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Westerlund, Stina, Filosofie doktor, PhDORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0003-1528-7553
Publications (10 of 44) Show all publications
Porko-Hudd, M., Rosvall, P.-Å. & Westerlund, S. (Eds.). (2025). Slöjd i utbildning och samhälle. Lund: Studentlitteratur AB
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Slöjd i utbildning och samhälle
2025 (Swedish)Collection (editor) (Other academic)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Lund: Studentlitteratur AB, 2025. p. 223
National Category
Educational Sciences Educational Work
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-237298 (URN)978-91-44-18998-7 (ISBN)
Available from: 2025-04-07 Created: 2025-04-07 Last updated: 2025-04-08Bibliographically approved
Westerlund, S., Ågren, K. & Mattsson, n. (2024). Clothing and its role in teacher education in Crafts: a Swedish case. In: : . Paper presented at NordFo (Nordiskt forum för forskning och utvecklingsarbete inom utbildning i slöjd) konferens 2024; AI make slöjd, Åbo Akademi, Vasa, Finland, 18-20 september, 2024.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Clothing and its role in teacher education in Crafts: a Swedish case
2024 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Crafts education in Swedish compulsory school has changed. If clothing, rational sewing methods and consumer perspective was part of curriculum for textile craft education in the 1960s, today’s Crafts education is multimaterial, process- and sustainability oriented and not explicitly tied to particular techniques. Societal changes in the 1980’s also changed the home sewing tradition of clothes opening for global trade and new patterns for consumption. Of course, teacher education (TE) in Crafts has reacted and undergone changes related to clothing, but are we fully aware of how and in what direction? This presentation gives an introduction into curriculum development for Crafts in compulsory school related to clothing and a brief overview of clothing (amount, orientation, content, context) at the four institutions that provide Crafts TE in Sweden. Presentation includes concrete examples from themes and student assignments showing development, direction and visions for clothing and sewing in Crafts TE at Umeå university.

Keywords
Sloyd, Swedish craft teacher education, dressmaking, curriculum study
National Category
Educational Sciences
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-230472 (URN)
Conference
NordFo (Nordiskt forum för forskning och utvecklingsarbete inom utbildning i slöjd) konferens 2024; AI make slöjd, Åbo Akademi, Vasa, Finland, 18-20 september, 2024
Note

Presentationen ingick i en Special interest group session (SIG) vid konferensen med publicerat abstract:

Teaching clothing as part of the subject Craft – still relevant for our students?Clothing is one of the oldest areas of craft, but is it an important future compe-tence? In Finland, making clothes has been part of basic education textile craftstudies since late 19th century. However, over the decades, position of clothing inbasic education has changed, and several schools have curtailed the teaching ofclothing. The current National Core Curriculum describes craft as a multimaterialsubject, which identifies no specific techniques or materials. Naturally, this isreflected in the craft teacher education: along multimaterial craft, the room forclothing has diminished. Likewise, incoming students' readiness for university-level clothing courses varies. In our six presentations (from Finland, Sweden,Island, and Latvia) we touch, for instance, the following questions: What is thepresent and the future status of clothing design and sewing as part of nationaleducational system? Is clothing design and sewing seen as a relevant competenceby our students and by educators? Should it be, even though ready-towearindustry provides fashionable, inexpensive clothes? What kind of topics andthemes should teaching of clothing cover? For instance, should we focus more onmending, tuning, turning ready-to-wear clothes to more personalised items thatreflect the wearer's self-image and values, or provide fundamental skills (designing, patterning, sewing)?

Available from: 2024-10-02 Created: 2024-10-02 Last updated: 2024-10-02Bibliographically approved
Westerlund, S. & Jeansson, Å. (2024). Crafting revisited – mapping analog knowledge to meet new craft tools. In: Relate north #12. New genre arctic art education at the university of lapland, 4-7. nov, 2024: abstract book. Paper presented at Relate North #12m New Genre Arctic Art Education, Rovaniemi, Finland, November 4-7, 2024 (pp. 30-30). Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Crafting revisited – mapping analog knowledge to meet new craft tools
2024 (English)In: Relate north #12. New genre arctic art education at the university of lapland, 4-7. nov, 2024: abstract book, Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press , 2024, p. 30-30Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed) [Artistic work]
Abstract [en]

