Inom ramen för denna artikel diskuterar vi såväl den psykosociala som den fysiska miljön i skolan. Vidare argumenterar vi för att skolans miljö är av betydelse för elevernas möjligheter att lära sig, likväl som för deras upplevelser av lärandesituationerna. Särskilt intressant blir då att lyssna till eleverna. Syftet med denna artikel är därför att synliggöra och diskutera elevers röster i förhållande till hur skolan kan bli den bästa platsen för lärande. Detta görs med utgångspunkt i forskningsprojektet ”Skolan suger” eller?, där drygt 200 elever i åldrarna 11–15 år deltog. Eleverna fick skriftligen reflektera över hur skolan ska bli en riktigt bra lärandemiljö. För att utveckla skolan till den bästa platsen för lärande uttryckte eleverna en önskan att kunna påverka sin lärandemiljö, att uppnå ömsesidighet och samspel, att kunna hantera tidsregleringen i skolan, samt att uppfylla behov för välbefinnande.
The aim of this paper is to illuminate, enable understanding of, and discuss the meaning of social relations in the learning process, and how knowledge and skills influence roles and relations. The starting point is a story in a 9th grade computer lesson, where a student knew more than the teacher about the subject. How was the relation between the student and the teacher affected by this situation? We analyse and discuss this by using Alfred Schutz’s theory of the phenomenology of the social world. We limit the discussion to focus on the ways that teacher-student relations can be understood and explained in accordance with this theory. Finally we emphasize the importance of the teacher being aware of different types of relations with students, and the consequences of these relations, and argue that Schutz’s theory is helpful in creating new ways of understanding learning situations in school.
What happens when the student know more about the subject than the teacher? Following discussion did occur at a secondary college during a computer lesson. I want to learn how to make sounds for games. It's really cool to make sound effects, say one of the students. No, today we are going to finish the tasks. Get on with it, answers the teacher. But I already know all that! I want to do something else, say Michael. Michael, stop doing that and get on with the tasks, or else you must leave the classroom!In the paper this situation in the classroom will serve as a point of departure for the discussion. The aim of the paper is to illuminate, enable understanding and discuss the meaning of social relations in the learning process. In the paper we limit the discussion to raise some ideas of how the student's inherent power can affect the learning situation, which in turn can have impact on the psycho-social well-being among the students and the teachers. This will be viewed taking Alfred Schutz's notions as a theoretical starting point, and Schutz's thought will be discussed in relation to the student's view.
Managerial documents for the national school system in Sweden have emphasised taking students’ voices as a starting point in forming education, and several previous studies have indicated the benefits of giving students opportunities to participate in school. This study aimed to explore students’ reflections on what they would do if they were to decide how to make school the best place for learning. A total of 200 students aged 11 to 15 years from four schools (rural and urban) in two municipalities in the northern part of Sweden participated. The empirical data consisted of the students’ written reflections. The findings fall within four themes: (i) influencing educational settings; (ii) striving for reciprocity; (iii) managing time struggles; and (iv) satisfying well-being needs. Tensions between the students’ previous experiences and future visions appeared. The findings can offer direction regarding aspects of the learning environment in school that could be improved.
The aim of this study was to describe, reflect upon, and create a deeper understanding of aspects relevant for promoting a positive school environment from a student perspective. The data was analyzed by using an inductive phenomenological method and based on written responses from 200 Swedish students from grades 5–9. The results indicated that the students found aspects within, as well as beyond, the classroom relevant for a positive school environment. For instance, outings were considered relevant for building and maintaining friendships and for learning processes. Moreover, the students discussed formal and informal conditions and considered social as well as structural circumstances important for having a good time in school. The relation between learning and well-being was also emphasized by the students.
