Professional knowledge in education : What kind of organizational principles are behind the knowledge practices, and what are the conditions for developing this knowledge?

The integration of theory and practice is the key element in research on professions and their knowledge. This topic polarizes researchers, and while some stress the importance of practical knowledge, for others theoretical knowledge is most important. At the same time, the ongoing neoliberal educational reforms have introduced a new and watered-down concept of knowledge in professional education. With a starting point in Karl Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory, this article introduces a set of more nuanced concepts, suitable for studying professional knowledge in education. The article refutes the generic concept of knowledge used by educational authorities and argues that professional knowledge is based on knowledge practices that are informed by specialized knowledge.publishedVersio

Social realism and in-depth learning. Can students build knowledge with an epistemic dimension?

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Knowledge building as theory development in education : What forms of progression and in-depth learning are possible in the subject of social sciences?

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Neoliberal reforms, knowledge and the sociology of education: What concept of knowledge is behind neoliberal education reforms, and what are the organizational principles underlying this type of knowledge?

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Looking back and forward: From the Net Generation to knowledge in education

The development of digital technologies and the Internet has changed modern society. Concepts such as “network society” and “Net Generation” are key concepts describing this development. In educational research, this development, in particular the use of new technologies by children and young adults, has created high expectations about changes in education. These expectations encompass the ideals of a transformation of learning in schools and a transition to student-centered forms of learning, guided by new concepts of knowledge in education. This article takes up these claims, pointing out that they are based on normative ideals and generalizations, which ignore the fact that the use of ICT is formed by pedagogical practices in education. Using the results of my earlier research, this article argues that ICT research should focus on these knowledge practices as well as on the organizational principles they are based on. These principles, here expressed as inherent knowledge-knower structures and specialized codes, are factors that can shed light on different forms of learning, knowledge building, and the use of ICT in education

Humane Slaughter Laws

Investors are always searching the market for stocks that are undervalued and that can potentially create value. One way of finding undervalued stocks is to carefully analyze firms’ accounting ratios. Researchers have in the past found evidence that an investment in value stocks, often categorized as low P/E and low P/B ratio stocks, in most cases generates more value than an investment in growth stocks (categorized as high P/E and P/B). However, we found a lack of studies that investigates if this relationship exists on the Swedish market and if it holds true during the financial crisis. This resulted in the following research question:Would a portfolio consisting of value stocks outperform a portfolio consisting of growth stocks on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm?In order to answer the research question a quantitative method with a deductive approach has been applied and historical stock prices and accounting ratios over the time period 2005-2013 have been collected from Thomson Reuters Datastream. Returns were then calculated and portfolios of value and growth stocks were created based on the accounting ratios for every year. The returns where risk-adjusted with the help of the Sharpe-ratio before the Mann-Whitney U test was used in order to see if there is a significant difference between value and growth portfolios.For the price to earnings ratio the risk-adjusted returns of the value portfolio only outperformed the risk-adjusted returns of the growth portfolio two years out of the nine years tested. For the price to book measure the risk-adjusted returns of the growth portfolio outperformed the risk-adjusted value portfolio seven out of nine times.The results of the study seems to indicate that growth stocks outperform value stocks, contrary to much of the previous research that has concluded that value stocks outperform growth stocks. However, our findings were not statistically significant and we could not draw any clear conclusions from our results. The study did contribute with new knowledge however, by increasing the data available for value investing in Sweden and highlighting a need for more studies into smaller stock markets and for a period of financial distress, such as the financial crisis