In the project Crafting revisited we explore the encounter between previously acquired craft knowledge in embroidery and digital technology bringing new craft tools. Revisiting means returning to our own craftmanship using the textile medium and its mode of expression to articulate, document and communicate results. This presentation focuses on the initial project work and the mapping of previous craft skills and knowledge. Material includes reflections from noted discussions and photo documentation of previous embroideries. The methodological approach is to ask questions to the embroideries which they can answer. Defining what analog knowledge in embroidery consists of is needed to approach digital modes of production in education. New Materalism, as digital embroidery, challenges traditional forms and understandings of handicrafts, how knowledge is transferred and how new generations learn. The study’s results contribute to the development of pedagogical strategies in Crafts teacher education in the Arctic region.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Rovaniemi: Lapland University Press, 2024
National Category
Arts Pedagogy
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-233105 (URN)
Conference
Relate North #12m New Genre Arctic Art Education, Rovaniemi, Finland, November 4-7, 2024
Available from: 2024-12-20 Created: 2024-12-20 Last updated: 2025-02-12Bibliographically approved
Ceder, S. & Westerlund, S. (2024). "Lite mer än bara könsorgan": Undervisning i mötet mellan slöjdämnet och kunskapsområdet sexualitet, samtycke och relationer. Utbildning och Demokrati, 33(2), 83-110
Open this publication in new window or tab >>"Lite mer än bara könsorgan": Undervisning i mötet mellan slöjdämnet och kunskapsområdet sexualitet, samtycke och relationer
2024 (Swedish)In: Utbildning och Demokrati, ISSN 1102-6472, E-ISSN 2001-7316, Vol. 33, no 2, p. 83-110Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

 ”Somewhat more than mere genitalia” – Teaching at the crossroads of craft education and the knowledge area of sexuality, consent and relationships. This article explores teaching at the intersection of the knowledge area of sexuality, consent, and relationships, and the subject of crafts in lower secondary school. More specifically, it develops an understanding of subject-integrated teaching through embodied, material, and aesthetic processes in a cross-curricular context. The study is based on a craft teacher’s experiences from a teaching sequence in grade 9, where students designed and carved symbols related to sexuality, consent, and relationships in wood. The results highlight the impact of subject-integrated teaching and underscore student participation as pivotal, both in sexuality education and crafts. Another insight was the teacher’s ease in integrating the topic into craft education, where the craft’s focus on the process was contributory. The theme opened up the crafts classroom for existential exploration, fostered discussions, and created a more nurturing classroom environment.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Örebro universitet, 2024
Keywords
sexuality education, educational crafts, cross-curricular teaching, subject-integrated teaching, Swedish sloyd
National Category
Educational Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-235320 (URN)10.48059/uod.v33i2.2308 (DOI)
Available from: 2025-02-11 Created: 2025-02-11 Last updated: 2025-02-12Bibliographically approved
Westerlund, S. (2024). Man kan inte sudda i slöjd: elever om slöjdämnet som genomlevandets emotionella praktik. In: : . Paper presented at NordFo (Nordiskt forum för forskning och utvecklingsarbete inom utbildning i slöjd) konferens 2024; AI make slöjd, Åbo Akademi, Vasa, Finland, 18-20 september, 2024.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Man kan inte sudda i slöjd: elever om slöjdämnet som genomlevandets emotionella praktik
2024 (Swedish)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Other academic)
Abstract [sv]

 Bland elever finns föreställningar om slöjdämnet som roligt och fritt. Samtidigt är slöjd ett skolämne där kreativ problemlösning utgör en central beståndsdel för att hantera utmaningar som uppstår i arbetet med att framställa slöjdföremål. Problem i arbetet innebär att elever måste pröva olika lösningar, göra om och ibland tänka om. Med detta följer känslomässiga utmaningar som får konsekvenser för hur arbetet fortlöper. Sådana utmaningar ges explicit inte samma utrymme i slöjdundervisningen som praktisk problemlösning men är tillika något både elever och lärare måste förhålla sig till och hantera. Presentationen utgår från ett antologikapitel som bygger på tidigare insamlade videoobservationer, deltagande observationer i slöjdundervisning samt intervjuer med elever i årskurs åtta. Materialet har genomgått en partiell fördjupande analys med stöd i Deweys transaktionella handlingsteori, Senneths definitioner av externt och internt motstånd i hantverksarbete och Pyes begrepp för den risk som finns närvarande i slöjdämnets öppna arbetsprocesser. Utifrån emotionella praktiker som framträder i materialet ges exempel på hur elever i samspel med omgivningen intar olika emotionella förhållningssätt med betydelse för slöjdarbetet. Resultatet bidrar till fördjupad insikt i elevers interna motstånd som av materialet ser ut att mer sällan verbaliseras eller öppet kommuniceras i undervisningen. Avslutningsvis diskuteras elevers interna motstånd i relation till lärares tysta yrkeskunskap alternativt om en tydligare konkretisering av internt motstånd i undervisningen kan stärka bildningsaspekter av slöjdämnet.

