In this article, we study the academisation of the teaching profession in Sweden, which follows contemporary trends in other Nordic and European countries. The specific aim was to analyse 14 reports written by researching teachers enrolled in a master's programme to investigate how they perceive, interpret and value academic and professional knowledge. The conceptual framework comprises theories concerning academic literacies and knowledge structures. The report analysis focussed on scope, aims and research questions, and how the researching teachers related to teacher knowledge and academic knowledge, normativity and a critical approach. After a preliminary analysis, the researching teachers were invited to participate in the analysis, giving their contextual understanding. The study indicates that the reports were based on empirical data and situated in a professional context, with the aim of exploring and understanding professional issues in relation to research, national policies and professional teacher experience. Report orientation was deeply nourished by teacher knowledge. The researching teachers' contextual knowledge both benefitted and challenged academic knowledge and vice versa, with the ambition to improve practice. Accordingly, the teachers' contextual knowledge can deepen the understanding of a research phenomenon. There was an empowering oscillation between teacher knowledge and academic knowledge in the teachers' research.
I det här kapitlet presenterar vi analyser av akademiska texter som lärare skriver inom ramen för sin magisterutbildning. Vi fäster särskild uppmärksamhet vid hur lärare i sitt akademiska skrivande förhåller sig till egna förvärvade och beprövade kunskaper å ena sidan och vetenskaplig och teoretisk kunskap å den andra.
In recent decades, several Scandinavian research projects have had an explicit focus on how technology intervenes in L1 (or so-called Mother Tongue Education) practices in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish educational contexts, and how this may impact on understanding of the subject. There is currently no systematic overview of the documented possibilities and challenges related to the use of technology in L1. At the same time, there is terminological confusion in use of ‘technology’ and related concepts in L1. Finally, there is a general lack of critical reflection on the relation between technological developments, political rhetoric, and the development of L1 teaching and learning as a social practice related to specific contexts and actors. Thus, the paper attempts to answer three interrelated research questions: 1) what do we mean when we talk about ‘technology’ in L1?; 2) based on a systematic review of empirical stud- ies, what characterizes the research field?; and 3) for discussion, which broader implications does the review suggest for a rethinking of L1 in terms of practice and research? Introducing the notion of educa- tional boundary objects, a theoretical framework is developed, which suggests four metaphors for un- derstanding technology within L1: as a tool, as media, as socialization, and as literacy practices. These are found useful for analyzing and comparing both theoretical perspectives and empirical research on L1. A key finding of the study is that, although the included research is characterized by a large degree of diversity, the conceptualization of technology as media is a dominating approach which downplays aesthetic, critical and tool-oriented perspectives. Another finding is the large number of studies that focus on student practices within L1 and the relationship to out-of-school literacy practices. A final find- ing is the emphasis on teacher uncertainty regarding how and why to integrate technology within exist- ing paradigms of the subject. This calls for further research on how technology may be justified in L1 practice, including various forms of teacher education.
This article focuses on the emergence and development of new research structures and research capacity within Swedish teacher education at the beginning of the new millennium. Since 2001, it has been possible in Sweden to undertake postgraduate and research studies within teacher education – something that was previously impossible. As a result of a national reform, a new research discipline, educational work, was established at several Swedish universities. At the same time, the National Postgraduate School in Educational Work (NaPA) was created, the responsibility for which was given to Umeå University, one of the larger Swedish teacher education providers. The aim of the article is to provide a picture of Swedish national teacher education policies in the first years of the millennium that have generated new research structures, which, in turn, have enabled a rapid and nationally distributed expansion of research within the field of Swedish teacher education. It draws on a combination of policy documents, research carried out by the two authors and reflections on their own experiences, as a former PhD student who now has a doctoral qualification in educational work and as the head of NaPA respectively.
This article deals with the emergence and development of new research structures for Swedish teacher education in the beginning of the new millennium. From 2001 onwards, it has been possible to undertake research and post-graduate studies within teacher education which prior to the 2001 reform was not possible. As a result of the reform a new research discipline, Educational Work, was established in teacher education in various Swedish universities and colleges. Moreover, a national post-graduate school in Educational Work was founded, for which Umeå University, one of the larger Swedish teacher education institutions, was appointed Host University. For the article policy documents relating to teacher education and research into national, regional and local perspectives were used to explore institutional history, structures and research development in teacher education from 1946 to the present time. A micro-level perspective was further offered based on two interview studies involving teacher educators, senior managers, doctoral students and supervisors at Umeå University, including a key national representative of the major Swedish teacher union. The article draws on a variety of frameworks to explore relationships between various parts of teacher education and also more widely in the university. These include relations of power and gender based on the theoretical perspectives of Bourdieu, Foucault, Connell and Sarfatti Larson, among others. The article shows that the emergence of new research areas in teacher education in Sweden was a multilayered process involving a variety of actors at different levels at Umeå University and elsewhere. The aims of the article are to present the new research structures in teacher education in Sweden, and thereby point to the implications of the structural reform, and also to contribute to current cross-national discourses on the need to establish a research base for teacher education.
