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- Ahlberg, Erik, et al.
(author)
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"Vi klimatforskare stödjer Greta och skolungdomarna"
- 2019
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In: Dagens nyheter (DN debatt). - 1101-2447.
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Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- DN DEBATT 15/3. Sedan industrialiseringens början har vi använt omkring fyra femtedelar av den mängd fossilt kol som får förbrännas för att vi ska klara Parisavtalet. Vi har bara en femtedel kvar och det är bråttom att kraftigt reducera utsläppen. Det har Greta Thunberg och de strejkande ungdomarna förstått. Därför stödjer vi deras krav, skriver 270 klimatforskare.
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- Backman, Ylva
(author)
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Students’ Reasoning about Learning and Well-being in School : On the epistemic privilege of Swedish early adolescent students
- 2016
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The recent emphasis on performance in standardized testing of Swedish students is visible in reports from both national and international agencies. According to the reports, there has been a steep decline in the internationally measured performance of Swedish students in school since the 1990s. In fact, the performance of Swedish students in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has declined more dramatically than any other OECD country in the last decade. This has influenced a national debate about factors promoting knowledge acquisition. Alongside the drop in performance, young Swedish people’s mental problems have increased since the 1990s. The impact of one’s well-being on performance has been widely acknowledged in previous research, and two explicit targets in both current andprevious Swedish national curriculum for the compulsory school are learning and well-being. Meanwhile, the importance of encouraging early adolescents’ (10–14 years) participation in improving their own standards is acknowledged in several recent reports from influential non-governmental organizations such as the WHO and UNICEF. However, advancing students’ development requires a keen understanding of their current situation, something impeded by the fact that data on early adolescents is relatively scarce. Furthermore, a large amount of previous research has been focused on risk factors related to illness in children, rather than factors promoting well-being. The aim of this thesis is to explore early adolescent students’ reasoning about learning and well-being in school. A qualitative design with open-ended writing tasksand interview questions was constructed in order to facilitate the incorporation of students’ reasoning about learning and well-being into the research, in accordance with the study’s salutogenic point of departure and the specific standpoint epistemology that I propose and use in the thesis.The empirical data includes (1) written reflections by 200 students in grades 5–9 from 11 classes in four different schools (rural and urban), which were part of the Swedish compulsory school system and which were located in two municipalities in the northern part of Sweden, and (2) interviews with 24 students, from 12 to 15 years old, from two municipally run schools, which were also part of the compulsory school program in northern Sweden. Four sub-studies were conducted and presented in four journal articles. The data in sub-studies I, II, and IV consisted of the written reflections described above, while the data in sub-study III consisted of the interviews described above. The first sub-study concerned early adolescent students’ previous positive experiences and indicated that the students found aspects both within and beyond the classroom relevant for having a good time in school. In more detail, the students’ positive experiences concerned (i) interaction with teachers, (ii) freedom of choice regarding work and workmates, (iii) the atmosphere for discussions, (iv) school subjects and success, (v) learning processes in outings, (vi) friends, and (vii) primary (basic) needs. The results show a perceived complex relation between learning and well-being in school, which may well be studied further in future research. The second sub-study investigated students’ preferred states of affairs. The students emphasized a variety of views of what kind of structures, content, actions and attitudesmay have a positive impact on the learning environment in school. The variousreflections provided by the students were understood as falling under four themes: (i) influencing educational settings; (ii) striving for reciprocity; (iii) managing time struggles; and (iv) satisfying well-being needs. Besides providing perceived opportunities for change in school concurring with previous research, the results also point towards great variety and certain inconsistencies in the students’ perceptions about factors promoting learning.In the third sub-study, the interview data was analyzed using a distinction between decision methods and criteria of rightness, which has rarely been used in empirical research. Six forms of variety in the students’ moral reasoning were found, denoted as follows: (i) interpersonal variety in decision method dimension, (ii) intrapersonal variety in decision method dimension, (iii) interpersonal variety in criterion of rightness dimension, (iv) intrapersonal variety in criterion of rightness dimension, (v) interpersonal variety between the two dimensions, and (vi) intrapersonal variety between the two dimensions. The use of the distinction between decision methods and criteria of rightness enabled a nuanced understanding of varieties in students’moral reasoning, and may be useful in large-scale studies, for example, to explore the rate of occurrence of each respective form of variety. Future research could also examine the potential context dependence of the different forms of varieties. In the fourth sub-study, five perceived bidirectional crossovers of subjective wellbeing (i.e., perceived two-way transmissions between happiness and other aspects within the school domain) were noted in the students’ written reflections. These were: (i) happiness and learning, (ii) happiness and school engagement, (iii) happiness and appreciation of subjects or lesson content, (iv) happiness and others’ happiness, and (v) happiness and prosocial behavior. Besides providing novel hypotheses aboutbidirectional crossovers of subjective well-being, this sub-study supplied a systematic framework for interpreting qualitative outputs and provided conceptual as well as analytical direction for future research about happiness in education. I provide a definition of the formal expression “bidirectional crossovers” of subjective well-being, which may provide analytic categories for future research, while the more informal expression “circles of happiness” could be used in education, allowing teachers and students to conceptualize everyday events in the classroom. In the final parts of this thesis, students’ reasoning about the conditions for and effects of learning and well-being in school in all the four sub-studies are compared with previous empirical research through the use of established and novel definitions and theory. The comparison shows considerable correspondence between the students’ reasoning and previous research, providing evidence to the effect thatSwedish early adolescent students’ reasoning is trustworthy regarding the conditions for and effects of learning and well-being in school. There are also novel researchgenerating hypotheses formulated directly based on the students’ reasoning. The trustworthiness and novelty of the students’ reasoning about the conditions and effects of learning and well-being in school provides evidence for an epistemic privilege for the students participating in this study. This constitutes a starting point for futureresearch in which the claims about epistemic privilege in the standpoint epistemology proposed here can be further tested for Swedish early adolescent students in general.KEYWORDS: education, epistemic privilege, happiness, learning, moral reasoning, standpoint epistemology, well-being
