The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate how future pre- and primary school mathematics teachers change their approaches to mathematics and mathematics education during their subject studies, and also how this view has affected their teaching of mathematics after graduation. A qualitative interview method was used in combination with observations, notes, sound recordings, video recorded mathematics classes and materials produced by the teacher in order to answer the research questions. The research was carried out in two parts. The institutional theory has been used as theoretical framework throughout. This perspective was supplemented by a design theoretical perspective in part two. In the first investigation it became clear that the language used by the students is under change, and that they use terms from the national curriculum as well as the aims of the programme syllabus when they discuss mathematics teaching. The results from the observations later show that four out of five of the teachers have a clear connection to the sort of teaching they said they want to conduct, in that there is a clear relationship between the sort of teaching that they claim to perform and the sort of teaching they actually perform. From the overall results, it is apparent that teachers one year after graduation describe that they feel well prepared for teaching mathematics in preschool and primary school. This is interesting in the light of their dissatisfaction with the limited emphasis on concrete recommendations and "tips" directly after their graduation. In fact, the teachers said that in practice it turned out that their education provided a more stable and secure foundation than they described it to be shortly after having completed their mathematics studies. They say that during their education they developed knowledge and skills that enabled them to be better prepared for their future work roles than they believed themselves likely to become.

<p>The focus of this study is the opposition of Ludwik Fleck to the logical positivism. The main interest focuses on the mutability of knowledge and the inherent problems of incommensura-bility, as well as on Fleck´s notion of reality. Fleck emphasizes a rational and continuous de-velopment of knowledge, in contrast to Thomas Kuhn´s discontinuous and irrational devel-opment, and rejects all forms of reality independent of human beings.</p><p>Fleck´s monograph Entstehung und Entwicklung einer Tatsache is a rich and multifac-eted inquiry into the nature of knowledge, emphasizing the social and historical aspects of the epistemology of science at the expense of certain logical precepts. With his concepts thought style and thought collective, Fleck is generally acknowledged as a precursor to Kuhn´s con-cepts of paradigm and scientific community. Fleck maintains a relativistic view of science and develops a comparative epistemology which challenges the logical positivists in many re-spects. He dismisses every form of reality and has therefore been regarded as an idealist, al-though there are certain aspects to his epistemology which point toward an implicit ontology based upon his idea of the passive components of knowledge.</p><p>The chief epistemological works of Fleck and his contemporary Karl Popper were published within a year of each other, 1934 and 1935, respectively, by which Popper had left the Continent to eventually become one of the leading British philosophers, while Fleck spent several years during the Second World War as a prisoner in Nazi camps. Both were firmly opposed to the logical positivism, one as a critical rationalist, the other as a sceptical relativist. Fleck was also a forerunner to the constructivist ideas and the Strong Programme.</p><p>The word ”incommensurability” has been ascribed Kuhn but the term had already been used by Fleck in 1927. The ”incommensurability thesis” dominates Kuhn´s notion of scientific revolutions and is accordingly the reason why scientific progress is considered an irrational process. The debate on the incommensurability thesis has continued to interest epistemologists and philosophers of science and many solutions have been suggested, some in line with the one proposed by Fleck.</p>

Taking the establishment of Ice Age theory as its point of departure, the present dissertation examines aspects of geological, plant geographical and archaeological research on shoreline displacement conducted in Sweden during the period 1860-1930, and the significance of this research for the perception of "the Swedish landscape" and its post-glacial history. The research is analyzed on three levels under the rubrics "The Highest Shoreline and the Ancylus Lake", "The Question of Land Elevation", and "Charting Swedens Past", respectively. Taken together, these levels capture the varying perceptions and exchanges of opinion of the nature of shoreline displacement and the contexts in which they were applied. The present study is conducted via a theoretical and methodological approach where both the ideas and the practices of science are studied: activities in the field and at the various institutions (primarily the Swedish Geological Survey, its museum and the Geological Society of Stockholm); arguments and hypotheses presented in artides and handbooks, including visual images, diagrams and maps; social networks, career paths and controversies. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between science and nationalism, and comparisons are made with research conducted in an imperialist context. Ice Age theory helped initiate research whose purpose was to discover how the Swedish naturai and cultural landscape carne into being. The foremost task of geology became studying geographic evolution during the Quaternary epoch, how the land had "risen from ice and water". Plant geography studied how and whence plant life had migrated and how vegetation had evolved under the influence of biological, geological and climatological factors. In a similar manner, archaeologists studied the migration and dissemination of mankind during the StoneAge. When natural scientists primarily used "natural landmarks" as its source material, archaeologists relied on "archaeological finds", which were invested with scientific value but also became symbols of national collective memory. Through this survey, national identity was unifìed with the territory itself and its evolutionary history. Knowledge about shoreline displacement became significant for geology, plant geography and archaeology, which in turn encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration, but also locked the researchers into a similar way of thinking about the nature of shoreline displacement. According to this "thought style", the phenomenon was first and foremost the result of the vertical movement of the land rather than movement in the ocean surface. Up until the 1870s, the Ice Age was thought to have been followed by one single subsidence and elevation; during the 1880s, two such land oscillations; three during the 1910s and by the 1920s, five. Only toward the end of the 1920s did Swedish researchers begin to accept a multi-factor explanation, which succeeded in finally subverting the reigning thought style. According to this explanation, shoreline displacement was not solely the result of changes in the land or the sea, but of both. / digitalisering@umu

