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- Hansson, Petra, 1971-
(författare)
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Text, Place and Mobility : Investigations of Outdoor Education, Ecocriticism and Environmental Meaning Making
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall ambition of this thesis is to investigate the approaches taken to environmental and sustainability education in outdoor education and ecocriticism in a Swedish and in an international context, to investigate environmental meaning making and to conduce to the development of analytical methods for empirical investigations of environmental meaning making. Four objectives are formulated. The first objective of the thesis is to analyse constitutive discursive rules and traits regarding environmental and sustainability education and environmental meaning making in outdoor education in a Swedish context and in ecocriticism. This is achieved through discourse analyses of central textbooks in outdoor education and of research and textbooks in ecocriticism.The second objective is to investigate how different situated circumstances such as, text, place, mobility, social situations and previous experiences interplay in environmental meaning making. This is achieved through analyses of classroom communication, through analysis of nature writing and through an analysis of painted landscapes.The third objective is to compare and critically discuss the constitutive discursive rules and traits within the two investigated educational practices – out door education and ecocriticism – in the light of the results from the investigations of environmental meaning making carried out.The fourth objective is to develop analytical methods based on John Dewey and Louise Rosenblatt’s theories of transaction and meaning making for conducting empirical investigations of environmental meaning making in which different interplaying situational circumstances are taken into account.The results of the thesis show that taking a transactional starting point to investigate environmental meaning making adds further understanding of the situational circumstances influencing environmental meaning making in specific situations which sheds new light to the identified approaches to environmental and sustainability education in outdoor education and ecocriticism. These results suggest that a transactional approach to environmental and sustainability education can help to clarify taken for granted assumptions regarding the nature of situational circumstances such as text, place and mobility in environmental meaning making.
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| 2. |
- Klaar, Susanne, 1964-
(författare)
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Naturorienterad utbildning i förskolan : pragmatiska undersökningar av meningsskapandets individuella, sociala och kulturella dimensioner
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall purpose of this thesis is to investigate, illuminate and clarify meaning making processes and content when children between the ages of 1-3 encounter nature in a preschool practice. Further, the aim is to develop and illustrate action-centred methodological approaches that facilitate investigations of individual, social and cultural dimensions of preschool children’s meaning making of nature. The results are presented in four substudies that all take their starting points in John Dewey’s pragmatic philosophy, with a specific focus on Dewey’s concept of transactions, his theory of action and educative experience as meaning making. In the first substudy, a Practical Epistemology Analysis (PEA) is developed and used to investigate physical meaning making by studying actions and the consequences of these actions. In the second sub-study, a Custom Analysis is developed to facilitate investigations of how the preschool culture contributes to children’s meaning making of nature. An Epistemological Move Analysis (EMA) is used in the third sub-study for investigations relating to teachers’ guiding processes. Here, a Substantive Learning Quality Analysis (SLQA) is also developed and used for investigations of multi-dimensional learning qualities in children’s learning about nature. In the fourth substudy, the analysis methods above are refined to form a tool that can be used by teachers in their reflective work with pedagogical documentation in preschool practice. The results illuminate a multifaceted perspective of meaning making about nature. In this context, meaning making includes cognitive, physical, moral and aesthetical qualities, and nature content includes caring for nature, health and well being in nature and knowledge about natural phenomena and processes. The results contribute to a critical discussion about preschool science education that concerns how preschool practices can highlight nature learning and the multifaceted aspects that are of importance for making meaning of the environment and of life.
