Gothenburg Studies in Educational Sciences – serie

This thesis takes its point of departure in an interest in exploring how children’s participation is expressed in policy texts as well as in preschool practice. Participation can be viewed as a discourse of considerable importance both in Swedish society and its preschools. The aim of this study is to scrutinize and analyze discourses in policy texts dealing with children’s participation (both at national and transnational level). Also, how these discourses are recontextualized and realized in preschool practice. A further aim is to study and analyze how conditions for pedagogical practice affect the manner in which children’s participation is staged. In the analyses, Bernstein’s theory of pedagogy has been applied. Particular use has been made of the pedagogic device, a concept which makes it is possible to explain how policy intentions and preschool conditions are related to the realization of children’s participation. In the study an ethnographic approach has been used. During a period of one year, field studies were conducted in two preschools with children aged 2 to 5 years. Field notes have been taken while participant observation have been carried out. The policy analysis documents related to children’s participation, both at transnational and national level, have been searched, chosen and analyzed.The studying of children’s participation expressed in policy documents showed that certain competencies, such as being active, autonomous and responsible were related to children’s participation were indicative of competencies regarded as necessary in society. It also showed how the intentions for children’s participation were repeated in different policy contexts and related to the demands of a knowledge society. The field studies showed how conditions related to a preschool context, for example concerning curriculum goals and time related structures, affected how the teachers organized their work with children’s participation. The field study also showed that teacher-led formations of children’s participation included a large degree of regulation. The moments of choice, arranged by the teachers, were structured to control the content of the choices made by children as well as their behavior. The moments of choice also worked as a way of grouping children within the learning environment and to prevent them from circulating in the classrooms. The other teacher-led formation of children’s participation, voting, turned out to be hard to comprehend for the children. This was due to a teacher’s lack of complete instruction and implementation of the principles for voting. For example, the children, had problems understanding that they only had one vote at a time, and what the consequences of majority vote were.

The study aims at deepening the knowledge about how teachers learn as they collaborate to improve their teaching practices through action research. The research questions are as follows: How does teachers’ professional learning unfold in school practice as they engage in improving their teaching practices through action research? What opportunities and challenges emerge from and for teachers’ professional learning at the boundaries between school and research practices? What is the significance of the social context, which also involves students, for teachers’ learning? This action research study, involving an upper secondary school in Sweden, was carried out in the academic year 2017/2018. The action research methodology entailed the abductive process of combining empirical work with the theoretical framework developed by Wenger and colleagues, commonly referred to as ‘communities of practice’. Teacher learning through action research is explored in three papers. Together, the findings show how teachers learn collectively by developing their repertoire, developing forms of mutual engagement, and tuning their enterprise when negotiating on the local improvement work and the action research approach. The process involves dialogues, the use of research and theory, planning and realising interventions, and reflecting on experiences. Joint work between the teachers and the professional development leader functions as a boundary process where two sets of practices, classroom and research, are coordinated and contribute to the learning process in the professional development practice. The process involves negotiations on three competing sets of norms and values: the school’s local development area, the action research approach, and the teachers’ individual values in relation to classroom practice. Collaboration within the local community is essential for meaningful value creation and thus, learning. Findings suggest that teachers should be given recurrent opportunities to define values throughout the process. Learning at the boundaries in between school and research practices entails a mutual openness to deal with differences and engaging uncertainty in the process of learning of what is yet unknown. In addition, the findings show how student participation can contribute to teachers’ learning by adding valuable viewpoints regarding classroom experiences. The study contributes with knowledge about how teachers learn in a social mix of practice, meaning and contexts.

In athletics, there are few strategies for detecting and managing ill health and poor well-being. New innovative collaborations are needed for coaches to meet the challenge of promoting health and creating well-being among athletes while developing top performers. This research explores the conditions for coaches’ professional development to develop a more sustainable elite sport. In addition, this study problematizes the coaches’ development work towards a more sustainable elite sport in Gothenburg athletics. The thesis consists of several theoretical perspectives. The theory of practice architecture and ecologies of practice are used as overarching theories to identify, understand, and describe how coaches develop. Careership theory is used to explore professional development. The theoretical concept of sustainability, the theory of ethics of care and practical wisdom are used to explore a deeper understanding of sustainability. The thesis is based on an action research project where the data are produced from semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, meeting recordings, observations, and logbook notes. The results show that coaches’ professional development for creating a more sustainable elite sport takes place while reflecting with other coaches about their coaching role and their lack of knowledge. The results also show that focus on holistic perspectives and long-term processes on athletes’ development enabled the athletes to develop and perform. However, there were no structures, requirements, or support for the athletes or coaches to prioritize long-term goals over short-term goals. The coaches’ meeting practice became a forum for professional development through cooperation although the coaches’ own drive to develop the practice was constrained by the fact that there was no support from the clubs for this organized professional development. Furthermore, the results also show that the coaches expressed an ambition to develop more knowledge to be able to work towards a more sustainable elite sport, but were constrained by unclear requirements as a coach and by their athletes’ focus on results. Parts of work I. Dohlsten, J., Barker-Ruchti, N., Lindgren, E-C. (2020) Caring as sustainable coaching in elite athletics: benefits and challenges, Sports Coaching Review, 9:1, 48-70. II. Dohlsten, J., Barker-Ruchti, N., Lindgren, E-C. (2020) Sustainable elite sport: Swedish athletes voices of sustainability in athletics, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health. III. Dohlsten, J., Rönnerman, K., Lindgren, E-C. How practice architectures enable and constrain Swedish elite athletics coaches organized meetings. Resubmitted.

