This ethnographic study explores treatment practices and staff-resident interaction at a detention home for young men, drawing on video recorded conversations and interviews. It investigates ideological dilemmas inherent in the institutional setting and how these produce complex subject positions to uptake, negotiate or refuse. Study I explores a core treatment dilemma: coercion vs. freedom, involving the dual institutional goal of coercing residents into norm abiding behavior and of producing individuals who behave "properly" out of their own free will. It focuses on staff members’ talk about token economy, illuminating rhetorical resources deployed to avoid the troubled subject position of a disciplinarian. Study II investigates disciplinary humor, illuminating how humor is used both to impose and disrupt social order. It shows how staff members and youths skillfully deploy humor in negotiating local hierarchies related to authority, generation, and age. Humor was also found to be a useful way of navigating ideological dilemmas. Study III explores behavior modification practices, focusing on how selfassessment practices can be conceptualized as responsibilization that emphasizes self-regulation. It documents the participants’ engagement in strategic deployment of specific subject position relations, “young boy”-caregiver rather than delinquent-disciplinarian. In brief, the thesis shows that subject positions are essentially co-constructed, and how positions related to age are highly relevant in this institutional setting. Paradoxical aspects of subject positions provide discursive resources that can be deployed to navigate ideological dilemmas such as that of coercion vs. freedom, but also to handle issues of authenticity. / Denna etnografiska studie undersöker behandlingspraktiker och interaktion mellan personal och ungdomar på ett särskilt ungdomshem för unga män. Materialet består framförallt av videoinspelad interaktion och intervjuer. I studien utforskas ideologiska dilemman samt hur dessa producerar komplexa subjektspositioner att uppta, förhandla om eller neka. Studie I undersöker ett huvuddilemma: tvång vs. frihet, vilket involverar de dubbla institutionella målen att tvinga ungdomarna till önskvärt beteende och att producera individer som beter sig ”korrekt” av egen fri vilja. Fokus ligger på personalens tal om teckenekonomi och studien synliggör retoriska resurser som används för att undvika positionen ”disciplinär personal”. Studie II utforskar disciplinerande humor och synliggör hur humor används både för att skapa och omskapa den sociala ordningen. Studien visar hur personal och ungdomar skickligt använder humor i förhandlingar om lokala hierarkier relaterade till auktoritet, generation och ålder. Humor var också ett sätt att navigera ideologiska dilemman. Studie III undersöker beteendemodifieringspraktiker, med fokus på hur självutvärdering kan förstås som responsibilisering med fokus på själv-reglering. Studien dokumenterar deltagarnas strategiska användning av specifika subjektspositionsrelationer, ”liten pojke”-vårdare snarare än ungdomsbrottsling-disciplinär personal. Sammantaget visar avhandlingen att subjektspositioner i grunden är samkonstruerade och att positioner rörande ålder är ytterst relevanta i denna kontext. Paradoxala aspekter av subjektspositioner bidrar med diskursiva resurser vilka kan användas för att hantera ideologiska dilemman och för att hantera frågor rörande autenticitet.

