Dalarna University's logo and link to the university's website

Today, Social emotional learning (SEL) is common in pre-school and school both in Europe and North America. An overall issue in this study concerns the how borders between private and public are constructed and negotiated in schools and pre-schools where socio-emotional programs are practiced. A specific aspect, dealt with in this paper, concerns the processes of internalization, among students and children, of the normative set of values proclaimed by these programs. In this first preliminary analysis we operate within a foucouldian perspective. With this as a point of departure, abilities such as self-control, regulation of emotions and social behavior, and a discursive and social competence for presenting the self are constructed through the production of docile, obedient bodies.

Social emotional learning (SEL) is common in preschools and schools both in Europe and North America today. Programmes for socio-emotional training and the rise of what is labelled therapeutic education have dramatically increased during the first decade of the millennium. In this article, a manual-based programme used for SEL in a Swedish school context is analysed from perspectives rooted in childhood sociology and post-structural studies. The aim of this study is to analyse the discursive constructions of a context of risk and the instilment of specific corporeal regimes. The main issue concerns the meaning and use of the body in the discursive construction of the social competent child within this context of risk. The analysis shows that the socially competent child is shaped and cultivated through self-regulating techniques aiming at creating a docile body, a body that will be a good citizen, a pliant member of the social order. 

Social emotional learning (SEL) is common in preschools and schools both in Europe and North America today. Programmes for socio-emotional learning and what is labelled therapeutic education (Ecclestone & Hayes, 2007; Furedi, 2009) have dramatically increased during the first decade of the millennium. In Sweden, schools often justify their use of these programmes as a way of organizing their value-based education (von Br mssen, 2011), that is, as a way of realizing the democratic ambitions expressed in educational policy documents, such as the national curriculum.

Projektet syftar till att belysa olika aktörsperspektiv på implementering av och arbetet med socioemotionella program i den kommunala grundskolan och förskolan. Studien består av fem delstudier av fem kommunala verksamheter där arbete med socioemotionella program har ägt rum. Studien har en etnografisk design. Resultatet visar att implementeringsprocessen har sett olika ut i de studerade verksamheterna gällande initiativ till arbetet (uppifrån och ned, nedifrån och upp eller både och). Gemensamt i samtliga verksamheter var dock att det manualbaserade arbetet infördes utan granskning eller diskussion, vare sig på central kommunal nivå eller ute i verksamheterna. Vidare visar resultatet att många lärare till en början välkomnade manualbaserade program för att få tillgång till verktyg för systematiskt arbete med socioemotionella frågor, men att de snart fann svårigheter att omsätta övningarna på ett meningsfullt och etiskt försvarbart sätt för barnen och eleverna i verksamheten. Lärare uttrycker också osäkerhet gällande vilken skillnad de anser att programmen gjort för barnen/eleverna. Många barn och elever var kritiska mot programmen; barnen i förskolan hade svårt att sätta ord på vad de lärde sig av programmen och eleverna på högstadiet var öppet kritiskta till programarbetet. Eleverna i år tre och fem uttryckte däremot i mer positiva ordalag om det socioemotionella arbetet de tagit del av; deras svar ligger ofta i linje med de motiveringar för programmet som finns i programmen själva och bland lärare. Dessa elever uppvisar därmed ha tillägnat sig en diskursiv kompetens i sitt tal om programarbetet. I rapporten diskuteras också vilka implikationer programarbetet medfört dels för lärarprofessionaliteten, dels för realiserandet av skolans normativa uppdrag.

The aim of this research paper is to describe and discuss different forms of resistance that children display in activities aiming to develop social and emotional competence in preschool and school. Social emotional training/Social emotional learning (SET/SEL) is common in preschool and school both in Europe and North America today. Manual-based programs for socio-emotional training and the rise of what is labeled therapeutic education (Ecclestone &Hayes 2007, Furedi 2009) have dramatically increased during the first decade of the millennium. In Sweden, schools often motivate their use of these programs as a way of organizing their value-based education (von Brömssen, 2011), that is, a way of realizing the democratic ambitions expressed in educational policy documents as the national curriculum.

