The construction of facts: preconditions for meaning in teaching energy in Swedish classrooms

This article investigates the mechanisms that govern the processes of inclusion and exclusion of knowledges. It draws on three cases from Swedish classrooms about how energy is created as an area of knowledge. We are interested in how knowledge is made valid and legitimate in a school context, and in defining and finding tools to identify structures that govern potential meanings in a certain situation. To do this we develop a theoretical model that explains the preconditions for meaning. The purpose is to understand why certain knowledges are legitimated in the classroom and to explain how this happens. The analysis is based on participatory observations in classrooms, audio recordings of students engaged in group projects, educational materials and the students’ own work. The apparatuses of the school offer a wide range of possible meanings concerning energy. At the same time there are forces evolved in the school practice that effectively sift out what counts as values from what counts as facts and valid knowledge. These forces create a certain order and certain effects for what counts as truth. The article investigate the nature of the correlations between the different preconditions identified that makes one discourse more likely and “true” than another

Energi som kunskapsområde : Om praktik och diskurser i skolan

This study concerns how energy is treated as an area of knowledge in the Swedish school. Energy is encountered in traditional subjects such as history, physics and social studies. Energy also has another entry due to its constant relevance in the world outside school, thereby obligating school to address and discuss energy within its curriculum. Energy is thus qualified to cut across subject lines in school and to connect strongly to problem issues outside school. The purpose of this book is to study how energy is handled as an area of knowledge in school. Viewing school as a practice implies that energy is handled within a specific social and cultural context. All meanings which are created construct and reproduce notions concerning the nature of reality. It is thus important to study the school's assumptions and methods for dealing with this area of knowledge. The analysis in the book is based on participatory observations, tape recordings of pupils engaged in group projects, educational materials and the pupils' own work. Three different energy-related projects are included in the study: (1) Two social studies classes which worked using energy as a theme. A number of different subjects were involved in this theme. (2) A natural science class which also worked using energy as a theme, although here the only subjects involved were physics and biology. All three of these classes were upper secondary college-preparatory school classes. (3) The study also includes two classes from the ninth grade. As in the case of the social studies classes, their work on energy involved most of the pupils' other subjects. The theme for the nine-year compulsory school pupils was "Man-Energy-Environment". This analysis has shown that school as practice has created certain forms which govern how energy is treated as an area of knowledge. The forms maintain and legitimise a particular view as to what is considered valid knowledge. The discourses which best live up to requirements regarding what was to be considered "valid" knowledge were the scientific discourse and the supply discourse. The scientific discourse was accorded high status as a result of its ties to a scientific conceptual world, and to approaches which are associated with the scientific method. The supply discourse must be considered to be the most dominant of the identifiable discourses. Other discourses were identified but did not nearly have the same bearing on school. The user discourse was most evident in the projects of the nine-year compulsory school pupuls, and was also implicated in goal documents for their assignments. The civilisation-critical discourses made their presence felt mainly during the group work, but otherwise had few points of correlation for school practice

Technology in the rear-view mirror : How to better incorporate the history of technology into technology education

The history of technology can play an important role in illuminating the fundamentals of technological change, but it is important that technology teachers, teacher educators, curriculum developers and researchers can be provided with good analytical tools for this purpose. In this article, we propose a model of techno-historical interplay, as a help in deciding what historical artefacts and systems should be included in technology curricula and teaching as well as in analyzing and conveying to students the fundamental issues of technological change. We want to emphasize particularly three points of importance in employing the model as a tool of analysis. First of all, it is crucial to decide what one wants the technologically literate student to know about technology and technological change. This should include an awareness of the historical and geographical contingency of any technology. Second, on the basis of this decision one should adapt the model as a tool for selecting relevant technologies. Third, the model should be applied as an instrument of analysis of the history of the selected technological artefacts or systems as well as theories of technological development.The final publication is available at www.springerlink.com:Jonas Hallström and Per Gyberg, Technology in the rear-view mirror: How to better incorporate the history of technology into technology education, 2011, International Journal of Technology and Design Education, (21), 1, 3-17.http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10798-009-9109-5Copyright: Springerhttp://www.springerlink.com

Influencing households' energy behaviour--how is this done and on what premises?