The focus of this study is the opposition of Ludwik Fleck to the logical positivism. The main interest focuses on the mutability of knowledge and the inherent problems of incommensura-bility, as well as on Fleck´s notion of reality. Fleck emphasizes a rational and continuous de-velopment of knowledge, in contrast to Thomas Kuhn´s discontinuous and irrational devel-opment, and rejects all forms of reality independent of human beings. Fleck´s monograph Entstehung und Entwicklung einer Tatsache is a rich and multifac-eted inquiry into the nature of knowledge, emphasizing the social and historical aspects of the epistemology of science at the expense of certain logical precepts. With his concepts thought style and thought collective, Fleck is generally acknowledged as a precursor to Kuhn´s con-cepts of paradigm and scientific community. Fleck maintains a relativistic view of science and develops a comparative epistemology which challenges the logical positivists in many re-spects. He dismisses every form of reality and has therefore been regarded as an idealist, al-though there are certain aspects to his epistemology which point toward an implicit ontology based upon his idea of the passive components of knowledge. The chief epistemological works of Fleck and his contemporary Karl Popper were published within a year of each other, 1934 and 1935, respectively, by which Popper had left the Continent to eventually become one of the leading British philosophers, while Fleck spent several years during the Second World War as a prisoner in Nazi camps. Both were firmly opposed to the logical positivism, one as a critical rationalist, the other as a sceptical relativist. Fleck was also a forerunner to the constructivist ideas and the Strong Programme. The word ”incommensurability” has been ascribed Kuhn but the term had already been used by Fleck in 1927. The ”incommensurability thesis” dominates Kuhn´s notion of scientific revolutions and is accordingly the reason why scientific progress is considered an irrational process. The debate on the incommensurability thesis has continued to interest epistemologists and philosophers of science and many solutions have been suggested, some in line with the one proposed by Fleck.

The dissertation addresses the negative consequences of the generally positive democratic ambition behind social planning: the good purpose may conceal less good actions. The aim is to study the thought-style of social planning and its most powerful topos, the denial of discrepancies. The focus of the dissertation is to exemplify how the denial of discrepancies and the consequences of denial become manifest. With emphasis on continuity and history, is shown how a Cartesian legacy shapes the thought-style of social planning, which is animated and upheld by the planning-collective: the integration of policy and science in planning. The planning-collective’s voice has become hegemonic through maintaining a harmony of illusions. The result is a lack of responsiveness to people’s varied modes of expression; voices that differ from the hegemonic thought-style are thus perceived as dissonance. Discrepancies in the form of differences of opinion and lack of consensus thus appear as sources of anxiety.  The mode of planning is based on a set of habitual thoughts and actions, topoi, that have become taken-for-granted. The result is an objectification of that which we call living, and the study shows through a number of examples, including “social economy”, how this form of objectification occurs. The epistemological frame of reference of the dissertation is constituted by Ludwik Fleck’s theory of thought-collectives, thought-styles and migrations of thought, and José Luis Ramírez’s action-theory, focused on language as action. Michel Foucault’s works on disciplining, political technologies, and discursive struggles are applied to create understanding of how the planning approach to representing people’s life activities has been shaped and how it influences them.

