional content analysis and constructivist grounded theory (CGT). The empirical material is presented in four articles. The first article focuses on preschool teachers’ approaches when professionally supporting parents, in relation to various views of children, parents and childrearing. The second article describes and analyses preschool teachers’ views on teachers’ professional competence, in the context of home and preschool collaboration. The third article explores parents’ perspectives on, and experiences of, home and preschool collaboration. The fourth article focuses on how parents perceive the process of building good relationships with preschool practitioners. Finally, all four articles are analysed as a whole to provide a synthesis of the findings and the knowledge acquired about home and preschool collaboration in a Swedish context.The findings demonstrate that both preschool teachers and parents value parental collaboration in the preschool. They also emphasize the importance of developing and strengthening the relationship between home and preschool. However, preschool teachers and parents approach collaboration from different starting points and perspectives. Preschool teachers endeavour to support parents in their parental role and consciously work to familiarize parents with their professional skills as regards children's learning and the content of the preschool curriculum. Parents, on the other hand, strive to shoulder their parental responsibilities by `remote parenting´, when persuading preschool practitioners to both `indivisualize´ and `individualize´ preschool practice. Time, continuity, and recognition are seen as central to building secure and authentic relationships. The results demonstrate the importance of preschool teachers critically examining the content expressed in the meeting between them and parents, as well as endeavouring to create preconditions for practical relationship building and collaboration in the preschool. Weak or non-existent relationships not only contribute to weakening parental participation and parental familiarity with the preschool, but also make it more difficult for guardians to exercise their legal parental responsibilities and support their child.
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| 3. |
- Göhl-Muigai, Ann-Kristin
(författare)
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Talet om ansvar i förskolans styrdokument 1945-1998 : en textanalys
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- With the overall aim of "analysing and comparing the language that was used during the period 1945-1998 in pre-school documents with regard to the duty of promoting the development of children into responsible persons and citizens", the thesis studies seven authoritative government texts for pre-schools. The goal documents form an intertextual chain whose first link was published under the auspices of the National Swedish Bord of Health and Welfare, when the number of institutions for the care and education of the youngest children was still very limited. The goal document which make up the latest link in the chain serves as an indication of the altered status of pre-schools caused by their becoming a part of the educational system. - Starting out from curriculum theory the thesis makes a text analysis where the methodology has been inspired by Quentin Skinner's histiorical-pragmatic and intertextual approach and by John Austin's speech act theory. The source texts are contextualised by means of parliamentary reports, government bills, and other contemporary texts. - Since 'ansvar' ('responsibility') is a contingent concept, the context has a decisive importance for the meaning. The analyses of the pre-school goal documents reveal certain differences from the usual lexical definitions of 'ansvar' ('responsibility'), which are 'punishment', 'answer' and duty, and which are used in law, moral philosophy and political science. The authority and adulthood implied by the standard meanings, and the weight, seriousness and negative axiological sense associated with these, are changed when in a "new" context, the pre-school context, the issue is children's development of responsibility. - When the goal documents refer to the youngest members of society as having the ability to take and show responsibility, this indicates not only that the sense, reference and speech act potential of the word have changed, but also that the underlying perception of children has changed. - "New", positively axiological senses of 'ansvar' ('responsibility') appering in several of the pre-school goal documents are that the children are expected to "respond to" other people and "show consideration" and a "democratic responsibility" - an interpretation which has been caused by the advocacy that children should participate and share the responsibility and also have a real influence on the everyday life of pre-schools.