In this research paper we present the results from to two field studies - one in preschool and the other in lower secondary high school in Sweden. When conducting participant observation during lessons on social emotional learning (SEL), despite the democratic ambitions, children seemed to have little opportunity to influence the activities as the traditional power hierarchies, where children are subordinate, within school and classrooms prevail. Besides, many of the activities in social and emotional learning dealt with issues that both teachers and children defined as private matters - such matters that they usually do not handle in public. In research interviews children expressed many critical opinions on the forms and contents of these activities, but in preschool and school they were no invited to discuss these views. Still the children displayed their attitudes towards these activities in different forms of resistance: A common form of resistance is what here is called instrumentalization, that is to do the assignment or activity as detached as possible. Another form of resistance is making jokes both in relation to the content and form of the activities. Yet another form of resistance is being silent; this non-responsive resistance challenge both the realization of the activity as well as the social order in the classroom.

The aim of this study is twofold: firstly, it aims to explore the interactional conditions in terms of democratic qualities constituted in collective writing in a primary school classroom; and secondly, it aims to examine whether a set of deliberative criteria is fruitful as an analytical tool when studying classroom interaction. Theoretically, I turn to New Literacy Studies for understanding the writing classroom as a literacy practice and the actual (collective) writing as literacy events. The study has an ethnographic approach in which classroom observations were conducted during a collective writing process involving six nine-year-old children and their teacher. The observations included, two lessons, divided into 3 hours, which were observed, videotaped, and transcribed. The teacher had planned for a strict interactional or didactical order during the collective writing in which the children were to respond individually. However, the children responded in a different manner by starting a vivid dialogue in which they negotiated both the form and the content of the story. The analysis shows some deliberative qualities in this classroom interaction, while some other qualities were not evident. Furthermore, the analysis showed that the set of deliberative criteria was useful in visualizing both existing deliberative qualities in the interaction and the potential for developing such qualities.

The research topic of this paper is exploring different ways of students’ resistance against participating in classrooms talk in upper secondary school. The theoretical framework of this research project is built up by using two different theoretical traditions in order to establish different perspectives on how conditions of participating in classroom talks are constituted: From curriculum theories, including researchers as Lundgren and Englund, a perspective stressing the institutional setting as constituting conditions for classroom talks and students’ participation is gained. From classroom studies, by researchers as Mehan, Cazden, Nystrand and Dysthe as well as the cultural and linguistic theorist Bakhtin, an interactional perspective focusing how different patterns of interaction in the classroom creates different conditions for students’ participation in classroom communication is picked up. Furthermore a focaudian perspective on power and resistance in classrooms is used.

A combination of ethnographical and curriculum studies approaches is used methodologically in the project. The ethnographic part of the study comprises of videotaped observations of classroom talks in order to study different expressions, strategies and functions of students’ resistance against participating in the classroom talks studied. Furthermore, qualitative interviews with students and teachers were also conducted to get their perspectives of classroom talks and participation. The curriculum part of the study comprised of analyses of curriculum and syllabuses in order to understand how these institutional frames constituted conditions for participation in the classroom talks studied.

The findings concerning students’ resistance against participating in classroom talks show that we can understand different students’ strategies in the classroom as resistance: 1) Being silent as resistance, 2) Making jokes as resistance, 3) Withholding life-world experiences as resistance. Furthermore, it is possible to discern different origins of the resistance: 1) Resistance origins in the institutional conditions of the talks, e.g. prescribed patterns of interaction, view of knowledge etc., and 2) Resistance origins in students’ life worlds, e.g. norms, habits, preferences, etc.

The question of students’ resistance against participating in class room communications and talks has a clear relevance for Nordic educational research as the ideals and traditions of organising teaching as talks and communication in different ways are deeply rooted in all Nordic countries, as well in other European countries and the United   States. The institutional settings of educational communicative practices are also similar which makes the question of students’ resistance against participating relevant in all Nordic countries.

