| 1. |
- Antera, Sofia, 1992-, et al.
(författare)
-
Discovering and developing the vocational teacher identity
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Education + Training. - 0040-0912 .- 1758-6127. ; 66:5, s. 524-540
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose - This study explores the role of previous occupational identity in the formation of the (new) teacher identity of vocational teachers. The focus is on how vocational teachers discover their teaching identity, how they describe the connection between their previous occupation and teacher identity and how they describe a competent member of the teaching community.Design/methodology/approach - The theoretical approach is inspired by Communities of Practice (CoP) theory. More specifically, the realignment between socially demanded competence in the profession and personal experience as well as identification with the teaching community are discussed. The research material comes from 14 interviews with vocational teachers in different disciplines.Findings - Findings indicate first that the process of professional identity (trans)formation was initiated by finding one's teaching self when the individuals became aware of their interest in teaching by discovering that they had already achieved some sort of teaching-related competence. Second, individuals had been connecting their professional identities – finding common competence between their previous occupation and the teaching role. Third, vocational teachers experienced legitimising their competence and their new identity with reference to what their new CoP instructed as important competence (regime of competence).Originality/value - While teachers' vocational competence is not scrutinised, their teaching competence needs to be constantly proved. This imbalance often leads to teachers returning to an aspect of their identity that is well established – their vocational competence. Looking back to their occupational competences constitutes a realignment backwards, when teachers attempt to serve their new professional goal by drawing on old competence.
|
|
| 2. |
- Antera, Sofia, et al.
(författare)
-
Important and achieved competence for Swedish vocational teachers : A survey with teachers and principals
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training. - 2242-458X. ; 12:1, s. 76-102
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Vocational teachers have a key role in the professional growth of vocational students, making their competence an important factor in the quality of VET. This study explores how principals and vocational teachers identify important and achieved competencies in relation to vocational teachers’ work. The data was collected through an online questionnaire, centred in two types of competence, competence important for teachers (important competence) and competence they consider they have already developed (achieved competence). For each type, a set of 27 competencies was evaluated on a Likert-scale by 370 participants, including both teachers and principals. The statistical analysis was primarily descriptive. The findings indicated that good communication with students, assessment of students’ knowledge, skills and abilities, and creating conditions for learning, are the three most important and achieved competencies in VET teachers’ work. On the contrary, previous teaching experience, working experience with adults and migrants, and the competence related to recruitment of students and marketing of the school, were seen as the least important and achieved ones. Different actors, meaning principals and teachers, reached an agreement on these findings. Future research should look into the reasons behind the selection of specific competence as important and the processes of competence development.
|
|
| 3. |
- Antera, Sofia, 1992-
(författare)
-
Vocational Teachers’ Professional Competence at the Intersection of Two Regimes of Competence : The case of Sweden
- 2023
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The high demand for vocational teachers in Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Sweden has led to their recruitment in the early stages of vocational teacher studies. Entering into this new community of practice, vocational teachers tend to bring in experience from their previous occupational practice. This dissertation explores vocational teachers’ competence through their own perceptions and through the school principals’ perspective, addressing important competence areas, as well as how professional competence is defined and understood by vocational teachers themselves.This dissertation is a compilation thesis of three Studies. Study I is a Conceptual Analysis Method (CAM) of the concept of professional competence of vocational teachers. Study I demonstrated that the main attributes of professional competence include the situated and developmental character of professional competence and its relationship with action. A distinct relationship between professional competence and professionalism, performance, and qualifications was identified as significant to the concept.Study II, a questionnaire of important and achieved competence, answered by 370 participants, showed that good communication with students and assessment of students’ knowledge, skills and abilities are the two most important and achieved competencies for vocational teachers. On the contrary, previous teaching experience and working experience with migrants were placed among the least important. Moreover, Study II presented results on vocational teachers’ challenges, with students that need extra support being the challenge affecting teachers the most.Study III, an interview study with 14 vocational teachers, outlined the regime of competence for vocational teachers. The regime of competence is a set of principles that recognise membership in a community. According to the findings, the regime of competence for vocational teachers includes up-to-date vocational competence, but also interpersonal competence, meaning communication skills and the construction of a teacher-student trust relationship. Part of this regime is also the teacher’s ability to match the student with the workplace, contributing to higher quality work-based training for the student. Finally, a continuous development attitude is