<p>This paper uses evidence from a small-scale interview of five primary school principals within the Stockholm Municipality to examine their focus on student learning. To facilitate this analysis, four questions were addressed:</p><p>• What are the expectations principals have of learning for their students?</p><p>• Has there been a change in perception of learning in the 21st Century?</p><p>• How do principals think they have influence on student learning?</p><p>• How do principals see their role towards lifelong learning?</p><p>This thesis argues that we have to redefine learning for the 21st Century through emphasizing a more holistic approach to both teaching and learning and by paying more attention to learning outcomes. It explores contemporary trends in leadership education and connects them to the literature. In practice, the study uses two models, instructional leadership and transformational leadership, to integrate the the data collected. It proposes that school principals play a part in student learning through their roles of setting directions, developing people and developing the organisation.</p><p>The main results showed that the principals and vice-principals who participated in the study were aware of their roles in student learning. However, their roles were not immediately identifiable with a particular leadership style but a combination of styles. They realised that they did not encourage lifelong learning, which is an important component of 21st Century learning.</p><p>Key Words:</p><p>21st Century learning, lifelong learning, learning expectations, learning outcomes, leadership styles, instructional leadership, transformational leadership, cultural change leadership.</p>

<p>The aim of this essay is to analyze how students are constituted as subjects in local curricula. The theoretical perspective is grounded in Michel Foucault’s notion of governmentality and power/knowledge and his critique of a sovereign subject. From this theoretical perspective I use Foucault’s concept of formation of objects and Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s idea of subject positioning as tools for a discourse analysis. The analyzed documents are local curricula from fourteen Swedish municipalities. The documents are divided in to two equally sized groups based on the political governing in the municipality.</p><p>The analysis presents five themes by which statements that constitute students as subjects can be categorized. These five themes are; lifelong learning, desire, essential traits, students responsibility and life and health. The differences between local curricula from political right wing and political left wing governed municipalities are rather small, but there can be seen differences in the technologies of liberal governing. The subject that is constituted in local curricula is primarily a self-governing subject who governs it self in relation to a expertise knowledge.</p>

Syftet med denna avhandling är att studera hur den vuxna studerande konstrueras genom olika styrningstekniker inom Vuxenutbildning, Folkbildning och Högre utbildning. Vidare är syftet att analysera vad för styrningsrationalitet som både skapas genom och som skapar dessa praktiker. Det teoretiska ramverket är baserat på Michel Foucaults begrepp styrningsrationalitet (governmentality) och genealogi. Styrningsrationalitet syftar på ett specifikt sätt att se på styrning där fokus är på de tankar/mentaliteter som skapas genom olika diskurser om hur styrning skall utövas. Centrala frågor är: vad är styrningsproblematiken, vad ska styras, hur skall styrning gå till och vad är målet med styrning? Genea-logi syftar på ett specifikt sätt att se på historien. Utgångspunkten är de tankefigurer som är del av dagen diskurser, i denna avhandling diskurserna om vuxenutbildning och livslångt lärande. Vad består dessa diskurser och vad för härkomsthistoria har vissa av dess tankefigurer? Historia ses här som icke-linjär beståendes av brott och oregelbundenheter där syftet inte är att berätta en historia om framsteg där kausala samband är centrala. Istället använder jag genealogi för att destabilisera det vi idag tar för givet gällandes den vuxna studerande. En diskursanalys har genomförts av offentliga utredningar (SOUs och Ds) från 1920-talet fram tills idag som handlar om de praktiker som nämnts ovan. Resul-taten pekar på att en neoliberal styrningsrationalitet dominerar dagens diskurser om vuxenutbildning och livslångt lärande. Enligt texterna måste Sverige och Europa se till att alla dess medborgare konstant lär sig nya saker som ett sätt att möta en osäker och ständigt föränderlig framtid. Därmed skapas den vuxna som ständigt lärandes och som ett kompetent subjekt. Alla medborgare måste bli autonoma, själreglerande människor som konstant lär sig och som konstant gör val i enlighet med sina önskningar. För att konstruera sådana subjekt skapas flera tekniker för styrning såsom vägledning, risk, målstyrning/granskning, bedömning, mångfald m.m. / The aim of this dissertation is to study how the adult learner is constructed through dif-ferent techniques of governing in the practice of adult, liberal adult, and higher educa-tion. Further, the aim is to analyse what rationality of governing such governing practices create and are created by. The theoretical framework is based on Michel Foucault’s concepts of governmentality and genealogy. Governmentality refers to a specific way of viewing questions of governance where the focus is on ideas concerning how governing should be practiced. These ideas are constructed through discourse. Central questions are: what is the problematic of government, what is to be governed, how is governing to be practiced and what is the teleos (the goal to be reached) of government? Genealogy refers to at specific way of viewing history. The starting point is the figures of thought that are part of the discourses of today. In this dissertation, these discourses are adult education and lifelong learning. What are these discourses made up of and what is the descent and emergence of some of its figures of thought? Here, history is seen as non-linear and containing ruptures and irregularities. The aim is not to tell the story of how it really was, where causality is central. Instead, genealogy is a way for me to destabilize the taken-for-granted ideas of the present concerning the adult learner. A discourse analysis has been conducted based on official documents produced since the 1920s and up to the present day concerning the practices mentioned above. The results point to neo-liberal governmentality dominating the discourses of adult education and lifelong learning today. According to the texts, Sweden and Europe need to make sure that all their citizens are constantly learning as a way of facing an uncertain and constantly changing future. Thus, the adult learner is constructed as a constantly learning and competent subject. All citizens have to become autonomous, self-regulating humans who are constantly learning and who constantly make choices according to their inner desires. Several techniques of governing such as guidance, risk, auditing, assessment, diversity, etc., are constructed as a way of constructing such a subject. / On the day of the public defence date of the doctoral thesis the status of article III was: Accepted; The status of article IV was: Submitted.