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| 4. |
- Hammarström-Lewenhagen, Birgitta, 1951-
(författare)
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Den unika möjligheten - en studie av den svenska förskolemodellen 1968-1998
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Swedish preschool-model interlaces care, nurturing and learning and is organised to solve twin functions; providing children a playbased learning-environment and enabling parents to combine parenthood with work.The model was developed within the social sector then incorporated into the educational system 1998. This shift and the model´s “unique characteristics” praised by OECD formed the point of departure for this study.The aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse the discussions and negotiations shaping the Swedish preschool-model during 1968-1998. The research questions address: discursive themes; actors involved; governmental intentions; claims about the preschool´s task, pedagogical content and the preschool´s institutional identity and relationship to the institutions: social service, school and family. The study utilized abductive textual analysis inspired by discourse analysis and narrative approaches. Main text sources are: official reports, bills, steering documents, the preschool teachers´ periodical 1968 -1998 and a media debate.The results illuminate preschool-teachers´ struggle for a pedagogical identity and the construction of the educareconcept as a flexible and pragmatic solution to several societal interests and values.Governmental intentions concerning equality, emancipation and democratization have had great influence on the process in combination with a recurring theme about a revised preschool pedagogy with a strengthened focus on children´s learning. Political efforts to foster a preschool for all in a future are identified and described as one of the main discursive themes. Different standpoints about earlier school start are analyzed. The overall result is that the framework and core features of the model laid down by the National Commission on Child care still has a great impact on the launched syllabus (Lpfö) in the end of the period as on the curriculum in a broader sense.
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| 5. |
- Gleichmann, Lee, 1956-
(författare)
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Föräldraskap mellan styrning och samhällsomvandling : En studie av syn på föräldrar och relation mellan familj och samhälle under perioden 1957-1997
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present study sought to illustrate how the way parents were viewed was expressed, and how it developed between 1957 and 1997, as seen from child-health-care recordcard material, a professional journal and public reports on instruction for parents. The study also describes and analyses the relationship between family and society during the same period. The starting point is the state´s intention to strengthen the social standing of children and support their parents in their task of upbringing. The material reveals a line of development in which during the first twenty years, parents were viewed with a certain distrust. The family was portrayed as a partly dangerous isolate while parents were described in long paragraphs as less than fully knowledgeable and aware, and in need of expert guidance. Hence attempts were made to usher the parents and their child onto the lighted stage of public concern. A generally directed parental training scheme run by the community was considered necessary and was, moreover, expected to be able to fashion the parents into more social-politically committed citizens. The goal was ultimately to promote democracy and equality. Hope lay in the inherent development potential parents are nevertheless considered to possess, and in the collective upbringing provided by public child care in pedagogically stimulating surroundings. From the end of the 1970s till the last year of the 1990s the perspective shifted toward greater reliance on parental competence. At the same time national control changed towards more decentralisation, which also affected the relation between family and society. Towards the end of the period under study parents were being viewed as adult and competent. Respect for parental autonomy and freedom of choice were now at the focal point of the state view. Parents had become customers in a market much reflecting the urge towards globalisation then making itself felt. The responsibility for support to parents shifted out to the local community which, through local mobilisation, was expected to be available with support and resources when parents themselves so wished. Instead of being governed by the state, parents, through selfgovernance, were to be responsible for choise of life-style, pre-school and school alike. Their task was, in harmony with the local community surrounding them and with the UN children´s convention, to act in their child´s best interests.
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| 6. |
- Hedlin, Maria
(författare)
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Konstruktionen av kön i skolpolitiska texter 1948 - 1994, med särskilt fokus på naturvetenskap och teknik
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- More girls into science and technology have been a repeated goal in Swedish school politics for some decades. It has been called the gender equality issue. However, neither the ideas associated with science education nor the ideas associated with gender are obvious.The aim of the thesis is to analyse different views of gender, science and technology in Swedish educational policy, as they appear over time in the preparatory documents of the curricula of the nine year comprehensive compulsory school. The purpose is thus to understand the recurrent theme of “girls and science and technology”. The study is a text analysis and the empirical material consists of commission reports, government proposals, motions and minutes of the ensuing parliamentary debates.In the earliest documents girls and boys were described as opposites and their differences were emphasised. However these ideas were not unchallenged. Gender differences were toned down, variations within the genders were emphasised, and it was pointed out that boys and girls are not uniform groups. It was argued that calling areas and tasks female and male are conventions that can be broken. Proposals were made implying a breaking up of the strict boundary between girls’ and boys’ respective spheres of activity. Later a lot of the old ideas were recurring although society had changed. However clear attempts to break the gender borders were also repeated. In this ambition technology was central. From the early 1960s a girl choosing technology stands out as a symbol of a pupil making a gender-crossing choice.
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