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| 3. |
- Rudsberg, Karin, 1973-
(författare)
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Elevers lärande i argumentativa diskussioner om hållbar utveckling
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall ambition with this thesis is to develop knowledge about students’ learning, especially with regard to process and content, when they participate in argumentation. Students’ learning is investigated through in situ studies of classroom practices. The theoretical point of departure is a pragmatic perspective in which learning is understood and investigated in terms of concrete actions. The empirical material consists of video recorded lessons at secondary and upper secondary schools in Sweden. The content of the lessons is argumentative discussions about sustainable development and socioscientific issues. In the first study, the functions that teachers’ actions have for students’ learning processes are investigated using Epistemological Move Analysis. In the second study, an approach is developed and illustrated that facilitates investigations into students’ learning processes in terms of knowledge content and argument construction in argumentation. The method, called Transactional Argumentation Analysis, combines a pragmatic perspective of learning with an argument analysis based on Toulmin’s Argument Pattern. In the third study, the functions that knowledge have when used by students in argumentative discussions are examined. The fourth study investigates the role of peers for students’ learning and how students influence the argumentation at a collective level. Here Transactional Argumentation Analysis is developed further in order to facilitate investigations of the dynamic interplay between the intra-personal and the inter-personal dimensions of learning and the result of this interplay in terms of the knowledge content and arguments that are constructed. The thesis shows how students’ learning can be investigated through in situ studies of educational practices. The methodological contribution of the thesis consists of the development and further elaboration of Transactional Argumentation Analysis. The thesis also contributes with substantial knowledge about students’ learning processes with regard to knowledge content and argument construction when participating in argumentation. Another contribution concerns the functions of knowledge when used by students in argumentation. Finally, the studies show how peers and teachers influence students’ learning, and how students contribute to the shared argumentation in the classroom.
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| 4. |
- Sund, Louise, 1970-
(författare)
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Om global etik i miljö- och hållbarhetsutbildningens policy och praktik
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis takes its point of departure in the change of emphasis in the field of environmental and sustainability education (ESE) towards the inclusion of social and human development issues. The theoretical frames of the thesis are poststructural and postcolonial theories, from which different writings, central concepts and approaches are drawn. The thesis also builds on a pragmatist and anti-essentialist approach which argues that we socially construct the meaning of right and wrong and what works better in our lives on the current problematic or situation. The results are presented in four studies and the thesis has three purposes. The first purpose is to describe and investigate theoretical perspectives that take a critical stand on and offer alternatives to universal and consensus-oriented approaches. This purpose is the central focus in the first and second studies. The first study examines the re-emergence of classical cosmopolitanism and contemporary views of the perspective with the intent of discussing its potential for the development of education for sustainable development (ESD). The second study aims to clarify the philosophical problem of addressing universally sustainable responsibilities and values in environmental and sustainability education. The second purpose is to investigate teachers’ ethical reflections in a first-hand intercultural experience. This purpose is dealt with in the third study, where seven Swedish upper secondary school teachers facing particular conflicts of interest and moral situations during a study visit to Central America are interviewed. The third purpose is to investigate how teachers deal with the complex issues of intragenerational equity or social justice in their teaching. This is dealt with in the fourth study, which explores how teachers integrate issues of social justice into their teaching of global sustainability. My hope is that this thesis will contribute to the discussion about how teachers can develop a conscious and critically informed approach to the teaching of environmental and sustainability issues and also contribute to theoretical and philosophical discussions about universalism, normativity and global ethics within environmental and sustainability education research.
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| 6. |
- Fägerstam, Emilia
(författare)
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Space and Place : Perspectives on outdoor teaching and learning
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to explore teachers’ and students’ experience and perception of outdoor teaching and learning. Further, it aims to explore influences of outdoor teaching on academic performance in biology and mathematics. The contexts for the thesis are a Swedish high school and Australian environmental education centres. The empirical material comprises student and teacher interviews, and questionnaires and tests answered by students. Theoretical frames of reference are theory of place and three dimensions of learning: content, social and emotional dimensions of learning. The results reveal that the extended physical space had the potential to improve social relations and increase participation, collaboration and on-task communication. However, teachers witnessed a period of up to three months before the students adjusted to outdoor teaching. During that time disciplinary issues were a concern. Teaches’ perceptions were that experience of specific places such as local natural environment was fundamental to forming a sense of belonging and environmental concern. However, teachers described children and students as unfamiliar with local natural environments. Teacher’s perceptions were that media provides knowledge about nature rather than direct experience and children and students were often uncomfortable or afraid in nature. Mathematics followed by language education were the subjects most regularly taught outdoors. Two studies compared classroom education with partly outdoor education in biology and mathematics. Results reveal that students’ performance was equally good, or more developed as a consequence of outdoor teaching. An overarching conclusion is that the possibility to appeal to cognitive, social and emotional dimensions of learning all at the same time has the potential to concretize and broaden the often theoretical approach of high school education, and to contribute to long term episodic memories and a desire to learn.
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