| 1. |
- Germundsson, Per, 1956-
(author)
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Lärare, socialsekreterare och barn som far illa : om sociala representationer och interprofessionell samverkan
- 2011
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of the thesis is, through use of the theory of social representations, to increase knowledge about the meeting between social workers and teachers, as professional groups, during collaboration with regard to the target group, children at risk. The thesis intends to capture the parties’ perceptions of one another and of that about which they are cooperating, as well as to discuss possible consequences of these perceptions in the context of interprofessional collaboration on children at risk. Empirical data was collected through an association study. The informants consisted of 200 teachers and social workers who had participated in various collaborative projects concerning the target group of children at risk. The study shows that the two professional groups have similar representations of children at risk. The social workers’ representations of the teachers are mostly positive, but the teachers are perceived, in many cases, to lack knowledge about social workers and their field of expertise. Teachers’ representations of social workers are colored to a much greater extent by negative associations. The negative image is primarily related to social services as an organization, not to social workers as individuals. In relation to the specific area of interprofessional collaboration on children at risk, the study indicates that the involved parties’ social representations play a significant role in the collaboration process. The research of this thesis has shown that the theory of social representations provides an effective framework for the study of the collaborating professionals’ group perceptions of one another and of children at risk. A preliminary model that seeks to illuminate the role of social representations, trust, and communication in the collaborative process has been presented.
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| 2. |
- Granbom, Ingrid
(author)
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"Vi har nästan blivit för bra" : lärares sociala representationer av förskolan som pedagogisk praktik
- 2011
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- En majoritet av svenska barn deltar i förskoleaktiviteter, vilket indikerar att förskolemiljön spelar en viktig roll för de erfarenheter barn får i sin vardag. Förskolans verksamhet baserar sig i hög grad på grundläggande värderingar och idéer beträffande bland annat barnuppfostran, förskolans uppdrag och synen på förskolans roll i samhället. Syftet med den här studien är att beskriva och analysera lärarnas konstruktion av mening och vardagskunskap beträffande förskolan som pedagogisk praktik. Fokus för den empiriska studien är hur delad kunskap om förskolan genereras och artikuleras av lärare som arbetar i förskolan. Den teoretiska ramen tar sin utgångspunkt i teorin om sociala representationer. Studien syftar till att svara på frågor om innehåll och teman i lärarnas samtal samt lyfta fram de kommunikativa resurser som används av deltagarna när de skapar en gemensam förståelse av vardagsarbetet i förskolan. Empirin i föreliggande studie utgörs av diskussioner i fokusgrupper. Sju grupper med sammanlagt 45 deltagare deltog i dessa fokusgruppsintervjuer. Resultatet visar att lärares samtal om förskolans yrkespraktik inkluderar underliggande sociala representationer. Ett antagande som är centralt i studien är att representationerna ligger till grund för hur arbetet organiseras och genomförs. Deltagarna i studien var arbetskamrater och deras diskussioner tog sin utgångspunkt i stimulusmaterial som jag tillhandahöll i syfte att stimulera diskussionen. En analys av data visar att lärarna utvecklar delade kunskapssystem vilket inkluderar olika, sinsemellan motsatta idéer och värderingar av förskolan som pedagogisk praktik. Begreppet relationella kategorier bidrar till att lyfta fram och synliggöra dessa motsatta idéer. De skall dock betraktas med utgångspunkt i ett ömsesidigt beroende och i relation till varandra snarare än särskiljande dikotomier. De relationella kategorierna formar kulturella antaganden utifrån vilka människor tänker och talar. Att tala utifrån en position innebär således att vi tar något för givet. Analysen resulterade i ett flertal relationella kategorier vilka tycks ha inverkan på lärares tal om sin praktik. I studien beskrivs även förankringsprocesser och kommunikativa resurser som deltagarna använder för att skapa gemensam förståelse för vardagsarbetet i förskolan. Resultatet visar att lärarna ger uttryck för två, sinsemellan olika, sociala representationer av förskolan som pedagogisk praktik: Förskolan som en plats för alla och Förskolan som en plats för några. Dessa båda representationer innefattar skilda representationer av barn och barns kompetenser, lärarens yrkesroll samt förskolans roll i samhället. Begreppet cognitive polyphasia bidrar tillatt belysa och beskriva relationen mellan stabil och föränderlig kunskap samt hur det kommer sig att lärarnas sociala representationer av förskolan framstår som ambivalenta och i viss mån t.o.m. motsägelsefulla. Studien bidrar till en fördjupad förståelse för den komplexa och dynamiska kunskap som involverar lärarens konstruktion av mening beträffande förskolan som pedagogisk praktik. Teorin om sociala representationer möjliggör analys och beskrivning av denna komplexitet.
