| 1. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
-
Changing discourses on qualities of educational research in Sweden : A contribution to the symposium: Educational Research Qualities in Question: Nordic Perspectives on Research Policy and Research Evaluation in Swede
- 2014
-
Ingår i: NERA 2014 Session program.
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- his is an analysis of discourses educational research quality in Sweden with the aim to highlight different ways to describe and evaluate educational research. Of special interest is here the period 1990-2014 when higher education is in a period of expansion and restructuring with changing demands on research evaluation combined with changing ways of funding higher education institutions and research. The ambition is to define this trajectory with different actors and controversies. The Swedish case will be related to a Nordic (Norway) and an Anglo-Saxon (Australia) case. The study is carried out from a dynamic nominalist perspective (Hacking, 1999) focusing on actors and institutions at work. Issues and controversies will be defined in relation to discourse analyses of policy documents, research reviews of different kinds (research councils, research assessment exercises etc) and on thin and thick descriptions (Porter, 2012) of research. Conclusions: Firstly, educational research assessments are in transition - from internal professional initiatives and collegial decision-making to external administrative initiatives and principles for new public management. Secondly, research evaluation exercises are having an increasing globalizing tendency concerning criteria for research quality and are also increasingly based on international reviewers. Thirdly, there is an ongoing debate on the composition of measurements such as citation impact or peer review. Fourthly, given these tendencies educational research in Sweden is in a a turmoil considering addressees of educational research as well as struggles for research resources with other disciplines and faculties. Given this it is vital to analyze the field of educational research. Relevance to Nordic educational research: this symposium will serve as an input to continuing analyses of educational research policies and formation in the different Nordic countries. Attachment to NERA-network and symposium: Politics of Education and Education Policy Studies Network and the symposium "Educational Research Quality in Question: Research Evaluations and Research Policy in Sweden in a Nordic Perspective"
|
|
| 2. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
-
Constructing Teacher Professionalism between Organizational Decision-making and Work-life Autonomy : After-work from European Research on Professional Knowledge under Restructuring
- 2011
-
Ingår i: AERA 2011 meeting program: Inciting the Social Imagination. - 0163-9676.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A basis for this paper is an international comparative study on Professional Knowledge under Restructuring, carried out with the support of the European Commission. The research was carried out by researchers from seven European countries, It is our ambition to do some necessary after-work by reflecting on this research – the process of work as well as the outcomes. However, from a historical perspective, the “professionalism” of teachers is a new phenomenon. While early studies more directly concerned themselves with understanding the very authority of professionals as a social fact, with the consequence that teachers was either excluded, e.g. in the classical work of Parsons, 1939, or met with skeptical attitudes, e.g. by Wilensky (1964) and Etzioni (1964) as well as Lortie (1975), the literature on professions and professionalism now seems generally more “normative” in its orientations. As the inflation of the literature on professionals and professionalism has increased dramatically since the 1980s and early 1990s, we will argue that this normative shift not only means a shift in orientation, but also in the rationalities and functions of the talk of professionalism itself. At this point in time, it is more obvious than ever that the very talk of professionalism embrace the ambition to re/shape its very nature, e.g. what the professional lives of teachers’ means and how it should be lived. The shift from representation to performativity is in academic literature actualized and displayed in many different ways. Important for this study is, on the one hand, the ways in which it has meant a shift in the understanding of educational policy, where concepts such as “performativity” (Ball, 2003) and “governmentality” has become important for new understandings on the (re)structuring of educational systems worldwide (Lindblad and Popkewitz, 2004), and, on the other hand, a shift in the elaborative understandings of professionalism has opened up for an interest of daily work and life of teacher and the realities they face and shape. The more dynamic aspects of the life and work of the professionalism of teachers are put to the fore in these, mostly, post-empiricist and post-structuralist, scholarly work is in the theoretical focus of this paper. We share the epistemological insights of these traditions, and hold the thesis that significant differences in the ways in which teachers experience and live their professional lives make sense on bases of the differences by which they experience and make sense of their own – as well as policy-makers – technologies for handling, stimulating and controlling learning activities inside and outside classrooms (cf Fournier, 1999; Foss Lindblad & Lindblad 2009). Thus, this inclines an epistemological twist, leading us toward a more generative understanding of professional knowledge and the ways it is narrated and important for educational practices.
