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- Beach, Dennis, 1956-, et al.
(author)
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Rurality and education relations : metro-centricity and local values in rural communities and rural schools
- 2019
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In: European Educational Research Journal. - : Sage Publications. - 1474-9041. ; 18:1, s. 19-33
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Based on ethnographic fieldwork in six different types of rural area and their schools in different parts of Sweden, this article identifies how rural schools relate to the local place and discusses some of the educational implications from this. Recurrent references to the local community were present in some schools and people there explicitly positioned themselves in the local rural context and valorised rurality positively in education exchanges, content and interactions, with positive effects on young people's experiences of participation and inclusion. These factors tended to occur in sparsely populated areas. An emphasis on nature and its value as materially vital in people's lives was present as was a critique of middle-class metrocentricity. Such values and critique seemed to be absent in other areas, where rurality was instead often represented along the metrocentric lines of a residual space in modernizing societies.
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- Benerdal, Malin, Doktor, 1984-, et al.
(author)
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Lokala aktörers arbete för integration i rurala områden
- 2021
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In: Arbetsmarknad & Arbetsliv. - Karlstad : Karlstads universitet. - 1400-9692 .- 2002-343X. ; 27:3, s. 45-64
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Integration och särskilt etablering på arbetsmarknaden för migranter står högt på dagordningen i den politiska debatten. I artikeln fokuseras centrala aktörers integrationsarbete i förhållande till nationella riktlinjer och lokala förutsättningar i tre rurala kommuner. Analysen visar att det huvudsakligen är det rurala i förhållande till det urbana som tycks avgörande för de tre kommunerna, samt att lokala innovativa lösningar nyttjas för att främja etablering och möjliggöra för migranter att stanna och verka på orten. Nationella riktlinjer tycks både verka som stimulerande drivkrafter och förhindrande, begränsande strukturer som är opålitliga och kortsiktiga i ett sammanhang där tidsperspektivet är centralt.
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- Bortes, Cristian, 1984-
(author)
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Growing up with poor health and managing school : Studies on ill health and young people's educational achievements
- 2022
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Aim and objectives: The overall aim of this thesis was to empirically investigate consequences of poor health for children’s educational outcomes in Sweden. A central tenet is that health problems impact not only the afflicted individual but also people in their social and emotional proximity, in particular immediate family members. More specific objectives were to study: 1. The relationship between multiple clinically diagnosed mental disorders and children’s educational achievements in Sweden. 2. The bidirectional relationship between mental health problems and academic performance among Swedish adolescents, as well as heterogeneous patterns associated with gender and socioeconomic groups. 3. The effects of parental somatic and psychiatric health problems on the probability of youths leaving upper secondary education before completion in Sweden and potential gender differences in these effects. 4. The relationship between having a sibling with health problems and a healthy sibling’s school grades in the final year of compulsory education in Sweden and how socioeconomic background modifies this relationship.Theoretical framework: Key concepts applied in the thesis are health and illness. The ability to perform things in life, the ability to act, determines whether a person is healthy or ill. Illness (or poor health, treated as a synonymous term) entails a reduced ability to act in relation to one’s life situation and its demands. Family is viewed from a systems theory perspective. Poor health of a parent reduces his or her ability to maintain regular roles, which may require reorganisation of the family system. Siblings’ health problems can affect other children in the family by inducing concerns and occupying and diverting parents’ time and attention. All of this could be psychosocially stressful in many ways, not least for children in the family and their ability in relation to schooling.Data and methods: The research objectives were addressed by utilising social and medical microdata from Swedish administrative registers covering the entire population in Sweden. Data pertaining to different populations, collectively covering the period from 1987 to 2017, were used in four studies designated Studies I–IV. Educational achievement was measured in terms of teacher-assigned school grades awarded by the end of compulsory school and in upper secondary school, as well as completion (or non-completion) of an upper secondary education. Poor health was measured through data on outpatient visits to specialist healthcare facilities, psychotropic drug prescriptions and admissions/discharges from Swedish hospitals. Socioeconomic background was measured by parental level of education. The data were analysed by fitting linear and logistic regression models as well as cross-lagged path models.Results and conclusions: Empirical results of Study I showed that specific diagnosed mental disorders have varying, largely disadvantageous, associations with educational achievements of students that differ between boys and girls. Documentation of this in Sweden adds to evidence that mental disorders have a negative overall association