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| 3. |
- Ludvigsson, Ann
(author)
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Samproducerat ledarskap : Hur rektorer och lärare formar ledarskap i skolans vardagsarbete
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Denna avhandling handlar om ledarskapet i skolan. Skolan är en sammansatt verksamhet och i ledarskapet handlar det om att hantera många olika uppgifter på olika nivåer. Samtidigt som skolledare och lärare skall leva upp till samhälleliga förväntningar på skolverksamheten skall de också hantera kulturella villkor inom skolan. I avhandlingen studeras hur ledarskapet formas i och av samspelet mellan skolledare och lärare i vardagsarbetet. En fråga fokuserar på hur skolledare och lärare ser på varandra och hur de influerar och förstår varandra i vardagsarbetet. En annan fråga uppmärksammar vilken betydelse skolsammanhanget har för samspelet.För att belysa samspelet används fallstudier som forskningsstrategi. I studien ingår tre F-6-skolor med förskole-, fritidshems- och grundskoleverksamhet. Det empiriska materialet består av intervjuer och observationer. Teoretiskt har studien en socialkonstruktionistisk utgångspunkt i betydelsen av att skolledarskap ses som ett socialt fenomen. Intresset riktas mot att belysa skolledares och lärares utsagor om hur de förstår varandra och varandras ord och handlingar i det vardagliga arbetet. Resultatet ger anledning att fråga vem som egentligen leder vem. Avhandlingen visar tydligt att ledarskap är något som skolledarna och lärarna oundvikligen formar tillsammans – därav titeln Samproducerat ledarskap. Studien visar hur sociala, kulturella och politiska dimensioner i samspelet influerar skolledarnas och lärarnas agerande och ledarskapet. Konsekvensen blir ett ifrågasättande av den allt populärare bilden av ledaren som med stark hand förväntas styra sin organisation. En förståelse för att skolledarskapet är samproducerat, och att sociala, kulturella och politiska dimensioner har avgörande betydelser för hur det utövas medför en mer realistisk syn på skolledarskapets förutsättningar.
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| 4. |
- Bergmo-Prvulovic, Ingela
(author)
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Social representations of career and career guidance in the changing world of working life
- 2015
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis explores the meaning of career as a phenomenon and its implication for career guidance. In 1996, career as a phenomenon was more or less considered to be an obsolete or even extinct phenomenon. Since then, career guidance has received increased attention along with the increased interest in lifelong learning strategies. This thesis is motivated by the paradoxical message of career as an extinct yet living phenomenon. Career is outlined as a bridging issue that involves several contexts and is characterized by a number of dominating discourses in tension with one another. Two educational fields linked by career are of particular interest: the field of education and training in working life and the educational field of career guidance counselling. This thesis explores the meaning of career among a triad of various interested parties in this time of transition in the world of working life, and it explores the sense in which such understanding(s) of career influence policies and practices of career guidance. The thesis is based upon four separate studies. The first study explores, in order to disclose underlying views on career, how the language of European policy documents on career guidance characterize career and career development. Qualitative content analysis is used as the basic method to approach the subject in the texts, with an inductive development of categories. The analysis then conducts a sender-oriented interpretation, based upon a textual model for analyzing documents. The results revealed that underlying perspective on career in the documents derive from economic perspective, learning perspective and political science perspective, and communicate career as subordinated to market forces. The second study pays attention to the receiving side of the ideational message, disclosed in the first study. The second study extends the analysis of the first study with an exploration of ethical declaration documents for the profession. The exploration focuses on significant key principles, the profession's role and mission, and significant changes between the initial and the revised ethical declaration. Similarities and differences were compared, combined with the first study’s results as an interpretive frame for analyzing what consequences and significance the core meaning of career at structural level will have for career guidance practice. The results revealed an implicit shift of emphasis in the career guidance mission, which creates uncertainty regarding on behalf of whom the guidance counsellor is working. The third study explores common-sense knowledge of career, among a group of people influenced by changing conditions in working life. This study explores what social representations people have about career. The study also explores how people's anchored thoughts reflect scientifically shaped thoughts, and how they relate to thoughts currently dominating on structural level. Results disclose how the group explored has stable social representations of career that are anchored in the past, in previous working life conditions, and that contrasts with perspectives dominating in the structural context. The group also has dynamic representations, which provide space for negotiation of the meaning of career. The fourth study explores guidance counsellors' social representations of their mission and of careertherein. Results generated four social representations expressed in argumentative pairs of opposites. The first pair is concerned with their professional mission and reveal their professional identity. The second is concerned with career. Their view on their mission and their professional identity is in sharp contrast with how they experience others' interpretation of their mission, as being a matching practice on behalf of the business sector. Guidance counsellors reject the general view of career among others' and they regard career in the context of guidance as something other than the common view. At the same time guidance counsellors reveal difficulties in really clarifying the meaning they ascribe to career. The empirical findings of each of the four studies are finally interpreted as a whole in the final section of this thesis. With support from social representations theory, the empirical findings illuminate the sources as bearers of social representations of career, which both meet and clash.