In a period of accelerated environmental change, a focus on how humans build embodied relationships with the more-than-human world is a critical arena for pedagogical work. The aim of this thesis is to elucidate people’s lived experiences of being in the forest. The research is directed at aesthetic experiences, as sensuous experiences, of encounters with trees. The work is based on phenomenology and analyzed through hermeneutic phenomenology. This doctoral thesis is part of the research project Beyond Plant Blindness: Seeing the importance of plants for a sustainable world (The Swedish Research Council, dnr 2013-2014) and entails a two-part study; one part conducted with adults who have a habit of being-in-the forest and the other based in two primary school classes, using an outdoor pedagogy approach. The studies are presented through five articles. Article one frames an aesthetic and ethical perspective on art-based environmental education and sustainability and aims to link ethics, aesthetical environmental education and didactics with a phenomenological approach. In this way it serves as the theoretical background for the empirical work to come. Data for article two were collected using a questionnaire placed on a tree located in a specific forest setting over the course of a year. The results highlight the intersubjectivity and historicity of people's connections to a forest environment, and reveal that the experience of ‘being’ or ‘doing’ in a forest produces a larger, more nuanced, response than simply the experience in itself. Data for article three were collected using “walk and talk” interviews. Analysis reveals that (a) childhood experiences seem to play a crucial role in adult experiences of forests; (b) place-identity and sense of belonging are significant elements in how the participants define themselves; (c) being-in-the-forest is connected to an active, exploring and moving body, and that the connection with the more-than-human world of the case study forest is deeply anchored, as part of the human body. This relationship appears to be shaped through a process of constructing and reconstructing memories, practice and selfhood, and can, it seems, last a lifetime. Article three and five builds on action research with two teachers, who planned and designed a Storyline with the aim of giving their students opportunities to discover the intrinsic value of plants, by meeting with trees and slowly becoming trees. In a post-humanist sense, this approach rejects the notion of human as an ontological given, disembodied and separate from the kingdom of plants. Students de-homogenized plants by transforming themselves into trees, thus an inverted anthropomorphization was implemented. This second part of the thesis contributes new perspectives on the emerging relationship between young students and trees initiated through authentic meetings in which such relationships developed. Thus, the result can be used in didactical discussions on concrete, pedagogical and philosophical levels. In the long term, such relationships could have a positive impact on human connections to plants, the basis of much of life on Earth. Parts of work Artikel 1. Häggström, M. (2017). An Aesthetical and Ethical Perspective on Art-Based Environmental Education and Sustainability from a Phenomenological Viewpoint. I Franck, O. & Osbeck, C. (red.), Ethical Literacies and Education for Sustainable Development. Young People, Subjectivity and Democratic Participation, s. 85 - 103. London: Palgrave Macmillan. visa artikel Artikel 2. Häggström, M. (2019). Being-in-the forest – a matter of cultural connections with a natural environment. Plants, People, Planet, vol 1, nr 3, s.1-21. visa artikel Artikel 3. Häggström, M. (2019). Lived Experiences of Being-in-the-Forest as Relationships with the More-than-Human World. Environmental Education Research, s. 1-14. visa artikel Artikel 4. Häggström, M. (2019). Besjälning av träd som ett steg att förebygga växtblindhet hos grundskoleelever - En aktionsforskningsstudie av Storylinearbete i år 2 och 6. I E. Reimers, M. Harling, I. Henning Loeb och K. Rönnerman (red), Lärarprofession i en tid av förändringar. Konferensvolym från den tredje nationella ämneskonferensen i pedagogiskt arbete. Göteborgs universitet, s. 123-144. Artikel 5. Häggström, M. (2019). Students being transformed into trees: inverted anthropomorphization in order to enhance connectedness to natural environments and plants. I J. Reiss (red), Art, Theory and Practice in the Anthropocene. New York: Vernon Press, s. 137-153. https://gupea.ub.gu.se/handle/2077/60226

This thesis explores the relationship between preschool teachers’ professional competence and their pedagogical practices. Specifically, preschool teachers’ considerations on two pedagogical practices are studied: (i) organizing children into subgroups and (ii) working with curriculum content areas. The research is part of a Swedish research project entitled “The Impact of Group Size on Children’s Affordances in Preschool”, financed by the Swedish Research Council. Ecological systems theory is the theoretical framework of the research. The thesis includes four empirical studies. The analyses are based on data drawn from preschool teachers’ responses to questions included in the project’s web-based questionnaire. In study I, preschool teachers’ professional profiles across different preschools in Sweden are explored. The results show differences between profiles with respect to preschool teachers’ graduation year, continuing professional development, and experience. Studies II and III aim to generate knowledge about preschool teachers’ practice of organizing children into subgroups. The results from these two studies put forward the organization of children into subgroups as a collectively negotiated practice embracing a child-centered perspective. Study IV focuses on preschool teachers’ considerations on the curriculum content areas they least involve in their daily work. Reading and writing are revealed as the least-emphasized content areas. The combined results of the four studies point to the importance of addressing the diverse needs for professional development among preschool teachers, along with the challenges, dilemmas, and questions embedded in their immediate environment. A transactional approach to preschool teachers’ professional competence, which considers preschool teachers’ diverse competences along with theoretical and practical knowledge, is suggested. Parts of work Study I: Nasiopoulou, P., Williams, P., Sheridan, S., & Yang Hansen, K. (2019). Exploring preschool teachers’ professional profiles in Swedish preschool: A latent class analysis. Early Child Development and Care, 189(8), 1306–1324. visa artikel Study II: Nasiopoulou, P. (under review). Decision-making factors for group organizing in Swedish preschools. Study III: Nasiopoulou, P. (2019). Investigating Swedish preschool teachers’ intentions involved in grouping practices. Early Childhood Education Journal. visa artikel Study IV: Nasiopoulou, P., Williams, P., & Lantz-Andersson, A. (submitted). Preschool teachers’ work with curriculum content areas in relation to their professional competence and group size in preschool: A mixed-methods analysis.

There are many factors that may contribute to explaining variation in teacher quality, which is the key to the schools’ success. These factors include not only teacher characteristics, but also conditions of the teachers’ work. This dissertation investigates the relationship between the aspects of teacher professional competence and school environment in their relative contribution to student and teacher outcomes in Sweden and other Nordic countries. Realist social theory serves as an underlying theoretical framework to analyze the meaning of the links between teacher agency and the structures of the educational system. The results demonstrate a positive relationship between the Swedish teachers’ coursework in mathematics, teaching experience and eighth-grade student achievement in mathematics. At the same time, teacher pedagogical skills cannot be easily captured by student assessments of instructional quality. Furthermore, the empirical evidence indicates that job satisfaction of the Swedish eighth-grade mathematics teachers is dependent on the perceived adequacy of workload, opportunities for collegial cooperation, professional development, and student behaviour. There is also support for male teachers’ job satisfaction being more affected by collegial cooperation, whilst student discipline being more important for teachers with low self-efficacy beliefs. Finally, the empirical findings indicate that bullying is relatively frequent in Swedish schools compared to other Nordic countries, and that bullying is also associated with lower student achievement in mathematics. The results imply that, among the Swedish schools and teachers, there are, in some cases, underutilized opportunities to enhance school climate and thus reduce bullying incidents and their negative consequences, such as a lowered student academic performance. Parts of work Article 1. Toropova, A., Johansson, S., & Myrberg, E. (2019). The role of teacher characteristics for student achievement in mathematics and student perceptions of instructional quality. Education Inquiry, 10(4), 275-299. visa artikel Article 2. Toropova, A., Myrberg, E., & Johansson, S. (2020). Teacher job satisfaction: the importance of school working conditions and teacher characteristics. Educational Review, 1-27. visa artikel Article 3. Toropova, A. The role of schools and teachers in creating safe learning environments: A Nordic perspective (Submitted).

