Powerful knowledge, transformations and the need for empirical studies across school subjects

In this article, we explore the concept of ’powerful knowledge’ which, from a curriculum studies perspective, refers to the aspects of content knowledge towards which teaching should be oriented. We then consider how the concept of ‘powerful knowledge’ can be developed and operationalized as a research framework within studies in subject-specific didactics across the curriculum by relating it to the analytical concept of ‘transformation’. Transformation is perceived in this case as an integrative process in which content knowledge is transformed into knowledge that is taught and learned through various transformation processes both outside and within the educational system. We argue that powerful knowledge cannot be identified based on the discipline alone, but needs to consider transformation processes and be empirically explored. A variety of theories and frameworks developed within the European research tradition of didactics are described as ways to study transformation processes related to powerful knowledge at different institutional levels as well as between different subjects and disciplines. A comparative research framework related to subject-specific education is proposed around three research questions

Professionsutveckling för digitaliserad ämnesundervisning – reflektioner kring en videobaserad forskningsdesign

Syftet med artikeln är att diskutera en forskningsdesign, där ämneslärare i samarbete med forskare deltar i analysarbetet av videoinspelningar från det egna klassrummet, med fokus på användning av digitala resurser i undervisningen. Samtalen utgår från videoinspelningar i flera olika ämnen.The purpose of the article is to discuss a research design, in which subject teachers in collaboration with researchers participate in analysis of video recordings from their own classroom, with a focus on the use of digital resources in teaching

‘Being stuck’ : Analyzing text-planning activities in digitally rich upper secondary school classrooms

The aim of this article is to develop an understanding of how students use different interactional resources to manage problems that arise in their text-planning processes in digitally rich environments in Finnish and Swedish upper secondary schools. We explore both individual and collective teacher-initiated writing tasks in different subjects and during moments when text-planning seems to ‘get stuck’. Theoretically, we draw on a socio-cultural understanding of the text-planning process, and use multimodal conversation analysis to examine how students display 'being stuck' during their text-planning through their embodied and verbal performances, what role smartphones and laptops play in their process of becoming 'stuck' and 'unstuck', and how different interactional resources are coordinated during the students’ text-planning processes. The data consist of video-recorded face-to-face interaction, students’ activities on computers and/or with a pen and paper as well as simultaneous recordings of the focus students’ smartphone screens. The results demonstrate that students often resort to smartphones as resources to display, negotiate and transform problems in their text-planning process. Our results challenge common claims within the contemporary debate both in relation to digital devices as the solution to pedagogical challenges and in relation to the debate on smartphones as devices that disrupt work.The aim of this article is to develop an understanding of how students use different interactional resources to manage problems that arise in their text-planning processes in digitally rich environments in Finnish and Swedish upper secondary schools. We explore both individual and collective teacher-initiated writing tasks in different subjects and during moments when text-planning seems to ‘get stuck’. Theoretically, we draw on a socio-cultural understanding of the text-planning process, and use multimodal conversation analysis to examine how students display ‘being stuck’ during their text-planning through their embodied and verbal performances, what role smartphones and laptops play in their process of becoming ‘stuck’ and ‘unstuck’, and how different interactional resources are coordinated during the students' text-planning processes. The data consist of video-recorded face-to-face interaction, students' activities on computers and/or with a pen and paper as well as simultaneous recordings of the focus students' smartphone screens. The results demonstrate that students often resort to smartphones as resources to display, negotiate and transform problems in their text-planning process. Our results challenge common claims within the contemporary debate both in relation to digital devices as the solution to pedagogical challenges and in relation to the debate on smartphones as devices that disrupt work.Peer reviewe

The Performance Appraisal Interview – An Arena for the Reinforcement of Norms for Employeeship

In the present paper, we report findings from a study of performance appraisal interviews between middle managers and employees. The study is based on analysis of video uptake of authentic performance appraisal interviews, and through detailed examination of participant conduct and orientation, we point to structural mechanisms and institutional norms which limit the possibilities for employees to raise topics connected to negative experiences of stress in performance ap- praisal talk. It is argued that norms concerning ideal employeeship are shaped by a partly hidden curriculum in the organization which in turn is talked into being in the performance appraisal interviews.The study concludes that empirical attention to the social interplay in performance ap- praisal interactions reveal how participant conduct aligns or disaligns with institutional and social underpinnings of workplace ideals

Classrooms going online : Nordic lower secondary teachers’ readiness at the COVID-19 outbreak