Inom ramen för svensk grundskola har enskilda lärare varit betrodda med en högre grad av autonomi än lärare i många andra europeiska länder. Exempelvis har lärare givits ett stort ansvar att bedöma och betygssätta elevers kunskaper. Hur lärares bedömningar går till eller hur dessa bedömningar speglar en elevs kunskap framstår inte alltid tydligt för elever. Som en följd av att svenska elevers resultat i t.ex. matematik sjunkit i internationella kunskapsmätningar, har utvärdering av skolor, lärare och elevernas prestationer ökat – därmed har lärares bedömningsarbete fått mer uppmärksamhet i den skolpolitiska debatten, i såväl partipolitik som media. Utifrån de sjunkande resultaten har flera omfattande reformer inom skolan trätt i kraft sedan juli 2011. Som exempel på dessa reformer kan nämnas en ny skollag, en reviderad läroplan för grundskolan, samt nya föreskrifter för kunskapskrav för grundskolans ämnen med ny betygsskala vilka alla är styrande för lärares undervisning och bedömning av elevers kunskaper fr.o.m. årskurs 1 t.o.m. årskurs 9. Studien beskriver och analyserar svenska matematiklärares tankestilar om bedömning och matematikkunnighet. Det teoretiska ramverk som använts är relaterat till Flecks begrepp tankekollektiv och tankestil. För att studera lärares professionella samtal om bedömning och matematikkunnighet genomfördes semistrukturerade, materialbaserade fokusgruppsintervjuer. Materialet var elevers arbete, t.ex. prov- och matematikuppgifter. Fokusgruppsintervjuerna var sekventiella, dvs. inför respektive intervju användes föregående intervjus utskrift som underlag vid planering av nya frågor. Två fokusgrupper med matematiklärare i årskurs 4-6 från två skolor intervjuades sammanlagt vid åtta tillfällen under ett år. Detta betyder att det genomfördes fyra intervjuer på respektive skola. Intervjuerna ljudinspelades och transkriberades. Lärarna från de två skolorna hade olika förutsättningar i sitt arbete. På en av skolorna fanns redan et fungerande ämneslärarlag – lärarna träffades och samverkade återkommande varje vecka för att planera och diskutera matematik. På den andra skolan hade lärarna endast kommit samman för att delta i fokusgruppsintervjuerna. Resultaten visar att även om respektive lärargrupp hade olika förutsättningar, så kan grupperna ändå betraktas som ett tankekollektiv. Resultaten visar också att två övergripande tankestilar har urskilts: bedömning som borde göras kontinuerligt och matematikkunnighet är när du kan visa och redogöra för ditt resonemang. I återkommande kollegiala samtal kan tankestilen om bedömning och matematikkunnighet synliggöras. I samtalet finns möjlighet att utmana rådande traditioner genom att formulera och omformulera den kunskap och erfarenhet som redan finns för att bygga vidare på ny. Samtalen ger även möjlighet till att problematisera och utveckla lärarnas professionella språk samt visualisera lärarnas bedömningsarbete, vilket bidrar till att utveckla matematikundervisningen. / Individual teachers have been trusted with a higher degree of autonomy within the Swedish compulsory school than teachers in many other European countries. For example, teachers have been given the responsibility to assess and grade students’ knowledge. However, how teachers’ assessments reflect students’ knowledge is not always clear to students. As a result of that the Swedish students’ performance have declined in international knowledge measurements such as PIRLS, TIMSS and PISA, evaluation of schools, teachers and students’ performance has increased. Thus, teachers’ assessment work has received much attention in the debate on education policy as well as in media. This thesis describes and analyses Swedish mathematics teachers’ thought styles on assessment and mathematical knowing. The theoretical framework that was used is related to Fleck’s concepts thought style and thought collective. In order to study teachers’ conversations on assessment, semi structured material-based focus group interviews were carried out. The material was students’ work, e.g. test items. Selection was limited to certified mathematics teachers in Swedish compulsory school, year 4-6. The interviews were sequential, i.e. the transcription from the previous interview was used as basic data when planning the next interview. Two focus groups from two schools were interviewed on eight occasions during one year, four times with each school. The interviews were audio recorded and subsequently transcribed. The conditions for the two groups were different. At one school the teachers already met and interacted every week to plan and discuss mathematics. At the other, the teachers only came together when starting to participate in these focus group interviews. The results show that even though the two teacher groups had different conditions, they can be seen as one thought collective. Moreover, the results show the emergence of two thought styles: assessment should be done continuously and students should be able to show and argue for their reasoning. It is argued that when teachers interact in conversations the thought style on assessment becomes more conscious. Also these conversations offer a possibility to problematize and develop teachers’ professional language and visualize the assessment and teaching practice, all of which improves their development in mathematical pedagogy. The results emphasize the importance of organizing and structuring collegial conversations. This issue needs to be addressed at the school management level.