In this paper I discuss the necessity of combining ethnographical and curriculum studies approaches to grasp an understanding of the classroom interaction as being historically situated or related to different school subject traditions. In this discussion I give examples from my earlier research on teaching as conversational genres in the teaching of literature, within the two subjects of Swedish in UpperSecondary School in Sweden. Special attention is paid to how the four analytically discerned conversational genres – The Teaching Examination, The Informal Book Talk, The Text Oriented Talk, and The Culturally Oriented Talk – differ in purpose, structure, patterns of interaction and view of literature. Finally I discuss how these conversational genres can be understood as related to the three dominating selective traditions of the school subject Swedish: Swedish as a Profiency Subject, Swedish as a Higher Subject of Bildung and Swedish as an Experienced-based Subject.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implications for the possibilities of doing democratic experiences when using socio-emotional programs as value-based education. Since the wake of the Second World War, school as an institution has been given a specific responsibility for securing democracy through educating future citizens equipped with democratic values and skills. Earlier studies have shown that even though there has been a societal consensus that school should have this democratic assignment, there have been several interpretations of its meaning and its didactical design.  During the first decade of the millennium, it has become common to use manual-based programs for social emotional learning (SEL) as a way of realizing school’s democratic assignment. The increase of using socio-emotional programs within schools is understood from the sociological perspective as a part of a wider therapeutic culture where a focus on emotions and how to handle emotions is regarded as enlightened and good (Furedi 2003).

In this paper, the results of a case study of the implementation of a social-emotional program as value-based education in a nine grade class are presented and discussed. The study is conducted through classrooms observations when SEL activities are organized, interviews with the school’s headmaster, teachers, and pupils on their experiences and views on SEL in education. The school is situated in a Swedish municipality where all pupils in compulsory school had to participate weekly in social-emotional programs, as a consequence of local political decision. The main results of the study point at that the implementation of the SEL program in the studied class can be understood as contra productive concerning creating a democratic school culture for teachers and pupils. Neither teachers’ nor pupils´ critique of the SEL program were heard or taken seriously. There were no forum for critical discussions on the premises of the program – critique was silenced and resistances were ignored. The pupils expressed less belief in democratic processes after (being compelled to) participating in the SEL program than before.

The purpose of this article is to critically explore the concept ofaesthetic experience, as discussed and developed by John Dewey inhis work Art as Experience (1934). This is done by examining thelinks between Dewey’s concept of experience in general, and itsepistemological basis, and his specific concept of aesthetic experience. Special attention is paid to Dewey’s distinction between art asproduct and art as work, and what function, according to Dewey,art might have for individuals and communities. Finally, the educational implications are discussed, particularly in relation to theabove-mentioned distinction in Dewey’s theory of aesthetics.

This paper explores the methodological significance and implications of the classroom researcher’s earlier teacher experiences in various stages of the research process. The starting point is the often mentioned notion, in methodological discussions, that being familiar with school practices as a school ethnographer is problematic when doing school ethnography, as this familiarity might blur the ethnographer’s gaze. Consequently, emphasis has been put on the necessity to “make the familiar strange” in order to be able to discern for example norms, values, habits and patterns of interaction that is taken for granted in the practice studied (Gordon, 2001). In these discussions earlier experiences of being a teacher are labeled as something problematic that the researcher has got to distance herself/himself from. In this paper I give a more complex picture of the significance and implications of the researcher’s earlier teacher experiences, which is outlined in two steps. Firstly, different categories of teacher experiences are pointed out. Secondly, an exploration of how these different categories of teacher experiences are at work in various stages of the ethnographic research process, where examples from a recently finished research project are given.

In this paper I presentmy research on teaching as conversational genres. Through ethnographicalstudies in the Swedish Upper Secondary School four different conversationalgenres within the teaching of literature have been identified: TheTeaching Examination, The Informal Book Talk, The Text Oriented Talk, and TheCulturally Oriented Talk. The presentation focuses how these conversationalgenres differ in patterns of interaction, literary content, cultural norms andeducational quality. Finally the students’ participation and resistance toparticipate in these conversational genres are discussed.

