Visualising the Intended Practical Doing: Future-Oriented Movements in Swedish Vocational School Workshop Settings

Context: This article focus on teaching and learning processes in a vocational classroom in Swedish vocational education. There are few studies within the field of vocational education that have a focus on how vocational learning is done in interaction in the vocational classroom/workshop, and what vocational learning content is displayed in the interaction between teacher and student, and thus made possible to learn. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring the future-oriented movements that take shape when a vocational teacher and vocational students negotiate how a practical task could, and should, be handled and solved in vocational teaching situations in vocational plumbing school workshop settings. An increased understanding of these processes can help to improve the actual teaching of a specific subject content to support students in their vocational learning, aiming for learning a professional trade.Methods: The data consists of video recorded lessons from the Sanitary, Heating and Property Maintenance Programme in Swedish upper secondary school. Through concrete empirical examples from video recorded lessons the article explores the interaction between teachers and students in vocational school workshop settings using CAVTA. CAVTA is based on Conversation Analysis (CA) and Variation Theory (VT) and is a theoretical and methodological framework that can be used together and integrated to reach understanding of both how- and what-aspects of the learning process in practice, when analysing teaching and interaction.Findings: Findings shows how aspects concerning a specific vocational learning content that revolves around a vocational practical doing compete for the space with a vocational learning content of a more general nature. These general objects of learning are also related to work-specific vocational learning and knowledge in relation to the future profession, but on a more general level than the task specific vocational knowledge. Altogether, this illuminates how different layers of work-specific vocational learning are made visible in the interaction, and how they mutually contextualise each other in the here and now.Conclusion: This article illustrates that the specific and the general vocational learning content can complement each other and open up for a more in-depth vocational learning. In conclusion, this article emphasises the importance for vocational teachers to develop teaching strategies to navigate between helping the students in their problem solving here and now, and contextualising the specific vocational learning content and making vocational learning relevant for future vocational occupation and working life

Using the Mirror as a Working Tool in Handicraft Education

In interaction between students and vocational teachers, technical artefacts constitute an essential part for the development of vocational students’ future professional knowledge. Although vocational learning has been an under-researched area, there has been an increased interest within the vocational education research to examine the teaching and learning processes that take place when vocational students and teachers interact in vocational school settings. The presence of physical objects such as tools, machines and material in the teaching and learning processes within vocational education, which encompass a central aspect of a vocational subjects’ specific characteristics, is a dimension which is often overlooked. In the Handicraft programme (specialization hair- and makeup stylist) at Swedish upper secondary vocational education, a large part of the practical work that students are engaged in is to view their work through the mirror. Therefore, the focus in this study is what learning content is made relevant when teacher and student(s) are interacting in front of the mirror. The data for the study consists of video recorded lessons from the Handicraft Programme, and the study is based on CAVTA (Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory). Based on CAVTA, the process of learning includes what is being learned and how learning is done in interaction between the teacher and student(s) in the authentic and enacted teaching session. At the conference, we will present results from detailed analysis of sequences when the teacher and the students interact in front of the mirror and what vocational knowledge is made possible to learn in these interactions

Subject specific pedagogy in technical vocational education – the implementation of a new way of teaching

Research regarding classroom pedagogy of subject specific contents in the field of technical vocational education is scarce, nationally in Sweden, but also in an international perspective. This paper presents results from a Swedish action research project and it aims at exploring the process of a learning study, which deals with the settings in MIG/MAG welding and the intervention of the new pedagogic approach CAVTA (Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory Approach). The empiric material consists of video recorded welding education in a workshop and documented meetings in a welding teacher team. The theoretical toolbox of CAVTA permeates the teaching and learning processes as the teachers in the intervention try to implement patterns of variation in the planning, enactment and evaluation of the teaching and learning processes. In combination with the variation theoretic principles embedded in the teaching, ideas inspired by conversation analysis are implemented – the main element being an enhanced interaction, thus enabling for the students to display their understanding of the subject specific contents. The results show how CAVTA can be integrated in the teaching of settings regarding MIG/MAG welding, so that certain aspects of the object of learning is visualized. Furthermore, the findings show how the integration of CAVTA support the manifestation of a student’s understanding of the object of learning. How variation and the use of several senses and simultaneous different semiotic resources are activated as essential components in the teaching and learning processes, is made explicit in the paper. Plans for a recently launched research project including several different technical vocational education programs are also presented. The lack of classroom studies regarding technical vocational education calls for exploration in research, but should not avoid the ambition of development. This study captures the design and the development of a new pedagogic approach. Our hope is that the study will contribute to a growing body of knowledge within the field of technical vocational education and spur on further studies in this field of research.&nbsp