with educational achievement, despite substantial variation in support and educational systems across countries. The results of Study II provided no support for a bidirectional relationship between mental health and academic performance of students aged 15-16 to 18-19 years. However, they support a unidirectional relationship, as a negative relationship was found between school grades at graduation from compulsory school and rates of subsequent psychotropic medication use in upper secondary school. The relationship was equal in size for both boys and girls but mainly among adolescents with the highest educated parents.Study III showed that having a mother or a father with psychiatric, but not somatic, illness that necessitated hospitalisation after completing compulsory schooling was associated with an increased probability of leaving upper secondary school before completion. No significant gender-based differences in this were found. Results presented in Study IV showed that having one or more siblings with health problems that necessitated recurrent hospitalisations was associated with lower grades. Children with ill siblings were also less likely to be eligible for an upper secondary education compared to children whose siblings did not have poor health. Socioeconomic background did not affect this educational disadvantage.Results presented in this thesis clearly corroborate the importance of health for children’s education. Children’s educational achievements at the end of compulsory school are inversely related to mental health problems in their adolescence. Thus, academic competence may have positive effects on certain aspects of young people’s mental health, which underscores the importance of promoting opportunities for youth to do as well as they can in school. The reciprocal aspect of the relationship between mental health and academic performance among school-aged children remains an important issue that requires further investigation. However, health is not just an individual issue; parents’ and siblings’ health problems can affect children and have negative ‘spillover’ effects on their schooling and educational achievements. This underlines the importance of a psychosocial perspective when identifying children’s difficulties in school. Taken together, health, and thus the school’s student health task, is highly associated with academic achievement and schools’ pedagogical responsibilities.
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- Eiríksdóttir, Elsa, et al.
(author)
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Teacher characterization of VET students: Paradoxes and consequences
- 2017
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Research illustrates that the student population in vocational education and training (VET) are diverse, in terms of achievement, learning disability and age for example. The diversity is prominent especially when compared to higher education preparatory programmes, which tend to be more homogenous. Policy research and classroom observations, indicate that recent educational policy reforms and pedagogical practices focus first and foremost on lower achieving students. This is not necessarily an accurate portrayal of the VET students and the aim of the presentation will be to look at how teachers discuss and describe their students and how student diversity is addressed in pedagogical practices.Interviews with 12 VET teachers in Iceland and Sweden (6 in each country) were conducted in the period of 2009 to 2014 in the course of larger studies on teaching practices in upper secondary schools and VET programmes. In the current analysis we extracted themes related to student characterization from the interviews. The resulting themes include discussion on dealing with diverse student groups, variations in age of students, and learning disabilities of students. Field notes from 41 classroom observations from the same two research projects were also analysed thematically, i.e. how VET teachers address diversity.The results highlight paradoxes related to the characterization of VET students and the reality facing VET teachers as well the consequences, i.e. consequences in pedagogical practices and the status of the vocational student and education. The teachers describe having students with learning disabilities and difficult educational history, but also students who are high-achieving and ambitious. This description of the VET students is in contrast with how the VET students tend to be portrayed in policy documents – where the emphasis has been on VET being for lower achieving students, emphasizing the secondary status VET often holds in the educational system. The results also reveal that in dealing with the diversity in the classroom, teachers often revert to individualisation in their pedagogical practices: the students then move through the courses on their own speed separately and rarely work or reflect collectively on the issues at hand.Drawing on research data from VET programmes in Iceland and Sweden, even though having diverse educational structures, shows similar patterns when addressing diversity. Our findings seem relevant for all Nordic countries since policy reforms and pedagogical practices foremost address the low achieving student. When policy and pedagogic practices addressing the low achieving student the status of the VET education might “push” high achieving students away from VET as well as future employers with high demands of skilled labour. Still our conclusion is not to instead address the high achieving but rather emphasize that vocational teachers need knowledge in how to arrange challenging pedagogical practices for diverse groups of students, without too much individualisation. This could be done through improvements of in vocational teacher programmes, but also and probably more importantly, through the organization of VET. One suggestion might be closer and more extensive collaborations between VET subject teachers and special pedagogues.