I min presentation vill jag beskriva mitt pågående avhandlingsarbete, mina utgångspunkter, syften och reflektioner som jag gjort vid en första analys av en del av mitt material. Mitt arbete har två övergripande syften, dels att studera samtal om litteratur i gymnasieskolan, dels att utifrån min samtalsstudie pröva den didaktiska relevansen hos en specifik normativ position i den samtida diskussionen om skolans demokratiuppdrag, nämligen talet om det deliberativa samtalet som värdegrund. Dessa två syften har ingen inbördes hierarki, utan min blick är snarare dubbelt riktad när jag studerar dessa samtal. Jag är både intresserad av samtalen i sig, om uttrycket accepteras, som jag studerar med hjälp av frågor och metoder hämtade dels från interaktionsforskning dels från svenskämnesdidaktisk forskning, och att få ett material där jag kan pröva det deliberativa samtalets interaktionella förutsättningar, något som tidigare inte har problematiserats nämnvärt.

För att kunna uppnå mina syften har jag strategiskt sökt tillträde till samtal om litteratur i gymnasieskolan med olika förutsättningar, exempelvis olika program med olika elever (vad gäller kön, etnicitet och klass), olika storlek på gruppen som diskuterar (helgrupp eller mindre grupper), olikhet i litterärt innehåll (nära eller långt från elevernas kulturella preferenser), olikhet i initiativ till innehållet (dvs. elev- eller lärarinitiativ). Min studie är inte longitudinell utan jag besöker dessa miljöer under en kortare period och för digitala anteckningar med videokamera vid några tillfällen då de samtalar om litteratur. Vidare intervjuar jag fyra elever i varje klass och deras lärare för att bättre kunna förstå i vilka sammanhang som samtalet och det som sker däri bör förstås utifrån.

Under hösten har jag varit ute i tre olika klasser på två olika skolor – en årskurs två på samhällsprogrammet i en gymnasieskola i en medelsstor svensk kommun samt en årskurs tre på industriprogrammet och en årskurs tre på handelsprogrammet i en mindre svensk kommun – från vilka jag har digitala anteckningar över samtal om litteratur. De reflektioner och iakttagelser jag gjort dels vid mötet med dessa tre olika grupper dels vid den påbörjade analysen av mitt insamlade material kommer jag också att presentera helt kort.

The purpose of this article is to critically explore the concept of esthetic experience as it has been discussed and developed by John Dewey in his work, Art as Experience (1934). This is done through discussing the links between Dewey’s concept of experience in general, and its epistemological basis, and his specific concept of esthetic experience. Special attention is paid to Dewey’s distinction between art as product and art as work, and what function art might have for individuals and communities according to Dewey. Finally, I discuss educational implication particularly in relation to the above mentioned distinction in Dewey’s theory of esthetic.

The aim of this dissertation is to analytically discern different conversational genres within the teaching of literature, organized within the framework of the two school subjects in which Swedish is taught in upper secondary school, and to place this teaching of literature in a historical context by relating it to different conceptions of the Swedish subject.

   To be able to achieve this aim, a curriculum studies approach is combined with an ethnographical one. The ethnographical part of the study was conducted as a classroom study, including five different classes and teachers talking about literature, which took place during the school year 2003/2004 at three different schools in the middle of demographical Sweden. This part of the study also involved qualitative interviews with teachers and students concerning different factors which might have an effect on these conversations. The conversations of the study can be described as a part of the every-day-life of the teaching of those subjects, as the teachers organised these conversations in a way that they usually organise conversations of literature in their classes. However, what the teachers meant by talking about literature appeared to differ among them so radically that these conversations could be analytically discerned as four different conversational genres: The Teaching Examination, Text Oriented Talk, Culturally Oriented Talk, and Informal Book Talk. These four conversational genres are possible to analytically discern using the didactical tool, the analysis of conversational genres, which is developed in the dissertation in relation to Michail Bakhtin’s theory of speech genres.

