Discourses on quality in Swedish adult education

Swedish municipal adult education has many providers. The overall responsibility for this service still lies with the municipalities, entailing the enactment of national policy with respect to providers. This study puts focus on the discursive enactment of policy concerning quality in adult education. Five discourses on quality are identified through interviews with school leaders, teachers, and students, namely that quality is about formal demands and processes, that it is a matter of student focus, that it is about teachers’ competence and working conditions, that it is about teaching, and that quality depends on the student group. School leaders focus on formal and organisational aspects of quality, while teachers and students focus on actual processes in the classroom, connecting to their own work and lives. Compared to national policy, the local discourses are limited mainly to studying, teaching, organisation, and short-term outcomes, while long-term aims in national policy are less prominent. (DIPF/Orig.

Swedish vocational adult education in the wake of marketisation

Context: This study is about vocational education and training for adults within municipal adult education (MAE). Sweden has a long tradition of adult education, and has one of the world\u27s highest proportions of participants in adult education. The Swedish education system is characterised by extensive marketisation with many private actors, particularly in adult education. The focus of this article is on the enactment of the market orientation in vocational adult education, with the purpose of showing how vocational adult education is organised in different ways in Swedish municipalities and how national adult education policy is enacted in local VET practices. Methods: The data consist of documents presenting relevant national policies for adult education, in particular on vocational education, and semi-structured interviews with adult education leaders in 20 municipalities. Findings: The findings show that MAE in Sweden has a clear labour market focus on offering education that corresponds to working life\u27s labour requirements. Most municipalities have a shortage of staff in elderly care and childcare, which is why they offer a large number of training places in these professions. Many immigrants choose these training programmes to get a job. It is also common for municipalities to offer these training programmes in combination with SFI (Swedish for immigrants). This means that MAE fulfils an important function for integration. VET in MAE is offered as school-based training, apprenticeships or distance education. Offering VET at a distance makes it possible to provide a wider range of training programmes, and enables people who have difficulties participating in on-site training (due to commitments such as work or young children) to take part. Apprenticeship training provides work experience and often leads to employment. However, a weak interest in apprenticeship training among students and difficulties finding apprenticeship placements are examples of reasons why the number of apprenticeships is often very limited. Conclusion: Swedish MAE is characterised by flexibility and a broad supply of courses. However, there is a clear focus on certain vocational areas – mainly within the municipal organisation. This gives reason to question whether publicly funded VET for adults should mainly prepare participants for publicly funded labour-market sectors, or whether other sectors could also benefit from newly trained adults. Since vocational training within MAE is of great importance for immigrants\u27 establishment in the labour market, there is a risk that unilateral investments in certain vocations will limit immigrants\u27 career opportunities. (DIPF/Orig.

Mathematics in agriculture and vocational education for agricultures

International audienceThis paper presents some of the results from a research study about mathematics in agriculture and agricultural education. The purpose of the study is to investigate the role of mathematics as a professional knowledge, and how to organize vocational secondary school education so that students receive the math knowledge and skills they need for their future profession. The study is done from a curricula theoretical perspective with concepts from Bernstein (2000). The results indicate that mathematical skills are essential for a professional farmer, but according to those interviewed, many agricultural students have deficient mathematical skills for their future profession after their education

No clover without mathematics : A study of mathematics in vocational education and professional life