This article examines the discourse that the idea of efficiency is built upon according to different actors trying to influence households' energy behaviour in Sweden. The focus is on information from authorities as well as from interest organisations and energy companies. Information directed to households often contains a strong idea that the individual has to take responsibility for his/her own choices, and that it is through consumer choices the energy system will become more sustainable. The reasons given for changing one's behaviour are motivated both by lower energy costs and a reduced impact on the environment. Common advice for energy reduction is to change to a more energy-efficient apparatus. In this sense efficiency is a way of not changing lifestyle but instead changing technical equipment and user routines. Only the LA21 project questions the need for all the apparatus as well as the possibility to improve existing artifacts, pointing to a need to change our lifestyle. The strong belief in science and technology results in a definition of the problem as a lack of knowledge, where the only solution is to fill this gap.Energy efficiency Discourse Policy instruments

Framing Devices in the Creation of Environmental Responsibility: A Qualitative Study from Sweden

The aim of this article is to analyze the relationship between identity work for environmental responsibility and sustainable development in relation to an ecological master frame. The material is based on a case study with Swedish householders and focusses on the interviewees identity work in relation to specific and detailed environmentally friendly activities. The argument put forth is that individuals construct what is possible and reasonable by identifying themselves in relation to the multitude of others and by doing certain activities. The conclusions suggest that the householders consider themselves to have a responsibility for the environment, but that they do enough by performing specific activities such as recycling. Thereby the study shows how the individuals present their own ideas and actions in relation to an ecological master frame

Facts, Values and Perspectives on Sustainable Development in Free Teaching Materials in Sweden

In this study, we adopt a critical perspective on knowledge about sustainable development in Swedish free teaching materials, where certain ways of illustrating sustainable development can make invisible alternative ways to understand and delimit it. We analyse physical, free materials for school teaching, distributed by Utbudet. The materials were produced between 2008 and 2019. Our analysis shows that there is a focus on facts, certifications and technical fixes, as well as scientific and societal consensus. The companies’ perspectives are prominent in the free materials, as are anthropocentric and Western approaches. Taken together, our study shows that the free materials convey that the global situation has improved and that development is on the right track, rather than in crisis, or that the sustainability problems are complex and difficult to manage. Thus, the materials present a fairly one-sided picture of the situation and the future, which does not really agree with the aim in Swedish education of presenting a balanced view of sustainable development

Hushållens energibeteende : en forskningsöversikt och metodgenomgång

I denna förstudie ska vi analysera tidigare forskning kring hushållens energianvändning och relatera detta till styrmedel och energibeteende, samt bygg- och bostadssektorns aktörers arbete med energieffektivisering och hushållning. Syftet med denna rapport är att få en överblick av forskningen kring byggnader och hushållens energibeteende samt att formulera teoretiska och metodologiska tillvägagångssätt för att undersöka hushållens energibeteende. I denna rapport ska vi diskutera teoretiska och metodologiska angreppssätt inför fortsättningen av projektet och påbörja utvecklingen av en analysram för att förstå energianvändningen i hushåll

Rethinking construction in preschool : discerning didactic strategies in Swedish preschool activities

Even though construction tasks have a long history as an activity in the Swedish preschool, technology as a content matter (e.g., construction) is relatively new. Hence, preschool teachers are generally unsure of the content of technology and how to handle it from a teaching perspective. Thus, there is need for deeper understanding of how construction tasks in preschool can be enacted and what kind of premises are offered to the children. To investigate this, we took our stance in activity theory and the concepts of mediating artifacts, rules and division of labour. This helped us discern what type of instructional practices that were enacted by preschool teachers when working with construction tasks. Activity theory in combination with thematic analysis helped us distinguish four general didactic actions that the teachers used to bring about the construction task-to engage, to guide, to coordinate, to show. These four strategies were then formulated into specific technology didactic actions through the perspectives of technology as product, process and concepts.Funding Agencies|Linnaeus University</p

Who counts? : Legitimate solutions in construction activities in preschool

As has been pointed out in previous research, teacher-led learning plays an important role in developing preschool children's technological skills and technological self-esteem. What is missing in research are more detailed analysis of how the children’s and teachers’ actions and interactions shape the learning process. In order to study this within the field of construction, an action research project was conducted, where construction activities were developed, implemented and revised in an iterative procedure. Data from the second cycle were analyzed for this article using graphic transcriptions and multimodal analysis, with a focus on action, interaction and experience from a pragmatist perspective. Our findings show that children who quickly and decisively engage with the material, the teachers and their peers in suggesting which material to use and/or how the material can be used, end up in a central role in the design process. These children (or their actions) often get legitimized by the teachers. Thus, in order to give children access to equal opportunities in the construction activities, it is important for teachers to understand how the children’s construction-focused actions become constitutive and what their role in that process is