| 1. |
- Lundström, Ulf, 1954-
(författare)
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Gymnasielärare - perspektiv på lärares arbete och yrkesutveckling vid millennieskiftet
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to contribute to knowledge about how the work and profession of upper secondary school teachers is understood and shaped by the teachers in the beginning of the 21st century, and to relate that understanding of work and professional development to the strivings of the teachers’ trade unions and the state. With the implementation of an innovation as a starting point, the teachers’ narratives also described their work in a broader sense. Connections and contradictions between those descriptions of everyday work are analysed in relation to central ideas in research and state and trade union policy. The empirical data were mainly generated through interviews and studies of state- and teachers’ trade union policy documents. Twenty-three teachers at four upper secondary schools were interviewed twice, with a one year interval. Five school leaders were also interviewed. A minor questionnaire added data concerning professional development. 102 documents published by the State and the teachers’ trade unions between 1964 and 2004 were analysed using critical discourse analysis.The analysis is eclectic, drawing on perspectives and conceptions from theories on professions, organisations, school development and the frame factor theory. The overall approach of the study is practice related research and includes an intention to draw attention to connections between micro and macro levels.The analyses of the teachers’ narratives on implementation indicate that they were able to do the job despite unsatisfactory conditions thanks to high work morale and extensive experience. The infrastructure provided by the frame factors was weak or working at cross purposes. The school-wide support for development was stronger at one of the four schools.The teachers’ formal freedom of action was substantial. In practice it was restricted by frame factors and the fact that the potential freedom was not fully used. Thus, the actual autonomy was more limited than it appeared to be. The school culture included elements of balkanised and contrived collegiality. Many tasks were delegated to the interdisciplinary work teams, but the teams did not seem to live up to expectations. Primarily, they lacked time and an appropriate group composition. There was a clash between the interdisciplinary work teams and the teachers’ need to co-operate within subject work teams. The teachers did not regard interdisciplinary work teams as useful for school or professional development.Supportive conditions for long-term, shared learning and dialogue between researchers and practitioners were largely lacking. Visions such as learning organisations were far removed from the everyday life in the schools. Changes in organisational structures at the schools have partly been counterproductive.The far-reaching restructuring of the Swedish upper secondary schools implemented from the end of the 1980s and during the 1990s was in line with international reform trends. It also had specific national characteristics. The concept professional teachers was introduced in some Government bills around 1990. The teachers’ trade unions adopted the concept and it became increasingly significant in trade union policy during the 1990s. At the turn of the millennium it was a dominant idea in their documents.During the 1990s several influential discourses became established as shared views between the State, trade unions and some researchers, e.g. what I have called change and professional discourses. They were rarely problematized in state and teachers’ trade union policy documents. The two agreements between the teachers’ trade unions and the employers, in 1995 and 2000, constituted another component of what has been termed a system-shift in the Swedish school system. They influenced the teachers’ working conditions and implied new strategies for the trade unions. The professional, change and management discourses salient in the documents were brought into schools with insufficient opportunities for the teachers to develop a deep meaning of the discourses.The study emphasizes the importance of practice oriented studies, related to wider contexts, in order to provide insights into teachers’ work and professional development. It also brings nuances to, and problematizes theoretical conceptions and discourses in the field.Key-words: teaching profession, upper secondary teachers, change, school reform, professional development, school development, frame factors, school governance, school policy, trade union
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| 2. |
- Dunkels, Elza, 1960-
(författare)
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Bridging the distance : children’s strategies on the internet
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis deals with the following questions: What do children find negative on the Internet? What counter strategies do they use? How have they developed these strategies? The method used is one-to-one online interviews and the analyses are qualitative in nature. The sample is children in grade 6 of the Swedish compulsory school, aged between 11 and 13. 104 children, 52 girls and 52 boys, from different parts of Sweden were interviewed.The media debate seems to display consensus regarding what threats the Internet poses to young people. The conclusion of this thesis is, however, that children’s views of the Internet in many ways differ from the media related adult view. The children of this study do not express a great deal of anxiety about the negative sides of the Internet. They are aware of, and can describe many downsides but these are not present in their everyday use of the Internet. Digging deeper it turns out that many children have in fact well-developed counter strategies. However, these strategies are not conscious in the sense that the children discuss them. Instead, they seem integrated in their online environment. The counter strategies have been developed by the children alone or together with peers. In some, but remarkably few, cases adults have been giving tips or teaching the children strategies. Nevertheless, the study does not paint a picture of naïve children, unable to see actual threats, but of responsible young citizens who are aware of the threats that exist in their online setting – sometimes from personal experience – and have developed methods to avoid such threats.