Syftet med avhandlingen är att öka förståelsen för aspekter som inverkar på relationen mellan yrkeselevers kunskaper och de kunskaper som behövs i yrkeslivet. Detta görs genom att undersöka olika aktörers perspektiv på yrkeslivets behov av  matematikkunskaper, matematikundervisning på yrkesprogram och utformningen av läroplanen Gy11. Studien görs inom gymnasiets naturbruksprogram med inriktning mot lantbruksutbildning och inom lantbruksyrket. Det empiriska materialet består av kvalitativa intervjuer med yrkesverksamma lantbrukare, yrkeslärare och matematiklärare samt intervjuer och enkäter med elever. Resultaten från den empiriska studien har analyserats i relation till läroplanen Gy11. För analysen används framförallt Bernsteins läroplansteoretiska perspektiv med begreppen pedagogiska koder och diskurser, i vissa delar tillsammans med D’Ambrosios etnomatematiska perspektiv. Resultaten visar att lantbruksyrket kräver goda matematikkunskaper, men att det i vissa fall finns ett diskursivt gap mellan skolans matematikundervisning och behovet av matematikkunskaper i yrkeslivet. Trots ämnesplanens inriktning mot en matematik som är relaterad till elevernas yrkesinriktning, är matematikundervisningen ofta starkt knuten till en matematikbok utan relation till det yrke eleverna utbildas för. Undervisningens organisering styrs av en mängd ramfaktorer som både kan handla om tid, gruppsammansättningar och schema, men också om lärarnas syn på kunskap. De nationella proven utgör en betydande ramfaktor som i många fall styr undervisningen i högre grad än vad innehållet i ämnesplanen gör. Undervisningens svaga koppling till elevernas yrkesinriktning gör dem omotiverade att lära sig matematik eftersom de har svårt att se hur de ska kunna använda sina kunskaper i sitt kommande yrke. En del elever har också svårigheter med att rekontextualisera sina  matematikkunskaper från skolkontexten till yrkeslivets kontext vilket bland annat kan försämra deras anställningsmöjligheter.The aim of the thesis is to increase understanding of aspects that affect the relationship between vocational education students’ knowledge and knowledge needed in professional life. This is examining through different actors' perspectives on the professional needs of mathematics skills, mathematics teaching in vocational programs and the design of the national curriculum Gy11. The study is conducted in the upper secondary natural resources management program with focus on agricultural education and the agricultural profession. The empirical material consists of qualitative interviews with professional farmers, vocational teachers, mathematics teachers and students. The results of the empirical study have been analyzed in relation to the curriculum Gy11. Bernstein's curriculum theoretical perspective, and particularly the concepts educational codes and discourses, is used for the analysis, in some parts along with D'Ambrosio’s ethno mathematical perspective. The results show that good math skills are essential for the farming profession but in some cases there is a discursive gap between school mathematics teaching and the need for mathematical skills in professional life. Although the subject plan for mathematics is focusing on mathematics related to the profession students are trained for, the mathematics teaching is largely tied to a textbook with tasks unrelated to the students’ future profession. The organization of the teaching is controlled by a variety of frame factors that can concern time, group compositions and schedule, but also the teachers' view of knowledge. The national tests represent a significant frame factor which in many cases controls the teaching to a higher degree than what the content of the subject plan does. The weak connection to the students' professional orientation makes them unmotivated to learn mathematics because they have trouble seeing how they can use their knowledge in their future profession. Students also have difficulties in recontextualizing their mathematical skills from the school context in the professional life context, which among other things can reduce their employability

Motivation för matematik

Utifrån en kort definition av vad som menas med motivation beskrivs i texten olika motivationsfaktorer som visat sig ha betydelse för elevers lärande i matematik. Undervisningens utformning, uppgifters utformning samt lärarens inverkan och det totala studieklimatet är några exempel på faktorer som påverkar elevers motivation för att lära sig matematik

Discourses on quality in Swedish adult education

Swedish municipal adult education has many providers. The overall responsibility for this service still lies with the municipalities, entailing the enactment of national policy with respect to providers. This study puts focus on the discursive enactment of policy concerning quality in adult education. Five discourses on quality are identified through interviews with school leaders, teachers, and students, namely that quality is about formal demands and processes, that it is a matter of student focus, that it is about teachers’ competence and working conditions, that it is about teaching, and that quality depends on the student group. School leaders focus on formal and organisational aspects of quality, while teachers and students focus on actual processes in the classroom, connecting to their own work and lives. Compared to national policy, the local discourses are limited mainly to studying, teaching, organisation, and short-term outcomes, while long-term aims in national policy are less prominent