The aim of this thesis is to investigate in what ways students’ opportunities to discern graphical aspects of the concept of derivative can be related to the design of instruction. The thesis is based on two empirical studies that together included 144 Swedish upper-secondary students who were enrolled in the course in which the derivative is first introduced. Study 1 was conducted in natural settings and involved collaboration between researchers and teachers. The study generated three different 120-min lesson designs, all of which concerned the same mathematical content, the relationship between a graph and its derivative graph. The designs were equivalent regarding organization and teaching methods. However, the content was handled differently during instruction. Design 1 used multiple representations and graphs of polynomial functions. Design 2 restricted instructions to fewer representations but used a broader variety of graphs. Design 3 was a hybrid of Designs 1 and 2 and contained limited variation regarding both representations and graphs. The results of the study, which were based mainly on qualitative data consisting of observations and students’ explanations on posttest questions, suggested that Design 2 offered the best opportunities to discern graphical aspects of the derivative. The results of Study 1 were further tested in Study 2 wherein Design 1 and a slightly modified Design 2 were implemented in more controlled experimental conditions. Quantitative as well as qualitative data were collected. Statistical analyses of quantitative data showed that the students who participated in Design 2 performed significantly higher posttest scores. However, further analyses also showed that the effect of Design 2 was dependent of students’ prior knowledge. For students with less prior knowledge, the design was not a significant predictor in relation to the posttest. The results of the statistical analyses were strengthened by qualitative data. Analyses of student interviews suggested that Design 2 offered better opportunities to discern graphical aspects of the derivative. However, in line with the quantitative data, the interviews suggested that to what extent discernment took place was dependent of students’ prior knowledge. Overall, the results of the studies highlight the importance of examining how the handling of the content may affect students’ learning of mathematics. In particular, they challenge the assumption that the use of multiple representations is always beneficial and suggest that how to use representations during instruction concerned with the derivative is an important topic for further investigation, both with regard to practice and research. Parts of work I. Ryberg, U. (2014). Variationens betydelse för elevernas lärande. Relationen mellan en funktions graf och grafen till funktionens derivata. Göteborg: Göteborgs Universitet. http://hdl.handle.net/2077/37569 II. Ryberg, U. (2018). Generating different lesson designs and analyzing their effects: The impact of representations when discerning aspects of the derivative. Journal of mathematical behavior, Vol. 51, 1-14. visa artikel III. Ryberg, U. (Manuscript). How the use of representations during instruction can promote development of conceptual or procedural knowledge: A comparison of two lesson designs concerned with the derivative concept.

The purpose of this dissertation is twofold. First, it explores how the notion of sustainability is conceptualized within early childhood education discourses and how it is manifested in early childhood curricula. Second, the dissertation examines post-anthropocentric possibilities of sustainability within early childhood education. A major finding of the two studies, relating to the first purpose, is that early childhood education tends to have an anthropocentric bias and over-emphasizes the importance of children’s agency in enhancing their potential to contribute to sustainability. Using this finding as a backdrop, the major finding of the two subsequent studies, relating to the second purpose, is that post-anthropocentric analysis can help to challenge these shortcomings and offer the emergence of a different sustainability ethos. In doing so, sustainability is reconceptualized as a generative concept that opens up possibilities for children to learn-with, become-with and be/become affected by non-humans, i.e. other species and non-human forces. Specific posthuman concepts such as assemblage, distributed agency and becoming-with are used as thinking tools. Systematic literature review and curricula content analysis are employed as methods for study one and study two respectively. Study three and study four draw ideas from post-qualitative inquiry which employ concepts that allow to experimentally engage with the world and think with/become-with data. The latter two studies empirically demonstrate emerging possibilities of learning for sustainability with the non-human others/material forces and other species. In the end, the dissertation highlights that post-humanist and new materialist perspectives can provide a post-anthropocentric conceptualisation of sustainability, which paves the way for a more relational ontology, one that could in turn create a pedagogical practice supporting sustainability. Parts of work Weldemariam, K. (2017). Challenging and expanding the notion of sustainability within early childhood education: Perspectives from post-humanism and/or new materialism. In O. Franck & C. Osbeck (Eds.), Ethical literacies and education for sustainable development: Young people, subjectivity and democratic participation (pp. 105-126): Palgrave Macmillanvisa artikel Weldemariam, K., Boyd, D., Hirst, N., Sageidet, B. M., Browder, J. K., Grogan, L.,HughesF.,(2017).Acriticalanalysisofconceptsassociatedwith sustainability in early childhood curriculum frameworks across five national contexts. International Journal of Early Childhood. 49(3), 333- 351visa artikel Weldemariam, K. (2020). Learning with Vital Materialities: Weather Assemblage Pedagogies in Early Childhood Education. Environmental Education Research journal- accepted for publication Weldemariam K. (2019). Becoming-with bees: generating affect and response-abilities with the dying bees in early childhood education, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education

The interest in this doctoral thesis is how information and communication technologies (ICT) impact on classroom interaction and may challenge and transform teaching and learning. A reason for considering this as a field of investigation is grounded in the fact that in Sweden, digital tools and they are considered a natural part of elementary education. A lot is expected from ICT in education and the ongoing debate is based on the premise that they will be a catalyst to create change. The aim here is to explore in what way the use of ICT may affect the interaction between subject content, teachers and learners. Two theoretical approaches: the sociocultural perspective on learning (Säljö, 2000; Vygotsky, 1986; Wertch, 1998) and the tradition of Didaktik (Hopmann, 1999; 2007; Klafki, 1995; 2000) are used to answer the study’s overall aim and the different aspects of the research questions. The ambition is to contribute to the field of ‘didactics and ICT’ and also to the ongoing debate about ‘digital competencies’ in the twenty-first century. The empirical data is derived from a case study in a primary school. Ethnographic techniques were used in order to collect the data during a period of four years. The research questions have been explored through different analytical lenses and the findings are presented in four papers. The main findings of the study highlight relations between the subject content and the digital tools and challenges notions about what to teach, which affects possibilities for and limitations in how pupils interact with ICT but also the distinguishing features of the pupils’ final outcomes. This opens the way for a discussion about teaching the subject content in relation to the digital affordances, the understanding of pupils’ meaning-making in connection with the premises of digital school tasks, and what competencies are important in the digitalized classroom. Parts of work 1. Kjellsdotter, A. (2019). What matter(s) A didactical analysis of primary school teachers’ ICT integration. [under review for publication] 2. Öman, A., & Sofkova Hashemi, S. (2015). Design and redesign of a multimodal classroom task–Implications for teaching and learning. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 14, 139-159. 3. Öman, A., & Svensson, L. (2015). Similar products different processes: Exploring the orchestration of digital resources in a primary school project. Computers & Education, 81, 247-258. visa artikel 4. Kjellsdotter, A. (2017). From earth to space—Advertising films created in a computer-based primary school task. Cogent Education, 4(1), 1419419.