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| 3. |
- Ekström, Kenneth, 1956-
(författare)
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Förskolans pedagogiska praktik : Ett verksamhetsperspektiv
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since 1960s, preschools have been important parts both of Swedish welfare and of labour market policies. The preschool thus constitutes a very important site for rearing and educating young children. Reforms of the Swedish preschool in the 1990s concerning both accessibility and quality were introduced at a time when the economy of the municipalities dramatically deteriorated because of reductions in State subsidies. The strained economy of the State and the municipalities, has resulted, among other things, in a growing number of children in preschool groups and pressure to change organization and pedagogical content. These changes took place in a time of decentralization where the responsibility for organization of preschools was given to the municipalities. Changes in economy, organization and curriculum form the background for this study. The purpose of the study is to examine and understand how preschool working teams shape and realize the pedagogical practice and how working conditions affect this process. The approach of the study is interpretative, where the interpretative perspective is mainly represented by activity theory and theories of cultural reproduction. Three aspects of the actions are observed: the object of the actions, the instruments mediating the actions and the content of mediating actions. Bernstein’s concepts classification and framing are used as tools in analysing the empirical data. The interpretative, empirical study is based on qualitative data collected mainly by observations and interviews. Three preschools are chosen for the study. The preschools in the study are located in two municipalities in the north of Sweden, representing three different environments. All preschools receive children one to five years old. The personnel consist of preschool teachers and childminders working in teams. Eleven of them where interviewed. The study shows that daily routines both shape and restrict practices in preschools. The work is mainly focused on care giving, where the children are supposed to adapt to and subordinate themselves to the norms and to the existing routines. The children’s influence varies between organized activities, where they have little influence, and play time, where they can choose what to do. It also varies between the preschools, where the preschool with children from more affluent families have more freedom than children from the multicultural, lower-income environment do. The work is collectively oriented toward training adaptation, but also, to a certain extent, training for autonomy and responsibility taking. Organization of learning activities often takes the form of transmitting information. The informants regard themselves as caregivers with the main purpose to mediate security and create conditions for the children to develop socially. The changes in conditions emanating from political decisions have brought new working tasks to the preschools and have reduced the level of resources at the same time as the demands made are experienced as being harder. This creates frustration and tends to result in lower levels of ambition.
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| 4. |
- Johnsson Harrie, Anna, 1972-
(författare)
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Staten och läromedlen : En studie av den svenska statliga förhandsgranskningen av läromedel 1938-1991
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Studien handlar om statlig påverkan på skolans läromedel. Här studeras såväl de politiska besluten om, som det konkreta genomförandet av, den svenska statliga förhandsgranskningen av läromedel, från starten 1938 till avskaffandet 1991. De politiska besluten och genomförandet sker på skilda arenor. Med hjälp av teoretiska begrepp från såväl läroplansteori som statsvetenskaplig implemen-teringsteori synliggörs och analyseras de olika arenorna samt relationerna mellan dem. Den politiska debatten studeras genom det offentliga trycket. Studien visar att granskningen infördes i politisk enighet och avskaffades helt utan politisk debatt. De politiska argumenten för granskning har varit att hålla priserna på läroböcker nere samt säkra läromedlens kvalitet. Vad som avsågs med kvalitet har dock varierat mellan olika aktörer och över tid. När det gäller genomförandet av granskningen studeras både Läroboks-/Läromedelsnämndens instruktioner till granskarna, och granskarnas utlåtanden om läromedel i samhällskunskap för gymnasieskolan. Den reella granskningen hade ofta fokus på att söka sakfel i läromedlen. Under 1970-talet fick objektivitetsfrågor genomslag i granskningen. Läroplanen, som betonades på den politiska arenan, användes dock i mindre utsträckning i det reella genomförandet av granskningen. Styrningsresultatet var beroende av aktörerna på realiseringsarenan och deras förståelse, vilja och kunnande. Styrningen kunde dock, i vissa fall, nå ända fram och påverka lärobokstexten. I dessa fall fanns en fungerande styrning från politisk debatt, via lagtext och granskning till en förändrad läromedelstext.
