| 52251. |
- Mozelius, Peter, Docent, 1959-
(författare)
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With the Aim of Multi-directed and Work-integrated Professional Development
- 2022
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Ingår i: Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management. - : Academic Conferences International Limited. - 1479-4411. ; 20:1, s. 52-62
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In a time when most countries are facing a rapidly emerging knowledge society, the investment in human resources is essential for companies and organisations. In parallel, technology enhanced learning has enabled more flexible forms of professional development with work-integrated learning, an interesting shift that also challenges the traditional university model. An interesting concept for realising the work-integrated learning principle of solving practical problems in the industry, is the offer to participants and companies to 'Bring Your Own Data ' (BYOD). This case history is based on the BUFFL project, where the acronym BUFFL could be translated from Swedish to English as 'Industry development at bank and insurance companies through flexible lifelong learning'. A case story that involves several aspects of knowledge management such as how theories from the university could be applied to data provided by companies and organisations. The BUFFL project is a cross-disciplinary collaboration between six companies, three universities, and researchers from different university departments. The aim of this study is to present, analyse and discuss the design and implementation of a pilot project for a technology enhanced and multi-directed lifelong professional development. The main research question to answer was: "What are the bank and insurance company staff perceptions of the BUFFL project design of technology enhanced professional development, and the idea of bringing their own data to course activities?". Data for a preliminary project evaluation have been gathered by course evaluation questionnaires from 14 instances of 9 course modules. Questionnaires comprised 30 questions with a mix of Likert-scale questions and questions with open-ended free-text answers. With the aim of finding data that have a potential to answer the research question 10 Likert-scale questions and 4 free-text questions were selected. Results from the Likert-scale questions were presented as a descriptive statistical analysis that discusses frequency, central tendency and variation. Open-ended free-text answers have been categorised in a deductive thematic analysis and compared to the results from the Likert-scale questions. The study was conducted entirely in Swedish with questions and answers translated to English by the author. Findings indicate that a technology enhanced and workplace integrated course design is appreciated by the participants, when information and communication technologies work. On the other hand, technology incidents have caused irritation and the provisional support model needs a further development that also could survive the project span. The complaints on too theoretical course literature, and that course design lacks adaption to the participants’ actual workplace situations are contradicted by the result of the quantitative analysis. However, the course design would need redesign to better match the conditions for full-time working participants.
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| 52252. |
- Mtana, Noah, 1954-
(författare)
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Tanzanian primary school learners investing in English : What are their attitudes, expectations and opportunities?
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The study is about attitudes, expectations and opportunities of Tanzanian primary school learners who invest in English language. It was conducted in Morogoro Tanzania with the aim of exploring, presenting and interpreting why the learners invest in English. Data for the study were collected through interviews and a questionnaire and analysed using conventional inductive content analysis. This approach was chosen because the area of study has scanty literature and no established theory yet. The concepts of frames, investment and language rights are used to reflect upon the findings.Findings from the study show that learners have both positive and negative attitudes towards English. Reasons for negative attitudes are about the difficulty and foreignness of English while those for positive attitudes are about the appearance of the language, the way it is taught and aspirations of the learners. The findings also show that the learners have multiple expectations, which include individual benefits such as getting employment, acquisition of power and changing identities; and social benefits such as communication with foreigners and serving people. It is concluded that although the students invest in English because they expect many benefits, learning is framed in several ways, but more so for rural students. The use of English as a language of education therefore both violates the students’ right to education and enhances inequalities among them. It is recommended that English be replaced by Kiswahili in education but also the language be made equally accessible to the learners. The learners’ investment in English has to be understood within its context. Within the local and national contexts there is the language policy and the divide between the elite and the subaltern, both of which are inherited from colonialism. The global context involves globalization in which English is used for cross-boarder communication and for communicating with foreign investors.
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| 52253. |
- Mufic, Johanna, 1991-
(författare)
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‘And suddenly it’s not so flexible anymore!’ : Discursive effects in comments from school leaders and staff about distance education
- 2023
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Ingår i: Studies in the Education of Adults. - : ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD. - 0266-0830 .- 1478-9833.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Distance education has received a lot of attention in contemporary policy as something that makes it possible for more students to participate, but also involves a certain set of challenges. When it comes to distance education, Swedish municipal adult education (MAE) stands out with its long history of flexible education, often provided on distance. Applying Bacchi’s poststructural WPR approach, the aim of this study was to scrutinise how distance education is construed, and the discursive effects of this, in comments by MAE school leaders and staff during a quality audit. The analysis shows that it becomes difficult to question or think differently about distance education within the flexibility discourse in adult education. Moreover, the blame for students’ lack of goal attainment and increased dropouts seems to be put on external providers, municipalities, and the students rather than on the way that the adult education system is organised or the demands around flexibility in adult education policy. What seems to be left out is a discussion about the pedagogical and didactical implications of distance education.