   The curriculum part of the study comprises an analysis in three steps to place the teaching of literature in a historical context. In the first step national syllabuses for the subjects Swedish and Swedish as a second language are analysed. In the second step local syllabuses for the subjects are analysed. Finally, in the third step, the teachers’ thoughts, deliberations and ideals forming their teaching of literature are analysed. The teaching where conversational genres have been analytically discerned could then be related to different conceptions of the subject Swedish: Swedish as a Higher Subject of Bildung, Swedish as a Proficiency Subject, and Swedish as an Experience-based Subject.

    The analyses and discussions in the dissertation contribute to the discussions in the field of Subject-Didactics on the role of literature and conversation within the subjects of Swedish and Swedish as a Second language. Another contribution of the dissertation is the didactical tool, the analysis of conversational genres, which might be used by researchers and teachers for analysis and reflection on conversations in teaching.

I detta konferensbidrag presenterar jag i korthet min avhandling, Samtalsgenrer i gymnasieskolans litteraturundervisning, som jag la fram 2006. Avhandlingens syfte är att analytiskt urskilja olika samtalsgenrer inom litteraturundervisning inom ramen för gymnasieskolans två svenskämnen och att placera denna litteraturundervisning ämneskonceptionellt.

För att uppnå dessa syften kombineras läroplansteoretiska och etnografiska ansatser i avhandlingen. För att kunna analytiskt urskilja olika samtalsgenrer inom litteraturundervisning genomfördes en etnografisk klassrumsstudie, omfattande 5 klasser, 4 lärare vid 3 olika skolor, under läsåret 2003/2004. För att kunna placera dessa samtalsgenrer ämneskonceptionellt, eller historiskt, genomfördes en läroplansteoretisk studie som omfattade analyser av nationella och lokala läroplaner samt analyser av den etnografiska studiens berörda lärares ämnesuppfattningar och ämnesideal.

Utifrån Bakhtins teori om talgenrer utvecklades det didaktiska verktyget, samtalsgenreanalysen, med vilket de etnografiskt studerade klassrumssamtalen analyserade. Resultatet av denna analys gav för handen fyra olika samtalsgenrer i de studerade klassrumssamtalen: Det undervisande förhöret, Det texttolkande samtalet, Det kultur- och normorienterande samtalet och Det informella boksamtalet. Dessa fyra samtalsgenrer relateras genom en ämneskonceptionell analys till Svenskämnets tre dominerande traditioner (ämneskonceptioner): Svenska som det högre bildningsämnet, Svenska som färdighetsämne och Svenska som erfarenhetspedagogiskt ämne.

Avhandlingen är tänkt som ett bidrag till diskussionen om svenskämnenas form och innehåll. Samtalsgenreanalysen är tänkt som ytterligare didaktiskt bidrag, som lärare och forskare kan använda för att reflektera över egen och andras samtal i undervisningssammanhang.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implications for democratic experiences when using socio-emotional programs as value-based education. In all democratic European countries, the school as an institution has been given a specific responsibility to foster and educate future citizens by equipping the pupils with democratic values and skills. In recent years, a school’s democratic assignment has often been interpreted in terms of social and emotional learning (SEL). This interpretation of democratic education as a form of therapeutic intervention can be understood, from a sociological perspective, as a part of a wider therapeutic culture where the focus on emotions and how to handle emotions is regarded as enlightened and good (Furedi 2003).

The results of an ethnographic case study of the implementation of a social-emotional program as value-based education in a nine grade class are presented and discussed. The main results suggest that the implementation of the SEL program in the studied class can be understood as counter-productive as regards creating a democratic school culture for teachers and pupils. Neither teachers’ nor pupils´ critiques of the SEL program were heard or taken seriously. There was no forum for critical discussions on the premises of the program – critique was silenced and resistances were ignored. Furthermore, there was no place for political questions in the SEL activities as the focus was directed to the handling of emotions. The pupils expressed less belief in democratic processes after (being compelled to) participating in the SEL program than before.