included.The combined findings from the three Studies indicated that teaching competence has a high use value due to its relevance with the vocational teachers’ work, but low exchange value as it is not a formal requirement for teachers’ employment. On the contrary, vocational competence have high exchange value, as it is required for recruitment. The analysis of the combined findings concluded that different competence areas are prioritised based on relevance to the teaching practice, formality and individual preference. With these three aspects affecting teachers’ choices of what competence they would develop, there is a risk for unbalanced identities.In conclusion, understanding what is needed for the job of a vocational teacher can facilitate better preparation for vocational teachers. Supporting teachers aligning their previous competence with the regime of competence instructed by the practice of vocational teaching can be assisted through the recontextualisation of previous experiences to achieve relevance to the new tasks.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Christidis, Maria, 1982-
(författare)
-
Integrated teaching for expanded vocational knowing : Studies in the Swedish upper secondary Health and social care program
- 2020
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Integrated teaching is emphasized in Swedish upper secondary vocational education and training, for managing sociocultural and historical changes related to: a) increased demands on future competent health care workers, b) educational reforms, c) altered conditions for vocational teachers’ work, and d) vocational contextualization of teaching and learning content. However, national curricula from 1970, 1994, and 2011 recommend integrated teaching as a solution without any specific concretization of what integration could or should contribute with. Thus, the aim of this thesis was to explore the realization of integrated teaching and the vocational knowing made available by integration for students at the Swedish upper secondary Health and social care program, and partly for nursing students in higher education and training. The research questions attended to how integrated teaching is realized, and what vocational knowing is made available by integration.Theoretical point of departure was Cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), complemented with New literacy studies (NLS). The methodological framework included ethnographically inspired case studies, interviews, specifically semi-structured interviews and life-history interviews, and a systematic review. Research material was collected in 2012 and 2018. Analysis was performed with selected concepts from CHAT, and in one study also with concepts from NLS. In one study, i.e. the systematic review, GRADE CERQual was used for an assessment of confidence in the review findings.Study results showed that integrated teaching, regardless of composition and format, made available a vocational, a general, and an expanded vocational knowing. Also, vocational contextualization of school subjects was shown to be significant as an additional teaching and learning content and as mediational means between school and workplace.In conclusion, integrated teaching was shown to respond to the sociocultural and historical developments by making available for students an expanded vocational knowing. Also, vocational contextualization was shown to make possible for students learning knowing relevant for their future profession.
|
|
| 8. |
-
Comparative Issues and Research Concerns in the National Landscape of Vocational Education & Training : Emergent Issues in Research on Vocational Education & Training Vol. 2
- 2018
-
Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This book is the second one of the serie Emergent Issues in Research on Vocational Education & Training. It is an outcome of the international networking of the research group VETYL (Vocational Education & Training/ Yrkeskunnande och Lärande), at the Department of Education, Stockholm University, Sweden.In May 2012 the group organized the first Stockholm International Conference in VET, an academic event that has ever since been organized yearly following the modality of invited papers. The book contains selected papers presented in the sessions of the conference held 7 and 8, May 2018. The contributions depict research within the Vocational and Training held in different national contexts as well as cross-national issues.This volume illustrates well the diversity of research in the eld in a way that is not frequently available in the literature today. The content is of interest for a diversity of readers including under-graduate students, in particular students in initial and in-service teacher training programs for VET, post-graduate students, researchers and policy makers.
|
|
| 9. |
- Eliasson, Eva, 1960-, et al.
(författare)
-
‘Back to work’—factors facilitating migrants’ re-entry into their previous vocations
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Journal of Education and Work. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1363-9080 .- 1469-9435. ; 35:8, s. 828-842
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article focuses on ‘successful migrants’, who have succeeded in gaining employment in Sweden in their previous vocational area. The aim is to describe factors on various levels – individual, organisational and national – that have facilitated migrants’ way back to work as well as their inclusion at workplaces. Twenty migrants and five employers/mentors were interviewed. The overarching theme of facilitating factors concerns language proficiency, individual factors, enabling frameworks, and supporting persons and networks. The migrants’ own ambitions and motivations, and the support they got in interpersonal encounters were especially emphasised as important. In the migrants’ narratives, a central theme in relation to the theoretical perspective was how to deal with threats to their social and professional identity in the new country. For them, maintaining a positive self-image was key to the strength needed to fight for a return to working life. People in the environment were important in this struggle – for positioning them as competent persons and for offering support.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