<p>This case study explores how geo-political power structures influence and/or determine the conception, acceptance and maintenance of what is considered to be valid archaeological knowledge. The nature of this contingency is exemplified through an examination of how the prehistory of Norrland, a region traditionally considered and portrayed as peripheral vis-à-vis the centre-South, was interpreted and presented by Swedish archaeologists during the 20th century. This contextual situation is analysed through the implementation of three interrelated and complimentary perspectives;</p><p>1) The relationship between northern and southern Sweden is examined using concepts concerning the nature of colonialism, resulting in the formulation of 20 particulars that typify the colonial experience, circumstances that characterise the historical, and unequal, association that has existed between these two regions for the last 600 years.</p><p>2) Ideals of national identity and heritage as manufactured and employed by the kingdom and later by the nation-state, with the assistance of antiquarianism, archaeology and/or centralised cultural management, are outlined. The creation of these various concepts have reinforced and perpetuated the colonial and asymmetrical association between what has naturally come to be viewed as the peripheral-North and the centre-South.</p><p>3) A century of archaeological research into the Norrlandian past is studied using the concepts ‘thoughtstyle’ and ‘thought-collective’ as devised by Ludwik Fleck. This analysis disclosed a persistent set of reoccurring explanations that have constantly been invoked when interpreting and presenting the prehistory of Norrland. This archaeological thought-style has normalised the unbalanced power relationship between North and South that has existed for the last 600 years by projecting it far back into the prehistoric past.</p><p>This case study has demonstrated that archaeologists, unless acutely aware of the historical context in which they themselves move and work, risk legitimising debilitating economic and political power relationships in the present through their study and presentation of the past.</p>

This case study explores how geo-political power structures influence and/or determine the conception, acceptance and maintenance of what is considered to be valid archaeological knowledge. The nature of this contingency is exemplified through an examination of how the prehistory of Norrland, a region traditionally considered and portrayed as peripheral vis-à-vis the centre-South, was interpreted and presented by Swedish archaeologists during the 20th century. This contextual situation is analysed through the implementation of three interrelated and complimentary perspectives; 1) The relationship between northern and southern Sweden is examined using concepts concerning the nature of colonialism, resulting in the formulation of 20 particulars that typify the colonial experience, circumstances that characterise the historical, and unequal, association that has existed between these two regions for the last 600 years. 2) Ideals of national identity and heritage as manufactured and employed by the kingdom and later by the nation-state, with the assistance of antiquarianism, archaeology and/or centralised cultural management, are outlined. The creation of these various concepts have reinforced and perpetuated the colonial and asymmetrical association between what has naturally come to be viewed as the peripheral-North and the centre-South. 3) A century of archaeological research into the Norrlandian past is studied using the concepts ‘thoughtstyle’ and ‘thought-collective’ as devised by Ludwik Fleck. This analysis disclosed a persistent set of reoccurring explanations that have constantly been invoked when interpreting and presenting the prehistory of Norrland. This archaeological thought-style has normalised the unbalanced power relationship between North and South that has existed for the last 600 years by projecting it far back into the prehistoric past. This case study has demonstrated that archaeologists, unless acutely aware of the historical context in which they themselves move and work, risk legitimising debilitating economic and political power relationships in the present through their study and presentation of the past.

Subject of this study is the evolvement of the radical art music scene in Sweden. In this development took the labour movement an active part during the 1960s. The purpose of this study is to examine how the relationship between the radical art music scene and the labour movement was constituted and what this relationship implied for the Swedish radical art music scene during the 1960s. During the 1960s radical music became an influencial part in the Swedish music scene of modern art music. In this development the artists’ society Fylkingen had a central position. In the early 1960s Fylkingen began to incorporate writers, engineers, scientists, sociologists, philosophers, economists, etc. in their work and a number of projects were initiated which interacted with common society. A proposal for a public record company was developed together with KSF (Social Democratic Association for Cultural Workers) and was presented to the Swedish parliament. In collaboration with ABF (Workers’ Educational Association) the first studio for electronic music was build in 1960 and the relationship between the labour movement and the radical art music scene was institutionalized as the Stockholm Electronic Music Studio Foundation. This thesis uses the terminology of Ludwik Fleck to examine the relationship between the radical art music scene and the labour movement. The concepts of Thought collective and Thought-style are used to draw conclusions about common values and objectives within the Thought-style. The radical art music scene and the labour movement are understood to be part of a common Thought collective with a common style of thought. Because of this relationship, projects initiated in the radical music scene came to emphasize the democratic and educational aspects of music. In the latter half of the 1960s it was conceived impossible to achieve these goals under the existing program, leading to the notion within the style of thought that technological advancement was a prerequisite for a democratic music scene.