| 1. |
- Jønland Højsgaard, Trine, 1968-
(author)
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Reframed Identity : Red Cross nurses' identity formation between 1945 and 1977
- 2019
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The overall aim is to explore the construction of nurse identity at the Red Cross Nursing School (RCNS) in Sweden, between 1945 and 1977, when nursing became part of the system of higher education in Sweden. Occupational identity is understood as a construct both of social learning and of a self-image. The empirical data consist of documents from the Red Cross Archive concerning the training of nurses and of interviews with nurses trained during the studied period. A hermeneutical interpretative method has been used. The result showed that the period studied was divided into two different phases. The first phase between 1945 and the end of the 1960s, is called the post war phase. The following phase, from the 1960s until 1977, is called the reform friendly phase. RCNS was in the post war phase a kind of total institution, based on a particular belonging to a very special and highly respected social community, reinforced by the student nurses being dressed in the same uniform and living under the same strong authority in a quite homogeneous group. The training was an introduction to a life-long membership in the total Red Cross Nurse community. This community was in the reform friendly phase challenged by diverse external changes in society. Within a period of approximately ten years, much came to be questioned, and many previously important customs and habits were abandoned. The total community started to dilute, and the lives of students changed gradually passing to a social arrangement where they slept, lived and worked in different places with different people under different authorities. The total community was impossible to modernise, built as it was on pre-modern values and hierarchies. This led to a breakdown of the traditional Red Cross nurse identity based on honour, where they were first of all Red Cross sisters. While the uniform occupational identity was challenged, more and more nurses combined family and work. This meant that their self-identities became more multidimensional. The key to our understanding of the Red Cross nursing education and the shift that took place in the late 1960s is thus to be found in the transformation of the internal collective, where nurses no longer lived and 2 learnt the traditional Red Cross codes of honour and conduct. Gradually, nurse training was integrated into higher education. This was a major reframing of the occupational identity formation, from specially selected Red Cross nurse students being trained into a total community of experienced Red Cross nurses, to an academic education of professional nurses.
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| 2. |
- Blåvarg, Ebba Christina, 1967-
(author)
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Psykologi på schemat : Formeringen av ett skolämne, 1960–2015
- 2023
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The school subject psychology in Sweden has undergone several extensive transformations during the period 1960–2015. Since the launch of Läroplan för gymnasiet 1965, psychology is a part of the national curriculum for upper secondary level as a standalone school subject in Sweden. However, it has been formulated differently within different discursive practices. This thesis focuses on the formation of the school subject psychology by analyzing texts on the subject from mainly three different practices where the subject is constructed. The first is a bureaucratic space that includes public policy texts developed through cooperation and regulation by way of bureaucratic processes. The second is a practice-oriented space and it includes teaching materials such as textbooks produced by publishers and individual authors. The third practice is a professional space and includes the discourse on the school subject psychology among teachers in the subject teacher’s association, teacher magazines and debate articles. Through a discursive perspective, the source material from these practices have been analyzed both by focusing on each space separately, and in parallel. Overall, the discourse on the school subject psychology has changed dynamically during the focused period, in the different spaces, which is depicted in detail with examples and excerpts. In addition, four overarching discourse orders are presented. First, the overarching empirical and scientific stance that permeated the subject at the beginning of the national curriculum in the 1960s. Later, in the 1990s and 2000s, an inward shift in subject focus, from being useful for understanding the world with a critical view, to critically examining and evaluating various psychological theories. However, perhaps the most unexpected finding are two major orders of discourse that can be seen in between these in time. Firstly, an overall vivid activity in all the practices and the major change that the subject underwent in the 1970s, in conjunction with the subject revision in 1979. And secondly, the extensive and almost absolute silence that followed in relation to the subject psychology. This thesis contributes to the research field by mapping the formation of psychology as a school subject in Sweden through different discursive practices, as well as highlighting various orders of discourse in relation to psychology as a school subject.
