The influence of hydrological regimes on sex ratios and spatial segregation of the sexes in two dioecious riparian shrub species in northern Sweden

River management practices have altered the hydrological regimes of many rivers and also altered the availability of regeneration niches for riparian species. We investigated the impact of changed hydrological regimes on the sex ratios and the Spatial Segregation of the Sexes (SSS) in the dioecious species Salix myrsinifolia Salisb.–phylicifolia L. and S. lapponum L. by studying the free-flowing Vindel River and the regulated Ume River in northern Sweden. We surveyed sex ratios of these species in 12 river reaches on the Vindel River and in 17 reaches on the Ume River. In addition, we surveyed the sex and location above mean river stage of 1,002 individuals across both river systems to investigate the SSS of both species. Cuttings were collected from male and female individuals of S. myrsinifolia–phylicifolia from both rivers and subjected to four different water table regimes in a greenhouse experiment to investigate growth response between the sexes. We found an M/F sex ratio in both river systems similar to the regional norm of 0.62 for S. myrsinifolia–phylicifolia and of 0.42 for S. lapponum. We found no evidence of SSS in either the free-flowing Vindel River or the regulated Ume River. In the greenhouse experiment, hydrological regime had a significant effect on shoot and root dry weight and on root length. Significantly higher shoot dry weights were found in females than in males and significantly different shoot and root dry weights were found between cuttings taken from the two rivers. We concluded that changed hydrological regimes are likely to alter dimensions of the regeneration niche and therefore to influence sex ratios and SSS at an early successional stage, making it difficult to find clear spatial patterns once these species reach maturity and can be sexed

På tal om elevinflytande : hur skolans praktik formas i pedagogers samtal

Educational research shows that it is problematic to implement the curriculum's intentions in the practice of schools. Within this problem area I have studied how the curriculum's intentions about student influence are shaped by pedagogues. The results of my licentiate report showed that the circumstances of the work governed the way in which the pedagogues came to shape the students' influence. The present thesis presents a deeper study of this area in order to describe and understand how student influence is shaped in schools. The aim of the thesis is thus to describe and provide an understanding of how student influence is constructed in staff conversations taking place in working teams of pedagogues. In the study I have followed a team working within the framework of a renewed development strategy. The purpose of the altered strategy has been to increase the pedagogues' influence and participation in school development. In the study I have observed five staff conversations in which the pedagogues of the working team discussed the school's work with student influence. The conversations were tape-recorded and then transcribed. The texts were analysed in order to study how the student influence was shaped through staff conversations. As a point of departure for explaining the object of study I have used a theoretical frame of reference starting out from sociology of knowledge (Berger &amp; Luckmann, 1967), social constructionism with links to Mikhail Bakhtin, Jürgen Habermas and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The methodological implementation has been inspired by ethnomethodology and critical discourse analysis. The results show that the working team did not contribute to any great extent to realising the curriculum's intentions about student influence. On the other hand, it was evident that the pedagogues used different strategies in the staff conversations. Through these strategies they guarded their control of their individual scope of action for modifying how and by what means student influence should be implemented. The strategies used appeared as three main lines with specific patterns. These lines and patterns are accounted for in the study with the aid of a number of empirical concepts. In the first main line, called conceptual shifting, there appeared patterns of conceptual neutralisation, practical loading and conceptual change. In the second main line, called attention shifting, there appeared patterns termed situation adapted management, selective attention and goal shifting. In the third main line, called problem shifting, there were patterns termed circumstantial explanations and excuses. The study thus show that through the staff conversation the pedagogues have created a "free space" in which they construct student influence by taking as their starting-point the intentions that they conceive of as possible to realise. They have developed a battery of strategies in order to be able to handle their own practice. The strategies may be understood as an effect of the pedagogues being forced to handle the paradoxes that have arisen in the field of tension between a desired and a possible school. The results indicate a need for further research in order to reach a deeper understanding of how pedagogical activities develop at the micro level, such as in all the meetings and conversations that pedagogues take part in.Godkänd; 2006; 20061201 (haneit)</p