In this article, we explore the scope and orientation of students' final degree projects in the Swedish field of Early Childhood Education and Care in relation to discourses on academic writing and national higher education policies, including the national curriculum and guidelines for professional work in the early childhood sector. Titles and abstracts of 75 final degree projects were analysed with a focus on their scope, aims and research questions. The conceptual framework encompasses theories and concepts on academic literacies, knowledge structures and the linguistic tools of rhetorical 'moves'. This study shows that the typical final degree project was based on empirical data and situated in a professional context, with the aim to explore and understand professional issues in relation to national policies and practical professional experience. We conclude that the final degree project's orientation in the field is deeply nourished by professional discourse, underpinned by national policies on early childhood education
This study deals with the undergraduate degree project in teacher training programmes for early childhood education and care in Sweden. For the study we draw on documents and qualitative interviews with teacher educators of different disciplinary backgrounds. The aims of this study were to identify discourses on the degree project in the field of early childhood education and care: (1) in documents; and (2) among teacher educators. Our study points to the tensions between discourses on the degree project as being of primary relevance for the vocational field, or as preparation for research activities. It also shows that varying perceptions on the degree project among teacher educators are largely related to different disciplinary fields. It further emerges that teacher educators have different views about text norms for the degree project, based on different underlying epistemologies to which the student teachers must adapt. We conclude that the multiple and often contradictory requirements of the degree project need critical examination and be reviewed. We also suggest an opening up for new and more creative ways of dealing with the degree project, with greater recognition of professional values and knowledges in the field.
Long before Namibia's independence in 1990, Sweden initiated a policy dialogue with Namibia's future political leadership. This article reviews the impact of an educational reform in Namibia in the early 1990s called the Integrated Teacher Training Programme (ITTP), which was an outcome of collaboration between the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO), the liberation movement and teacher educators from Sweden and other Western countries. Research questions posed concerned: (1) the ITTP’s perceived impact on the participants' private and professional lives; and (2) the ITTP’s impact on the participants' views on knowledge and education in relation to democracy. A combination of individual interviews and questionnaires was administered in situ in 2009 in Namibia to 17 former ITTP students who were living in various places across Namibia. This follow-up study indicates that the ITTP was crucial for the participants' professional careers and private lives. The majority saw education as a key to democracy and social transformation, and considered themselves as important actors at local, regional and national levels in forwarding these aims. However, it is concluded that, while the learner-centred education philosophy initially had a strong impact, its application in teacher education has functioned more than anything as a rhetorical device for nation-building.
This article explores the perceptions of active senior researchers from different scientific and scholarly areas about scientific and scholarly writing, specifically that associated with research. The study
comprises interviews with 12 researchers in four different faculties at a Swedish university: Arts, Social Sciences, Science and Technology, and Medicine. The article draws on Biglan’s (1973) and Becher’s (1994) four intellectual clusters, i.e. (1) hard pure (natural) science; (2) soft pure (arts and social) sciences; (3) hard applied (engineering) sciences; and (4) soft applied (education) sciences and connects them with Graue’s (2006) four identified writing traditions in academia, of: reporting, interpreting, constituting and praxis. The findings suggest that researchers in the applied sciences see writing as having a mediating and creative function for research while, for pure scientists, writing is based on epistemology that does not attribute a mediating function to language (Wertsch, 1998). The study also indicates that researchers who are active in applied science, e.g. professional education of various kinds, are positioned at the interface between the discipline and individuals as social beings, and that they operate as epistemological boundary crossers for the faculties.
Drömmen om den rena kommunikationen bygger på en studie av ett lyrikskrivningsprojekt, Tankens Trädgård, som bedrivs vid tre gymnasieskolor i Skellefteå kommun. Projektet går i korthet ut på att alla elever i årskurs två varje år ges möjlighet att skriva dikter kring ett bestämt tema. Av det stora diktmaterial som flyter in väljer lärarna ut drygt hundra talet dikter som publiceras i en diktsamling. Projektet avslutas varje år med en stor "happening", då de bästa dikterna läses upp och författarna belönas.