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| 5. |
- Lidström, Lena, 1967-
(författare)
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En resa med osäkra mål : Unga vuxnas övergångar från skola till arbete i ett biografiskt perspektiv
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- School-to-work (STW) transitions have become more protracted over recent decades, with increased risks of unemployment and social exclusion for young people. Moreover, young people are expected to plan their own career and enhance their employability, although gender and social and cultural background still significantly influence employment prospects. Policies have been developed in an attempt to facilitate young people’s pathways into work. However, STW-transitions are one of the weakest points in Swedish welfare system; in addition the quality of career guidance has been questioned. This dissertation aims to describe and analyse young adults STW-transitions from a biographical perspective. It is based around life story interviews with 52 unemployed young adults’, 25-29 years old, including men and women with varying educational backgrounds, living in three different Swedish local contexts. Four research questions are examined: How do the young adults’ describe their STW-transitions in retrospect? What characterized their horizons of actions at the time of the interview? What is the impact of public career guidance? How did ethnicity, gender and locality affect answers to the above questions - and how may such differences be interpreted? The analysis of the young adults’ narratives was based on the careership theory developed by Hodkinson and Sparkes. In retrospect the young adults described their STW-transitions as an attempt to find and achieve personal goals. They emphasized turning points, i.e. when education or a job begins or ends, but also highlighted experiences when studying or working that make them realize what they wanted or what they would not accept. Four transition patterns, partly connected to gender and locality, were identified among the respondents: yo-yoing between workplaces, education and unemployment; mainly working; mainly in education; or mainly excluded from work and education. These patterns involved varying experiences, current situations and future expectations. At the time of the interview the young adults’ horizon of action involved interrelated aspects of life, but getting a stable job and settling down was pivotal to most of them. The strategies of the interviewees for navigating between dreams and reality diverged. However, they shared an ambition “to put one’s talents to good use” and feared not being able to do so. Experiences of career guidance were generally reported to have been sporadic and meaningless. However, in some cases, interventions are influential for example, when choosing an upper secondary school or during times of unemployment. The young adults’ employed various strategies when interventions adversely affected their goals; of these “to managing by one’s self” was the most common. In addition, guidance varied according to ethnicity and local structures. It is concluded that STW-transitions are challenging journeys, mainly undertaken without professional support, which the young adults perceived as uncertain.
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| 6. |
- Nyroos, Mikaela, 1973-
(författare)
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Tid till förfogande : Förändrad användning och fördelning av undervisningstid i grundskolans senare år?
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Swedish education system has undergone decentralisation and deregulation since the late 1970s. The 1999 parliamentary resolution for a 5-year experiment of increased school autonomy in time allocation, was a late step in this development. Approximately 900 compulsory schools in 79 municipalities no longer had to adhere to the regulation of the national time schedule. The overall aim of this thesis is to describe and analyse changes of time allocation and time use in schools during the experiment. The analysis has the theories and research by Basil Bernstein and Michael Fullan as the point of departure. Framing and classification, educational change and teachers’ work culture are some of the key concepts. The results from interviews with 32 local directors formed the basis of selection of three participating municipalities and schools in the longitudinal study. The sample included both municipalities participating and some not participating in the experiment. The schools had varying motives for participating, and different initial time allocation strategies and procedures. However, they all shared an ambition to strengthen curriculum and school development. Pupils, teachers and head teachers from three classes and teacher teams in the three schools were interviewed and observed over a period of two years. Documents on time use and policies from the three schools were analysed. No dramatic changes were observed. Changes rarely meant a redistribution of time between contents/subjects or pupils. Instead they were predominantly about weakened boundaries between subjects and teachers, increased teacher control over the work and giving pupils more influence over their own learning situation. So called open lessons, when pupils were allowed to choose what, where and how to study, cross-disciplinary studies and subject-integrated teamwork facilitated this. A majority of pupils and teachers appreciated the increased freedom and control over their work. Some teachers, however, tended to be more hesitant, pointing to risks of work overload and lowered academic achievement. Both teachers and pupils doubted that all pupils could manage highly autonomous studies, and agreed that some needed more structure and help from the teachers. Teachers in practical and aesthetic subjects were often constrained from engaging in cross-disciplinary studies and teamwork. Having one’s teaching assignment divided between many different classes and even schools, and lack of premises were commonly mentioned obstacles. Committed head teachers and well-functioning teacher teams were significant factors were commonly in the observed development process. Also, active support from the municipality and network-participation were contributing factors. Attention is drawn to the fact that it is not possible to relate the observed changes exclusively to the time schedule experiment. They were feasible within the existing, flexible frames of the national time schedule. Furthermore, a number of other changes occurred parallel to the experiment.
