LGBT Issues in Norwegian Textbooks

In Norway, a model for schools’ teaching about LGBT issues is chosen where the responsibility is divided between different school subjects: social science, natural science, RLE2 (religion, philosophies of life and ethics), Norwegian and English. This article looks at how this is implemented in the textbooks. 129 text-books in Norwegian primary and lower secondary education (grades 1–10) are analysed. Of these, 246 textbook pages included LGBT issues. In this article, I discuss how LGBT issues are included in Norwegian textbooks and how the divided responsibility between school subjects work. The most striking finding is that of the five subjects, English and Norwegian have the least demanding curriculum goals, but still the largest number of pages related to LGBT issues. The inclusion of fictional voices makes possible a nomadic perspective (observing issues from multiple perspectives). It is also striking that about half of the textbook pages are in 10th grade textbooks. Heteronormativity is still a problem, and bisexual and transgendered people are far less visible than lesbian and gay people are.

A Tripartite Cooperation? The Challenges of School-University Collaboration in Mathematics Teacher Education in Norway

One goal of Norway’s new primary teacher education programme of 2010 was improved school placement: the relationship between the teacher education institution, practice schools and pre-service teachers was to be formalized as a tripartite cooperation. However, in the area of mathematics education, cooperation is not straightforward: tensions arise because of pre-service teachers’ prior experience and beliefs, and differences between university college training and school practice. This paper reports on questionnaire data and focus group interviews with first-year pre-service teachers and their mentors following school placement. It illustrates the complexity of the partners hip and its impact on pre-service teachers’ professional development in the area of mathematics.Norges forskningsråd 21226

Expanding the Possibilities of AIS Data with Heuristics

Automatic Identification System (AIS) is primarily used as a tracking system for ships, but with the launch of satellites to collect these data, new and previously untested possibilities are emerging. This paper presents the development of heuristics for establishing the specific ship type using information retrieved from AIS data alone. These heuristics expand the possibilities of AIS data, as the specific ship type is vital for several transportation research cases, such as emission analyses of ship traffic and studies on slow steaming. The presented method for developing heuristics can be used for a wider range of vessels. These heuristics may form the basis of large-scale studies on ship traffic using AIS data when it is not feasible or desirable to use commercial ship data registers

Prospective teachers navigating intersecting communities of practice: early school placement

An issue of particular concern in mathematics teacher education is the relationship between theory and practice, and the nature of university–school partnerships. We report here on results from a research project answering the call for a more systematic understanding of the practice learning context. The study focuses on the new Norwegian elementary teacher education programme and highlights the difficulties involved in connecting theory and practice and how prospective teachers may be supported in this respect. Focus group interviews involving 51 first-year prospective teachers and 25 teacher–mentors investigated early school placements, specifically prospective teachers’ positions in the classroom as teachers of mathematics, and the ways in which the mentoring relationship supported their developing role. Taking a communities of practice perspective, we found that the idea of movement across intersecting and sometimes conflicting communities of practice is helpful in aiding our understanding of the difficulty of connecting theory and practice. Additionally, variations in mentoring styles and perceptions of prospective teachers’ mathematics and pedagogic knowledge competencies play a part in some prospective teachers’ difficulties in taking up a role as legitimate peripheral participant in the school. We conclude by considering ways in which prospective teachers might be better supported to cope with school placement

ATLAS search for new phenomena in dijet mass and angular distributions using pp collisions at s\sqrt{s}=7 TeV

Mass and angular distributions of dijets produced in LHC proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}$=7 TeV have been studied with the ATLAS detector using the full 2011 data set with an integrated luminosity of 4.8/fb. Dijet masses up to 4.0 TeV have been probed. No resonance-like features have been observed in the dijet mass spectrum, and all angular distributions are consistent with the predictions of QCD. Exclusion limits on six hypotheses of new phenomena have been set at 95% CL in terms of mass or energy scale, as appropriate. These hypotheses include excited quarks below 2.83 TeV, colour octet scalars below 1.86 TeV, heavy W bosons below 1.68 TeV, string resonances below 3.61 TeV, quantum black holes with six extra space-time dimensions for quantum gravity scales below 4.11 TeV, and quark contact interactions below a compositeness scale of 7.6 TeV in a destructive interference scenario.publishedVersio

Researching representation of diversity in mathematics pedagogical texts: Methodological considerations

National exams in mathematics are important pedagogical texts which have been published annually for decades. They provide an interesting corpus for a project investigating the development of representation of diversity in mathematics tasks. Also, there are many reasons for including several diversity dimensions when researching diversity, e.g., gender, ethnicity, religion, functionality, sexuality, and class. Based on previous research on diversity in pedagogical texts, I discuss some of the methodological considerations that must be made when designing such a project

Design research with history in mathematics education

This paper describes a research project analysing design research projects with history of mathematics. As a background, the theory of design research is invoked. For the purpose of this paper, preliminary analyses of three publications have been made. In later phases, interviews will supplement text analyses to enable a discussion on both explicit and implicit considerations involved when designing materials with history of mathematics in mathematics education

LGBT Issues in Norwegian Textbooks: Shared or Fragmented Responsibility?

In Norway, a model for schools’ teaching about LGBT issues is chosen where the responsibility is divided between different school subjects: social science, natural science, RLE (religion, philosophies of life and ethics), Norwegian and English. This article looks at how this is implemented in the textbooks. 129 text-books in Norwegian primary and lower secondary education (grades 1–10) are analysed. Of these, 246 textbook pages included LGBT issues. In this article, I discuss how LGBT issues are included in Norwegian textbooks and how the divided responsibility between school subjects work. The most striking finding is that of the five subjects, English and Norwegian have the least demanding curriculum goals, but still the largest number of pages related to LGBT issues. The inclusion of fictional voices makes possible a nomadic perspective (observing issues from multiple perspectives). It is also striking that about half of the textbook pages are in 10th grade textbooks. Heteronormativity is still a problem, and bisexual and transgendered people are far less visible than lesbian and gay people are

Design research with history in mathematics education

International audienceThis paper describes a research project analysing design research projects with history of mathematics. As a background, the theory of design research is invoked. For the purpose of this paper, preliminary analyses of three publications have been made. In later phases, interviews will supplement text analyses to enable a discussion on both explicit and implicit considerations involved when designing materials with history of mathematics in mathematics education