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| 3. |
- Forssell, Anna, 1958-
(author)
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Skolan som politiskt narrativ : En studie av den skolpolitiska debatten i Sveriges riksdag 1991 - 2002
- 2011
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- How do politician talk about the role of school in society, in an era of changing demands and challenges represented by the knowledge society and globalization? The material underlying the study consists of protocols from the Swedish parliament during a decade characterized by many reforms and with both a conservative government and a social democratic. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the contemporary debate on school policy in the Swedish Parliament between 1991 and 2002. My research questions are: Which are the dominating narratives about schooling that emerge in the debate? What are the influences from contemporary policies and from educational research? What kind of rhetorical resources underpin the arguments in the plenary debate and are there any shifts, inconsistencies and contradictions that can be heard in the debates? Inspired by Margaret Somers four dimensions of narratives: ontological narrative, public narrative, metanarrative and conceptual narrative and I am using them to interpret different aspects of school as a political narrative. Methodologically, I worked initially with a content analysis gradually moving to narrative analysis. The educational debates held during the three terms in office are characterised by different political initiatives and different kind of issues. I construct a number of dominating narratives with different plots, problems, solutions and promises of a better future for both the school and the nation. Key concepts seems to “float” depending on who uses them and in what context they are used. Important parts in the narratives are the rhetorical resources that politicians are using to get legitimacy and credibility. Perceptions of schools presented in the debate, may be seen as stories about what is desirable and possible, but also what is unwanted, threatening the progress of school and society. I have highlighted four public narratives in these debates and they are: A School for All, School on the Market, School in the Knowledge Society and A School in Crisis.
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| 4. |
- Gynther, Per, 1961-
(author)
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Möjligheter och begränsningar : Om lärares arbete med montessoripedagogiken i praktiken
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This study examines processes connected to teacher’s transformation of the Montessori theory and it's described application to a daily practice. The aim is to create knowledge about what constitutes possibilities and limitations for teachers in their daily work with Montessori education. This does not only refer to what constitutes opportunities and limitations in teachers' everyday work with teaching, but also to what constitutes opportunities and limitations for teachers to learn at work. The theoretical framework is based on action theory and theories on adult learning and connects to a tradition called workplace-learning in which learning is considered to take place in, but also between, individuals. This approach indicates that the contextual conditions which the teachers were imbedded in are important to identify. The study was conducted in four different Montessori-environments and involved nine Montessori teachers. The methods used were participant observation, interviews, informal conversations and review of teacher produced material and documents.Possibilities and limitations in teachers work were related to if they had access to Montessori materials or not. In work with Montessori materials teachers identified the children's abilities to a greater extent than they did when other materials were in use. This identification directed their interventions. When the teachers did not have access to Montessori material their method often appeared to be the same as “individual work” with the provided material. Furthermore, interventions of the teacher were then significantly often procedural rather than content-related, although the teachers clearly expressed that they wanted to go into a dialogue with children about the treated subject area. The survey therefore contradicts with the opinion that Montessori-teachers withdraw in favor of Montessori materials that sometimes has been brought up by interpreters of the pedagogy. Rather, teachers stepped back when other materials were in use. The study also shows how a prerequisite for a collective development-oriented learning among the teachers was dependent on whether teachers made their own private understanding of the pedagogy available to each other. At times, however, teachers took the use of the materials for granted. Some of the teachers also deliberately refrained from making their personal understanding available to others due to the fact that they then could be seen as a less competent Montessori-teacher. This maintaining of a “false” collective understanding is seen as an expression of an institutionalization of teaching practice which was maintained by sanctions from the environment if the individual didn´t recognize the institutionalization in question. Since teacher’s “space for action” in this way was limited, the institution created conditions that prevented a possible development of the working methods in use. In those cases when conditions for a collective development-oriented learning were more favorable, it was clear that the teachers did not perceive Montessori education as a given method but rather saw it as a "model" for teaching in which the teachers had to interpret and define their own method from. The teachers thus came to take advantage of a potential “space for action” which was not noticed when the pedagogy was seen as a method.