Maskulina läspraktiker genom tid och rum

The interaction between the local place and reading practice is continuously emphasized in literacy research. Nevertheless, the significance of place has been neglected in research on working-class men’s relationship to reading. This study responds to this gap by examining working-class men from rural areas and their relationship to reading across a life span. Through life-story interviews with two working-class men in their 60s, living in the same rural woodland municipality, the article contributes to the understanding of the importance of reading in these men’s lives, and how their reader histories interact with distinctive features of the locality. The study shows that the men’s individual reader histories have been shaped by, and have shaped, the specific local and cultural contexts and surrounding discourses. Through their reading practices throughout their life courses, the men (re)construct rural working-class identities in which hunting, fishing, sports and cars constitute significant elements. However, other movements in the men’s reading practices related to place through which the men can pursue alternative masculine positions are also present. The study highlights the importance for educators to pay attention to place as a significant feature in understanding working-class males’ reading practices

”Du hör att nu liksom spinner han som en katt” – transformation av ett yrkeskunnande till ett undervisningsinnehåll

Denna studie behandlar transformation av yrkeskunnande till ett undervisningsinnehåll. I fokus är hur svetslärare synliggör ljud och hörselintryck i förhållande till lärandeobjektet ’inställningar av strömkällan i svetsmetoden MIG/MAG’, samt hur elevers förståelse kan uppvisas i undervisningen. Det saknas både praktiknära studier och ämnesdidaktisk forskning i det forskningsfält som behandlar yrkesutbildning. Syftet är därför att bidra med kunskap om vad som händer när svetslärare i en learning study systematiskt transformerar yrkesämneskunskap i undervisning av ett lärandeobjekt i svetsmetoden MIG/MAG. Empirin består av dokumenterade lärarlagssamtal och filmade undervisningspass. Resultaten påvisar yrkesämnesdidaktikens komplexitet och däri görs kopplingar till ett yrkeskunnandes transformation till ett undervisningsinnehåll. ENGLISH: Vocational teachers’ transformation of vocational knowing into subject-specific educational content Transformation of welding teachers' vocational knowing into subject-specific educational content is the focus of this study. The article displays the process of a learning study, in which welding teachers visualize sound as an aspect of making the correct settings in MIG/MAG welding as well as how students' understanding can be demonstrated. The aim of the study is to contribute with knowledge regarding what happens when welding teachers in a learning study systematically transform subject-specific vocational knowledge to an object of learning in the welding method MIG/MAG. The data consists of the welding teacher team's documented meetings and film material from teaching situations. The complexity of subject-specific education within VET is shown with the use of the transformation concept. Keywords: Transformation, CAVTA, Variation theory, Conversation analysis, Learning study, VE

Konsten att parkera : Identitetskonstruktion i fordonspojkars litteratursamtal

Den här artikeln handlar om fordonspojkars litteratursamtal. I artikeln visas hur några fordonspojkar på gymnasiet engagerar sig i hur litterära karaktärer i den roman de har läst hanterar olika motorfordon, och hur pojkarna är måna om att visa upp inför varandra att de har de kunskaper och de erfarenheter som krävs för att kunna hantera olika typer av motorfordon. Att pojkarna genom sina studier på fordonsprogrammet utbildar sig till fordonsmekaniker, lastbilsförare eller grävmaskinister aktualiseras på så sätt i det litteratursamtal pojkarna är involverade i. Samtidigt är det möjligt att tala om en motsatt rörelse som iscensätts i litteratursamtalet; en rörelse som innebär att pojkarna i och med sitt handlande på samma gång konstruerar sig som just fordonselever och som kunniga yrkesmän. Dessa identitetsskapande processer äger rum inom ramen för det litteratursamtal som pojkarna på egen hand genomför utan lärarens direkta medverkan, vilket innebär att fordonspojkarna på så sätt även konstruerar sig som skötsamma elever som tar ett ansvar för sina litteraturstudier

Reading as Identity Construction. : Practices and processes of building a sense of community in literature discussions among male Vehicle Engineering students.

