The present study is the result of research collaboration where participating teachers and a researcher have jointly analyzed and reflected over experiences from professional training and professional work in order to develop an understanding of skills and knowledge that are relevant to the professional development and professional lives of teachers. The focus is on four female primary school teachers’ stories. Certain things run through these stories. They are (i) a quest for professional development, (ii) a strong commitment to teaching and (iii) an ongoing identity-building process. The overall purpose of the thesis is to identify and describe these processes and thus contribute meaningful knowledge to the debate on teacher professional development within the Swedish educational landscape. Two questions have been particularly important. These are: – What individual and structural conditions and processes appear to be important for professional development and career choice? – Which key events and turning points can be identified in teachers’ lives and work, focusing on the early years of the occupation and how can these be understood? The professional life stories have a chronological structure and they have been organized around three time periods. One of these is The Road to the profession, including teachers’ stories about their background, school experiences, past professional life and what has influenced them to take the step to become a teacher, and experience from their education. The second is the first years in the profession. This is the period covering the first three years of working life after teacher education. It depicted a diversity of experience and the experience of strenuous and stressful work situations in which new teachers, with high aspirations, confronted at times unanticipated work assignments and challenging conditions for which they did not always feel fully prepared. However, as well as these tensions of development there also appears to be a period of intense and stimulating knowledge development in which the teachers experienced opportunities to put their ideas about education, development, cooperation and educational projects to the test. Through this they say that they developed professionally in a way that strengthened their professional identity. The continuing work history period is the third period. It includes experience from the three year period following the first years in the profession. Here the teachers describe a process of establishment at each workplace, where the teachers’ continuing quest for educational development and change is in the fore, as is an aim toward further professional development and greater stability in the professional role. / <p>Disputationen sker fredagen den 17 december 2010, kl 13.15, Hörsal D203, Högskolan i Borås, Allegatan 1</p>

As technology continues to change the way society communicates, teachers need to prepare their students for digital literacy and competencies in their adulthood. Specific training is necessary for educators in the appropriate and effective methods for incorporating technologies such as smart phones and hand-held devices. Teachers, who work in international boarding schools, are more effective in their use of technology when they understand the classroom cultural differences and are able to clarify any misconceptions. To determine what experienced teachers find missing in their instruction and what should be included in a teachers' instructional guide, a guide was developed based upon the existing literature; the guide was tested and revised under three conditions. In the first phase, a panel of subject-matter experts reviewed the guide draft to identify the instructional goals and validate the survey instrument. In the second phase, a teacher's workshop was conducted and provided in-depth discussions on how they use technology in the classroom. Teachers shared examples of how culture affected students' use and misuse of technology. In the final phase, observations were conducted as teachers used the lessons and resources in their instruction. The final revision, presented in this document, includes closing comments made by participating teachers. The goal was to develop a digital citizenship guide for teachers in international boarding schools that reflected best practices from the literature and the input from experts and teachers. The results identified the specific skills and competencies that are required to teach students how to communicate in the digital world and become good digital citizens. The culturally diverse student population at the investigation site made it possible to generalize instructional sets that will be of value to teachers everywhere. The guide, developed through the dissertation initiative, provides educators with the knowledge, tools, and examples necessary to teach students how these technologies can be used in a multicultural learning environment. It can be used to address the fundamentals of digital citizenship and provide insight into the role culture plays in the use of technology in education.