The starting point is the ongoing processes of changes within school systems and new discourses about education that arises. The present paper is an extension of a study where students were invited to write stories about their school situation. We took the results from the students study back to their teachers and invited the teachers to write reflections on their students’ stories. How are the discourses of educational conditions visible in teachers’ reflections? In total, 16 teachers reflected on four different topics. Data analysis was inspired by critical discourse analysis. Three discourses appeared; teacher focus, student focus, and frame focus. All discourses are present in almost every teacher’s reflections, which reveal dialectics in the teacher’s role. Ongoing changes in compulsory schooling require reconsiderations of the teacher’s role and professional development.
In this article we describe and discuss an eLearning project about using tablets in school. The project was carried out in a school with Swedish children in grade 6. The aim was to gain more knowledge about using interactive technology (IT) in schools as a mean to increase learning and consequently to support increase in well-being. We focus on the teachers’ experiences of the first year with the tablets, the aspects we have learned so far, and finally we focus on some implications for eLearning.
During the past 20 years there has been a rapid development of supply and use of Information Technology (IT) in Swedish society and in school. This presentation is based on an e-Learning project conducted in a class 6, where the school children and the teacher became part of a 1-to-1 venture. Each child received a tablet computer from school. In this project, we were interested to expand our knowledge about using IT in school, as a mean for increased learning, which in a prolonging would be supportive for well-being. A study of the school children’s usage and experiences of using the tablet computer as a tool in school was conducted, and the class was followed for the whole school year. Material was collected through observations, interviews and tasks on the tablet computer. The school children had many thoughts about IT in schools and the teacher had reflections on the project, which are discussed in the presentation. The project discovered both opportunities and challenges, valuable for future projects with tablet computers in school.
The thesis is about voluntary leadership in football for children, how the leadership is manifested, and how the leaders are constituted by this leadership. The aim is to describe, interpret and gain an understanding of football as an informal learning environment and the shape this leadership takes in practical activities. What processes constitute the leadership? How do these processes constitute the leader? The basis of the work is lifeworld phenomenology, but different theoretical perspectives have been used to interpret the empirical findings. In order to find answers to my questions, I have used a case study consisting of a football team with three leaders and ten-year-old children. I followed a football team for a whole season with observations and interviews with the leaders and the children. The result shows three overarching processes in the shaping of the leadership - Controlling the community spirit, The strength of competition, and Beyond the conventions. In the two first , and . In the two first mentioned processes, the instrumental element in the encounter between the leaders and the children is prominent, while the third process shows the intersubjective encounters that arise. In the leaders' encounters with these processes, The leaders' lived experience, there are feelings of affinity, importance and inadequacy. This is the leaders' identity development process. In the discussion section I take up and discuss leadership and learning in terms of pedagogical tact, being a reflecting practitioner. I also discuss the frailty of the assignment as leader, where the leadership is to a great extent dependent on the situated context. Finally I discuss the leadership as part of a societal process of individualization and what this implies for the leadership. My conclusion is that the voluntary leadership is balancing on a thin line and is to a high degree dependent on its specific context, the leaders and parents round the team, and the basic values that the association stands for.
The purpose of this article is to elucidate and problemize meetings between children and leaders in children's sport. The competitive sport is high valuated in the Swedish society and sport for children is central in the Swedish youth politics. The foundation in Swedish sport, as well as in the other Nordic countries, has for a long time relied on voluntary commitment. Approximately 650 000 people are voluntary engaged as leaders in sport in Sweden and 70% of children between 7 and 14 years compete in sports clubs. There is, however, a tension in the Swedish sport system. The sports for children has double missions - ‘association nurturing’ and ‘competition nurturing’, missions which are not always in harmony. In the daily activity it is the voluntary leaders who have to deal with these missions, which creates a field of tension. In this article I argue for a bridge between these missions by a leadership based on pedagogical tact. The empirical outlook is a narrative based on statements from leaders, children and parents in a study dealing with voluntary leadership within children's football. In the end I argue that focusing on this bridge is a win-win situation, both for children and sports.