Pedagogical documentation is a certain procedure for documenting that, in recent years, has been embraced in several Swedish preschools. Teachers document children’s actions and conversations usually by photos or video recordings. This documentation is to be used for a pedagogical purpose. However, studies and governmental inspections have shown that pedagogical documentation gives rise to many questions among preschool teachers. The purpose of this study is to gain insight into what is being expressed when preschool teachers discuss pedagogical documentation, focusing on themes of content and on the participants’ expressions of their points of view. The data is comprised of transcriptions from audio recordings of discussions conducted in a research circle. The participants are eight preschool teachers that met over the course of one year. Each meeting focused on the documentation provided by a different participant. In that way the contents of the discussions were framed by the teachers own questions and narratives. Theoretically, the study departs from Social Constructionism and Discursive Psychology. The preschool teachers’ utterances have been analyzed using concepts of interpretative repertoires and ideological dilemmas. The results show the main themes to be: Knowledge content in a preschool setting, children’s learning, the teacher’s role and implementation of pedagogical documentation. The participants’ joint position is that the knowledge content at the preschool level is defined by the curriculum for the preschool. Concerning children’s learning and the teacher’s role, two main standpoints are disclosed. Ideologically those standpoints derive from two opposing theories of education. Based on how the standpoints have been expressed I have called them ”predetermined learning” versus ”non-predetermined learning”. One main distinction between the standpoints is that predetermined learning emphasizes the results of learning, while non-predetermined learning emphasizes the processes of learning. The participants’ utterances show that teachers tend to subscribe to the idea that there is only one acceptable way of working with pedagogical documentation. This sometimes creates performance anxiety and feelings of not succeeding and has led to arguments advocating an alternate approach; pedagogical documentation can be done in many ways. The ideological dilemmas within the discourse can be perceived as resources by which the participants argue about knowledge, learning, teaching and about the implementation of pedagogical documentation. / <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 i Dalarna.</p>

Abstract  Pedagogical documentation is a certain procedure for documenting that, in recent years, has been embraced in several Swedish preschools. Teachers document children’s actions and conversations usually by photos or video recordings. This documentation is to be used for a pedagogical purpose. However, studies and governmental inspections have shown that pedagogical documentation gives rise to many questions among preschool teachers. The purpose of this study is to gain insight into what is being expressed when preschool teachers discuss pedagogical documentation, focusing on themes of content and on the participants’ expressions of their points of view. The data is comprised of transcriptions from audio recordings of discussions conducted in a research circle. The participants are eight preschool teachers that met over the course of one year. Each meeting focused on the documentation provided by a different participant. In that way the contents of the discussions were framed by the teachers own questions and narratives. Theoretically, the study departs from Social Constructionism and Discursive Psychology. The preschool teachers’ utterances have been analyzed using concepts of interpretative repertoires and ideological dilemmas. The results show the main themes to be: Knowledge content in a preschool setting, children’s learning, the teacher’s role and implementation of pedagogical documentation. The participants’ joint position is that the knowledge content at the preschool level is defined by the curriculum for the preschool. Concerning children’s learning and the teacher’s role, two main standpoints are disclosed. Ideologically those standpoints derive from two opposing theories of education. Based on how the standpoints have been expressed I have called them ”predetermined learning” versus ”non-predetermined learning”. One main distinction between the standpoints is that predetermined learning emphasizes the results of learning, while non-predetermined learning emphasizes the processes of learning. The participants’ utterances show that teachers tend to subscribe to the idea that there is only one acceptable way of working with pedagogical documentation. This sometimes creates performance anxiety and feelings of not succeeding and has led to arguments advocating an alternate approach; pedagogical documentation can be done in many ways. The ideological dilemmas within the discourse can be perceived as resources by which the participants argue about knowledge, learning, teaching and about the implementation of pedagogical documentation. / Forskarskola för förskollärare "Utforskande lärprocesser och literacy:Förskolebarns lärande i språk, matematik och naturvetenskap"