This paper uses evidence from a small-scale interview of five primary school principals within the Stockholm Municipality to examine their focus on student learning. To facilitate this analysis, four questions were addressed: • What are the expectations principals have of learning for their students? • Has there been a change in perception of learning in the 21st Century? • How do principals think they have influence on student learning? • How do principals see their role towards lifelong learning? This thesis argues that we have to redefine learning for the 21st Century through emphasizing a more holistic approach to both teaching and learning and by paying more attention to learning outcomes. It explores contemporary trends in leadership education and connects them to the literature. In practice, the study uses two models, instructional leadership and transformational leadership, to integrate the the data collected. It proposes that school principals play a part in student learning through their roles of setting directions, developing people and developing the organisation. The main results showed that the principals and vice-principals who participated in the study were aware of their roles in student learning. However, their roles were not immediately identifiable with a particular leadership style but a combination of styles. They realised that they did not encourage lifelong learning, which is an important component of 21st Century learning. Key Words: 21st Century learning, lifelong learning, learning expectations, learning outcomes, leadership styles, instructional leadership, transformational leadership, cultural change leadership.

The purpose of this thesis is to find out the central, essential, and important issues concerning teaching adult students within the municipal adult education system in Sweden. In accordance with the used method, Grounded Theory, the research question runs as follows: What is the main concern of adult educators and how do they deal with it? Formal and informal conversations with and between adult educators, classroom observations and events occurring outside the classrooms were used as data. A constant comparative analysis of empirical data, supported by literature and results from previous research ended up in an empirical grounded theory. The main concern of the adult educators is the high degree of absence and the many dropouts among the students. To avoid this, a majority of the educators perform motivational work through pedagogical and social actions and try to find a balance between teaching and caring. A majority of the adult students, though, have needs that are of a socio-emotional kind; a caring dimension seems to prevail. So, the educational assignment becomes secondary to the social one, but the acts of caring are both of final and instrumental value. By teaching and caring, the adult educators try to help their students to lead a good life either at the moment or in the future, and to experience Quality of Life, the latter have to be motivated to attend school regularly. According to the andragogical principles, adults are responsible and motivated to learn by nature. However, this study shows that there is a distance between the ideal adult student and the actual one and that adult educators have to take on both the responsibility and motivational work. An informal theory, generated out of a basic set of values and an experienced-based knowledge that is vital to adult education, is thus put into educational practice.

The aim of this essay is to analyze how students are constituted as subjects in local curricula. The theoretical perspective is grounded in Michel Foucault’s notion of governmentality and power/knowledge and his critique of a sovereign subject. From this theoretical perspective I use Foucault’s concept of formation of objects and Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s idea of subject positioning as tools for a discourse analysis. The analyzed documents are local curricula from fourteen Swedish municipalities. The documents are divided in to two equally sized groups based on the political governing in the municipality. The analysis presents five themes by which statements that constitute students as subjects can be categorized. These five themes are; lifelong learning, desire, essential traits, students responsibility and life and health. The differences between local curricula from political right wing and political left wing governed municipalities are rather small, but there can be seen differences in the technologies of liberal governing. The subject that is constituted in local curricula is primarily a self-governing subject who governs it self in relation to a expertise knowledge.