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| 7. |
- Wiklund, Matilda, 1965-
(författare)
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Kunskapens fanbärare : den goda läraren som diskursiv konstruktion på en mediearena
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The specific aim of this dissertation is to formulate and examine the discursive constructions of “the good teacher” in a specific discursive practice in the media arena. The broader aim is to participate in a discussion about the relationship between the media and education, including education policy. The discursive practice that is studied is the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter. The material underlying the study consists of articles published on the editorial and comment pages of the paper during the 1990s, a decade when the Swedish education system underwent some major changes.In the first part of the empirical study, the articles included are categorised, first according to the debates constituted and then according to five themes related to the position of the teacher. The second part of the empirical study focuses on education as it is constructed in the discursive practice examined, progressing step by step towards achieving the specific aim of the study. The findings here include the following: a situation for education is established which involves a clear distinction between two different ways of perceiving education; a space of possibility for schooling is opened which excludes certain issues; a preferred school is formed in which priority is given to subject knowledge and order; distinct subject positions are offered to different figures in education, including teachers who are given an authoritative voice and educational researchers who are not; and finally the “good teacher” constructed is an expert who bears and transmits subject knowledge and a proponent of traditional values who manages to individualise teaching.It is also found in the study that a conservative discourse serves to provide an illness for a remedy that is put forward by a neo-liberal discourse, and that media logic is at work in the framing of educational issues in the practice studied.
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| 8. |
- Berglund, Ingrid, 1954-
(författare)
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Byggarbetsplatsen som skola - eller skolan som byggarbetsplats? : En studie av byggnadsarbetares yrkesutbildning
- 2009
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The issue of this dissertation is the relationship between Vocational Education and Training (VET) in general and VET for building and construction in particular, as well as implications of the fact that Swedish VET is carried out both in school and in working life. Vocational construction education includes a three year Construction Programme at upper secondary school followed by two to three years of on-the-job training in the construction industry. In this case study of an upper secondary Construction Programme, the school based daily instruction as well as work based training, is explored and documented. These constitute a base for descriptions and analysis of education as a whole from the perspective of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). The aim of the analysis is to identify the main motives for vocational construction education. The case study results are further based on descriptions and CHAT-analyses of the historical development of construction work as well as of Swedish VET in general and of vocational construction area in particular. The case study illustrates that two activities form vocational construction education; the dominating activity being construction production, and school-activity. The terms of construction industry seem to greatly determine the realisation of the school based construction production activity. E.g. teamwork is emphasised in both activities. The school activity is marked by the implementation of infusion of core subjects by vocational subjects, aimed at preparing the students for continued professional development in the trade. The conclusion drawn here is that the new Swedish apprenticeship seems to contribute to a narrow professional knowledge base, whereas the use of infused core subjects seems to contribute to a broader professional knowledge base.