The notion concept is used in different ways within the field of mathematics education. The aim of this study is to carry out a concept analysis of the notion concept, within some frequently used frameworks describing conceptual understanding. Building on a philosophical literature review resulting in distinctions that can be used for interpreting views on concept, the study addresses the question: Which views on concept may be found in texts using the chosen frameworks, from the perspective of the distinctions mental versus non-mental, intersubjective versus subjective and molecular versus holistic? The design involves a literature review in mathematics education, resulting in a selection of texts. Views on concept, and to some extent on concept image, conception, and schema, are then interpreted with the help of indicators, and represented in 3D matrices. There are two categories of views on concept within the texts: a mental and intersubjective category, and a non-mental and intersubjective category. One difference between the views is whether conceptual structures have molecular or holistic features. Concerning the notions concept image, conception, and schema, there are generally three different views: an individual view and two culturally dependent views. The different views are sometimes combined. One result is findings regarding how language is used within the texts, where non-mental and mental arenas, and terms and meanings of terms, are not always distinguished. The main contribution of the study is to deepen the understanding of views on the notion concept and how terminology is used in mathematics education. This opens the way for a discussion of how the terminology mentioned above may be used coherently within the field of mathematics education.

The overall aim in this thesis is to explore professional conversations about science teaching experiences, both in an educational setting with student teachers, and in a local professional development project with a science teacher team, regarding possibilities for developing professional knowledge in a collegial setting. Two empirical studies were conducted. Study 1, focusing on student teachers’ conversations in the educational setting of a one-year complementary teacher education program for student teachers with an academic degree in science, technology and/or mathematics. The empirical material was collected from non-compulsory additional meetings involving three to six student teachers, which were audio-recorded. In Study 2, the empirical setting was a collaboration with a science teacher team and researchers in a two-year project for local professional development, in which four science teachers at a lower secondary school met for teaching planning once a week. Study 2 includes four of these meetings, which were audio-recorded, at which the science teachers focused on both designing and following up on a summative test in the eighth grade involving the human body. Both studies were designed to establish reflective conversations about science teaching and student learning, including considerations for teaching a specific science topic, based on teaching experiences in science classrooms. A phenomenographic approach was used to identify qualitative differences in the conversations. In addition, the content of the student teachers’ reflective conversations about teaching experiences was further investigated in terms of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The findings show how professional conversations about science teaching experiences for teaching build on two central and interdependent dimensions: the qualitative content of the discussion, and the establishment of a common object of discussion. Collegial development of professional knowledge for science teaching by way of conversations requires contemporaneity and interplay in both dimensions of the conversation. The varying character of discussions when it comes to the interplay between their central dimensions implies varying possibilities for learning and development, for both individuals and their colleagues. This thesis highlights challenges in establishing structured and reflective conversations based on science teaching experiences, which implies the importance of offering student teachers possibilities to participate in conversations, with the aim of preparing them for future professional development. In the context of teachers’ professional development, the contemporaneity in complex content and interaction needs to be considered and not taken for granted, in order to contribute to the possibilities for developing professional knowledge in a collegial setting for teaching science. Parts of work Artikel I: Sjöberg, M., & Ingerman, Å. (manuskript). Student teachers’ conversations about field experiences – Qualitatively different ways of constituting shared meaning of teaching science, technology, or mathematics. Artikel II: Sjöberg, M., & Nyberg, E. (2020). Professional Knowledge for Teaching in Student Teachers’ Conversations about Field Experiences, Journal of Science Teacher Education, 31(2), 226-244. visa artikel Artikel III: Sjöberg, M., Ingerman, Å., & Nyberg, E. (2018). Kvalitativa skillnader i lärares samtal om bedömning och elevers kunnande i naturvetenskap Qualitative differences in teachers’ discussions about assessment and students’ science knowledge. Nordic Studies in Science Education, 14(1), 68-81. visa artikel

This dissertation investigates relations between sexualities, children and childhoods by examining the following questions: How are heteronormativity and normative life courses repeated, negotiated and challenged by children? How are norms of age, children and childhood given significance in relation to heteronormativity and queerness? How is the child featured in contemporary discourses regarding sexualities, normative life courses and possible futures? The study is based on the discourse analysis methodology of Foucault (1972, 1980, 1993, 2002) and inspired by Marcus’ (1995, 1998) ’multi-sited ethnography.’ Children’s play and meaning-making during the school day are studied using participatory observations. Preschool policy documents are analyzed to investigate in what way ‘sexual orientation’ is discussed in relation to discrimination and equal treatment, and teachers are interviewed on the subject of working with lgbtq certification and norm criticism in preschool. Sources within children’s culture, showing representations of same-sex love, provide another entrance for investigating how queerness is presented, and how this is discussed among adults. Critical perspectives from queer theory and childhood studies, where sexuality and age are considered simultaneously discursive, material and performative (Butler, 1990, 1993; Castaneda, 2003, Foucault, 2002; Lee, 2001), are combined theoretically. How age (childhood) norms and sexuality norms interact is investigated using queer-temporal theories (Ahmed, 2006; Dyer, 2014; Edelman, 2004; Halberstam, 2005; Stockton, 2009). The results of the included articles indicate that children normalize heterosexuality by (re)producing heteronormative family and couple discourses in their family play and wedding play. This emerges as age-coded heteronormativity, where norms of children and adults become visible through the way in which heteronormativity is repeated. At preschool, representations of ‘sexual orientation’ are primarily focused on families and family constellations, rarely mentioning interactions among the children. Queerness in relation to childhood emerges, at the same time, as something that is demanded and questioned. The child is used as a space for negotiation of society values, disguised as the question of what is good or bad for children. A conditional queerness emerges, at the intersection of lgbtq+ questions, as an increasingly desirable symbol of a democratic, modern and urban society, and as the expected absence of childhood sexuality, particularly queer sexuality. Queerness is made conditional through, for instance, desexualized love and family discourses. Age norms, in this case norms of children and childhoods, are significant for how, when and with which arguments queerness is represented. Parts of work Sotevik. L. (2019). Framtidsfantasier - Kampen om barnets bästa. Lambda Nordica, 23(3-4). Sotevik. L. (2020). ‘Sexual Orientation’ in Swedish Preschool Policy—What Is the Problem? Genealogy, 4(1). Sotevik, L. Hammarén, N. & Hellman, A. (2019). Familiar play: age-coded heteronormativity in Swedish early childhood education. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 27(4).

