Playing is a common part of children’s leisure time, and with children spending an increasing amount of this time in school-age childcare, in both Sweden and England, staff have the responsibility to facilitate play. The way play is conceptualised by staff may lead to different aspects of play being facilitated. These play practices are enabled and constrained by the arrangements of what this dissertation calls the school’s play practice architecture, i.e. where play practices are intertwined with a school’s practice architecture. The aim of the research was to explore how staff talked about play and how to facilitate it, how concepts of play contributed to different play practices and how it might be possible to transform play practice architectures. The research draws on conversations with staff in school-age childcare settings in two Swedish and one English school during an action research project. Just as action research was used to disturb and change practice in order to understand it, concepts from Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy (1980/2004) were put to work to disturb taken-for-granted concepts of play in order to explore how play works. Article I explores what the staff talked about in relation to play and its facilitation. The conclusion is that the ability of staff to interpret children’s play as children exploring their agency is crucial when facilitating play in a learning institution. Article II examines some discursive orders about play in school-age childcare and goes beyond them by conceptualising playing as becoming-different. The article argues that when foregrounding play, staff recognised children and themselves as becoming-players. Article III investigates how to think practice as constant change. For any practice, planning is required, and yet the unexpected keeps happening. When playing was conceptualised as a “What If? As If” approach, which allowed for potentialities to become actualised, then this approach was also useful as an approach in practice. The analysis suggests that when engaging in a playing practice, practitioners develop new knowledge and simultaneously change social situations. The practice of playing, whether intentional or unintentional, can not only disturb but also transform play practice architectures. The practice of playing is sensitised to the disturbances caused by playing and also puts itself “in play”. This opens up for a continuous de- and reterritorialisation of play and playing in school-age childcare practice.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 256-271).

Initially the overall aim of this thesis was to describe and analyse what was happening in the educational activities when teachers at a school that I have called Tower School introduced the computer as a tool for helping pupils who were learning to write and read. Key questions concerned the issue of improvement. Did introducing the computer as a tool in the teaching and learning process help the pupils with their learning or not and, if so, in what ways. The research approach chosen was an action research approach. Action research is concerned with professional practice and improvement. It is contextual and oriented toward action processes and change. The initial phase of the research went more or less according to plan. I followed the development process of the introduction and use of the computer as a learning tool, met regularly with the teachers and together with them developed a good working relationship. After about a year things changed. With the restructuring that was taking place in the region changes began to take place also at Tower School and this had effects on the research. In addition to the initial aim to research changes related to student learning a second purpose developed. This purpose was to describe and analyse how political governance and underlying societal forces might influence what happens in school development. There were two reasons for this new extra dimension. One was a methodological interest in relation to planning action research projects at times of political change in the education sector. The other was an educational theoretical interest connected to the school as a policy-driven organization. My interest here was for changes in the political economy at the macro level and how the network of macro-political and economic relations affected the micropolitical level of the school, its classrooms, participating teachers in these classrooms, their students and me as a researcher? / <p>Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av utbildningsvetenskapliga fakulteten vid</p><p>Göteborgs universitet för vinnande av doktorsexamen i pedagogiskt arbete</p><p>framläggs till offentlig granskning Fredagen den 14 juni, kl. 13-16 vid Högskolan i Borås, sal C203</p>

Thesis (M.Arch.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-91). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Denna licentiatuppsats har studerat kommunikationsmönster och beslutsfattande i relation till lärarens undervisningsmetoder med ambitionen om att undervisa från ett mer frågebaserat och elevcentreratperspektiv. Studien är genomförd enligt principerna för en självstudie. Resultatet av kommunikationen i min undervisning bestäms av vem som ska fatta de olika besluten. Om jag äger alla beslut kommer det också att leda till att jag äger nästan all kommunikation med och feedback till mina elever. Det leder också till mer lärarcentrerade undervisningsmetoder. Resultatet av möjligheterna att förändra en praktik är att det inte finns något motstånd bland eleverna att undervisa på ett mer elevcentrerat och frågebaserat sätt. Normer är föränderliga och genom att undervisa på ett mer varieratsätt finns även möjligheter att fortsätta ett yrkesspråk inom idrott. / Knowledge is expressed in different forms – such as facts, understanding, skills, and familiarity – which require and interact with each other. Therefore, teachers cannot unilaterally emphasize one or the other form of knowledge, which means that teachers are challenged to master a variety of possible ways of teaching. The dominant language in physical education teaching comes from sports, and there is no language that puts into words the goals that teaching in school should have. Research in Sweden also emphasizes that when the institutions of school and sport meet, it is sport that sets the agenda. This means that physical education teaching has a way of being organized that is similar to club sport activities and its content with different sports. Today's curriculum is too multidimensional to use only one teaching method (Ferry &amp; Olofsson, 2009; Schenker, 2011; Hedberg, 2014; Nyberg &amp; Larsson, 2014, 2016; SueSee &amp; Barker, 2019). The aim of the study is to use self-study as a method and student-centered and question-based teaching strategies in combination with the teacher-centered and instruction-based teaching methods that dominate today. Which communication patterns and which decision-making can be discerned in relation to the chosen teaching methods?How do the students describe the experience from the course with a focus on the teacher’s communication and the design of the teaching?The study took place in a course in physical education and health specialization in ice hockey in Sweden during eight months. The students in the study were all boys between 16 and 19 years old and were interviewed before and after the observed teaching. During the course, the teacher’s communication during the lessons was recorded with a microphone. All teaching in the study has been categorized according to Kirk’s (1996) five teaching methods in order to distinguish who makes decisions, how the teaching is organized and what kind of communication and feedback that dominates. The empirical material has been analyzed using the theory of practice architecture. This theory is about understanding the practice and its changes, and what enables or hinders the development of the practice (Kemmis et al., 2014). The outcome of the communication in my teaching is determined by who makes the different decisions. If I as a teacher own all decisions, it will also lead to me owning almost all communication with and feedback to my students. It also leads to more teacher-centered teaching methods. When I plan the teaching based on the fact that the students should also decide, I also invite them to communicate more. This communication can be between me and the students or between the students. The study indicated that there was no resistance among students to a more student-centered and inquiry-based teaching. Norms are changeable, and by teaching in a more varied way there are also opportunities to develop a professional language in physical education.

