This thesis is a qualitative case study of curriculum change within a contemporary Australian university. The curriculum change involved a repositioning of early childhood teacher education into a course structure that would qualify teachers to work across both the early childhood and primary years. The study explores the ways some of the institutional social practices of a university at a particular socio historic moment constructed ways of 'being' for the people involved in the change process. In particular, the research investigates language as a social practice within the university and focuses on the ways university curriculum texts privileged some discourses over others, legitimating particular versions of teaching and excluding others.

Most teachers prefer not to write and publish on teaching. As a result, teaching tends to be written by researchers and others who are not core participants in the practices and contexts they are writing about. Furthermore, the narratives these writers provide are frequently told and explained in language that teachers find inauthentic. Since composing in writing is a key component of learning, teachers who do not write miss out on valuable opportunities for self-growth; and those who do not publish their reflections in any written form forgo a source of collaborative learning. This Doctor of Philosophy study examines the possibilities of published reflective writing in teacher learning for TESOL practitioners.

The aim of this study was to develop knowledge on the influence of preschool working conditions, i.e. social and political factors and factors within the individual preschool, on offers afforded to children. To illustrate this in­fluence, I chose to investigate the design and implementation of preschool theme work. The study examined preschool pedagogues’ motives, organi­sation, contents and methods that underlie their teaching in the theme work and the influence of working conditions in this process. Ethnographic methods have been applied, including observations and interviews with pre­school pedagogues in four preschool settings. The study had a theoretical starting point in curriculum theory, with Bernstein’s concept of classification and framing as well as frame factor theory used as tools in analysing the material. The results show that a combination of various working conditions affects offers afforded to preschool children in theme work. The pedagogues make decisions that underlie their teaching partly in relations to social and political changes and reforms, and partly in relation to processes formed historically. The children are offered an organisation, contents and methods in the theme work that arise from pedagogues’ understanding of their mission, curriculum and the childrens’ interests and needs. / <p>Licentiatuppsatsen har författats inom forskarskolan ”Utforskande lärprocesser och literacy: Förskolebarns lärande i språk, matematik och naturvetenskap” som genomförts i samarbete mellan Stockholms universitet, Uppsala universitet, Umeå universitet och Högskolan Dalarna. Tio doktorander har varit knutna till forskarskolan som finansierats av Vetenskapsrådets utbildningsvetenskapliga kommitté. Forskarskolan är en del av regeringens satsning på fortbildning av förskollärare.</p>

Contemporary popular music is a ubiquitous social, cultural, and pedagogical force. Enabled by ever-evolving and -expanding technology, its songs and lyrics are transmitted into our most public and private spaces. For this study, I present the Billboard music charts as a functioning pedagogy and curriculum. Riffing on Richter’s denkbilder, Aoki’s curricular worlds of plan and lived experience, Giroux’s public pedagogy, and Giroux & Simon’s theorizing on youth culture, I sound out messages and motives embedded within the hit parade pedagogy. DJing a methodology of qualitative inquiry, autoethnography, and free association, I listen closely to chart-topping songs by Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and P!nk that feature themes of marginalization, and consider the paradox presented by the juxtaposition of their popularity and subject matter. I suggest that this playlist legitimizes and perpetuates its listeners’ marginalization, running counter to its supposed intent to galvanize and inspire. Before signing off, I consider the implications for school-based educators and pedagogy in regard to engaging marginalization, particularly the notion of implementing a curriculum with which students may participate and sing along.

This study intends to develop knowledge about how the Swedish concept of values (“Värdegrund”)is used in the media, how the concept has shifted over time in the media from 1992 to 2020, and what this says about the school's function as part of society. Since the concept of values, with its set of values was incorporated, the difficulty over time has been in different emphases of what is considered to strengthen values. Perspectives that in value pedagogical research highlight normative as well as descriptive aspects. Aspects that describe perspectives on the school's civic education and the conditions for it. In the debate about the school's civic education, aspects emerge that refer to the school as a societal function and in some respects as an institution. Here, discourses emerge that are at the framework factor level or at the institutional level that can clarify, exploring and explaining the conditions that emerge in the study's empirical data. Aspects that express both to maintain, reproduce, an ideology and partly to create, produce, and prepare students based on society's demand.  Through the ways in which school and education are treated in the media, the image of the school's social function in a certain time and a certain society is framed. Based on this, I have chosen to use the media as a peephole to see how the school's basic values concept has been activated and used over time. Content analysis has been applied to analyse 91 articles from the newspapers Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet.  The study shows how the school's values, with its set of values, which are found in the first chapter of the national curricula, relate to society's different use and application of the same values, which creates a complexity. The study shows how the school is expected to handle the increased complexity of society. The results and analyses highlight generally normative approaches that express what the school ‘should’ do, even if there are some examples of descriptive “how” different approaches are considered to strengthen values. This is made visible in how schools considered as a corrective and normative practice, where efforts are to a greater extent about counteracting factors that violate the school's values, rather than strengthening what promotes the values.