In this dissertation literature discussions which include students of Vehicle Engineering at a Swedish upper secondary school will be discussed. The students are all boys. The study is focused on these boys’ small-group literature discussions, and the aim of the study is to describe what happens when they discuss four of the novels that form an integral part in the context of their Swedish studies. Principal fields of interest are the readings and the reception that the boys give utterance to in the literature discussions, as well as the identity-constructing processes which set in when they interact in the light of what they have read. The empirical material consists of eleven video recorded small-group discussions, and a conversational analytic perspective is combined with a reception theory perspective in the dissertation. The study shows that a sense of community is vital to the core of the boys’ literature discussions, and this has an influence on the reception and the readings that come up in the discussions. The boys are anxious to come to an agreement and voices which threaten to shatter the sense of community that has been constructed in the discussions are opposed in different ways. The literature discussions are not only arenas where the boys construct themselves as readers but are also considered as a forum where various identity-constructing practices take place. As readers these boys are bound to what can be read, and what cannot be read, in literary texts, but it is possible to see a certain development in their readings towards a more complex attitude, such as they find expression in the discussions. The boys also carry out the literature discussions, and the constructed sense of community is based on the reading of the novel to be discussed in a small-group discussion. Thus the boys take on the responsibility for their own learning as well. Many of the processes in which the boys are involved during the literature discussions could be described as processes of social reproduction, but various dividing lines which could be identified in the study also show that there are openings for other directions of the discussions.

Att skolas till en läsare – om den svenska skolans läsundervisning under 1990- och 2000-talet genom en ung arbetarmans berättelser : om den svenska skolans läsundervisning under 1990- och 2000-talet genom en ung arbetarmans berättelser

I artikeln uppmärksammas en ung arbetarmans berättade erfarenheter av den svenska skolans läsundervisning. Utifrån en livsberättelseansats som sätter den berättande människan och dennes erfarenheter i centrum synliggörs hur fram-växandet av en läsarhistoria är ett resultat av ett komplext samspel mellan erfaren -heter och minnen av skolans läsundervisning och de erfarenheter som gjorts utanför denna kontext över tid. Den läsarhistoria som växer fram samspelar i sin tur med den specifika lokala och historiska kontext i vilken berättelserna ägt rum och med de upplevda förväntningar som vilat på berättaren att vara pojke och man i en svensk skogsbygd. Artikeln synliggör hur läsning görs till en socialt och kulturellt accepterad praktik inom en lokalt förankrad maskulin arbetarklasskultur genom processer där läsningen kopplas till konkreta fysiska handlingar och in-förlivas i en muntlig berättartradition. Genom dessa transformationsprocesser görs läsningen inte enbart till en ”nyttig” eller ”vettig” sysselsättning, utan också till en praktik genom vilken en ung arbetarman i skogsbygden utvecklar en identi-tet som läsare. Studien riktar ljuset mot frågor som kretsar kring vem som är en läsare, och vem som inte är det, vad läsning är och vad det inte är, och på vems eller vilkas villkor. Studien illustrerar också hur de möjligheter att diskutera läsningens vad, hur och varför i skolans läsundervisning riskerar att gå förlorade i en läsdiskurs som betonar läsning av pappersburen typografisk text och som utestänger andra, alternativa sätt att läsa och skapa mening i mötet med olika typer av texter. 

Books as happy objects : on Swedish rural masculine reader identities

Joining the research that emphasises the importance of the social and cultural context for reading and masculinities, this article focuses on the significance of book collection for a rural working-class man’s relationship to reading. The data consists of a series of life story interviews, conducted as go-along interviews, with a Swedish rural working-class man in his 60s who collects books. Using theories of class, masculinity and place, and drawing on (Sara Ahmed’s [2010]. The promise of happiness. Duke University Press.) theory of emotions and affect, this study illuminates the intersection of reading practices, identity and masculinity while showing how a working-class man’s reading practices align with and deviate from normative conceptions of being a man within the studied context. Highlighting the practices of interacting with books on a physical level – collecting, holding, sorting, viewing covers, and so on – the article also shows how these tactile practices contribute to a rural working-class man’s development of a reader identity

Learning to weld in technical vocational education : the first cycle of an action-oriented study

Creating efficient learning environments where students learn what they are supposed to learn, as well as understanding the relations between teaching and learning are recurring issues in educational settings. The importance of studying these issues in school practices is highlighted in different studies, but in relation to technical objects of learning in vocational education, there is an evident lack of such studies. By implementing an action-oriented study in iterative cycles, inspired by the Learning Study method, this study aims to redress this lack by focusing on learning processes involved when a vocational teacher and upper secondary students interact with tools and materials in relation to the object of learning to weld. We combine two different perspectives in the project (cf. Asplund & Kilbrink, 2018); variation theory analysis (VTA) (cf. Bjurulf, 2008; Marton & Tsui, 2004) and conversation analysis (CA) (Schegloff, 2007; Sidnell & Stivers, 2014). The study will be conducted as a collaborative project between a vocational teacher and two university based researchers and is funded by The Swedish Institute for Educational Research. During spring 2018 we will conduct the first cycle of the study and at the conference we will present this ongoing project and data from the first cycle. Konsten att lära sig svetsa (Skolfi