Keywords
slöjd, emotioner, transaktionell handlingsteori, externt och internt motstånd, bildning
National Category
Educational Sciences
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-230473 (URN)
Conference
NordFo (Nordiskt forum för forskning och utvecklingsarbete inom utbildning i slöjd) konferens 2024; AI make slöjd, Åbo Akademi, Vasa, Finland, 18-20 september, 2024
Note

Presentationen ingår i Special Interest Group (SIG) vid konferensen:

Slöjdens plats i samhälletOrdförande Per-Åke RosvallBland elever finns föreställningar om slöjdämnet som roligt och fritt. Samtidigt är slöjd ett skolämne där kreativ problemlösning utgör en central beståndsdel för att hantera utmaningar som uppstår i arbetet med att framställa slöjdföremål. Problem i arbetet innebär att elever måste pröva olika lösningar, göra om och ibland tänka om. Med detta följer känslomässiga utmaningar som får konsekvenser för hur arbetet fortlöper. Sådana utmaningar ges explicit inte samma utrymme i slöjdundervisningen som praktisk problemlösning men är tillika något både elever och lärare måste förhålla sig till och hantera. Presentationen utgår från ett antologikapitel som bygger på tidigare insamlade videoobservationer, deltagande observationer i slöjdundervisning samt intervjuer med elever i årskurs åtta. Materialet har genomgått en partiell fördjupande analys med stöd i Deweys transaktionella handlingsteori, Senneths definitioner av externt och internt motstånd i hantverksarbete och Pyes begrepp för den risk som finns närvarande i slöjdämnets öppna arbetsprocesser. Utifrån emotionella praktiker som framträder i materialet ges exempel på hur elever i samspel med omgivningen intar olika emotionella förhållningssätt med betydelse för slöjdarbetet. Resultatet bidrar till fördjupad insikt i elevers interna motstånd som av materialet ser ut att mer sällan verbaliseras eller öppet kommuniceras i undervisningen. Avslutningsvis diskuteras elevers interna motstånd i relation till lärares tysta yrkeskunskap alternativt om en tydligare konkretisering av internt motstånd i undervisningen kan stärka bildningsaspekter av slöjdämnet.

Available from: 2024-10-02 Created: 2024-10-02 Last updated: 2024-10-02Bibliographically approved
Westerlund, S. (2024). Memory work in suede: textile/textual methods to map quiet durability. In: NERA 2024: Abstract Book. Paper presented at Nordic Educational Research Association, NERA, 2024: Adventures of Education: Desires, Encounters and Differences, March 6–8, Malmö, Sweden (pp. 94-94).
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Memory work in suede: textile/textual methods to map quiet durability
2024 (English)In: NERA 2024: Abstract Book, 2024, p. 94-94Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed) [Artistic work]
Abstract [en]

A societal challenge today is the urgency to develop and adapt to more sustainable approaches to the amount of material artefacts we surround ourselves with. Clothes are no exception; they are products of a global market system, draining the understanding of what clothes can be. There is, however, an alternative quiet sustainability (Smith & Jehlicka, 2013) rooted in alternative and personal contexts, but of which we lack explicit knowledge (Fletcher, 2015). Based on a suede jacket, worn by five persons, from the 1950s and onwards, the study explores unspoken strategies and social and relational aspects that takes place in between the jacket and its wearer.

Methodologically, the study draws on memory work (Haug, 2008) and clothing’s tactility, sensuality and ‘memory-bearing’ capacity (Goett, 2016) to map experiences of wearing the jacket and how clothing is knotted into social structures and social relations.

Individual written memories, based on a physical encounter with the jacket, were translated into third person perspective and thereafter analysed collectively to recall and reassess the memories and to find similarities and connections in the stories.

The result shows how the jacket mediates experiences of an intense, context related balancing act between alignment–uniqueness, uncertainty–courage, and attachment–release, but also ethical reflections on the wearers themselves and their responsibility for others during certain periods of their life. The memory work gave insights in the commonality in the garment’s interconnectedness in the social construction of selves.

The responsibility to educate for sustainable development has over time been strengthened within the Nordic countries' education systems. In addition to providing in-depth knowledge of what quiet durability can be, the study contributes to conceivable methods to use in exploring quiet sustainability in teacher education in Crafts. Professional swedish craft teachers for example, find sustainable development, and perhaps especially social sustainability, difficult to teach about (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2015), so method development in the area is needed in both teaching in higher education and in research.