Vad händer i skolans hus? : hur lärare uppfattar och formar elevers inflytande

Forskning och erfarenheter från skolutveckling har visat på svårigheter att i praxis omsätta samhällets intentioner med skolan. Avsikten är att bidra med en ökad förståelse för lärarna som aktör i detta. Övergripande syfte utgörs av två huvudsakliga delar. I en första del för att beskriva hur lärare i praxis konstruerar samhällets intentioner. Denna del avgränsas till hur lärare uppfattar, handlar och erfar arbetet med elevinflytande. I en andra del, har syftet varit att tolka lärarnas beskrivningar, huvudsakligen mot bakgrund av en socialkonstruktivistisk teoribildning. Tolv lärare, från förskola till gymnasium har intervjuats. Insamling och bearbetning av data har gjorts med kvalitativa metoder inspirerad av en fenomenografisk arbetsgång. En processanalytisk modell har utgjort ett stöd för studiens design. Resultaten visade att det i processen för att konstruera elevinflytande råder en obalans mellan lärarnas intentioner och handlingar och en balans mellan handlingar och erfarenheter. Lärarna har reducerat samhällets intentioner med elevinflytande när de omsatts till handling. Rådande omständigheter i arbetet blev styrande för vilka intentioner som uppfattades möjliga att realisera. Lärarna använde arbetsformer och samråd som redskap för att kontrollera och legitimera det inflytande eleverna tilldelats. Elevernas reaktioner framstod som viktiga erfarenheter och ledde till metodiska och organisatoriska överväganden. Ur ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv kunde lärarnas agerande i huvudsak ses som en strävan att upprätthålla sin status genom att legitimera och kontrollera den rådande institutionella ordningen. Lärarnas kunskapsförråd, om rådande omständigheter i den vardagliga verkligheten, har trängt undan intentioner med elevinflytande och styrt vad av samhällets intentioner de kunde, förstod eller ville genomföra.Godkänd; 2003; 20070215 (ysko)</p

På tal om elevinflytande : hur skolans praktik formas i pedagogers samtal

Educational research shows that it is problematic to implement the curriculum's intentions in the practice of schools. Within this problem area I have studied how the curriculum's intentions about student influence are shaped by pedagogues. The results of my licentiate report showed that the circumstances of the work governed the way in which the pedagogues came to shape the students' influence. The present thesis presents a deeper study of this area in order to describe and understand how student influence is shaped in schools. The aim of the thesis is thus to describe and provide an understanding of how student influence is constructed in staff conversations taking place in working teams of pedagogues. In the study I have followed a team working within the framework of a renewed development strategy. The purpose of the altered strategy has been to increase the pedagogues' influence and participation in school development. In the study I have observed five staff conversations in which the pedagogues of the working team discussed the school's work with student influence. The conversations were tape-recorded and then transcribed. The texts were analysed in order to study how the student influence was shaped through staff conversations. As a point of departure for explaining the object of study I have used a theoretical frame of reference starting out from sociology of knowledge (Berger &amp; Luckmann, 1967), social constructionism with links to Mikhail Bakhtin, Jürgen Habermas and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The methodological implementation has been inspired by ethnomethodology and critical discourse analysis. The results show that the working team did not contribute to any great extent to realising the curriculum's intentions about student influence. On the other hand, it was evident that the pedagogues used different strategies in the staff conversations. Through these strategies they guarded their control of their individual scope of action for modifying how and by what means student influence should be implemented. The strategies used appeared as three main lines with specific patterns. These lines and patterns are accounted for in the study with the aid of a number of empirical concepts. In the first main line, called conceptual shifting, there appeared patterns of conceptual neutralisation, practical loading and conceptual change. In the second main line, called attention shifting, there appeared patterns termed situation adapted management, selective attention and goal shifting. In the third main line, called problem shifting, there were patterns termed circumstantial explanations and excuses. The study thus show that through the staff conversation the pedagogues have created a "free space" in which they construct student influence by taking as their starting-point the intentions that they conceive of as possible to realise. They have developed a battery of strategies in order to be able to handle their own practice. The strategies may be understood as an effect of the pedagogues being forced to handle the paradoxes that have arisen in the field of tension between a desired and a possible school. The results indicate a need for further research in order to reach a deeper understanding of how pedagogical activities develop at the micro level, such as in all the meetings and conversations that pedagogues take part in.Godkänd; 2006; 20061201 (haneit)</p

Rolling the dice in a game of trust : Organizational effects on trust, efficacy and motivation when using economic incentives as a driving force for development in Swedish schools

For a long time, the Swedish government has tried different reforms to counteract declining student results. One action was to implement a salary-lift for teachers perceived as especially skilled. However, changes within socially complex systems tend to create tensions and resistance among the staff. In this reform, a majority of teachers were excluded from the payroll raise, which led to a renegotiation of roles, rules and commitments within the faculty. In this study, the principals’ perception of the teachers’ initial reactions and responses to the implementation is the focus. The data for this study contain four narratives from principals who implemented the salary lift within their organizations. The analysis shows that the reform challenged the principals as heads of the organizations. They stated that the salary lift created conflicts and insecurities among the teachers related to their motivation, sense of trust and self-efficacy. These conflicts and insecurities seemed to fuel a spiral of mistrust within the schools in the wake of the reform