I detta bidrag vill jag använda begreppet den dolda läroplanen för att diskutera Svenskämnets tre dominerande undervisningstraditioner, Svenskämnet som högre bildningsämne, Svenskämnet som färdighetsämne och Svenskämnet som erfarenhetsämne. De två förstnämnda traditionerna har växt fram inom svenskämnesundervisning inom utbildningar som historiskt sett varit åtskilda; Svenska som högre bildningsämne har sina historiska rötter i det tidigare läroverkets svenskundervisning och lever idag kvar i gymnasieskolans teoretiska program, medan Svenska som färdighetsämne har sina historiska rötter i den svenskundervisning som förekom inom olika yrkesskolor och som idag lever kvar på många praktiska program inom gymnasieskolan (jfr Thavenius, 1991, 1995 och 1999; Malmgren, G, 1992; Malmgren, 1996). Svenska som erfarenhetspedagogiskt ämne, introducerades av Pedagogiska Gruppen i Lund (jfr Bergöö, 2005), och kan ses som ett konkurrerande alternativ till de båda andra.

Svenskämnet tillhör idag de ämnen inom gymnasieskolan som kallas kärnämnen, vilket innebär att eleverna på samtliga gymnasieprogram läser ämnet och också har samma kursplaner för ämnets olika kurser. I tidigare studie har jag visat hur Svenskämnets kursplaner är så mångtydiga att de kan analyseras till förmån för samtliga tre ämnestraditioner (Hultin, 2006). De två förstnämnda svenskämnestraditionernas olika programmässiga hemvist i gymnasieskolan kan därmed ses som en del av en dold läroplan, eftersom de olika gymnasieprogrammen attraherar elever med från olika sociala grupper. På praktiska program finns en större andel elever från socioekonomiska svagare grupper, medan på de praktiska programmen finns större andel elever från socioekonomiska starkare grupper (Broady & Börjesson, 2006). Trots den gemensamma kursplanen för svenska erbjuds således elever med olika socioekonomiska bakgrunder, på olika gymnasieprogram, en svenskundervisning med diametralt olika mål, ideal och arbetsformer. I detta bidrag tydliggör jag olikheten i mål och ideal i svenskundervisningen för elever med olika socioekonomisk bakgrund; en olikhet jag, som sagt, förstår genom begreppet den dolda läroplanen.

The research topic of this paper is exploring different teachers ideals and how the constitute different conditions for students’ participating in class room talks. The theoretical framework is built up through different traditions. Firstly, teachers’ ideals are understood as creating certain teachers’ and students subject positions from a foucaudian perspective. Teachers’ and students’ ideals are also understood as something that creates its own shadow, in other words at the same time as the enable certain action and ways of participating in the classroom, they also hinders other ways of acting and participating. Secondly, schools communicative practices where classroom talks take place in are understood as institutional settings from a curriculum theoretical perspective where researchers as Lundgren and Englund are included. Thirdly, classroom talks and communication are understood as comprising interactional patterns, a perspective built up from the findings of classrooms researchers such as Dysthe, Nystrand, Cazden, Mehan as well as from the cultural and linguistic theorist Bakhtin.

A combination of ethnographical and text analytical approaches is used methodologically in the project. The ethnographic part of the study comprises of videotaped observations of classroom talks in order to study how a teaching practices practises and their imbedded interactional patterns generates certain communicative norms and ideals for teachers and students. The curriculum part of the study comprises of analyses of curriculum and syllabuses in order to understand how these institutional frames constitute conditions for participation in the classroom talks studied.

The findings of the research show four different teachers’ ideals connected to different ways of organising classroom talks, which in turn bring four different students’ ideals: 1) The Good Teacher as a moderator for a The Teaching Examination, 2) The Good Teacher as a moderator of a Text Oriented Talk, 3) The Good Teacher as a moderator of a Culturally Oriented Talk, and 4) The Good Teacher as a moderator of an Informal Book Talk.

In the paper a discussion is carried out how these teachers ideals not only creates students’ ideal, but also their shadows that enable certain ways of participating but at the same time hinders other ways of participating. These teachers’ and students’ ideals, generated from school practices, are also compared with ideals for teachers generated from pedagogical research, especially the Good Teacher as a deliberative Teacher and the Good Teacher as a Dialogic Teacher.