Studien handlar bland annat om hur man kan föstå projektet Tankens Trädgård, bakgrunden till det, om hur det utvecklats under åren, vilka ambitioner som funnits, pedagogiska idéer man kan skönja bakom projektet, hur det mottas av eleverna och hur lärarna ser på sin roll och på projektet. Projektets drivkraft är drömmen om den rena kommunikationen.
Every issue of Education Inquiry publishes peer-reviewed articles in one, two or three different sections. In our Open section, articles are sent in by authors as part of regular journal submissions and published after a blind review process. In our Thematic section, articlesmay reflect the theme of a conference or workshop and are published after a blind review process. We also have an Invited section with articles by researchers invited by Education Inquiry to shed light on a specific theme or for a specific purpose and they are also published after a review process. This issue of Education Inquiry contains both a Thematic section and an Open section, bringing a total of 10 articles.
I am sitting in a large auditorium (A 280) in the University of Geneva in Switzerland on a Saturday morning in September 2010. The room is filled with people who are involved in different ways in a large European research project of the 7th Framework Programme for Research in the Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities Theme (SSH), called EERQI–European Educational Research Quality Indicators. The goals of the EERQI project are to reinforce and enhance the worldwide visibility and competitiveness of European educational research. More specifically, the project aims to: (1) develop new indicators and methodologies to determine the quality of educational research publications; (2) propose a prototype framework for establishing such indicators and methodologies; (3) make this framework operational on a multilingual basis (starting with English, German, French and Swedish); (4) produce a search and query engine for resource harvesting and text analysis; (5) test the transferability of the EERQI indicators to other fields in the Social Sciences and the Humanities; and (6) develop a sustainability plan for the quality assessment of European educational research publications. The project hopes to improve the current standards of research quality indicators, especially for the fields of the Social Sciences and the Humanities (see the homepage http://www.eerqi.eu/).
We are now living in a “new media age”, with a dramatic shift from the linguistic to the visual, from books and book pages to screens and windows (Kress, 2003). This article offsets out to explore what happens to educational activities in schools when electronic media and pictures replace written texts. The article draws on interviews and classroom observations of a particular Swedish vocational upper secondary programme, where the social studies teacher observes that students are finding it increasingly difficult to benefit from written texts. Theoretically, the study draws on Meyrowitz (1985/1986) theories concerning the relationship among media, situations and behaviour and the effect of a shift from “print situations” to “electronic situations” on a broad range of social role and Bernstein’s (1996/2000) notions of ‘recontextualisation’, ‘framing’ and ‘classification’. The study shows that classroom relations are changing; hierarchies between students and teachers are being broken down, and classification of subjects is affected in the sense that the students’ own interpretations and references are beginning to govern teaching when pictures and electronic media enter the educational discourse.
identity and worldview – “hard-boiled” writing in Thorsten Jonsson’s short stories
This article deals with the Swedish author Thorsten Jonsson (1910–50) and his first short story collection Som det brukar vara (1939) [‘As it usually is’]. The nar- rative represents a new modernistic literary trend in Swedish prose in the 1930s. i take my starting point in Burgess & ivanič’s (2010) theories of the act of writing involving many different identities, and particularly what Burgess & ivanič iden- tify as the discursive self. By contemporary readers and critics the discursive self in the short story collection was often connected with an American hard-boiled literary ideal, often linked to ernest Hemingway’s writings. in this article i dis- cuss the common textual features of the two authors’ first collections, but also the differences that emerge when looking through the linguistic surface. The analysis shows that Thorsten Jonsson’s discursive self is based upon a northern Swedish culture, Hemingway’s on an urban American one.
This article concerns how teachers of Mother-Tongue Education (MTE) and pupils in Swedish secondary schools look upon and relate to the keyboard and screen and pen and paper, respectively, for writing in the context of MTE. The results showed that both teachers and pupils found that the computer on one side and the pen and paper on the other circumscribed different writing processes. Paper and pen offered greater resistance when writing than a computer. It was concluded that writing on a computer had been culturally appropriated in the MTE and represented the frame for both teachers and students from which they assessed the advantages and disadvantages of each technology, but also that paper and pen added a value of necessity rather than eccentricity for the pupils, in contrast to the teachers, in order to meet the requirements concerning grammar, longhand, and orthography.