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| 5. |
- Eidevald, Christian, 1973-
(author)
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Det finns inga tjejbestämmare : Att förstå kön som position i förskolans vardagsrutiner och lek
- 2009
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Previous research studies have shown that in their address and behaviour towards girls and boys, pre-school staff apply stereotyped gender concepts, thus reinforcing rather than challenging stereotypes. The present thesis therefore focuses on which of children’s positions that are accepted or that face resistance from the staff. In this way, children’s gender-based "identity-formation" can be critically analyzed based on different possible descriptions of how it is to be a girl or a boy, and what unaware assumptions about gender representations that in this way may be made in different ways by both children and adults.The theoretical point of departure is feminist poststructuralism; and the analysis focuses on variations found between the groups of girls and boys, as well as within these groups, and within individuals. The empirical data consists of video-taped sessions from two teams working with children aged 3-5, and focus groups interviews with the adult. Then different "readings" of the empirical material have been conducted based on different assumptions (discourses); i.e. assuming that girls and boys "really" are different or equal, different behaviours will appear as more or less obvious and natural. By showing that several different discourses are present at the same time, gender-based "identity-formation" is described as a very complex process. The analyzed situations show that girls and boys in pre-school are defined and treated in stereotyped ways, however, there is a large hidden variation of how different girls and different boys positions themselves in different contexts. Pre-school teachers thus work actively to distinguish between girls and boys based on how they are being perceived as either girls or boys. Teachers’ expectations then become decisive of how different children are addressed and treated in different situations. To conclude, the pedagogical consequences of this are discussed with regard to gender equality work in which also alternative discourses are formulated.
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| 6. |
- Ericsson, Gunilla, 1952-
(author)
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Ledares aktionslärande : Att styra och följa lärandeprocesser i arbetslivet
- 2007
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- AbstractThis study reports a project within which leaders in a local government administration develop their skills about and in action learning. The main focus is on the conditions that are needed in an action learning process. The aim is to analyse the working process, how the leaders make use of their own experiences from daily working life and put them into questions and actions, and finally, to question and analyse my own leading process as an action researcher.During nearly two years, the leaders taking part in the study and myself have been involved in a complex, social process where experiences from daily working life have put questions into actions and investigations.Results show that the leaders, through the working process, learned how to investigate, collect information and analyse data. Time and process were found to be key concepts in their action learning. Uncertainty characterised the leaders´ initially work while the enthusiasm and more initiative from their side appeared as the work proceeded. Through the process they had to deal and struggle with their staff’s notions about working conditions as well as their own leadership. Demands on responsibility for their own actions were mixed with a permitting atmosphere holding both laughing and testing of new ideas. Another result shows tensions within this learning process, on one hand, between the leaders who wanted to keep their agreed understanding and, on the other, my intentions to challenge their understandings. The variation and changing in interaction patterns over time between me and the leaders seem to be crucial to make this project the leaders´ own working process. My leadership changed from initially instructing, to coaching and finally to take a back seat. A main conclusion from the study is that designing adult education in a learning perspective, deals with working methods as well as content.Keywords: action learning, leadership, interaction, process, experiential learning, adult education
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