The question of how ideals, teachers and students, are generated in classroom practices and how the enable respectively hinders ways of participation has a clear relevance for Nordic and international educational research as the ideals found in this study could be understood as expressions of teaching traditions that are deeply rooted in all Nordic countries.

Ämnesdidaktiken har historiskt sett inte haft någon självklar vetenskapligt institutionell hemvist, utan har ibland bedrivits inom ämnesinstitutionerna ibland inom pedagogikämnet. Under de senaste åren har olika ämnesdidaktiker diskuterat delsvad ämnesdidaktiken som vetenskapligt fält är eller bör vara, dels vad denna vetenskapliga ämnesdidaktik syftar eller bör syfta till. I detta papper diskuteras några av dessa förslag om vad ämnesdidaktiken bör vara och syfta till; en diskussion som i några fall utmynnar i en argumentation för alternativa sät tatt se på ämnesdidaktiken som vetenskapligt fält och dess syfte.

The aim of this article is to explore how children use and reuse semiotic resources in their writing of hybrid genres in school. In focus are children’s use and reuse of semiotic resources from both earlier literacy events at school and literacy events they have experienced at home or in their leisure time. This double focus is rare in previous studies and thus the study contributes new insights concerning how children’s writing can be understood as a hybridization process in which semiotic resources from different literacy practices in school and out of school interplay. The theoretical framework of the study is based on New Literacy Studies, social semiotics and genre theories. The methodological approach is semiotic ethnography. The material is based on videotaped classroom observations of a particular writing process consisting of both collective and individual writing, as well as on the texts produced. A genre analysis is conducted in three steps, in order to explore the reuse of semiotic resources from literacy events in and out of school in five children’s texts. The results of this analysis show children’s creative ways of reusing semiotic resources, not only from literacy events and practices outside of school but also from previous literacy events in school. These creative ways of children engaging in hybridization processes while writing a narrative in sub-genres within an official literacy event in school can be understood as the children seizing agency in order to influence their own practice. © The Author(s) 2017.

During the last decades most spheres of society have been digitalized which has changed patterns of communications, relations and habits in people’s everyday life at work, in school, at home, in politics, etc. This is especially true in the developed countries even though digitalization is also a fact in many sectors in the developing countries as well. Two thirds of the schools in Sweden, where this study takes place, have equipped or are about to equip all pupils with a computer or tablet. This can be understood as the implementation of a new (digital) infrastructure for learning in the classrooms, which might change the conditions for learning radically, which some of the earlier research have indicated. 

In this study we focus on the changes that digital resources in classroom might bring into pupils’ writing processes, especially what collective and individual literacy strategies the new technology supports. The setting of the study is a classroom (year 2) in a primary school where the early literacy learning has been digitalized. The material is based on video typed classrooms observations of a particular writing process as well as the produced texts. Thus, both teacher-led activities and pupils’ individual literacy activities at the computers are studied.

The findings show a dynamic relation between collective literacy strategies constituted by the teacher and pupils in teacher-led activities and pupils’ individual literacy strategies constituted in relation to the digital resources. This is visible both in terms of content and form of text and text production. Another notable finding is that the pupils’ individual strategies vary, even though they meet the same collective literacy resources. Yet another finding is that the digital recourses open up for new possibilities for pupils’ agencies in their writing process.

The aim of this study is to contribute to an understanding on how digitalization affects early literacy practices in terms of literacy teaching (methods, materials, routinized activities, etc.) and the use of literacy genres in the digitalized writing. The study has an overall ethnographical design, where we as researchers, during two years, follow a group of first grade teachers when they “go digital” in their literacy teaching. The study is theoretically influenced by New Literacy Studies, genre theory and multi-modality. “Going digital” here implies both the new digital tools that the classrooms have been equipped with (e.g. computers, smart boards, projectors, etc.) and the use of a specific early literacy method, learning to read through writing on computers – without using a pencil. The method involves the change from children learning to read and write by using textbooks for reading and pencils for writing to using computers from the start. The children’s own texts are used as an important reading material. When children use digital writing tools their texts become longer and they also use a wider range of literacy genres, specifically more factional genres.