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| 5. |
- Larsson, Eric, 1985-
(author)
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Innerstadsgymnasierna : En studie av tre elitpräglade gymnasieskolor i Stockholm och deras positionering på utbildningsmarknaden
- 2019
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- During the early 1990s Sweden underwent extensive educational reforms. Vouchers, freedom of choice, establishment of so-called “free-schools” together with far-reaching decentralization took the place of a highly centralized educational system, with few private schools and a very low degree of differentiation. A stated intention of these reforms was that freedom of choice as well as a greater number of educational options would level the playing field. It was believed that existing regulations hampered socially disadvantaged students and, by extension, opportunities for social and geographical mobility. Educational marketization has advanced and intensified since the 1990s, particularly in metropolitan areas and medium-sized cities. This is evident both in the increasing number of schools and in students commuting to inner city schools, and additionally in the continuous development of marketing strategies. Consequently, marketization has become an institutionalized part of Swedish education, and students and schools must equally adjust to the prevailing competitive conditions. Much of the research in the field has focused on the effects and extension of marketization and how free-schools and school choice affect socially vulnerable areas. However, instead of focusing on schools in socially vulnerable areas, I am interested in the schools at the top of the hierarchy and the elite segment of upper secondary schools in Stockholm. More precisely, the focus of this dissertation has been on how three sought-after and prestigious upper secondary schools position themselves in the educational market, but also how they are affected by and adjust to it. A further aim has been to analyse students’ educational strategies and the socialization processes that arise in their encounter with the schools as institutions. This thesis has been guided by a theoretically inspired ethnography. The ethnographical data were primarily collected during a single academic year and within three separate elite upper secondary schools. The data set consists of observations in classrooms and other school-related spaces (meeting rooms, corridors etc.), interviews and data from official statistics. It also contains a wide array of documents, web sites, school magazines, anniversary books and photographs. Using a Bourdieusian perspective, the analysis shows how both schools and students deploy strategies to cope with and adapt to the hierarchies and struggles of the contemporary educational market. The schools rely on accumulated institutionalized assets such as history, alumni, transfers to prestigious universities and their geographical locations. At the same time, they also need to provide an up-to-date educational setting to stay ahead, and moreover, to be able to collaborate and compete with the other elite schools. The analysis also illustrates why students choose these socially and academically selective schools and how they adjust to the school environment. It is illuminated that these schools are more than formal educational settings, they are places where students negotiate, debate, explore and develop soft skills. Nevertheless, they are also competitive school environments and while some students thrive, others struggle. This becomes apparent when they encounter and act in relation to the different social, symbolic and academic boundaries that exist in each school.
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| 6. |
- Neidenmark, Thomas, 1976-
(author)
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Pedagogiska imperativ och sociala nätverk i svensk medborgarbildning 1812−1828
- 2011
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis in the History of Education studies the pedagogization of Swedish society from 1812–1828. These ambitions were promoted by state officials and educational innovators who were tightly knit through social networks. The research questions are: Why did these individuals organize themselves the way they did in the field of education? Which practices of external communication and interaction within associations existed? Which impact did these practices of external communication and internal interaction have on the educational debate? Civic formation is analyzed through the activity or practices identified in the diffusion of useful knowledge, self-education, schools, and educational policies. Arguments for civic formation, educational imperatives, are reflected in new words and new schools. The imperatives are in part an outcome of social networking studied through affiliations to associations, newspapers and governing boards. Hence, a great number of affiliations have been organized in a new and advanced web-based application.Papers and associations were important to in dissolving feudal society, and as key ingredients for the emancipation of the middle class, they gradually gained more influence upon society. The educational reformers’ involvement in papers and societies were important for them coining new Swedish words with educational importance: it was an external communicative practice. Involvement in associations is somewhat more internal and has been studied as leading to social interaction. This interaction is studied as social capital through social network analysis. This revealed focal points on the individual level which made a significant contribution to the educational debate. These were social networks sustained by the spirit of Enlightenment and emancipation. What has long been unrecognized in the History of Education is presented as important features in this thesis through the analysis of social networks.