The present thesis addresses the division and distinction between the two Swedish subjects Swedish and Swedish as a second language, which result in separation and the categorization of some students as Swedish as a second language students. The overall aim of the study is to examine how Swedish as a second language students are constructed as a category in everyday life at school. A further aim is to explore how students negotiate and relate to the categorization, its meaning and content, as well as how the students position themselves, and are positioned by others, in relation to the category. The study is based on a yearlong ethnography in year nine in a Swedish compulsory school. With a theoretical framework mainly based on Foucault’s theories, the study takes a poststructural approach with a specific focus on the notions of discourse, interpellation, power and resistance. In conclusion, the study shows that Swedish as a second language students are constructed through the school’s institutional conditions: policy documents, the organization of the Swedish subjects, and the talk of the teachers, as well as through the students’ framing of the category. The notions of Swedishness and immigrantness constitute the boundaries between the Swedish subjects and thus play a central role in how, and which of, the students are positioned as Swedish as a second language students in school practice. That in turn impact the students’ (im)possibilities to position themselves as specific subjects and the students resist, accept, as well as take an ambivalence stance on their negotiations of being, and not being, Swedish as a second language students.

This thesis aims to contribute to the knowledge of children’s meaning-making by focusing on processes and content in preschool practice. Meaning-making is understood as a situated process that emerges in the mutual interplay of a child’s previous and current experiences and the preschool practice in which the child participates and acts. Content describes what children create meaning about. The study is theoretically grounded in a sociocultural understanding of human development and learning. The methodological approach is based on John Dewey’s non-dualistic pragmatism concerning how meaning is constructed and shared between people who participate in a social practice. The research adopts Dewey’s concept of transaction to study children’s meaning-making as reciprocal, coordinated encounters with their environment. The analysis relies on 20 hours of video observations from two preschool departments in Sweden, which concentrated on communicative interactions between children and preschool teachers in which the participants together focused on a common conversation content and coordinated their verbal actions to develop or deepen the content. The results are interpreted with practical epistemological analysis (PEA), epistemological move analysis (EMA) and Dewey’s concepts of habit and custom. The results show that children’s meaning-making is a multidimensional process in which a child’s individual experiences and knowledge interact with situated scaffolding processes and customs in preschool. Teacher competence is a significant determinant of good conditions for meaning-making communication. When children create meaning in preschool, cognitive linguistic content is in the foreground, often intertwined with socialisation and care. The results suggest that focusing only on the social and cultural environment or on the content offered cannot provide an adequate understanding of children’s learning and meaning-making in preschool; it is also crucial to consider the individual dimension of the child, knowledge of the child’s previous experiences and how these factors interact with the child’s experiences in preschool.

Teacher team meetings are potential arenas for professional communication, but such meetings take many different forms and cannot automatically be viewed as forums for constructive communication. The aim of this study is therefore to contribute with increased knowledge about the communication structures and discourse orientations found in teacher team meetings. The study is based on observations and audio recordings of meeting conversations that took place among five teacher teams. The meetings are analyzed using Basil Bernstein’s theory of horizontal and vertical discourses. An analytic tool is developed to analyze three conversational structures and their discursive orientation during meeting conversations, namely: ideational structure (content), interpersonal structure (relation) and textual structure (form). The results show that a horizontal discourse orientation operated in all observed meetings. This means that the conversations are segmented and characterized by frequent topic changes and multiple subject foci. Topics are mostly strongly context-bound and of a practical and logistical nature. Reasonings are based primarily on direct experience-based knowledge and a subjective approach. The conversations are also characterized by consensus, humor and a strong emphasis on closeness and care orientation. The language use is often vague and informal in nature. Both a vertical and a horizontal discourse orientation are important in teachers' professional conversations, but crucially both discourses must be present. Important parts of contextual awareness and reasoning can be omitted from meetings when solely utilizing a horizontally oriented discourse. It can also entail limitations in professional practice, for example in terms of considering and dealing with complex issues and generalizing beyond individual situations and experiences. This can lead to a lack of common understandings, an absence of joint reflections and insufficiently rigorous problem analyses, as well as the absence of a holistic view on professional issues.

The key role Swedish upper secondary education plays in differentiating between higher education and labour market sectors has been discussed from an equality perspective over the last 60 years. Despite political incentives to reduce social biases students’ programme choices, research shows a persistent impact of both home environment and gender. This thesis is part of a long tradition of policy informing, large-scale, recruitment research. It contributes to this tradition by viewing student recruitment in the light of freedom of choice and marketization. Assuming that student recruitment patterns, educational policy, options and choice affect each other in a complex process, it also provides a possible framework for a deepened understanding of student recruitment. The thesis presents results from four separate studies exploring how upper secondary programmes are shaped in national policy documents and how students with different social backgrounds respond to the implemented options. These studies explore policy documents from 1963 to 2008 as well as Swedish national registry data for upper secondary enrolment from 1990 to 2015. The results show that students’ programme choices are deeply stratified along similar lines in all cohorts, but also highlight alternative patterns that emerge in relation to organisational and societal shifts. In general, students from academic homes are continuously overrepresented in academic preparatory programmes and the distribution of students over different programmes is deeply gendered. Moreover, the changes that do occur appear to enforce rather than to counter recruitment biases. The findings also suggest that previous, policy informing, student recruitment research has not only had an evaluating function, but has also contributed to shaping upper secondary programmes. The analytical divides that emerge in policy papers (academic/vocational and science/social) are here shown to shape programmes that are entangled in prevailing power relations and to circumscribe students’ possibilities to choose. In addition, it is shown that the aggregations of data that previous research used as representations of these divides risk hiding other differentiating processes that potentially affect young peoples’ opportunities in life. Consequently, this thesis argues that social biases can be discerned and challenged by continuously revisiting the constructs that shape the understandings of what upper secondary education is – and can be. Parts of work I. Mellén, J. (2017). Rörlighet och selektion på en" öppen" gymnasiemarknad. Utbildning & Demokrati–tidskrift för didaktik och utbildningspolitik, 26(1), 133-157. II. Mellén, J. (manuscript). Education in demand, or a flash in the pan? Representations of desire in Swedish upper secondary school III. Mellén, J., & Angervall, P. (2020). Gender and choice: Differentiating options in Swedish upper secondary STEM programmes. Journal of Education Policy, 1-19. visa artikel IV. Mellén J., & Angervall, P. (under review).Exploring the Other: Analysing programme formations, recruitment patterns, and gender in Swedish upper secondary school.