This thesis identifies and describes the diversity aspects of police discourse based on the accounts of police trainees in their final year. Specifically, the focus is on culture, religion and ethnicity, and four main questions are addressed: What is said about diversity? How is it articulated? What subject positions are offered and assumed? In what ways are discourses of diversity sustained and challenged? The analysis of discourse in use is based on field studies conducted at the Swedish National Police Academy and focus group interviews with police trainees in the educational setting and during their trainee placement period. The analytical concepts of interpretative repertoire, ideological dilemmas, subject positions and discursive devices are employed to identify how different meanings are ascribed to diversity. Three central discourses of diversity are presented: diversity as inescapable difference (a hegemonic practice), diversity as political goal (recognition of diversity) and diversity as potential likeness (regulation of diversity). These are competing discourses on how police officers should be and how their role is understood in relation to a pluralistic society. The study shows that the contradictory diversity discourses reflect a struggle of different ‘us’, which regulates the conception of the ideal police officer, professional conduct and the performance of policing. In addition, five dilemmas originating in the tension between the discourses are outlined. Diversity is found to involve ideological dilemmas regarding how policing should be conducted in relation to profiling and social categories, how humour and jargon are viewed and handled, and how lack of knowledge may mean attributing subject positions to others with discriminatory implications. The thesis contributes to showing how diversity discourses reproduce the social order by affirming the social categories that the representatives of diversity are assumed to embody. It closes with a discussion of some practical and theoretical implications of its findings. / Ordningsmakter inom ordningsmakten visar hur mångfald, med fokus på kultur, religion och etnicitet, ges skilda betydelser i blivande polisers samtal och att det pågår en kamp om hur samhällets mångfald ska förstås i relation till polisens sammansättning och arbete. Kampen mellan diskurser är vare sig en ny kamp eller exklusiv för polisen. Däremot kan striden om hur mångfald ska förstås ses som en modern företeelse, som ställs på sin spets inom polisen vars uppdrag är att skydda demokratiska värden och lagar om människors rättigheter. I denna avhandling beskrivs hur kampen tar sig uttryck inom ordningsmakten. Hur kan vi förstå det paradoxala i att polisen har som uppgift att arbeta mot fördomar, samtidigt som vissa arbetsuppgifter motiveras av fördomar? Vad innebär ett behov av ökad kunskap om olika grupper, som samtidigt sätter dessa grupper i en diskriminerande utgångspunkt? Varför förekommer en diskriminerande humoristisk jargong i ett yrke som har i uppdrag att främja rättvisa och motverka diskriminering? Detta är några av de frågor och dilemman som mångfald aktualiserar i en polisiär kontext. Avhandlingen synliggör hur mångfaldsdiskurser återskapar social över- och underordning och att kampen mellan diskurser är en kamp om olika ’vi’.

This thesis identifies and describes the diversity aspects of police discourse based on the accounts of police trainees in their final year. Specifically, the focus is on culture, religion and ethnicity, and four main questions are addressed: What is said about diversity? How is it articulated? What subject positions are offered and assumed? In what ways are discourses of diversity sustained and challenged? The analysis of discourse in use is based on field studies conducted at the Swedish National Police Academy and focus group interviews with police trainees in the educational setting and during their trainee placement period. The analytical concepts of interpretative repertoire, ideological dilemmas, subject positions and discursive devices are employed to identify how different meanings are ascribed to diversity. Three central discourses of diversity are presented: diversity as inescapable difference (a hegemonic practice), diversity as political goal (recognition of diversity) and diversity as potential likeness (regulation of diversity). These are competing discourses on how police officers should be and how their role is understood in relation to a pluralistic society. The study shows that the contradictory diversity discourses reflect a struggle of different ‘us’, which regulates the conception of the ideal police officer, professional conduct and the performance of policing. In addition, five dilemmas originating in the tension between the discourses are outlined. Diversity is found to involve ideological dilemmas regarding how policing should be conducted in relation to profiling and social categories, how humour and jargon are viewed and handled, and how lack of knowledge may mean attributing subject positions to others with discriminatory implications. The thesis contributes to showing how diversity discourses reproduce the social order by affirming the social categories that the representatives of diversity are assumed to embody. It closes with a discussion of some practical and theoretical implications of its findings. / Baksidestext Ordningsmakter inom ordningsmakten visar hur mångfald, med fokus på kultur, religion och etnicitet, ges skilda betydelser i blivande polisers samtal och att det pågår en kamp om hur samhällets mångfald ska förstås i relation till polisens sammansättning och arbete. Kampen mellan diskurser är vare sig en ny kamp eller exklusiv för polisen. Däremot kan striden om hur mångfald ska förstås ses som en modern företeelse, som ställs på sin spets inom polisen vars uppdrag är att skydda demokratiska värden och lagar om människors rättigheter. I denna avhandling beskrivs hur kampen tar sig uttryck inom ordningsmakten. Hur kan vi förstå det paradoxala i att polisen har som uppgift att arbeta mot fördomar, samtidigt som vissa arbetsuppgifter motiveras av fördomar? Vad innebär ett behov av ökad kunskap om olika grupper, som samtidigt sätter dessa grupper i en diskriminerande utgångspunkt? Varför förekommer en diskriminerande humoristisk jargong i ett yrke som har i uppdrag att främja rättvisa och motverka diskriminering? Detta är några av de frågor och dilemman som mångfald aktualiserar i en polisiär kontext. Avhandlingen synliggör hur mångfaldsdiskurser återskapar social över- och underordning och att kampen mellan diskurser är en kamp om olika ’vi’.