Formal classroom learning is a lifelong pursuit. Many older adults return to school to advance their careers, learn new skills, or simply for personal fulfillment. As such, methods for improving learning should be considered in relation to both younger and older learners in order to properly assess their ultimate usefulness. A technique that has been demonstrably effective at improving learning and memory in younger students is testing. Testing improves memory more than mere exposure to material (e.g., restudying), a benefit known as the positive testing effect. However, recognition tests, where learners are exposed to correct and incorrect information (e.g., multiple-choice tests), also introduce false information to test-takers. While evidence shows that testing improves memory for tested material, this can include the incorrect material presented on recognition tests manifested as increased reproduction of incorrect answers (lures), a phenomenon known as the negative testing effect. These effects of testing, however, have only been studied in younger learners. Older learners, on the other hand, may show decreased positive testing effects and increased negative testing effects because of poorer long-term episodic and source memory, perhaps making them less receptive to the positive effects of testing and more susceptible to the negative effects of testing. Therefore, this study examined the positive and negative effects of testing on learning in 60 younger university students aged 18-25, 60 younger community adults aged 18-25, and 60 older community adults aged 55-65. This research also scrutinized how individual differences, including intelligence, previous knowledge, initial performance, and source memory were related to the positive and negative effects of testing. All groups showed positive testing effects, but these were larger for younger adults, for individuals with higher initial performance, and for people with more previous knowledge of the topics. Additionally, though no age group showed reliable negative testing effects, they increased for individuals with lower initial performance and previous knowledge and, surprisingly, for learners with higher nonverbal reasoning and verbal intelligence scores. These findings have important implications for the education of people of all ages and show that testing can be a beneficial learning tool for both younger and older learners.

This thesis explores women's learning in unpaid household work through the lenses of impairment and disability. Informal learning from this standpoint is a perspective that is not yet integrated into the adult learning literature. The impetus for the study came from dissatisfaction with the social undervaluing of unpaid housework and carework, and the largely unrecognized learning behind the work, which is predominantly done by women. Disability and impairment provide unique lenses for making visible what people learn and how they learn in this context. Those who have or acquire impairment in adulthood need to learn how to do things differently. For this study I have taken a segment of data from a 4-year, 4-phase project on Unpaid Housework and Lifelong Learning in which I participated. The participants in this segment are women and men with disabilities who took part in 2 focus groups (11 women), an on-line focus group (20 women), and individual interviews (10 women and 5 men). Learning is explored through three different themes: first, learning related to self-care; second, learning to accept the impaired body; and third, strategies and resources used in the learning process. Analysis of the data shows that the learning that happens through unpaid household work is multidimensional, fluid, and diverse. Learning is accomplished through a complex 4-dimensional process involving a blend of the body, mind, emotions, and the spiritual self. Furthermore, what participants learned and how they learned is influenced by the sociocultural context in which it takes place. Learning, when seen as a 4-dimensional process, provides a framework for challenging traditional Western cultural beliefs about what counts as learning and knowledge. Such beliefs have cultivated the viewpoint that learning is individualistic, cognitive, and based on reason. I contest these beliefs by disrupting the binaries that support them (e.g., mind vs. body, reason vs. emotion). Participants used both sides of the binaries in their learning processes, negating the oppositional and hierarchical categories they establish. The concepts in the binaries still exist but the relationship between them is not oppositional, nor is one concept privileged over another, either within or across binaries.

This thesis explores women's learning in unpaid household work through the lenses of impairment and disability. Informal learning from this standpoint is a perspective that is not yet integrated into the adult learning literature. The impetus for the study came from dissatisfaction with the social undervaluing of unpaid housework and carework, and the largely unrecognized learning behind the work, which is predominantly done by women. Disability and impairment provide unique lenses for making visible what people learn and how they learn in this context. Those who have or acquire impairment in adulthood need to learn how to do things differently. For this study I have taken a segment of data from a 4-year, 4-phase project on Unpaid Housework and Lifelong Learning in which I participated. The participants in this segment are women and men with disabilities who took part in 2 focus groups (11 women), an on-line focus group (20 women), and individual interviews (10 women and 5 men). Learning is explored through three different themes: first, learning related to self-care; second, learning to accept the impaired body; and third, strategies and resources used in the learning process. Analysis of the data shows that the learning that happens through unpaid household work is multidimensional, fluid, and diverse. Learning is accomplished through a complex 4-dimensional process involving a blend of the body, mind, emotions, and the spiritual self. Furthermore, what participants learned and how they learned is influenced by the sociocultural context in which it takes place. Learning, when seen as a 4-dimensional process, provides a framework for challenging traditional Western cultural beliefs about what counts as learning and knowledge. Such beliefs have cultivated the viewpoint that learning is individualistic, cognitive, and based on reason. I contest these beliefs by disrupting the binaries that support them (e.g., mind vs. body, reason vs. emotion). Participants used both sides of the binaries in their learning processes, negating the oppositional and hierarchical categories they establish. The concepts in the binaries still exist but the relationship between them is not oppositional, nor is one concept privileged over another, either within or across binaries.

In this paper we analyze development problems and tendencies of virtual education. Separately it’s emphasized the situation with distance education (DE) in Lithuania. The structure, principles and facilities of LieDM network are briefly described. In the first part of the paper main attention is paid to the technological aspect. Examples of different methodologies are overviewed as well as existing norms and standards. In detail we overview the requirements of recorded video presentations and solutions using different media formats and software products. In the second part the specific situation of DE application in Klaipeda University is analyzed. We make the requirement specification and the description of application area. Finally we make a design of the virtual learning management system using procedures of system engineering.