References:

Fletcher, K. (2015). Other fashion systems. I K. Fletcher & M. Tham (Eds.), Routledge handbook of sustainability and fashion. (pp. 15–24). Routledge.

Goett, S. (2016). Materials, memories and metaphors: the textile self recollected. I J. Jefferies, D. Wood

Conroy & H. Clarc (Eds.), The handbook of textile culture (pp. 121–136). Bloomsbury.

Haug, F. (2008). Memory work. Australian Feminist Studies, 23(58), 537 –541.

Smith, J., & Jehlicka, P. (2013). Quiet sustainability: fertile lessons from Europe’s productive gardeners. Journal of Rural Studies, 32, 148–157.

Swedish National Agency for Education. (2015). Slöjd i grundskolan: En nationell ämnesutvärdering i årskurs 6 och 9. Skolverket.

Keywords
sustainability, quiet durability, textiles, textile memories, craft of use
National Category
Educational Sciences
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-221946 (URN)
Conference
Nordic Educational Research Association, NERA, 2024: Adventures of Education: Desires, Encounters and Differences, March 6–8, Malmö, Sweden
Available from: 2024-03-11 Created: 2024-03-11 Last updated: 2025-05-14Bibliographically approved
Lundqvist, C. & Westerlund, S. (2024). Principals’ enactment of policy on research-based education: interpreting and facilitating policy in local school settings in Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 68(2), 320-339
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Principals’ enactment of policy on research-based education: interpreting and facilitating policy in local school settings in Sweden
2024 (English)In: Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, ISSN 0031-3831, E-ISSN 1470-1170, Vol. 68, no 2, p. 320-339Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Increased international attention paid to research-based education has resulted in various national initiatives to exploit research in education. However, this poses challenges for school professionals. Based on an ethnographic single case study in a Swedish educational setting, this article investigates how national policy on research-based education is realized at local school level from the perspective of principals. Theoretically, the study applies a policy enactment understanding, arguing that policy is put into action in original ways in various local settings. Through thematic analysis four interrelated main strategies deployed by the principals were identified: strategies facilitating durable structures, developing learning cultures, developing teachers’ competencies, and strengthening leadership. The strategies demonstrate the complexities in policy enactment as it involves multiple embedded local processes and settings. Additionally, the study contributes to an understanding of how different interrelated national policies and initiatives intersect when enacted at school level.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2024
Keywords
Principal, policy enactment, research-based education, educational policy, case study
National Category
Pedagogy
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-201381 (URN)10.1080/00313831.2022.2148270 (DOI)000892096400001 ()2-s2.0-85143218879 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Umeå University, 2193 02 056
Available from: 2022-11-30 Created: 2022-11-30 Last updated: 2024-05-07Bibliographically approved
Dunger, L. & Westerlund, S. (2024). Slöjd: återbruk och re-design för hållbar utveckling (1ed.). In: Karin Hjälmeskog; David Kronlid; Lolita Gelinder; Linda Wilhelmsson (Ed.), Undervisning för hållbar utveckling: för lärare F–6 (pp. 111-117). Malmö: Gleerups Utbildning AB
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Slöjd: återbruk och re-design för hållbar utveckling
2024 (Swedish)In: Undervisning för hållbar utveckling: för lärare F–6 / [ed] Karin Hjälmeskog; David Kronlid; Lolita Gelinder; Linda Wilhelmsson, Malmö: Gleerups Utbildning AB, 2024, 1, p. 111-117Chapter in book (Other academic)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Malmö: Gleerups Utbildning AB, 2024 Edition: 1
National Category
Educational Sciences
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-238790 (URN)978-91-511-1070-7 (ISBN)
Available from: 2025-05-14 Created: 2025-05-14 Last updated: 2025-06-02Bibliographically approved
Westerlund, S. (2023). A changing ecology?: Academisation and digitalization of educational crafts in Sweden. In: NERA Conference 2023: Conference Agenda. Paper presented at NERA conference 2023, Digitalization and Technologies in Education. Opportunities and Challenges, OsloMet, Norway, 15–17 mars 2023..
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A changing ecology?: Academisation and digitalization of educational crafts in Sweden
2023 (English)In: NERA Conference 2023: Conference Agenda, 2023Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Academisation and digitalization are ongoing societal processes with influence in the educational field. Over time these processes contribute to change and creates new conditions for teaching and perceptions of subject content. Change often occurs gradually and consequences for individual school subjects differ. The school subject Crafts (sw. slöjd) represents an action-based form of knowledge, where materiality and making in and with materials and physical tools are central. With digitalization follows increased demands for the use of digital tools within both primary school and teacher education. Academisation of education has meant stronger demands for scientificization and education on a scientific basis, which has strengthened the text-based knowledge in Crafts. This study is part of an ongoing four-year project, The ecology of aesthetics, and examines what characterizes academisation and digitalization in Craft and how these processes create new conditions for the subject. The study’s research questions concern how craft teachers perceive and describe academisation and digitalization in relation to teaching, and what consequences follows for the subject content. Theoretically, the study is based on an educational ecology perspective where Crafts is considered as a living ecology in interaction with surrounding parts in a comprehensive educational system. Change is understood as a process where parts of the system interact and affect the whole. The data consist of qualitative interviews with eight professional craft teachers in Swedish primary school with varying graduation year from teacher education, the earliest in 1984 and the latest in 2001. The interviews have undergone thematic analysis in several steps with coding and thematizing. Results show a somewhat ambivalent attitude among craft teachers towards academization and digitalization, which is perceived to expand and add new opportunities but also to steal time from craft work in materials. Consequently, a reduced degree of difficulty in craftsmanship in assignments is described by teachers educated in the 1980s and 1990s, while later educated teachers educated rather describe a reverse development. How teachers argue for students’ work in materials varies between a theoretical or a more craft-based understanding related to when they were graduated. Digital tools for documentation are widely used by all teachers and are perceived to free up time, while the use of digital tools in the material parts of the craft process is less present in teaching and assignments, depending on the extra time and resources that teachers perceive this to require. According to the analysis, academisation and digitalization seems to be intertwined in a way that to some extent counteracts effects but at same time reinforces each other. Academisation and digitalization are global processes and thus current for the entire Nordic craft field, even if national steering and the conception of educational Crafts varies between the Nordic countries. The question of the conditions for action-based knowledge in today's educational ecology needs to be raised based on how several intersecting policies, in sometimes unpredictable ways, offers differing challenges and opportunities in different subject contexts.

