| 1. |
- Eckeskog, Linn, 1984-
(författare)
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Kommunikation i förskolan : förskollärares och barnskötares kommunikation med föräldrar i ett digitaliserat medielandskap
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this doctoral thesis is to study communication work among personnel in Swedish pre-schools, with a particular focus on mediated communication with parents. The purpose is also to analyse what roles are given to the professionals in this communication, to identify what subject positions are constructed and to identify how boundaries are managed within the communication practices.The primary theoretical framework of the thesis is social constructivism and symbolic interactionism. The pre-school organisation and identities are regarded as in a perpetual state of becoming and changes in the media landscape are viewed as rearranging the preconditions for communication practices. Technical innovations are regarded as social products at both ends. Results build upon observations in five pre-schools, interviews with 32 pre-school employees and multimodal analysis of communication material directed to parents. Additional interviews and document studies were conducted in the form of a case study, in order to gain knowledge of the implementation of a digital learning platform.The study shows that the communication environments differ between pre-schools, e.g. concerning how and which mediums are used. Several obstacles to communication are identified, of which many (but not all) are related to the socioeconomic status of parents. Within the mediated communication, pre-school personnel to some extent position themselves as experts concerning practical and pedagogical questions, whilst parents are positioned as actors in need of guidance. A major function of mediated communication is assigning parents’ responsibilities in relation to the pre-school, along with norms regarding what constitutes the “good” (pre-school) parent. Boundary work in relation to parents is conducted using different modalities, used for hedging but also for establishing professional positions. Digitalisation appears as a negative force when introduced top-down, without regards to the needs, previous practices and preconditions within a particular pre- school; but as a positive force when initiated by the professionals themselves and when responding to particular needs within specific pre-schools. As expectations on digitalisation in pre-schools increase, questions of preconditions and communication skills grow in prominence.Although expectations on pre-school professionals’ communication skills are high, communication with parents is not sufficiently acknowledged as part of the actual work in pre-schools. A sign of (and reasons for) the under prioritisation of communication work is the uneven and arbitrary preconditions for communicating, in the forms of relevant education, time and technical equipment. The lack of resources can be connected to three issues: A working environment issue (discrepancy between expectations and preconditions), a democratic issue (communication being random rather than planned/ considered) and a professional issue (multimodal communication not reflecting the professional identity that informants strive towards).Communication with parents (and surrounding society) needs to be acknowledged as part of the work in pre-school, and the personnel need to be given the necessary skills and conditions for communication, in order to provide equality of ac- cess to the parents, but also to give personnel the possibilities of communicating about and reflecting the pre-school organisation as they know it.
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| 2. |
- Edberg, Lorentz, 1959-
(författare)
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Skolmusikalen : om möten, makt och musik i två skolmusikalprojekt i årskurs nio
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The two school musical theatre projects in this case study were carried out in 2011-2012 in Year 9 at two Swedish secondary schools, Annebäckskolan and Bäråskolan, as a part of the subject “Elevens val” (Student’s Elective). The purpose of the study was to analyse how pedagogy, power and control appeared in the projects, based on the following research questions: How can the influence of the local community and leisure discourses on education be understood through the two school musical theatre projects? What pedagogical codes appear in the projects and how do they relate to time and space? What power relations are produced and why? The study was conducted through participatory observations and interviews and dialogues with participating students and teachers. The analysis had a hermeneutical approach, and the theoretical starting points were Basil Bernstein's theory and concepts, such as recontextualisation, code, classification, framing, and singular, regional and generic discourses. These theories were supplemented by a space perspective based on David Harvey and his concept of the absolute, relative and relational space. The study showed that educational traditions and relations with the local community were of importance for the production of the school musical theatre discourses. The Annebäck project was characterised by teaching in relation to the pop and rock music and theatre discourse of the municipal youth centre and a local aerobics and dance discourse. These relations provided the prerequisites for a school musical theatre project with an integrated code, open to most of the students in Year 9. The Bärå project had a collection code and was characterised by teaching related to the school’s music class, as well as to the municipal music school discourse and a local theatre and dance discourse. These relations provided the prerequisites for a project mainly open to students in the school’s music class, or to students who had chosen theatre or dance as an elective subject. The activities of the Annebäck project strengthened social cooperation between the municipal youth centre and the secondary school, while the Bärå project, as a result of its collaboration with aesthetic institutions in the local community where most of the musical students were already enrolled, broadened the school's music profile. Both projects strengthened the existing orientation of the two schools’ activities, thus contributing to and reinforcing the focus and the ideas on which they were based.
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| 3. |
- Marklund, Frida, 1980-
(författare)
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Bilder som berättar : om kunskap, makt och traditioner i grundskolans bildundervisning
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study revolves around visual storytelling and focuses on art education in lower secondary school, where visual storytelling is meant to give pupils the opportunity to express their experiences and opinions. The aim of the thesis is to acquire knowledge concerning norms and values that are constructed and reproduced while making storytelling pictures in art education in compulsory school, and how this creates conditions for pupils’ visual storytelling.The study uses an ethnographic method. Two art teachers and 65 pupils in grades 8 and 9 at two different schools participate in the study, and art lessons were observed during the 2016/2017 school year following the work with four art assignments where pupils produced storytelling pictures. A total of 36 lessons were observed. The empirical material consists of observation notes, sound recordings, documents and photographs from the observed lessons, four interviews with teachers, 15 interviews with pupils and 65 pictures produced by the pupils. Using Bernstein’s (2000) theories of the school as a site for reproduction of societal values and pedagogic discourse as a principle that relocates and recontextualises other discourses into school subjects, this study examines the norms and values that underpin the educational practice when working with storytelling in art education. Terms and concepts from pictorial semiotics and narratology are also used for analysing the pictures.The analysis reveals a progressive and invisible pedagogy in the subject. Art is considered to be fun, free, and creative and is positioned as being different compared to so-called theoretical school subjects. Both teachers and pupils reproduce traditional values in the subject, for example, the importance of technical skills and that art can promote personal development and personal expression. These ideas mainly derive from a technical/artisan tradition and art-psychology. Traditional techniques and materials are emphasised, which promotes two-dimensional and handcrafted pictures, as well as a Western art canon. Due to a neoliberal discourse in schools, pupils tend to focus on concrete and measurable learning goals rather than process-oriented or communicative goals which they find more abstract. As for the teachers, the emphasis on traditional techniques, materials and slow processes can be understood as a resistance towards a perceived pressure from the outside and as a way to protect what they believe to be the core of the subject. Picture production is also seen as a prerequisite for personal development. These traditions and values favours aspects of picture production rather than aspects of storytelling. The results show that pupils can refer to a wide range of topics in their pictures. They primarily express experiences on the content level through what is said in the picture rather than how it is told. An emphasis on traditional techniques makes it difficult for pupils to express their experiences of, for example, digital media. Some pupils also have a different understanding than the teachers of what constitutes an experience. They perceive it as something concrete, an everyday event that they have personally experienced, while teachers have a more complex understanding. The teachers regard experiences from visual culture, for example, fiction, to be as valid as real-life experiences. This calls for further problematization of the term.In conclusion, the results are discussed in relation to the structuring of pedagogic discourse at different educational levels, thus deepening our understanding of how classroom practice relates to an overarching ideology concerning education and school.
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