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- Bek, Anders, 1969-
(author)
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Undervisning och reflektion : Om undervisning och förutsättningar för studenters reflektion mot bakgrund av teorier om erfarenhetslärande
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this study is to explore how teaching can be described by the use of experiential learning theory, focusing on the conditions for students’ reflection. The questions are: How can experiential learning theory and theory about reflection be adapted for analysis and description of teaching? How can a concrete teaching practice be analyzed and described by the use of such theory? What conditions for different levels of reflection do different ways of teaching create? In this observational study, the researcher has followed police students at Umeå University during their first semester of study. Lessons were documented using field notes and video camera. The teachers were interviewed about their views on teaching, and a group of students were interviewed about how they perceived the teaching. Based on Kolb’s experiential learning model (Kolb 1984), a new model for analyzing and describing teaching, named MABU, was developed and used as an analytical tool. MABU describes teaching by identifying and naming four new types of teaching, each of which is a combination of a type of content and a way of processing it: Formulation, Discussion, Application and Exercise. The main tendency is that teaching predominantly consisted of Formulation and Discussion, with an emphasis on theoretical content, processed through verbal activities such as group discussions. However, the studied teaching also included practical content and activities. Instances of student reflection were graded using Moon’s model for grading reflection (Moon2004:214ff). The results show that in most cases, concrete content is processed through organized reflective activities such as discussions, while theoretical content is frequently presented without any subsequent processing activities. In 20 % of the observed lessons, articulated student reflection on deeper levels took place. The teaching during these lessons was subject to further analysis, focusing on four aspects: the presence of interactive activities and a “problem” to stimulate reflection (cf. Dewey 1998/1933); how students’ previous experiences are treated, and whether lesson content is related to the students, their experiences and future, thereby facilitating the creation of what Dewey calls“interest” (Dewey 1975/1913); how emotions are evoked, used and dealt with; and teacher performance, in terms of communicative techniques and how the teacher gives a sense of “personhood” (Brookfield 2006:71). The results show that content is consistently related to the students, their views, values and future profession. However, although the teachers stress the importance of students reflecting critically on previous experiences, these were seldom addressed during the lessons. Based on detailed analysis and rich description of teaching, the study suggests a number of teacher actions and behaviors that stimulate and deepen student reflection, and others that seem to inhibit reflective activity.
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- Borg, Farhana, Lektor, 1967-, et al.
(author)
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Children’s Empowered Inclusion in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability
- 2023. - 1
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In: International Perspectives on Educating for Democracy in Early Childhood. - New York and London : Routledge. - 9781032135014 - 9781003229568 ; , s. 241-260
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- "This book brings together established and emerging scholars from around the globe to highlight new directions for research on young children as active, engaged citizens of classrooms. Divided into three sections, the volume draws on innovative methods to explore diverse conceptualizations of citizenship, children’s understandings, and effective practice. Rejecting traditional views of children as citizens-in-preparation, the volume explores how young children can and do live as citizens, and how early childhood educational settings serve as civic forums. Chapters discuss the child-as-citizen in relation to issues including gender, class, race, tribal status, and linguistic diversity, and ultimately illustrate how sociocultural processes in early years settings can be harnessed to promote the development of democratic dispositions and skills.This book establishes citizenship enactment in early childhood education as a robust and growing research area with the potential to shape research, policy, and practice worldwide. As such, it will appeal to researchers and academics with an interest in citizenship education, democracy, and early childhood education, as well as postgraduate students of teacher education and those working across international and comparative education more broadly."
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- Borg, Farhana, et al.
(author)
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Children's empowered inclusion in early childhood education for sustainability
- 2023. - 1
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In: International perspectives on educating for democracy in early childhood. - New York : Routledge. - 9781032135007 - 9781032135014 - 9781003229568 ; , s. 260-278
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This chapter discusses the recognition of children as citizens in education for sustainability in an early childhood education context. A crucial question is, how can the space for children's self-empowerment be expanded and their concerns become part of their education? As climate change is one of the current challenges to humanity, the presence of sustainability perspectives in education becomes most urgent – and the voices of children are needed to be included as they are the citizens of the world. Education for sustainability opens the way for emphasis on children's democratic rights, specifically their right to influence their education, their daily lives, and their preschool activities.To facilitate the development of practices where children's self-empowerment is recognized, the authors review the Swedish curriculum for preschool Lpfö 2018 and current international research on educating for sustainability in early childhood. The concept "empowered inclusion" guides the analysis. Empowered inclusion signifies the process whereby children's self-empowerment needs the recognition of others, which may be viewed as a challenge to curricula and teachers. The related concept, "deep interdependency," points to how human beings are globally linked with both one another and Earth.
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