Bullying is a persistent problem that in recent years has increased by 7 percent between theages of 11, 13 and 15 years. In order to work against bullying, the Education Act regulates thatschools must produce a new equal treatment plan every year. Another way to prevent bullyingis through two well-known models called Olweus' model and Ljungström's Farsta method. Thedifference between the two models is that Ljungström’s Farsta method focuses more on theindividual and reprimanding talk with the bully, while Olweus’ model has its focus on a moregeneral level with different types of interventions such as role play. The equal treatment plansand the two models can be considered to be characterized by underlying ideological ideas thatcan be made visible with the help of the curriculum theory's codes. The purpose of the study istherefore to highlight the underlying ideological ideas in equal treatment plans and to examinein what way dominant models against bullying can be related to these. The study’s data wascollected by qualitative content analysis of seven equal treatment plans and the twoaforementioned models. The collected data has been analyzed in a three-step analysis where ithas appeared that there are similar principles in both the equal treatment plans and in the actionmodels. Another conclusion is that they are dominated by the relativistic, civic and moralcurriculum codes.

No description available.

Ett övergripande examensmål för naturvetenskapsprogrammet är att eleverna ska utveckla ett naturvetenskapligt förhållningssätt enligt gällande läroplan. Detta innefattar ”förmåga till kritiskt tänkande, logiska resonemang, problemlösning och systematiska iakttagelser” (Lgy11). Öppna laborationer är en undervisningsform som syftar till utvecklandet av dessa förmågor och som därför rekommenderas av Skolverket. Men hur ser kemilärare på öppna laborationer och deras användbarhet i undervisningen? Vad använder de sig av för stöd och hjälp när de ska planera undervisning genom öppna laborationer utifrån läroplanen? Denna studie syftar till att ur ett läroplansteoretiskt perspektiv utforska gymnasielärares tankar kring hur det är att använda öppna laborationer I kemiundervisningen på gymnasiet. Tre lärare som vid studiens genomförande använde sig av öppna laborationer i sin undervisning intervjuades. Dessutom undersöktes två webbaserade kemilärarresurser med avseende på vilken typ av stöd gällande öppna laborationer de erbjöd, i vilken utsträckning och på vilket sätt. Studien visar på att lärarnas övergripande syfte med öppna laborationer var att få eleverna att tänka, vilket speglar hur öppna laborationer syftar till att ge elever möjlighet att utveckla ett naturvetenskapligt förhållningssätt. Vid planerande av öppna laborationer i undervisningen litar lärarna i studien huvudsakligen på egen beprövad erfarenhet. Dessutom pekar studien på att inte bara konkreta ramfaktorer, såsom undervisningstid och grupper inverkar på lärarnas planering, utan också det ”undervisningsklimat” som råder på skolan i allmänhet. / A main objective according to the Swedish national curriculum of the science program in upper secondary school is for the students to develop the ability of scientific reasoning. This includes the abilities of chritical thinking, logical reasoning, problemsolving and systematic observations. The objective of open laboratory practices (inquiry-based laboratory) teaching pedagogics is for the students to develop their scientific reasoning skills. Thus, such pedagogical methods are recommended by Skolverket. But what do teachers think about inquiry-based laboratory practices and its application in class? What kind of support do they have when, according to the curriculum, including inquiry-based laboratory practices in their chemistry classes? This study aims to explore teachers view on using inquiry-based laboratory practices in chemistry class, from a curriculum theory perspective. Three teachers, who were using inquiry laboratory pedagogics at the time of the study, were interviewed. Two online resourses for chemistry teachers were also investigated regarding what type of information and support they contained regarding inquiry-based laboratory teaching material. What type of material and to what extent was it available? This study shows that the teachers’ main goal with inquiry-based laboratory practices was to make the students think, mirroring how the pedagogic of inquiry-based laboratory practices aims to develop students scientific reasoning. Teachers mainly rely on their own experience when planning inquiry-based laboratory practices. Additionally, this study also suggests that not only framing factors such as time and group size influence on how teachers plan their open laboratory classes, also the teaching and learning climate of the school in general influences how the teachers open up the laboratory practices towards inquiry.