The thesis includes three studies and a kappa and it has a twofold focus; the first is on vocabulary, as the relevance of vocabulary skills is increasingly important, not least for writing in academic contexts. The second focus is on the language of instruction. Studies 1 and 2 investigate students’ texts written in L1 by two student groups of which one is taught through Swedish apart from language lessons and the other group through English in some or all non-language subjects. The latter group is referred to as Content and Language Integrated Learning, CLIL. The texts investigated were written at four different occasions at three different upper secondary schools in Sweden in a longitudinal study. The attention is on productive academic language proficiency in Swedish, where the usage of certain linguistic features characterizing academic writing is investigated. In the first two studies, a total of 520 texts were examined. For this purpose quantitative measures have been applied together with corpus linguistic methods in addition with lexical profiling. The various measures seek to explore if there are differences in the vocabulary use between CLIL and non CLIL students or male and female students. The impact of L2 on students’ L1 is sometimes raised as an apprehension against CLIL education in Sweden. The results regarding productive written academic vocabulary indicate that there is no ground for such concerns. Study 3 was carried out at one of the three schools with new secondary students to investigate if and how, instruction about specific text linguistic variables connected to academic writing might impact students’ productive writing. Five classes participated, three as a control group and two as a treatment group. The intervention began with a pre-test where all students wrote an essay. After a treatment both student groups had access to their pre-test essays and were asked to revise them as a post-test. The results showed a significant increase for the students in the treatment group compared to the students in the control group. The study comprises both quantitative and qualitative data. The results in this thesis can hopefully contribute to limiting the fear regarding L1 writing skills in CLIL education in the Swedish CLIL context. Implications regardless of medium of instruction are that a greater focus should be placed on linguistic awareness concerning choices when writing in school. Another implication drawn from the results of the three studies is that by visualizing the vocabulary in upper secondary students’ written texts in Swedish, cognition about language can provide a basis of writing knowledge. Parts of work I. Ohlsson, E. (2018). Att synliggöra vokabulär. En kvantitativ studie av gymnasieelevers skrivuppgifter på svenska inom CLISS-projektets ram. (Licentiatuppsats). Göteborgs universitet. http://hdl.handle.net/2077/55024 II. Ohlsson, E. (under review). Perspectives on Written L1 in Swedish CLIL Education. III. Ohlsson, E. (under granskning). Akademiskt skrivande - en interventionsstudie med gymnasieelever.

This doctoral thesis aims to explore Sweden’s achievement gap in international assessment and how this may have developed in the context of a network of educational inequalities. Theoretically grounded in the Model of Potential Educational Experiences (Schmidt, Raizen, Britton, Bianchi, & Wolfe, 1997), the thesis investigates how the relationship between the intended and attained curriculum is moderated by actions at the classroom level. Teacher implementation of the curriculum provides opportunities for students to learn yet is a source of inequity in the school system. Student socioeconomic background and the amount of subject content (or Opportunity to Learn – OTL) they are exposed to are judged to significantly influence student outcomes. Socioeconomic inequality of outcomes has been perennially observed in educational assessment and has been a topic of investigation since the mid-twentieth century, while a body of literature suggests that there is an equality gap in OTL, with more advantaged students offered more content coverage through their mathematics lessons. This compilation thesis features an integrative essay and three empirical studies, which apply statistical analysis to data from two international large-scale assessments, PISA and TIMSS. Study I investigated the measurement of socioeconomic status over time in Sweden. After establishing which questionnaire items consistently appeared in PISA, a measurement model bespoke to Sweden was constructed from 2000 data. The model was found to be replicable and trustworthy over time, establishing an alternative measure of SES applicable to 15 years of Swedish PISA data. In Study II socioeconomic inequalities in opportunity and outcomes in mathematics and science, and the question as to whether unequal opportunities perpetuate unequal outcomes were investigated in 78 countries using 4 cycles of TIMSS data. Achievement gaps were observed near universally. These achievement gaps were strong and increased across the cycles of TIMSS. Opportunity gaps were less frequently observed, and evidence that schooling exacerbates socioeconomic inequalities in outcomes was confined to a select group of countries including England, Malta, Scotland, and Singapore. Sweden’s achievement gap was consistent across the time points, and an opportunity gap was only observed in half the cycles. Finally, schooling mediated the effects of SES on achievement in only the 2003 cycle for Sweden, suggesting equitable mathematics provision in Sweden. Teachers are essential to the implementation of the curriculum, and their actions affect the experiences of students. Multiple inequalities in Swedish classrooms were explored in Study III. The 2015 TIMSS cycle was grouped by whether or not teachers were mathematics specialists. Overall, Swedish mathematics students experienced substantial gaps in achievement, opportunity and teacher quality. However, differing patterns of inequalities emerged in the grouped model. Among classes with specialist teachers there was a moderate opportunity gap, while those with non-specialists had a teacher quality gap. In both groups there was a socioeconomic gap in teacher perception of school ethos towards academics. The findings of this study underscore the importance of having high-quality teachers in mathematics classrooms as a temper of outcome inequity. Collectively, the findings of the constituent studies confirm the persistence of the achievement gap in Sweden and globally, contextualize the opportunity gap in Sweden, and underline the importance of item choice and construct measurement when modelling inequality using international data. Suggestions are made for further research integrating the thesis’s contribution to construction measurement into trend analyses of opportunity gaps, and combining register and international data to parse how changes in teacher education may affect equality in Swedish classrooms. Parts of work I. Rolfe, V. (2021). Tailoring a measurement model of socioeconomic status: Applying the alignment optimization method to 15 years of PISA, International Journal of Educational Research, 106. visa artikel II. Rolfe, V., Strietholt, R., & Yang Hansen, K. (under revision). Does inequality in opportunity intensify inequality in outcomes? International evidence from four TIMSS cycles. III. Rolfe, V., Yang Hansen, K., & Strietholt, R. (under revision). Integrating educational quality and educational equity into a model of mathematics performance.

This thesis addresses education and schooling for youth in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Gothenburg, Sweden. Over the last two decades or so we have seen an increasing difference in students’ performance and background between schools in Sweden. Schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the metropolitan areas are affected the worst, and in some of these schools about half of the students lack upper secondary qualifications. This thesis builds upon data from one of these schools called Björkskolan. The overall aim of this study is to investigate what it means to be a student at Björkskolan and what significance the school and education has for the students. The following questions are examined: How do schooling and education acquire meaning for the students? How do the students describe their own opportunities and limitations in relation to school and education, and what are the different student positions that emerge in everyday school life? How do teachers and students view the learning that occurs at the school and the conditions in which it takes place? The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork that took place over a one-year period with students in 8th and 9th grade. Besides fieldnotes, interviews with students, teachers and school staff form the basis for the analysis. Theoretically, the thesis primarily draws from urban theory on territorial stigmatization and postcolonial influenced theories on difference and othering. In summary, the results show how the students negotiate representations of their school and their neighbourhood, and how they create alternative representations that question the dominant perceptions. The teachers and school staff are, just like the students, affected by the structural conditions in the segregated city, and this has implications for teaching as well as other aspects of daily life and work in Björkskolan. Furthermore, the study demonstrates how the students position themselves as learning subjects in different ways, and that anti-school culture explanations for poor school results can neither be attributed to the girls or the boys. On the contrary, the students show a positive attitude towards education and identify strongly with the school.