Keywords
educational sloyd, academic drift, educational ecology, aesthetic school subjects, slöjd, utbildningsekologi, akademisering, digitalisering, estetiska ämnen
National Category
Educational Sciences
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-205866 (URN)
Conference
NERA conference 2023, Digitalization and Technologies in Education. Opportunities and Challenges, OsloMet, Norway, 15–17 mars 2023.
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2019-04377
Available from: 2023-03-21 Created: 2023-03-21 Last updated: 2023-03-22Bibliographically approved
Westerlund, S. (2023). A 'reverse' academic drift?: Changes in Swedish educational crafts. Paper presented at 2nd Biennial International Conference for the Craft Sciences (BICCS), Mariestad, Sweden, 20–22 sept, 2023.. FORMakademisk, 16(4), 1-9
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A 'reverse' academic drift?: Changes in Swedish educational crafts
2023 (English)In: FORMakademisk, E-ISSN 1890-9515, Vol. 16, no 4, p. 1-9Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The prerequisites for formal training in Swedish educational Crafts have changed over time under the influence of two long-lasting societal processes: academisation and digitalisation. In different, yet interconnected ways, these processes of change are challenging the materiality, the making and the action-based knowledge that characterise educational Crafts. The paper presents how primary school teachers’ view the influence of academisation and digitalisation in their work and explores the consequences that change processes hold for the teaching practice in Crafts. The study is based on qualitative interviews with Craft teachers whose graduation year was between 1983 and 2021. Theoret-ically, Craft is considered to be a living ecology in an educational system. In the analysis, academic drift on various levels is combined with media-ecology concepts to clarify the diffusion of academisation and digitalisation in both time and space. The findings show academic drift leading to increased text-based knowledge production on several levels, yet also an unexpected weakening of action-based knowledge in Crafts. Balancing student and staff drift is further shown to result in the avoidance of written text in favour of digital visual, oral and bodily mediations in the production of knowledge. The study’s overall results question an ongoing ‘reverse’ academic drift and what is at stake in the Crafts ecology’s efforts to achieve balance.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
OsloMet - Oslo Metropolitan University, 2023
Keywords
Craft education, sloyd, digitalisation, educational ecology, primary school
National Category
Educational Sciences Pedagogical Work
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-214798 (URN)10.7577/formakademisk.5407 (DOI)2-s2.0-85172326016 (Scopus ID)
Conference
2nd Biennial International Conference for the Craft Sciences (BICCS), Mariestad, Sweden, 20–22 sept, 2023.
Available from: 2023-09-29 Created: 2023-09-29 Last updated: 2024-07-04Bibliographically approved
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0003-1528-7553

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