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| 52254. |
- Mufic, Johanna
(författare)
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How the concept of the “chain of command” is construed through problematizations in Swedish adult education policy
- 2023
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Ingår i: International Journal of Leadership in Education. - : TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD. - 1360-3124 .- 1464-5092.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper focuses on how the chain of command is construed in Swedish municipal adult education. With a qualitative research approach and by drawing on the theoretical and methodological framework ‘What’s the “problem” represented to be?’ (WPR) approach, the aim is directed at identifying, interrogating, and reconstructing problem representations. The empirical material consists of contemporary key adult education policy that focuses on the chain of command and was analyzed in NVivo. Ethical considerations as well as data credibility, validity and reliability reflections were made in the form of WPR-guided self-reflexivity. The results indicate that both heads of education and principals are held responsible for the ‘weaknesses’ of the chain of command. Different solutions are also construed to solve the ‘problem’ that calls for increased trust between the actors in the chain of command. However, this trust seems to be underpinned by a request for more follow-ups, rather than a trust in the principal’s pedagogical leadership. The way that these issues are construed as specific kinds of ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ has effects on the individuals that are involved in adult education. Based on the analysis, the need for policymakers to work on understanding the unintentional consequences of policies is stressed.
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| 52255. |
- Mufic, Johanna, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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‘Lack of quality’ in Swedish adult education : a policy study
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of education policy. - : Routledge. - 0268-0939 .- 1464-5106. ; 37:2, s. 269-284
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article focuses on how ‘problems’ regarding quality in adult education are constituted as particular sorts of ‘problems’. The analysis takes its point of departure in a poststructural analytic strategy called ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’. The material analysed consists of various policy documents concerning contemporary Swedish adult education. The results indicate that the concept of quality is described as being deficient and failing to address perceived challenges in adult education, namely the ‘heterogenous student group’ and ‘varying pre-conditions for the organisation of education’. Thus, the concepts of flexibility and individualisation are introduced as a ‘solution’. But at the same time, it is suggested in policy that the implementation of them has failed. In effect, representatives of the municipal authority and principals are held responsible and the need for more strict regulations and increased accountability in order to implement flexibility and individualisation in the adult education system are stressed in policy. Finally, the analysis of the policy documents leads to questions about the consequences for both school personnel and the students enrolled in adult education as the quality of the education seems to be assessed in relation to goal attainment and throughflow of students.
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| 52256. |
- Mufic, Johanna, 1991-
(författare)
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‘Measurable but not quantifiable’ : The Swedish Schools Inspectorate on construing "quality" as "auditable"
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Lifelong Education. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 0260-1370 .- 1464-519X. ; 41:2, s. 199-211
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- ‘Quality’ in education has become a global phenomenon, and is frequently discussed in transnational and national policy. In such discussions, ‘quality’ seems to be both worthwhile and demanded, but at the same time, the concept has also been criticised in previous research as it seems to have attained a ‘common sense’ status. In this context, the role of the Swedish Schools Inspectorate (SSI) is raised, as the SSI is commissioned by the Swedish Government to audit and review ‘quality’ in education. However, as the concept of ‘quality’ is left undefined in policy, the SSI has to enact national policy to review ‘quality’ in its quality audits. Hence, the SSI plays an active part in construing ‘quality’, as it makes it auditable through the indicators and systems it uses when conducting quality audits. Thus, this paper has critically scrutinised underlying assumptions and the discursive effects of how the SSI construes ‘quality’ in different policy proposals. To access and analyse such constructs, this article draws on Bacchi’s (2009) post-structural, Foucault-influenced ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach. The results indicate that ‘quality’ is presupposed to be both measurable and elusive at the same time. Hence, the SSI operates in a field of tension, targeting something more elusive than just figures and numbers when it comes to ‘quality’. The discursive effects of these presuppositions have implications for what can be said and thought about ‘quality’ at both national and local levels, as well as for students and school staff who are involved in the educational system.
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| 52257. |
- Mufic, Johanna, 1991-
(författare)
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Quality audit through school inspection in Swedish municipal adult education
- 2019
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Ingår i: ESREA 9th Triennial European Research Conference, Adult education research and practice between the welfare state and neoliberalism, University of Belgrade, Serbia, September 19-22, 2019..