The aim of the paper is to illuminate and problemize the meaning of time and place concerning young people's experiences of the psychosocial well-being. We are as human beings situated in many contexts, all connected to each other. All these contexts become a part of us - our identity. The consumption culture is a major part of the everyday life, and in the rapidly changing environment where symbolic signs are of importance, the leisure time is playing a greater role as a social marker and for the creation of identity, in the complex project of belonging and still being unique. School is the place where young people spend most of their time outside home, which make school an important arena for the creation of identity. What happens to the identity and the psychosocial well-being when the school and leisure time meet each other? How do the youngsters experience the meeting? Does a meaningful leisure time have a positive connection to the school commitment, or can it be a stressful meeting? This is a recently initialised project, and thus this paper serves as a base for conceptualising the issue of the meeting between school and leisure time.
The aim of this paper is to describe, discuss and problemize a theoretical framework inspired by Alfred Schütz and the phenomenology of the life world and how this can be adopted in the field of sports. The theoretical framework is the base in a doctorial thesis dealing with the voluntary leadership for children in football. How can the leadership for children in this context be understood? The competitive sport is often built-up on an assumption of the ideal type. The ideal type created in the competitive sport is big, strong, fast and lithe with a strong inner motivation to become the best. The competition is a challenge for the ideal type and a chance to demonstrate ones strength for others. The ideal type is based on a grown up (male) athlete and very little of the children's circumstances in their own lived world is taken in consideration. The person being in the world around the children in the sport is the voluntary leader. The task for the leader is to create a meaningful context for the children in the competitive sport deriving from the picture of the ideal type. In this case Schütz´s phenomenology of the life world can be a useful point of departure to shed a light on this subject.
PurposeA school is among other things a building with its own spatial formations. The architectonic formations can create expectations and be inspiring: they can create opportunities but also limitations of learning for teachers and students. In the classroom, teaching is often focused on knowing that, in contrast to practical situated knowledge - knowing how. However, does education always have to take place in a building? How does alternative space formation, e.g. sitting on a beach under a tree, affect the teaching and learning situation? Does possibilities to enlighten the silent dimensions of knowledge increase? Human beings need to be situated at a place, which also makes knowledge situated. In educational settings the place for learning is of significance. The aim of this study is to explore an educational setting, a learning environment, which take place outside the physical classroom. MethodsIn order to answer the aim we conducted theoretical and philosophical inquiries. We also did observations at teaching and learning situations in an aboriginal community in Northern Australia. The lessons took place under a tree at a beach, and were dealing with maths, using the tide and earth elements as exemplification. In addition we interviewed the teacher who taught at this place.In this paper we are going to discuss these lessons, including the silent knowledge embraced in these situations, from a phenomenological life-world approach. ResultsThe result briefly shows that this particular learning environment at the beach, to learn in and about the place, catches silent dimensions of knowledge which would be difficult to conquer in the ordinary classroom. The teacher also emphasised that this place made both the teacher and the students more relaxed, with feelings of contents. ConclusionAs human, we are not only situated as objects. The presence in a place is also followed by a certain attitude of mind. We can distance us from the place or establish us in it, we can be lost or safe, in line with the place or foreign to it. The place, in form of an objective room, is closely connected to the lived place. By learning in the place we come closer to silent dimensions of knowledge.
This paper focus attention on the specific learning issues that face Indigenous population by exploring the experience of Sámi children in Northern Sweden and Aboriginal children in Central Australia. More specific is the overall aim to explore how Sámi and Aboriginal children's experiences significant places for learning both in school and in their leisure time. The children's experiences are made apparent with the aid of creative activity in the form of the production of drawings, combined with subsequent oral comments. The children who were included in the study attend schools for Sámi children in Jokkmokk in the north of Sweden and for Aboriginal children in Alice Springs in the centre of Australia, and were all aged between nine and twelve years. Theoretically the study is based on the life-world phenomenology. The analysis of the empirical material, the drawings, resulted in two themes - ‘Nature as a mediator for learning' and ‘Mainstream society as a mediator for learning'. The result shows that there are many similarities between the children's significant places for learning and that both the indigenous culture and the culture of the mainstream society are regarded as significant by the children.