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| 9. |
- Nyberg, Britt
(författare)
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Förskollärarkårens professionaliseringssträvanden 1960 – 2005 ur ett fackligt perspektiv
- 2008
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall point of the study is to describe and understand the endeavours of the pre-school teachers’ trade union to establish professionalism within this field of work, from the end of the 1960s to 2005. In order to shed light on the subject the main questions asked and answered in this study were: How does the pre-school teachers’ trade union act on issues regarding the autonomy of the pre-school teaching profession? To what extent, and in what way, does the pre-school teachers’ trade union strengthen the pre-school teaching profession’s position by differentiating itself from, and/or allying itself with other professional groups? Which knowledge base is the pre-school teachers’ trade union trying to establish and how does the union act on issues concerning the pre-school teaching profession’s knowledge base? How can these endeavours be understood from a gender perspective? The study presents profession and gender theoretical perspectives. It is based on an analysis of trade-union and official documents concerning pre-school, such as government enquiries, general guidelines and formal instructions. The analysis shows that state regulation of pre-school and its teachers has increased over the 45-year period in question. The result of this has been clearer directives but, at the same time, a loss of professional autonomy. The pre-school teachers’ trade unions’ endeavours to establish a professional monopoly through attempting to differentiate the profession by excluding people without a university degree, has been unsuccessful despite exclusion strategies aimed at nursery nurses. A clear effort can be seen to build an alliance with the teachers in compulsory schools. Aside from extending the pre-school teachers’ university training to 3.5 years, it is also evident that the move from care and developmental psychology to pedagogy and learning has been effected through the alliance with the compulsory school teachers. From a gender perspective, the context of pre-school teaching can be seen to have changed symbolically from one primarily intended to provide care and monitor children to a more pedagogical institution. Pre-school teachers have become teachers and children’s learning is emphasised more than their development. Overall this means that the pre-school teachers have a new identity and that pre-school teaching is no longer so clearly a woman’s job.
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| 10. |
- Olson, Maria, 1969-
(författare)
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Från nationsbyggare till global marknadsnomad : Om medborgarskap i svensk utbildningspolitik under 1990-talet
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- I den här avhandlingen är intresset riktat mot svensk utbildningspolitik och medborgarskap. I tider av globalisering, och med ett etablerat svenskt medlemskap i Europeiska unionen, har det nationella policyskapandet kring utbildningens medborgardanande funktion hamnat under ökat tryck. I studien undersöks hur detta hanteras i svensk utbildningspolitik under 1990-talet, en tid som utmärker sig genom betydande förändringar på utbildningsområdet i Sverige. Frågan är, mera precist, vilken riktning för skolans, enligt lag befästa, uppdrag att fostra demokratiska medborgare som utstakas i svensk utbildningspolitik vid denna tid.Genom att fästa vikt vid mål, visioner och motiv som formuleras i utbildningspolitiska 1990-talstexter klarläggs förståelser av medborgarskap som karaktäriserar svensk utbildningspolitik under denna tid. Även en bredare historisk analys görs, ur vilken historiska målsättningar med skolans medborgarfostran som föregår 1990-talets framträder. Studiens syfte är kritiskt. Förståelserna granskas utifrån vad de innesluter och vad de utesluter, vilka möjliga konsekvenser de kan tänkas få för olika individer och grupper i samhället, och om det finns öppningar för tänkbara alternativ.Studien visar på två historiska skiften vad gäller medborgarskapets innehåll och mening i det inhemska policyskapandet. Det första skiftet äger rum under 1990-talets tidiga del. Då bryts en etablerad samhällsbyggande medborgarroll upp, till förmån för andra mera marknadsorienterade medborgarroller. Under 1990-talets senare del, då marknadsorienteringen förstärks i neoliberal riktning, sker ett andra skifte; en historiskt vedertagen gemenskapstanke – nationen – bryts upp som grund för medborgerlig gemenskap. Denna tanke ersätts av en annan som är globaliseringsinriktad, vilken visar sig ha andra inne- och uteslutande mekanismer för olika individer och samhällsgrupper. Utifrån dessa forskningsrön tecknas avslutningsvis några konturer till ett alternativt sätt att tänka kring medborgarskap och gemenskap. Detta alternativ tar form i ambitionen att, i högre grad än vad som blir synligt i svensk utbildningspolitik, resonera kring möjligheter för ett medborgarskap bortom förhandstecknade indelningsgrunder för ett “vi”.Språk som politisk och samhällelig förändringskraft ges en central betydelse i avhandlingen. I analysen av texternas tal om skolans medborgarfostrande roll undersöks pågående politiska motsättningar när det gäller att vinna tal- och tolkningsföreträde till skolans fostransmål. Utgångarna av dessa motsättningar belyses genom tre områden för medborgarfostran som urskilts som centrala; ett politiskt, ett kulturellt samt ett ekonomi- och arbetslivsriktat. Genom dessa har rådande medborgarskapsdiskurser tagit form, ur vilka de utbildningspolitiska förståelserna av medborgarskap gestaltas och diskuteras.
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