This study is written in the light of the ongoing debate in Sweden about the school's purpose, and the political will to enhance the schools focus on factual and subject knowledge. This study aims to explain how this purpose can be read in today's syllabus for the civics subject for school years 4-6. It also intends to explain how this purpose has developed since 1980. This is done by using an ideal type analysis together with professor Gert Biestas theoretical framework, where he distinguishes three functions of education; qualification, socialisation, and subjectification. Qualification refers to the educational purpose to mediate knowledge in preparation for a future working life, socialisation to integrate the pupils into existing cultural-, social- or political orders and subjectification about promoting the pupils autonomy. The results show that today's syllabus for the civics subject is primarily focussed on the qualification function, while the socialisation- and subjectification functions are less apparent. Further, it shows that the syllabuses for the civics subject have developed since 1980. From a syllabus mediating qualification and socialisation equally, to today's focus on qualification. The analysis also shows that in some cases there are conflicts between the functions. These conflicts have however decreased in the syllabuses since 1980.

Föreliggande licentiatuppsatsen tar sitt avstamp i forskningen kring den svenska läroplanens revideringar med ett särskilt fokus på ämnet idrott och hälsa. Begreppet komplex rörelse visade sig vara särskilt problematisk för idrottslärare i den senaste versionen och valdes därför som undersökningsobjekt och som exempel på begreppstransformering. Osäkerheten kring betydelsen av begreppet skapar ett praktiskt problem för lärare då det uttalade politiska direktiven om tydlighet medför större behov av gränsdragningar vad gäller betyg och bedömning. Licentiatuppsatsen synliggör en problematik avseende introduktionen och transformeringen av centrala begrepp. Mer specifikt är avsikten att undersöka vad som händer när ett specifikt begrepp transformeras från formuleringar i styrdokument till att det tolkas och beskrivs av idrottslärare. Syftet i uppsatsen som helhet uppnås genom två delarbeten och en jämförelse av resultaten från två delarbeten.  Delarbete ett har som syfte att identifiera hur diskursen om komplex rörelse är sammansatt i Lgr11 med tillhörande stödmaterial avseende idrott och hälsa. Arbetet sker med hjälp av diskursanalys och ger kunskap om tänkbara betydelser av komplex rörelse inom ramen för skolämnet idrott och hälsa i Sverige. En diskursanalys av Lgr 11 och dess stödmaterial visar därigenom hur intentionerna med komplex rörelse kan förstås. Delarbete två har som syfte att identifiera hur idrottslärare i Sverige har tolkat komplex rörelse hämtat ur Lgr 11 och dess stödmaterial. Det sker genom diskursanalys av intervjuer med sex idrottslärare. Jämförelsen av de båda delarbetena avseende transformeringen från policy till praktik visar att det finns vissa likheter mellan diskurserna som har identifierats i de båda delarbetena men till största delen skiljer de sig åt. De ursprungliga intentionerna med komplex rörelse har redan i formuleringsarenan transformerats med flera diskurser. Dessa diskurser transformeras på nytt av idrottslärarna med ytterligare diskurser i transformeringsarenan. Att det existerar konkurrerande och till viss del motsägande sätt att beskriva komplex rörelse på är ett resultat av att begreppet har transformerats.  Den här uppsatsen kommer att: (i) hjälpa till att ur ett yrkesperspektiv bättre förstå innebörden av komplex rörelse; (ii) hjälpa forskningen att förstå hur nya skrivelser tas emot ur ett yrkesperspektiv för framtida läroplansarbete och i utformning av dess implementerings- eller genomförandearbete (enactment); (iii) bidra till att belysa problematiken av effekter nuvarande implementeringsarbete har på undervisningskvaliteten, (iv) bidra med kunskap om vilken betydelse dagens implementeringsarbete har för ämnets innehåll och status, samt (v) komma med förslag på en framtida modell för ett görande (enactment).