Rapport från forskningsprojektet Bilder av idrott, finansierat av Centrum för idrottsforskning och Riksidrottsförbundet.
Sport is a global phenomenon, which can make sport an important arena for integration into new societies. However, sport is also an expression of national culture and identities. The aim of this study is to explore images and experiences that newly-arrived immigrant children in Sweden have about sport in their country of origin, and challenges that can arise in processes of integration through sport. We asked 20 newly arrived children aged 10 to 13 to make drawings about sporting experiences from their countries of origin. Three themes emerged: sport as feeling joy, where activities were performed with friends during leisure time; sport as acting formally, where activities were carried out in clubs; and sport as a spectator, where children were non-participants. We emphasise that development of sport should be two-way processes, where cultural learning should be mutual processes. Immigrant children’s experiences should be foregrounded when utilising and developing sports programmes.
This article explores how the levels of participation in organized leisure activities relate to children’s psychosocial well-being. Data collection occurred in a school district with 7 schools in the northern part of Sweden. Children ages 12-14 were invited to complete the World Health Organizations’ Health Behavior in School-Aged Children self-completion questionnaire (n=391). An independent variable was constructed to measure children’s participation in organized leisure activities at three levels: low level (LL), medium level (ML), and high level (HL). Ten out of 13 correlations were significant at the p< .05 level). Results indicated that the ML group scored high on life satisfaction, had a lot of friends, and felt less pressure in school than the other two groups, while the LL and HL groups had fewer friends and felt more pressure. The conclusion drawn is that a medium level of participation in organized leisure activities was most favorable for children’s health and well-being. Discussions include possibilities for finding the right balance between organized leisure activities and children’s well-being
Competitive sport is a global phenomenon with a common language, but at the same time locally embedded in the national culture. The global character gives competitive sport an attraction, which can create an important arena for integration when people arrive to a new country. Problems can rise when diverse expectations and images meet. To create understanding and facilitate integration for children and youth from different countries it is important to understand which images of sport that is present. The competitive sport is high valued in Sweden and sport for children is central in the Swedish youth politics. Swedish sport relies on voluntary commitment. Approximately 650 000 people (of 9 million inhabitants) are voluntary engaged as leaders in sport in Sweden and 70% of children between 7 and 14 years compete in sports clubs. The purpose of this study is to give an understanding of the images that newly arrived children and youth to Sweden have on sport and sports activities. We will conduct the study by letting the children make drawings and talk to them about what their thoughts were when they created the drawings. This will be analysed through a phenomenological perspective. We will discuss the results in correspondence with which implications they can have on the efforts of integration of other cultures in Sweden.
Sedan 2003 har jag varit delaktig i Arctic Children, ett forsknings- och utvecklingsprojekt med övergripande mål att förbättra barn och ungdomars psykosocialahälsa och välbefinnande. Ett givande samarbete som inkluderar norra delarna av Sverige, Finland, Norge och Ryssland som sedan 2012 gått in i projektets tredje fas för att ta sig an gemensamma utmaningarna kopplat till barn och ungdomars psykiska, psykologiska, emotionella, sociala och andliga hälsa med hjälp av empowerment och informations-och kommunikationsteknik (IKT).
We start this article with a background on health and learning by presenting our own and other researchers’ work in the area. After this we give a brief description of empowerment as a tool in health promotion before we give a theoretical perspective on interactive technology. Finally, we present some possibilities for the future use of information and communication technology (ICT) to increase health as well as learning in schoolchildren.