The aim of the study is to generate knowledge about principals´ pedagogical leadership practice. Furthermore, the study aims at generate knowledge of what is happening in a joint action research practice when principals explore a pedagogical leadership. In the study the theory of practice architectures interacts with the choice of methodological orientation and is used to analyse the results. The study is embedded in the Nordic action research tradition. Partnership between universities and practitioners is seen as an important arena for professional development. The results are of importance to the principals who daily work to improve their schools. The students' learning and development appear to be an important and almost obvious component of the principal´s pedagogical leadership practice.   The principal's pedagogical leadership is defined as an indirect leadership in which the principal focuses on arranging the conditions for the teachers so that they are given the opportunity to improve their teaching. A pedagogical leader is not just talking about changes, he/she also calls for concrete actions in the school's internal work. The principals´ pedagogical leadership can be described as orchestrating the surrounding arrangement in such a way that they enable a learning and collaborative practice at the school. Part of this orchestration is about supporting forms of cooperation so that good norms and a development-promoting culture are established. The study shows how trustworthy relationships in the groups were absolutely necessary for the participants to be able to change their understanding of the pedagogical leadership. The changes in the joint action research practice have been described as three stages: the establishment stage, the testing stage and the critical stage, where the names of the stages characterize what happened in the groups during different periods of time in the change process. A critical and emancipatory approach was developed in the process. / Rektors pedagogiska ledarskap är ett ledarskap som ofta beskrivs som något positivt och nödvändigt men också som otydligt och svårgripbart. Denna studie är tänkt som ett bidrag till utbildningsvetenskaplig forskning med särskilt fokus på rektorers pedagogiska ledarskap, rektorers professionsutveckling och skolförbättring. Avhandlingen är en aktionsforskningsstudie som bygger på samarbete, delaktighet, engagemang och partnerskap mellan forskare och rektorer. Den handlar om att förstå och förbättra en praktik men också om att skaffa sig kunskap om hur en sådan förbättring går till och vad som händer under arbetets gång. Aktionsforskning möjliggör ett vetenskapligt kunskapande samtidigt som en praktik förbättras. Studiens resultat visar att rektors pedagogiska ledarskap handlar om att orkestrera skolans omgivande arrangemang så att de möjliggör en lärande och professionell praktik samt bidrar till en god förbättringskapacitet på skolan. Det handlar om att skapa rutiner för vilka som ska mötas och tala med varandra, hur ofta de ska mötas, vad de ska tala om och på vilket sätt det ska ske. En pedagogisk ledare nöjer sig inte med att tala om förändringar utan genomför och även uppmanar till konkreta aktioner i en skolas inre arbete. Rektors pedagogiska ledarskap har en tydlig viljeinriktning mot elevernas lärande och studien visar att det är ett ledarskap som stärks när fler delar på ansvaret.

Att läsa på högskola och universitet innebär att på egen hand läsa och förstå kurslitteratur. Det är en grundläggande del av att lära inom högre utbildning. Samtidigt kan det finnas en tystnad kring hur läsningen ska ske och hur den utförs av studenter. Vetenskapliga artiklar är en publikationskälla som är välintegrerad inom akademin och utbildningar. Vetenskapliga artiklar riktar sig till andra forskare och inte till studenter under utbildning, vilket kan innebära att läsningen försvåras för studenten. Studiens syfte är att förstå studenters läspraktik av vetenskapliga artiklar och om ett stöd i form av en läsworkshop påverkar deras läspraktik. Den metod som använts är aktionsforskning som inkluderar planering, utförande och utvärdering av en läsworkshop med läsförståelsestrategin THIEVES som del. Intervjuer har genomförts med läsworkshopdeltagare. Den teoretiska analysram som appliceras på materialet är praktikarkitekturteori. Resultatet av studien visar att studenterna uttrycker att artikeltexten blir svårläst på grund av svåra ord och många fakta, samt att läsning är krävande, men ger behållning. Studenterna använder strategier med syfte att behålla fokus under läsning av vetenskapliga artiklar. De kan vilja påverka miljön runt om dem för att få bästa koncentration och motverka ett förlorat fokus. De strävar efter att vara tidseffektiva, samtidigt som de inte i förväg kan veta hur lång tid läsningen av en vetenskaplig artikel kommer att ta. De väljer mellan att läsa artiklar digitalt eller utskrivna, och ser olika fördelar med varje läsformat. De markerar och slår upp ord, men deras anteckningsvanor varierar efter syftet med läsningen. Deras läsvanor påverkas av deras självbild och behov, och även om de gärna samarbetar med andra har de svårt att se hur ett samarbete kring läsning ska ske. Läraren blir ett stöd i att förtydliga viktiga fakta och förhållanden för att förstå i texten. En läsworkshop med läsförståelsestrategin THIEVES kan påverka läspraktiken, förbättra läs flyt och textförståelse till det bättre. Det innebär inte att alla instruktioner i THIEVES upplevs lika hjälpsamma under läsning och inte heller att alla väljer att följa THIEVES.