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Throughout recent years, quality in adult education has become an increasingly important topic in Sweden. As a consequence of a rapidly changing society, many adults need to re-qualify their skills in order to be prepared for the labour market. Additionally, the intensive immigration flows require a well-developed adult education system. However, the Municipal Adult Education (hereby MAE) has over years been criticised for its inefficiency to satisfy individual’s need for more skills as well as to fulfil labour demands, (Bjursell, Chaib, Falkner, & Ludvigsson, 2015)not least in the media, where the topic is debated frequently (Lindgren, 2018; Suhonen, 2016).As an implication of the increased need for audits and quality controls in MAE, the Swedish School Inspectorate (hereby SSI), is auditing and inspecting schools, by order from the state. The SSI’s role in shaping of the quality concept is brought up since they interpret national policy in order to conduct their inspections. Since no previous studies have scrutinised school inspections in adult education in Sweden, the need for research that explores the still unchartered field is motivated (Segerholm & Hult, 2018). In this specific article, one of the SSI’s audits focusing on quality in MAE will be studied, therefore bringing up the question of how quality is enacted in different settings of MAE. Thesample consists of observations of school inspectors’ interviews with school actors from six different municipals. The sample includes municipalities that organise MAE in different ways, ranging from organising it by themselves, to outsourcing it through tendering from private companies.In addition to the observed and recorded meetings between school inspectors and school actors, other forms of data such as the SSI’s official decisions and reports regarding the six municipalities are included in the sample as well. The empirical material has been transcribed and then coded and analysed. Guided by the theoretical framework of policy enactment, three different dimensions of quality have been identified in the sample (Ball, 2012). The first dimension of quality focuses on the enrolment to the MAE where questions of how often students should be enrolled during the school year are emphasised. The second dimension regards questions of how the adult education is organised since it varies a lot between the municipalities. Some of the municipalities outsource the education and other municipalities organise it themselves. The third dimension that was identified concerns the way that courses are organised when it comes to distance teaching and classroom teaching and regards the implications for the different forms of course designs. Drawing from the different dimensions that were identified in the sample, it is argued that the question of quality in adult education often is left out in the conversation between the school inspectors and the school actors as much attention instead is drawn to questions that regard the requisites of the education. The result of the study can provide insights for how quality is enacted in different settings of MAE, and thus have significance for the discussion of adult education in the neoliberal era.
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| 52258. |
- Mufic, Johanna, 1991-
(författare)
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Quality in Canadian and Swedish Adult Education Policy
- 2022
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Ingår i: Adult Education Research Conference 2022, Conference Proceedings. Norman (OK). Kansas State University Libraries: New Prairie Press.. - Oklahoma. ; , s. 1-6
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this paper is to compare and critically scrutinize how quality is construed in Canadian and Swedish adult education policy. The empirical data consists of policy documentsand interviews conducted with adult educators.
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| 52259. |
- Mufic, Johanna, 1991-
(författare)
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Reflections on how to use the WPR approach in a PhD thesis
- 2024
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Ingår i: Problemets politik. - Aarhus : Aarhus Universitetsforlag. - 9788776844554 ; , s. 112-133
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When I started my PhD, I knew that I wanted to scrutinise the concept of quality in adult education and that it should be an article-based compilation thesis. Quite early I had the opportunity to observe a thematic quality audit in Municipal Adult Education (MAE)8 that was carried out by the Swedish School Inspection (SSI)9. Moreover, I had access to numerous adult education policy documents. I was confident that I could use the empirical material to shed light on the concept of quality in certain ways. But at that moment, I did not know how to engage with the concept and which theoretical lens to apply and how to analyse my col-lected data. Consequently, in this chapter, my aim is to explain how I engaged with these questions and where I ended up after I got in touch with the WPR-approach. The first part of this chapter will focus on the theoretical implications of the approach. Second, the opera-tionalization of the application will be discussed. The chapter will be concluded with a the-oretical reflection on reflexivity.
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| 52260. |
- Mufic, Johanna
(författare)
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School Inspection and Quality in Swedish Municipal Adult Education
- 2019
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Ingår i: NERA, the 47th Annual Congress of the Nordic Educational Research Association 8-8, Nordic Educational Research Association, March 8-10, 2019.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Quality audits, evaluations and follow-ups in education have become a global phenomenon, and while some argue that it is a consequence of the neo-liberal shift (Ball & Youdell, 2008), others contend that the quality debate existed even before the recent shift (Bergh, 2015). This is not to say that the discussion of what quality in education is and how it should be achieved is irrelevant. On the contrary, the quality issue needs to be scrutinised further since the field is still unchartered when it comes to Swedish municipality adult education (hereby MAE). The need for MAE is steadily increasing, on the one hand as a consequence of the intensive immigration flows, and on the other hand as a consequence of a rapidly changing society where many adults need to re-qualify their skills in order to be prepared for the labour market. However, the MAE has over the years been criticised in media, both for its inefficiency to satisfy individuals’ need for more skills, teachers’ eligibility and so on (Lindgren, 2018; Suhonen, 2016) thus raising questions of its overall quality. As an implication of the increased need for audits and quality controls in MAE, the Swedish School Inspectorate (hereby SSI), is auditing and inspecting schools, by commission from the state. The agency’s role in the shaping of the quality concept is actualised since they interpret national policy in order to conduct their inspections. Since no previous studies have scrutinised school inspections in adult education, the need for research that explores the still unchartered field is motivated (Segerholm & Hult, 2018). In this specific study, one of the SSI’s audit focusing on quality in MAE will be studied, therefore bringing up the question of how quality practices in MAE unfolds in different settings. Altogether, six different settings of school inspection have been studied. The settings consist of school inspectors’ interviews with school actors. The sample include municipalities that organizes MAE in different ways, ranging from organizing it by them self, to outsourcing it through tendering from private companies. I draw on different forms of data in each of the six settings, such as observations of the SSI’s quality audit, interviews with school inspectors and school actors as well as material arrangements in form of text material such as interview guides, quality matrixes, policy documents and so on. This data is analyzed drawing on a socio-material approach, namely practice theory (Schatzki, 2000, 2012) The theoretical framework makes it possible to study the different settings of school inspection as practices where both human agency and material arrangements in form of text materials are included.
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