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- Avery, Helen
(author)
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Moving together – conditions for intercultural development at a highly diverse Swedish school
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis is a case study of a primary school in a highly diverse urban neighbourhood in Sweden. Basic pre-conditions for intercultural school development are studied by examining the overall organisation of teaching, learning and opportunities for collaboration in the investigated case. The study focuses on the targeted support measures to enhance learning for students with an immigrant background: Mother tongue instruction, Swedish as a Second Language, and tutoring in the mother tongue, as well as looking at pedagogical support provided by the school library. The latter has a mission to promote learning and inclusion, where non-native speakers of Swedish are a prioritised group.Communities of practice linked to the work organisation at a meso-level are investigated, and the collaborative relationships between professional groups at the school involved in the various support measures. Teacher relationships and categorisations implied by support measures impact the learning spaces that are shaped for students and the teaching spaces within which teachers work. Collaborative opportunities and convergence of concerns in the teaching spaces combine to shape the overall space for intercultural development.The raw data for the case study consists of interviews, national policy documents and additional information on local work organisation gained through documents and observations. Four articles resulted from the case study, each focusing a specific support measure. An overarching analysis is then made of findings from these articles and the other dimensions of the investigation. The analysis describes the organisation in terms of monocultural or intercultural school cultures, pointing to significant characteristics of the landscapes of practice, with respect to their overall implications for the spaces of school development. In the discussion, findings are considered in relation to research on professional development in education, collaboration, democracy and inclusive schooling.The relative positioning of languages and cultures is given particular attention, to ascertain if the school culture is monocultural or intercultural in the sense given by Lahdenperä (2008), and to what extent it could enable intercultural development. Such positioning plays a role interms of affordances for identity, participation and engagement discussed by Wenger (1998).This case study should be understood against the wider background of recent social developments in Europe linked to globalisation and technological changes. It is argued that looking at the concrete specifics which facilitate or obstruct school development, and simultaneously reflecting on how the different forms of teaching interrelate in the overall organisation and in policy may provide a useful vantage point from which structural changes can be contemplated.The discussion underlines the importance of the physical localisation of activities, continuity in personal contacts and time available for joint pedagogical reflection, as basic conditions for effective intercultural dialogue in the organisation. Finally, the impact of policy is considered, looking at connections between levels of policy, expressed in official steering documents, and conditions for teaching and learning at the level of an individual school.
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3. |
- Martinsson Niva, Malin, 1976-
(author)
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Det demokratiska uppdraget - en utmaning för pedagogen i grundsärskolan? : En studie om elevinflytande i träningsskolan där TAKK används som kommunikationsverktyg
- 2016
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Syftet med studien var att undersöka pedagogens arbete med elevinflytande i grundsärskolan med inriktning träningsskola där TAKK, Tecken som Alternativ och Kompletterande Kommunikation användes som kommunikationsverktyg. Det empiriska materialet samlades in från tre skolor i tre olika kommuner i samma län. Datamaterialet bestod av lokala styrdokument med ändamål att få en inblick i vilka ambitioner som fanns för det pedagogiska arbetet med elevinflytande, observationer i form av videofilmningar och fältanteckningar samt intervjuer med pedagoger, elever och vårdnadshavare. Studien hade en kvalitativ metodansats med inspiration av ett sociokulturellt perspektiv, med Shiers (2001) delaktighetsmodell som analysverktyg och ett förfaringssätt som kunde beskrivas som en abduktiv arbetsprocess. Resultatet pekade på att det var en pedagogisk utmaning att uppnå det demokratiska uppdraget om elevinflytande och förena det med styrdokumentens kunskapskrav. Studien visade att pedagogerna beaktade elevernas erfarenheter och kunskaper enbart till viss del, då det fanns situationer där eleverna hade kunnat involveras i större utsträckning för att påverka sin skolvardag. Sammanfattningsvis indikerade resultatet att TAKK bidrog till kommunikation och främjade elevernas förmåga att uttrycka sig och sina åsikter.
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