|
|
| 3. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
-
Higher Education Policy and Changing Transnational Expertise in Sweden : A contribution to the symposium Globalization and The Nordic model - conflicting, resisting and converting tendencies in policy of education
- 2014
-
Ingår i: The NERA 2014 Session Program. - : NERA. ; , s. 58-59
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper aims to analyze current impact of transnational organizations and multinational corporations in governance of higher education in Sweden. We put this in context of welfare state restructuring and performative governing by means of indicators and ranking and related to changing policy demands on research and expertise. Are these changes in higher education policy and research policy working in tandem as could be suggested by science - technology studies (Nowotny et al, 2003)? Our study will be based on policy network analysis and identification and analyses of expertise in education policy discourses. We analyze current policy discourses (since 2006 and onwards) giving special attention to what expertise that are referred to in these discourses, as well as the meanings and objects of the expertise concept in use. In relation to our aim of analyzing the impact of transnational organizations and multinational corporations in educational policy making, we refer to the studies on transnational governance by Djelic Sahlin-Anderson (2006) and the increasing use of incomplete organizing (Ahrne & Brunsson, 2010) in higher education. Concepts of "thin descriptions" (Porter, 2012) and potential "looping" (Hacking, 2004) are used here. As a result important changes in higher education governance and expertise are identified. Our analyses lead to a discussion of couplings between governance and research policy in higher education. This paper is attached to the symposium "Globalization and The Nordic model - conflicting, resisting and converting tendencies in policy of education" in Network 21, "Politics of Education and Education Policy Studies". References: Ahrne, G. & Brunsson, N. (2009). Complete and incomplete organisation (Scores Reports 2009:2). Stockholm: University Djelic, M. L., & Sahlin-Andersson, K. (Eds.). (2006). Transnational governance: Institutional dynamics of regulation. Cambridge University Press. Hacking, I. (1995). The looping effects of human kinds. Causal cognition: A multidisciplinary debate. D. Sperber, D. Premack and A. J. Premack. Oxford: Clarendon Press: 351-94. Nowotny, H.; Scott, P.; Gibbons, M. (2003): Introduction: Mode 2'Revisited: The New Production of Knowledge. Minerva, 2003, 41.3: 179-194. Porter, T. M. (2012). Thin Description: Surface and Depth in Science and Science Studies. Osiris, 27(1), 209-226.
|
|
| 4. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
-
Invitations to contextualizing teaching and learning: International and comparative studies on classroom interaction.
- 2010
-
Ingår i: Presentation at the LPS meeting in Melbourne, December 6-10, 2010.
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this memorandum we are outlining problems which we – from our point of view – consider as vital when dealing with notions of context in research on teaching and classroom interaction. We will firstly locate such notions within the Learner’s Perspective Study (LPS) and secondly within research discourses on classroom interaction. Thirdly, when dealing with mathematics education we will have a look on the systems of expertise that are working within this field – e.g. in terms of hegemonic discourses and globalization. It is our hope that our dealing with these problems will contribute to the work of LPS. One is to construct different ways to conceptualize context in LPS research problematics. Two is to develop and test notions of context in classroom interaction. And three is to engage in arguments concerning maths education processes.
|
|
| 5. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
-
LA EDUCACIÓN SUPERIOR, EN PLENO CAMBIO. Gobierno de la Universidad y tablas internacionales de clasificación
- 2010
-
Ingår i: Cuadernos de pedagogía. - 0210-0630. ; :Nº 403, 2010, s. 69-73
-
Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- El texto aborda las tendencias actuales de las políticas de Educación Superior y analiza los rankings de clasificación de universidades y las controversias que han surgido a su respecto. La Comisión Europea trabaja ahora en el desarrollo de un sistema global de clasificación unidimensional que incluya diferentes categorías de trabajo académico.
|
|
| 6. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
-
Middle-Man Theorizing: Biesta on Rancière and Mouffe into Citizenship Education
- 2011
-
Ingår i: Bildungsgeschichte, International Journal for the Historiography of Education. - : Verlag Julius Klinkhardt. - 2192-4295. ; 2011:1, s. 74-76
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- IGert Biesta is in Citizenship and Education putting forwards is based on a strategy which we are titling Middle Man Theorizing, by which we mean a strategy of mobilizing theoretical insights from another domain into your own and thereby create an alternative pathway for possible conceptual renewals. The man in the middle” is the author in personal (here Gert Biesta) - the one who is giving voice of others (here Jacques Rancière and Chantal Mouffe) by stating their thoughts and ideas in order to re-conceptualizing a certain problematic (here citizenship education). This kind of middle man theorizing is very frequent in the educational field (as noted by e.g. Foss Lindblad & Lindblad, 2009 concerning the framing of educational restructuring and teaching in relation to professionalization theorizing) and has its own dynamic in terms of conceptual travelling and knowledge organization. It is our ambition to discuss this strategy, its strengths as well as its weaknesses, in relation to the Biesta text. Middle-man theorizing has a double agenda. On the one hand the stating of a problem, on the other hand the presentation of conceptual imports by means of which the problem is going to be fruitfully handled (solved, re-stated, re-conceptualised etc.). In the text by Biesta the very possibilities of education to contribute to what is called “the desire for democracy” both sets and solves the problem of citizenship education. “The “desire for democracy” could be seen as a condensed conceptual result of Biestas reading of the writings of Chantal Mouffe and Jacques Rancière. It is based on distinctions such as those between police/politics, antagonism/agonism, subject/subjectification etc., and is seen as the possible solution to the problems of democracy generally, an alternative both to “the logic of positive identity”, which is said to dominate the conceptions of citizenship, and to “the logic of socialization”, which is said to dominate the conception of education.