Analysing and designing Programmed Technological Solutions (PTS) has been introduced as a part of technology education in an effort to bring elements of programming into the curriculum for compulsory school, in order to develop pupils’ understanding of how PTS work and are controlled by programming. However, what an appropriate understanding entails at this level remains to be articulated, particularly how this understanding looks from a pupil’s perspective. Such descriptions are paramount for allowing teachers to make pedagogical decisions on what specifically is to be addressed in the classroom. The challenges are increased by a dependency on programming materials, which give a structure to teaching and learning that is not necessarily in line with pedagogical needs. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to identify key elements that are important to address in teaching and learning technology in the processes of analysing and designing PTS. The knowledge domain of PTS, in relation to technological literacy, frames the results from three phenomenographic studies that investigate the ways pupils (aged 10-14) experience PTS when analysing and designing PTS in the contexts of the BBC micro:bit material and PTS from everyday life. The results show that understanding programming concepts and how to produce code are key elements, and most importantly, that there are other key elements embedded in the processes that it is necessary to direct attention to. These are: knowledge related to the dual nature of PTS; knowledge related to the programming material used in the processes; the relevance structures provided by the contexts in terms of experienced partwhole structure of PTS; and the use of systems thinking to discern the partwhole structure of PTS. Together these direct attention to the structural and functional nature of PTS, which must be understood in order to understand how PTS can be controlled by programming. Thus, these key elements are important to consider in pedagogical practice in order to promote learning with regard to PTS. Parts of work Cederqvist, A. (2020). Pupils’ ways of understanding programmed technological solutions when analysing structure and function. Education And Information Technologies, 25(2), 1039-1065. visa artikel Cederqvist, A. (2020). An exploratory study of technological knowledge when pupils are designing a programmed technological solution using BBC Micro:bit. International Journal of Technology and Design Education. visa artikel Cederqvist, A. (2021) Designing and coding with BBC micro:bit to solve a real-world task – a challenging movement between contexts. . Education And Information Technologies visa artikel

Education for sustainable development (ESD) raises critical questions regarding what knowledge should be taught and what the learning outcomes should be. The aim of this thesis is to explore epistemological, ethical and critical dimensions of ESD. There are two empirical sites. One is a transdisciplinary educational project with upper-secondary Swedish students (n=208) from 16 different schools, the other involves teachers (n=158) at a large Swedish upper-secondary school implementing ESD. The research design is emergent, combining empirical and theoretical studies. A questionnaire instrument to explore students’ epistemic beliefs (personal theories of knowledge and knowing) was constructed. Exploratory factor analysis identified five dimensions: transdisciplinary, certain, quick, collaborative, and simple knowledge. These showed predictive power in a multiple regression analysis. Another instrument was constructed to examine teachers’ ESD competences. Four dimensions were identified. Wicked sustainability challenges require the individual, education and society to adopt new ways of thinking, learning and acting. Calls for transformation, supported by supranational organizations, have contributed to an increased focus globally on competence-oriented knowledge in curricula. Ethical competence, action readiness, and normative competence are nested concepts explored theoretically in this thesis. Philosophizing with is a central method, which invites epistemology as a voice into the analysis. Transdisciplinary and pluralistic ESD allow for ethical issues to surface in the classroom. It is theorized that an ESD teacher needs to be both morally sensitive and ready to transform didactics in the teacher-learner nexus. One conclusion is that students’ sophisticated epistemic beliefs may be important antecedents in transdisciplinary ESD. Another is that the element of action in the conceptualization of competence remains a critical aspect for educational research and practice. Parts of work Paper I Grice, M., & Franck, O. (2014). A phronesian strategy to the education for sustainable development in Swedish school curricula. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development. 8(1), 29–42. visa artikel Paper II Grice, M. (2014). Epistemic beliefs and knowledge creation among uppersecondary students in transdisciplinary education for sustainable development. Nordidactica. (1), 146–169. Paper III Grice, M., & Franck, O. (2017). Conceptions of ethical competence in relation to action readiness in education for sustainable development. Reflective Practice. 18(2), 256–267. visa artikel Paper IV Grice, M. (2017). Philosophizing with transdisciplinarity, relational knowledge and ethics in education for sustainable development, In O. Franck and C. Osbeck (Eds.) Ethical Literacies and Education for Sustainable Development: Young people, subjectivity, and democratic participation. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. visa artikel Paper V Grice, M., Mogren, A., Grantz, H., & Gericke, N. (2018) Kompetenser för lärare inom utbildning för hållbar utveckling – konstruktion av ett enkätinstrument [Teacher competences in education for sustainable development – the development of a questionnaire instrument]. Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, 23(3–4), 262–289. Paper VI Grice, M., & Franck, O. (manuscript, 2021) Focusing on moral literacy and normative competence in education for sustainable development.

Storytelling is deeply interwoven with the act of teaching and learning. Teachers tell stories and anecdotes within their everyday teaching practice. Previous research on teachers’ storytelling in the interdisciplinary field of educational science has focused mainly on language development, literacy, and students’ learning from social, historical and psychological perspectives. In this thesis, the main interest is in the teachers’ perspective and their lived experience of telling stories in teaching situations. The overall aim of this thesis is to describe the pedagogical implications of teachers’ oral storytelling. Storytelling is contextualized within the framework of teaching - which in turn is understood and discussed within the continental European tradition of didaktik. From this tradition, the concept pedagogical tact is used to illuminate teachers’ storytelling at the intersection of theory and practice. The empirical data is derived from interviews and video observations. The interviews are contextualized and exemplified through both a Swedish and an Indian context. The analysis of the interviews and observations is based on a phenomenological analysis of storytelling which implies a perspective that sees storytelling as embodied. Four studies were carried out and the findings are presented in four papers. Overall, the results show that teachers’ storytelling is an everyday phenomenon, both spontaneous and prepared, closely intertwined with their relationship to their students and the content. Since teachers’ experiences of storytelling appear from the data to be spontaneous and reciprocal, such as listening to the listeners, it is suggested here that the pedagogical actions of the teachers can be described as a pedagogical tact – a tact of telling. Another important result which appears in this thesis is the importance of taking the lived body into account in teachers’ storytelling, and this aspect constitutes a contribution to research on teachers’ storytelling. Thus, the teachers’ experience of and knowledge about storytelling and didaktik are crucial for how their students experience the content. Storytelling as teaching is not completely possible to predict and consequently impossible to fully measure and control. With today’s increased demands for students’ performance to be measurable, teaching that does not lead to measurable results can therefore be seen as carrying a risk of failure. From a continental European didaktik perspective, teachers’ storytelling is, on the contrary, seen as important and as an opportunity - a way of teaching that enables students and teachers to create meanings in relation to content.