The aim of this study was to elucidate Finnish, Norwegian, Russian and Swedish students' reflections and ideas on how interactive technology can be used to promote health in school. The data were collected in the northern part of these four countries, and 630 students aged 13-15 filled out the World Health Organization's 'Health Behavior in School-Aged Children' self-completion questionnaire with one additional open question, which is analyzed in this article (n = 419). The phenomenological analysis resulted in four themes: A sense of control, Balancing enjoyable options, Sharing with others and Learning made easier. The students point out that interactive technology promotes empowerment and independence, reduces stress and makes learning easier. They argue for a healthy balance of Internet use for it to be health promoting. According to the students, good relationships increase well-being; and interactive technology can offer a way to socialize, provide a tool for meeting and making new friends, help when not feeling well and give support when encouraging classmates. We argue, based on the findings of the present study and previous research, that students need a combination of freedom and meaningful relationships with adults who have an empowered child perspective, to fully take advantage of the empowering effects of interactive technology. We suggest, as implications for practice, that teachers, school leaders and health care professionals find ways to act as partners using an appreciative process, asking questions on what works well, to make interactive technology an enabling technology to increase health literacy, thus improving health and well-being in students.
This paper is based on experiences gained from working in a collaborative project, between researchers from a university in Sweden and a university in Australia. The overall aim of the paper is to illuminate and discuss learning experiences of working in an international research project in a global context. The key research questions explored in the paper are: (i) which bridges and barriers are identified as critical aspects for collaboration? (ii) how can our experiences be understood in the light of theories on learning? In order to answer the posed research questions, members of the research team have conducted written reflections, which provide the empirical foundation for this paper. We use Wenger’s theory of communities of practice as a theoretical point of department. The analysis of the empirical materials, the written reflections, resulted in four themes; Choice of partner(s), The meaning of personal encounters, Encounter between different academic cultures, and the issue of languages. As conclusions, we want to emphasis that boundary-breaking encounters that take place in a research project like this are challenging, but at the same time, they provide opportunities for new and rich understandings of research. We have found that to create a community of practice in which new and rich understandings of research can be accomplished is challenging, much due to the issue of geographical, cultural, and linguistic distance.
Sverige fick en ny regering i oktober 2006. Efter en tolvårig socialdemokratisk regeringsperiod kom en borgerlig allians bestående av Moderaterna, Centerpartiet, Folkpartiet och Kristdemokraterna till makten. Den nya regeringen startade tämligen omgående att reformera skolpolitiken. Ledorden för reformeringen var mer faktakunskaper och fler bedömningstillfällen i skolan. Men varför genomfördes denna diskursiva förändring i den svenska skolan? Enligt min argumentation kan den process som genomförts i den svenska skolan under de senaste 6 åren beskrivas som en förändrad kunskapssyn där man lämnat den poststrukturella synen på kunskap och den socio-kulturellt inspirerade konstruktivismen till förmån för en ontiologi med realismen som grund, men inte en realism så som den förstås i en positivistisk kontext. I stället är det en ny tolkning av diskursanalysen där denna analysmetod rycks lös från den övriga poststrukturalismen och förs över till samma ontologi och epistemologi som krtitisk realism.
Att ge röst åt barns och ungdomars erfarenheter av psykosocial hälsa i sin lärandemiljö Vi är en forskargrupp från institutionerna för Pedagogik och lärande och Hälsovetenskap som fått finansiering från Vetenskapsrådet för att under 2009 – 2011 bedriva ett forskningsprojekt. Nära relationer i form av tillit och respekt påverkar elevers hälsa och välmående positivt, och effekterna av lärande är beroende av såväl lärandemiljön som de erfarenheter som görs. En lärandesituation som uppmuntrar samverkan och delaktighet bidrar sannolikt till ett positivt psykosocialt klimat och välmående hos både elever och lärare. I anslutning till diskussioner om elevers erfarenheter av psykosocial hälsa i skolan kan detta innebära att fokus ligger mot att hantera negativa aspekter av psykosocial hälsa. I motsats till problemlösningsmodellen finns det uppskattande hälsoperspektivet som istället fokuserar positiva aspekter och friskfaktorer.