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| 8. |
- Eiríksdóttir, Elsa, et al.
(author)
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VET teachers' interpretations of individualisation and teaching of skills and social order in two Nordic countries
- 2019
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In: European Educational Research Journal. - : Sage Publications. - 1474-9041. ; 18:3, s. 355-375
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The age at which young people leave education for the labour market has increased in recent decades, and entering upper secondary education has become the norm. As a result, the diversity of the student population has increased, for instance in terms of students’ academic merits and achievements at school. Increased diversity seems to affect vocational education and training more than tracks preparing students for higher education, because entry into vocational education and training (VET) programmes is rarely selective. In this article we analyse a series of interviews with VET teachers regarding VET practices in upper secondary schools in Sweden and Iceland. We examine how policy plays out in practice in VET by looking at how VET teachers navigate the sometimes-conflicting educational goals of employability and civic engagement, while simultaneously teaching a highly diverse group of students. In both countries, pedagogic practices are dominated by individualisation with a focus on task-related skills. Those practices are important in VET, but can exclude broader understandings of civil and workplace life, because general knowledge about areas such as ethics, democracy, equality, and environmental issues is difficult to obtain if education gives students few opportunities to interact with others, such as through group work or classroom discussions.
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| 9. |
- Forsell, Tobias, 1974-
(author)
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”Man är ju typ elev, fast på avstånd” : problematisk skolfrånvaro ur elevers, föräldrars och skolpersonals perspektiv
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Aim: The aim of the thesis is to increase the knowledge of problematic school absenteeism by focusing on factors and processes contributing to this phenomenon in compulsory school, but also to identify what helps turningabsenteeism into increased school attendance. The thesis uses Kearney’s (2008a) definition of problematic school absenteeism: absences that adversely affect the student’s social and cognitive development, and mental wellbeing.Method: The thesis investigates problematic school absenteeism on the basis of in-depth interviews with 15 students aged between 16 and 25, 15 parents, and 11 school staff with long experience of working with students in this situation, thereby providing rich information on the complex phenomenon under study. The resulting narratives have been analysed using thematic content analysis.Theoretical framework: Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s (1977, 1979a, 1986a) ecological systems theory of human development, the analytical framework is used to unveil the dynamic interaction between the student and his/herenvironment. In addition, the concept of alienation (Bronfenbrenner, 1986a; Hascher & Hadjar, 2018) is used to facilitate a deeper understanding of potentially important generator of unfavourable conditions in school, which byextension may have negative effects on the students’ ability to attend school.Major findings: Problematic school absenteeism in compulsory school is resulting from a range of factors at different levels interacting over a longer period of time. There is a need to distinguish between underlying, eliciting and maintaining factors. Shorter spells of truancy and absence related to illness may be early warning signs. Feelings of being different and lonely, harassment by peers, and difficulties to live up to the demands in school are commonly described as factors pushing the student away from school. Absence from school for a longer period of time in turn results in problems such as anxiety, depression, reduced social contacts and lagging behind in school-work that maintain and increase the difficulties to go back to school. The students, above all those with extensive and long-term absenteeism, usually need changes in the school environment if their attendance rates are to improve. Such ecological changes may be a question of teaching in an alternative learning environment, a change of school, or that significant others enter the student’s life and contribute to a manageable study situation. Such a conclusion is in contrast to research that one-sidedly points to measures aimed at changing the student’s patterns of thought and behaviour.
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