The purpose of this thesis was to develop procedures that allow researchers to make reasonable comparisons of grade-eight mathematics and science achievement and motivation scales over a long time period, despite changes to the instruments, populations, and procedures between administrations. The data were selected from international large-scale assessments administered by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Student data were used from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and its four predecessors conducted before 1995. The assessments have targeted slightly different populations (13-year-olds, 14-year-olds, and eighth-grade students), and the constructs changed somewhat across administrations. The thesis, therefore, aimed to: 1) evaluate the degree of comparability across these assessments; 2) link the cognitive test results onto the TIMSS reporting scale with the use of item response theory (IRT) modeling; 3) explore the feasibility of linking the motivational scales in these assessments with different approaches in the IRT and structural equation modeling frameworks. Despite the assessments being carried out since the 1960s, a high level of stability in the inferences and cognitive constructs of the assessments was found. The measurement of the motivational constructs was found to be less stable. Overall, the results indicated that the comparability of the scales has improved over time. Different linking approaches were explored, and they yielded similar results in the country-level trend descriptions of achievement and motivation. The linking techniques applied in this thesis may be beneficial for linking other large-scale assessments, in which changes have occurred between administrations. Moreover, with the scales established in this thesis, it is possible to examine long-term changes in educational systems. Powerful statistical approaches may be applied to these system-level longitudinal data to address causal research questions. Parts of work 1. Majoros, E., Rosén, M., Johansson, S., & Gustafsson, J.-E. (2021). Measures of long-term trends in mathematics: Linking large-scale assessments over 50 years. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 33(1), 71–103. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-021-09353-z 2. Majoros, E. (2022). Linking the first- and second-phase IEA studies on mathematics and science [Manuscript submitted for publication]. 3. Majoros, E., Christiansen, A., & Cuellar, E. (2022). Motivation towards mathematics from 1980 to 2015: Exploring the feasibility of trend scaling. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 74, 101174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2022.101174

This thesis explores the out-of-school language use of young adolescents in contemporary multilingual urban neighborhoods, located in the three largest cities in Sweden. More specifically, the thesis explores the potential interplay of out-of-school language use, language ideologies, investment in languages and identities.

Oral storytelling is a prevalent cultural practice for sense-making. Through stories, people get to know themselves, others, and the world around them. Children are introduced to this practice at home and in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The present research concerns oral retelling in a Swedish preschool setting. Its overarching interest is how children orally retell stories they have been told. More specifically, how processes of responding, remembering, and reshaping unfold in children’s retelling activities are of analytical interest. The thesis consists of three empirical studies involving children aged three to five years. The analytical focus of Study I is on whether, and if so how, the children consider the understanding of the listener(s) when retelling stories. The analytical focus of Study II is on how the children remember, and reshape, stories in retelling activities. The analytical focus of Study III is on how the children indicate the intellectual and emotional states of fictional characters when they retell stories. The theoretical framework informing these studies is a sociocultural perspective, conceptualizing communication, learning, and remembering as contingent on cultural tools and practices. The empirical data consist of 21 video recordings of storytelling activities. Analytical work was guided by the principles of Interaction Analysis. Analysis of the meta-markers children use in their storytelling reveals that they do take into account the understanding of their listener(s) when retelling stories, if not consistently so (Study I). An analysis of how one focus child retells the same story in different constellations shows how she remembers details from the story told by the teacher and the very manner of how it was told and how she transforms the story into what more readily makes sense to her (Study II). Finally, the findings clarify how the children indicate the intellectual and emotional states of the characters in the stories they retell. They do this in three ways: through explicating (mental state terms); gesturing and facial expressions; and sound symbolism (Study III). The thesis has significance for our understanding of children, their storytelling, responding, remembering, and processes of reshaping. The findings here contribute to a more general reconceptualization of children’s capacities to understand. The thesis has implications for early childhood education and care as a socially just practice, valuing all the communicative means children use.

Det övergripande syftet i denna avhandling är att, med stöd av interaktionsteorier och ett mikrosociologiskt perspektiv, bidra med kunskap om hur interaktionsmönster, social anpassning och emotioner framträder i interaktionen mellan förskollärare och barn i målorienterade dokumentationsaktiviteter på förskolan. Samtidigt som interaktion och relationsskapande processer framhålls som grundläggande i utbildningssammanhang, förs internationellt såväl som nationellt diskussioner gällande tidiga utbildningsinsatser och skolförberedande åtgärder. Således placeras min forskning i en samtida förskola där förskollärare och barn förväntas interagera på sätt som utvecklar relationer samtidigt som praktiken skall anpassas till de allt ökade akademiska förväntningarna. Genom empiriska exempel i tre delstudier, visas sårbarhet i interaktionen mellan förskollärare och barn och därmed också det oförutsägbara i målorienterade sammanhang. Studiernas resultat åskådliggör att ickeverbal interaktion – emotionsuttryck – har en betydande funktion i interaktion, social anpassning och för sociala band. Resultaten diskuteras bland annat utifrån de frågor som väcks gällande balansgången mellan att bedriva målorienterad utbildning och att följa barns intressen i förskolan.

The allocation of teacher competence is frequently cited as a determinant of socioeconomic inequity in student outcomes. This thesis explores several aspects related to the phenomenon of ‘teacher sorting’ from a cross-national perspective. It aims to empirically validate theoretical questions regarding social reproduction and the allocation of educational resources, as well as whether inequitable allocation contributes to socioeconomic gaps in student performance. The thesis presents four empirical studies with two pairs of related research questions. Study I examined the magnitude of teacher sorting across education systems and over the past 20 years. Study II extends this line of questioning and examines whether the sorting gap magnitudes exacerbate mathematics achievement inequity within countries. Studies III and IV examined whether institution- level policies are associated with several different dimensions of teacher sorting. The findings lend partial support to the role of inequitable teacher competence in perpetuating inequitable student outcomes, but also point to the importance of the socioeconomic context and construct measurement in considering inequity and policy across education systems.

I denna avhandling undersöks hur generella och specifika förändringar har påverkat organiserandet av makt och relationer i gymnasieskolan, men också hur lärare och rektorer reagerar på och resonerar kring konsekvenserna av dessa förändringar. Avhandlingen tar avstamp i den neoliberala transformation som skett i och av den svenska skolan de senaste tre decennierna för att sedan landa i förändringsprocesser i den lokala kontexten. Den huvudsakliga platsen som undersökts är en gymnasieskola i södra Sverige där Mikael R Karlsson har genomfört etnografiska undersökningar under flera års tid. Under dessa år hamnade tre genomgripande förändringar i lärarnas och rektorernas knän. Dels ett stort utvecklingsprojekt i formativ bedömning, dels karriärstegsreformen – eller Förstelärarreformen som den vanligen benämns i vardagligt tal – och slutligen Lärarlönelyftet. Förändringarna påverkade lärarna relation till varandra, förändrade inflytande och maktrelationer, men också synen på den professionella identiteten.