The aim of this article is to make visible Nordic lower secondary teachers’ experiences of the initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic, guided by three research questions: 1. What challenges and strategies can be identified in teachers’ descriptions of teaching during the pandemic outbreak? 2. What appears to be the role of digital technology in these challenges and strategies? 3. How can we understand the readiness and educational priorities of these Nordic schools in this time of crisis? Theoretically, we draw on the three main domains of purposes of education coined by Biesta (2015); qualification, socialisation and subjectification. The empirical data consists of online qualitative interviews with 17 lower secondary teachers from Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden, teaching in different school subjects. A thematic content analysis was conducted, finding three main areas of challenges in relation to organisation of teaching, classroom dialogue and assessment of student learning. Our analysis makes visible how besides digital readiness, the readiness of the studied schools relied on the teachers' ability to act independently in finding professional solutions in a time of crisis. The teachers did not just sit and wait for instructions on what to do, but took initiatives and managed the situation as best as they could drawing on their professional competence.The aim of this article is to make visible Nordic lower secondary teachers’ experiences of the initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic, guided by three research questions: 1. What challenges and strategies can be identified in teachers’ descriptions of teaching during the pandemic outbreak? 2. What appears to be the role of digital technology in these challenges and strategies? 3. How can we understand the readiness and educational priorities of these Nordic schools in this time of crisis? Theoretically, we draw on the three main domains of purposes of education coined by Biesta (2015); qualification, socialisation and subjectification. The empirical data consists of online qualitative interviews with 17 lower secondary teachers from Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden, teaching in different school subjects. A thematic content analysis was conducted, finding three main areas of challenges in relation to organisation of teaching, classroom dialogue and assessment of student learning. Our analysis makes visible how besides digital readiness, the readiness of the studied schools relied on the teachers' ability to act independently in finding professional solutions in a time of crisis. The teachers did not just sit and wait for instructions on what to do, but took initiatives and managed the situation as best as they could drawing on their professional competence.Peer reviewe

Lärares lärande : Några reflektioner om lärarforbildning

Denna artikel diskuterar lärares lärande i ett fortbildningsprojekt som aktualiserade omsättning av text- och litteraturdidaktiska teorier i klassrummet. Artikeln belyser att lärarnas lärande är en del av en komplicerad teoriomsättningsprocess eller ”omstilling” där lärandet kring olika moment och aspekter av läsning omformar deras uppfattningar om såväl hur man lär sig som vilka kunskaper som ryms inom svenskämnet. I sitt lärande använde sig lärarna konstruktivt av olika teorier och strategier kring läsning och förståelse för att fördjupa sin kunskap om hur undervisning kan gestaltas. På så vis innefattar deras förändringsprocess rörelser mellan såväl deltagarkunskap och åskådarkunskap som mellan assimilering och ackommodation

Vis via webben? - Lärande och literacies i den digitala visdomens tidevarv

Denna artikel, som baseras på Christina Olin-Schellers docentföreläsning, diskuterar hur det som ibland benämns digital visdom kan uppfattas och förstås i relation till såväl informella som formella lärandemiljöer. Artikeln belyser också de utmaningar som skolan står inför i relation till dagens snabba digitala samhällsutveckling och att den utveckling och kompetenser som interaktionen med det digitala möjliggör kommer att göra oss klokare. Artikeln argumenterar också för att det snarare är lärarnas pedagogiska förhållningssätt än tekniska kunnande som är avgörande för i vilken omfattning de formella och informella lärmiljöerna kan befrukta varandra. För att vara en del av de läro- och kunskapsprocesser som den digitala samhällsutvecklingen innebär, är det viktigt att skolan är öppen för de informella lärmiljöernas drivkrafter och motivationsfaktorer, men samtidigt har ett kritiskt förhållningssätt till information och digitala användarmönster

Between Dante and 'Big Brother' : Textual worlds of Swedish upper secondary school students

This dissertation deals with Swedish upper secondary school students’ encounter and reception of various fictional texts in and outside of school. The focus of the study is how literary instruction, based on an expanded text concept, succeeds in meeting the students’ expectations and previous experiences of fictional texts. The theoretical framework consists of theories that approach reading as a transaction between text and reader in a social and cultural context. The study is founded on qualitative methods, and the empirical material was collected through participant observation and interviews with students and teachers in four upper secondary school classes between 2001 and 2003. The research questions are: How does literary instruction develop students’ knowledge of fictional texts and reading? In what ways are the students’ textual worlds in and outside of school dialogically interrelated? How do students use different fictional texts in building their identities? Which values regarding different texts are visible in the classroom? Findings indicate that mismatches between teachers’ and students’ literary repertoires are common in upper secondary school literary teaching. Since the literary instruction mainly drew upon traditional fiction, the students’ construction of literary worlds was not sufficiently supported. The students’ expectations of fiction reading were characterized by strong emotional involvement, and this was particularly true for the male students. The female students reported that there was a lack of female perspectives in the literary teaching. The pedagogical implications of the study concern the importance of identifying the students’ literary repertoires and matching those with the literary instruction. Literary pedagogy should aim to expand these repertoires, and to help students acquire new reader roles. One way of achieving this is to promote dialogical teaching that encourages both efferent and aesthetic reading. Findings of the present study also indicate that teachers’ resources for working with an expanded text concept are limited. Consequently, current teacher education programmes and further training of working teachers must deal with reading of fictional texts from new and broader perspectives