|
|
| 7. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
-
The Making of the European Higher Education Area; Politics of Knowledge, Research Assessments and University Ranking
- 2011
-
Ingår i: European Congress on Educational Research, Berlin 2011.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The making of the “European Higher Education Area” (EHEA) is based on a number of initiatives from a number of actors and networks. We will here put forwards these initiatives and the actions at work. Firstly, we will deal with the making of the “Knowledge Triangle” (KT), where education, research and innovation are assumed to be the interdependent drivers in the making of a Knowledge Society. How is this configured and what tools are at work – e.g. Erasmus and instruments such as U-multirank? Secondly, we go into research assessment exercises and how these construct higher education and research, and their mutual relations. Our study is based on notions of governing and dynamic nominalism. We have analysed documents that are strategic in the construction of EHEA and KT plus analyses of RAE technologies and constructions. This is combined with analyses of ranking instruments as navigation tools and standardization of EHEA. Here, we will focus on Sweden as a case scrutinising three larger universities and their recent use of Research Assessment Exercises and put this in an national and international context. The study is resulting in presenting critical research issues concerning transnational governance in the Europeanization of higher education and research.
|
|
| 8. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
-
The politics of professionalising talk
- 2010
-
Ingår i: Svenska Nätverket för Professionsforskning, Götebort 31 oktober - 1 november..
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)
|
|
| 9. |
- Lindblad, Sverker, 1946, et al.
(författare)
-
Educational Research: the State of Sweden and the Australian 2.2 world
- 2013
-
Ingår i: The Australian Educational Researcher. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0311-6999 .- 2210-5328. ; 40:4, s. 527-534
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Current tendencies in educational research in Sweden are presented and compared to Australia. We here refer to; organization of research, research allocation, publication patterns, and assessments of research qualities. Different trajectories of educational research were identified, where Australian research was organized as a field of study, while Swedish research had a disciplinary organization, which now is eroding into a situation more close to the Australian one. In other aspects the Australian and Swedish trajectories seem to harmonize, except for the fact that RAEs in Sweden are initiated and run by the universities themselves. There are also some differences in how research qualities are assessed and the outcomes of these assessments. Given these findings different strategies to deal with the current situation are discussed.
|
|
| 10. |
- Lindblad, Sverker, 1946, et al.
(författare)
-
Educational Restructuring and Educational Research in Tandem? : Contribuiton to the symposium Research and the Promise of Educational Improvement: International Perspectives on a Vexed Question. AERA (American Educational Research Association), The Power of Education Research for Innovation in Practice and Policy, april 3-7, 2014, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 2014
-
Ingår i: AERA Annual Program 2014 online http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/aera/aera14.
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The starting point for this study is that educational reform and educational research is moving in tandem, as could be expected from theoretical insights of the co-production of science and society in Science and Technology Studies. The ideas of relevance in educational research plays a vital role here and will be in focus when the interplay between the restructuring of educational systems and the reforming of educational research are analyzed. Our focuses on prevalent ideas of relevance in educational research aims to show ways in which these ideas has been important in the restructuring of educational systems and research and what consequences it has had on the expertise of teachers and researchers. The study is based on the case of educational reform in Sweden in relation to changing demands on educational expertise and research over a period of twenty years. The case is of special interest for understanding interrelations between educational restructuring and educational expertise. Swedish education is a radical example of (global) trends in restructuring since the early 1990s, but the transition of Swedish educational research follows only recently, and still with some exceptions, the very same trends. Our analyses are based on two different kinds of sources – a selection of policy documents from the Swedish government and documentation of strategic instruments developed and used by Swedish Research Councils for the renewal of educational research, as well as an analysis of the concrete outcome of its uses in terms of approved research applications. Our results are presenting large changes in educational research policy, which has moved educational research from (a) a disciplinary organization in terms of “pedagogic” towards a multidisciplinary “educational research field”, and (b) which in tandem with Higher Education reforms has led to increased dependences and competition of external research funds, where (c) productivity in terms of international scientific publications is becoming the most important indicator for scientific quality. This dependency is combined with increasing demands for quantitative studies of school performances and international comparative studies of different kinds, all supposed to function in the control and surveillance of educational systems. However, these findings are complemented by another finding, where the relevancy of educational research for the teaching professions is emphasized, underlining the needs for praxis-relevant research either to be carried out in teacher education departments or otherwise expected to serve the needs of the teaching professions. Similar patterns are identified in Norwegian educational research policy and will be compared to the Swedish case. In sum, and taken together, our research findings shows a new and more subtle governing of the ways in which educational research now is engaging with educational practices on systems and school levels congenial to restructured education. It should alarm us for the prevalent dangers of creating an incapacity for more “radical” (reflexive and critical) forms of research practices to supersede current educational regimes. Copyright© 2014 All Academic, Inc.
|
|