Hur man ökar elevers motivation för matematik

I denna text diskuteras motivationsfaktorer i relation till lärande i matematik med hjälp av självbestämmande teorin. Syftet med texten är att diskutera motivationsfaktorer för att identifiera konkreta komponenter, som styr motivation en för elever på yrkesprogram. Innehållet i texten är delvis hämtat från Muhrman (2016) doktorsavhandling.Matematiklyfte

Hur man arbetar med elever som har matematikängslan

Vi har alla ett känslomässigt förhållande till matematik. En del älskar ämnet och trivs med att sitta och fundera över matematiska problem, medan andra känner motvilja och ängslan inför sina möten med matematik. Nedanstående citat ger en bild av hur man kan känna, när man måste arbeta med matematik. Hörde jag ordet matematik så förknippade jag det bara med mörker, oförklarliga siffror och krumelurer som jag bara snurrade runt i mitt huvud ett tag och sen ut igen. Det som fick mig att avsky matematiken var att jag blev utpekad som dum eller inte lika duktig som de andra när jag inte hann räkna ut multiplikationstabellen under en viss tid. Den första känsla jag får av ordet matematik är bara en stor klump i magen, ett tråkigt ämne som inte gett mig någon glädje utan bara oro och stress. Jag är egentligen inte bara vettskrämd för ämnet, jag är även usel i det också. Om någon frågar mig om ett tal så blir jag alldeles stel, svettig, nervös och rädd för att svara överhuvudtaget och när jag väl svarar så blir det oftast fel. Jag fick både kramp i magen och blev kallsvettig. Så fort vi skulle ha matematik i skolan slog det slint i huvudet, jag fick panik och blev blockerad. Citaten visar en mindre rolig sida av möten med matematik, som elever kan ha erfarenhet av. I citaten beskrivs nervositet, oro, stress, panik och låsningar. Vi, som arbetar med undervisning, har säkerligen kommit i kontakt med flera elever som känner så när de kommer i kontakt med matematik en i skolan. Dessa elever gör allt för att slippa dessa obehags känslor, som kommer med kraven att lära och utföra matematik i skolan. En del skolkar, en del låtsas att de kan och ser upptagna ut, andra är utåtagerande och aggressiva, några kämpar och sliter, men det låser sig och de blir sorgsna. När forskare diskuterar dessa delar av matematikundervisningen gör de det oftast under rubriken ”Matematik ängslan ”. Denna text handlar om v ad matematik ängslan är, vad som kan leda till matematik ängslan och vad forskningen har visat kan hjälpa elever med låsningar och matematik ängslan

Adult education in Sweden in the wake of marketisation

The aim of this study is to describe and analyse how municipal adult education (MAE) in Sweden is enacted at the intersection of course organisation, student selection and course content. For this analysis, the data consist of a nationwide survey sent to Swedish municipalities, interviews with school leaders from 20 municipalities and in-depth interviews with school leaders from six municipalities. The findings show that the supply of MAE courses is clearly governed by policies concerning what municipalities are obliged to offer according to the Education Act, but in many other ways, MAE policies offer a high degree of freedom for interpretation and translation. On a general level, MAE is organised in three different ways: school-based education, apprenticeships and distance education. However, the courses included are enacted in different ways in different municipalities. How the courses are enacted is governed by factors such as using external education companies, resources, the number of students and collaboration with working life. The selection of MAE courses has a clear labour market focus, where employers? needs for labour are set higher than students? wishes and needs. A central aspect of this focus is labour market integration of migrants.Funding agencies: Vetenskapsrådet (The Swedish Research Council) underGrant number [2017-03603]</p

Matematikängslan och låsningar i matematik

Det är få ämnen i skolan som skapar så mycket känslor som matematikämnet. En del elever tycker det är ett jätteroligt och intressant ämneoch trivs med att sitta och fundera över matematiska problem, medan andra tycker illa om ämnetoch till och medkänner skräck och ängslan inför sina möten med matematik