In this article, education is regarded as a medium (Salomon, 2000). i.e. a channel for the transmission of knowledge with its specifically and historically defined form and content. From a media ecology perspective, media are not neutral, transparent or value-free channels for transporting information. Instead, the inherent physical structures and symbolic form of media play a decisive role in the design of what and how information is coded and transferred and hence also how it is decoded. It is the structure of the medium that determines the content and nature of the information. In our digital era this medium, i.e. education, is now being remediated (Bolter & Grusin, 2002). With this point of departure, in this article traditional education is placed on a par with a coherent text in the form of an essay. This implies that what typifies an essay in a transferred sense is characteristic of traditional education based on paper, pencil and book technologies. In a new media ecology context, what is polyvocal, interactive and transient is also becoming characteristic of education in its capacity as a medium. Like all remediation this also offers a promise of reforms and changes in the sense of remoulding, which partly corresponds to all the expectations placed on new media as regards the possibilities to develop education, for teaching and for pupils’ learning. This article aims to indicate and discuss what is identified as a relativisation that appears when schools and teaching are remediated and which manifests itself on three different levels in schools, i.e. regarding: (1) the content of the teaching; (2) the forms of teaching; and (3) the relations in the classroom. The examples are taken from teaching of the school subject Swedish (mother tongue).
I studien Pedagogiskt arbete i romanens prisma inringas ett motiv i den svenska prosalitteraturen, skolmotivet, med speciell tonvikt på de värderingar av skolan, lärarna, eleverna, bildning etc. som litteraturen förmedlar. Föresatsen är inte primärt att ur det skönlitterära materialet frambringa ny kunskap om den svenska skolans innehållsliga och organisatoriska förändringar. Vad skönlitteratur på ett mer subtilt sätt framför allt kan bidra med är en belysning av hur de förändringar som sker uppfattas och bearbetas av dem som är verksamma i skolan, dvs. lärarna själva. På denna nivå kan skolromaner, dvs. romaner skrivna av utbildade och verksamma lärare, bidra med ny kunskap.
This article deals with how teachers and pupils in seventh to ninth grade in Sweden look upon and relate to the incorporation of new digital technology in mother tongue education (Swedish). The result shows that both the classification and framing of the subject is being challenged by new technology, but that the awareness of the impact seems to be limited. It is suggested that the development might now be approaching a stage where the gradual change, "evolution", that has taken place through all the invasive "forms of media" that have been added to the teaching environment, will now contribute to a punctuated equilibrium, which will hopefully lead to a new inner stability or homeostasis, in other words a paradigm shift. This, however, requires teachers to appropriate new technology as well as an awareness of its influence on the pedagogical discourse.
This article deals with how school subjects’ paradigms, i.e. the established content of the teaching and the way in which the teaching is traditionally organised, are influenced when digital media are becoming increasingly common in educational contexts. The study is based on interviews in so-called focus groups with teachers of different school subjects in a Swedish lower secondary school about issues concerning how much they use media and ICT in their teaching and how they think this affects the content of their subject, relations in the classroom, working methods and the role of the teacher. The theoretical point of departure is Basil Bernstein’s concepts of ‘recontextualisation’, ‘framing’, ‘classification’, and ‘the sacred and the profane’. The study shows that the teachers in the lower secondary school where the investigation was conducted use so-called new media to a relatively limited extent but that they are ready to develop their use if resources are made available. They also think that the content, working methods, relations and the role of the teacher are changing, usually for the better. Drawing on Durkheim’s concepts of ‘the sacred’ and ‘the profane’ it appears in this study that the sacred in schools is often associated with the physical and practical.
School and writing instruction from a media ecological perspective
The theory formation of educational science pays little or no attention to the fact that technologies have great and extensive implications for what Bernstein (1996) calls content and framing in an educational discourse (Erixon 2010d). This lack of attention also applies to Bernstein’s theory formation. It is easy to disregard the fact that tools and hence different technologies are, and always have been, a part of the practice of teaching in schools, e.g. in the form of books, paper and pencils. This article is about the development of digital media technology (ICT) that is taking place in schools on a wide front and poses questions about how to understand this development and what it is that is really happening to the content and forms of teaching in schools while this development takes place. For this purpose a media ecological perspective is taken on media and communication. This perspective is based on the conception of media in terms of environments that exhort human beings to think and feel in different ways and hence also prescribe what they can do. The point of departure is that education as an institution and an idea emanates from written culture, and is therefore a function of it. In the article, which has a particular focus on the teaching of writing in schools, I use examples from previous and ongoing research projects on how educational practice is changing and how education as an institution is being challenged by new technology. The analysis shows that the new technology provides schools and teaching with a number of new values, and the pupils with new competences, while other values and competences that were associated with the older written culture are simultaneously being lost.