The aim of this study is to contribute to an understanding of how digitalization affects early literacy practices in terms of literacy teaching (methods, materials, routinized activities, etc.) and the use of literacy genres in digitalized writing. The study has an overall ethnographical design, where we as researchers, over the course of two years, follow a group of first grade teachers when they “go digital” in their literacy teaching. The study is theoretically influenced by New Literacy Studies, genre theory and multimodality. “Going digital” here includes both the new digital tools that the classrooms have been equipped with (e.g. computers, smart boards, projectors, etc.) and the use of a specific early literacy method, learning to read through writing on computers – without using a pencil. The method involves a change from children learning to read and write by using textbooks for reading and pencils for writing to using computers from the start. The children’s own texts are used as important reading material. When children use digital writing tools their texts become longer and they also use a wider range of literacy genres, specifically more factual genres.

Syftet med denna studie är att  skapa kunskap om förhandlingsprocesser vid kollektivt textbyggande i skolans tidiga läs- och skriftspråkspraktiker. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt är i critical literacy (Janks 2010). Utifrån detta perspektiv förstår vi klassrumsaktiviteter som alltid konstituerade  i relation till makt och där relationer i klassrummet är med andra ord kopplade till makt vilka ständigt förhandlas och därmed inte (helt) givna på förhand. I studien har vi följande analytiska fokus: •Hur bemöts förslag i det kollektiva textbygget? •Vilka typer av förhandlande uppstår? •Vilka elevpositioner konstrueras i textbyggandet? •Vilka förhandlingspositioner skapas i det kollektiva textbygget? Resultatet visar att elever intar olika positioner i förhandlingarna och att deras förslag bemöts på olika sätt.

The theoretical framework of this article is based on critical literacy (Janks, 2010) and genre theories (Swales, 1990; Schleppegrell , 2004). The main purpose of this article is to contribute to an understanding of the use and production of text genres as a power-embedded practice. In doing so, we analyse first grade children’s texts in terms of genres and sub-genres. Furthermore, we analyse the subject positions that are constituted in the children’s texts. We understand genres as related to power; since they both open and/or closed ways of saying or stating things in and about the world. “Where there is power there is resistance”, as Foucault says (1976). Specific interest will be directed towards children’s ways of offering resistance in their texts, resistance against prescribed dominant genres. This resistance is seen as a creative way for children to use their power and agency, through creating hybrid genres.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implications for democratic education in primary school, and the fostering of future democratic citizens, when democratic education is understood as value-based education, using socio-emotional manual-based programs. This is done in two steps. First I contextualize the usage of socio-emotional programs through an educational historical point of view, from an educational philosophical and political point of view, and from a sociological perspective. Then I look closer to one of the manual-based programs, the textbook material for Lower Secondary School (grades 7-9): Important for life – social and emotional training (SET), through analyzing the constructions of virtues and values in it. In the last part, I discuss if and how these constructions of virtues and values can be understood as political.

Vid svenska högskolor och universitet finns idag ett ökande antal äldre studenter. Samtidigt förekommer i dagens samhälle negativa fördomar om äldres lärande. Denna rapport redogör för en enkätstudie som genomfördes med 30 lärare som undervisar i nätbaserade språkkurser vid ett svenskt lärosäte. Syftet med studien var att ta reda på hur dessa lärare förhåller sig till äldre studenter. Undersökningen visar att lärarna inte reflekterar särskilt mycket över kursdeltagarnas ålder. Många ser dock äldre studenter som en tillgång i seminariegruppen på grund av deras erfarenheter, mognad och engagemang. Lärarna gör inte åldersindelade grupper under de nätbaserade seminarierna och anpassar inte undervisningen specifikt till äldre kursdeltagare. I rapporten diskuteras hur nätbaserad undervisning kan vara en fördel för äldre studenter eftersom den på många sätt redan är flexibel och anpassad efter studenternas individuella behov.