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| 7. |
- Ullman, Annika, 1955-
(author)
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Rektorn : En studie av en titel och dess bärare
- 1997
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The objekt of the study is the title of rector. In Sweden this title was introduced during the Middle Ages together with the first catehedral schools. The same title is being caried into the 21st Century by all local heads of every Swedish primery and secondary school. A summery of he earliest uses of the tittle is presented but the real focus of the thesis commences in 1829 and streches out throught´ten chapters to 1993. Using concepts formulated by Bourdieu -- symbolic capital, cultural capital, habitus, etos, social field -- av chronological inteprentaion is given of how he conferrers, holders and prenders of the title have in different ways contrubuted to the redefinition of the title of rector from an exclusively male title with clear references to State Secondary Schools to a title common to all schoool forms, held primarily by women. The emerical base of the study consists of a comparative study of the profeessional journals that have represented the title hoöders and the pretenders ever since the close of the 19th Century. The closing four chapters of the thesis eal with the central themes og authoruty. masculinity, the nation-sate and the vision of future that through te ages have been a mark og the struggles around the title of rector.
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| 8. |
- Broberg, Åsa, 1971-
(author)
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Utbildning på gränsen mellan skola och arbete : Pedagogisk förändring i svensk yrkesutbildning 1918-1971
- 2014
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to contribute knowledge about pedagogical change in Swedish vocational education and training (VET). The study focuses on vocational schools between 1918 and 1971, and discusses the educational practices that balanced on the border between school and work. The practices under study are probation periods, production work, and “diligence allowance”. By focusing on these practices, which ceased when the vocational training was integrated with upper secondary school in 1971, this study seeks to illustrate how shifts in work and school traditions in the VET discourse are relevant to pedagogical change in vocational training. The central questions of the thesis seek to pinpoint the ways in which the traditions manifested themselves and how the pedagogical content of the educational practices were renegotiated. The study is based on extensive empirical data consisting of public enquiry reports, an organisational journal, archive material, and memory books from vocational schools from the relevant period.The VET discourse has been analysed using Johan Asplund’s concept of “figures of thought”. The central figures of thought in vocational training – school and work – have been used to see how the practices’ pedagogical content and aims were renegotiated. This renegotiation made it possible to adapt to school structures in a way that made these practices problematic. Consequently, they could be removed when vocational training was integrated with upper secondary school. In the period leading up to the 1950s, the pedagogical foundations were largely inspired by work practices. Thereafter, it became increasingly common for tensions between the logics and structures embedded in work and school to arise in the VET discourse. This process led to a shift in emphasis in the discourse, from the “work” figure of thought to the “school” figure of thought.
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| 9. |
- Gustavsson, Caroline, 1975-
(author)
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Existentiella konfigurationer : Om hur förståelsen av livet tar gestalt i ett socialt sammanhang
- 2013
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The thesis contributes to the research field of education, or more specific to the field of religious education. The aim of the thesis is to interpret how young adults of today describe and understand their lives, with a specific focus on existential themes, and furthermore, to develop useful concepts that can help us understand individual meaning-making in a social and cultural context.The meaning-making of young people and how they explore and develop their understanding is, in the thesis, seen both as an individual process and at the same time something socially shared. The theoretical understanding of the social context takes its point of departure in Berger and Luckmann’s theory about the social construction of reality. The methodological approach is empirical and the study is based on 21 deep-interviews with men and women between 19-29 years old. Their statements are analyzed using a hermeneutic - interpretive method.The thesis gives a picture of the young adults’ understanding of death and the meaning of life. But the study also addresses vital existential themes for the young adults around the questions: who am I, what do I want to choose and where am I heading. Still another important theme is insecurity. One important contribution of the thesis is the development of new concepts that describe the young adults’ understanding of their lives, in terms of personal and shared configurations. In the material I have seen three different kinds of shared configurations and I speak of those in terms of: life-views, taken for granted perspectives and institutions. The dynamics that the personal configurations give examples of can be understood both in light of the shared configurations but also in light of the personal agency that the young adults show signs of.
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