As part of marketization and privatization tendencies the last decades have provided several new pedagogical concepts, all of which seem to attract a growing interest. In the Invoice project, funded by The Swedish research council, we applied a follow the money approach (cf. Ball 2012) by collecting and following up 1,000 invoices registered on continuous professional development (CPD) accounts for teachers in three Swedish municipalities. The invoice material revealed a number of popular pedagogical concepts; Universal Design for Learning (UDL), DT (Differentiated Teaching), CP (Clarifying Pedagogy), and LRPE (Learning Readiness Physical Education). The acronymic character can be seen as an alignment to medical programs and as such lending legitimacy and giving an impression of established approaches. 

In our presentation, we pay particular attention to the above mentioned UDL. The concept was launched and promoted by the American organization CAST which presents itself as a ‘a non-profit education research and development organization that created the Universal Design for Learning framework and UDL Guidelines’. According to the organization itself the concept has reached far globally. 

The ambition of policy making is high; there are 130 hits of the word ‘policy’ (referring to books, podcasts, and other material) on the webpage. One illustrative text example is:

In 2006, CAST joined with several organizations to form the National UDL Task Force, an interdisciplinary coalition that advocates support for UDL in federal, state, and local policy. The Task Force has successfully advocated for the inclusion of UDL in the federal Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 and in various policy directives from the US Department of Education.

As far as Sweden is concerned, the concept has been recommended by two powerful, Swedish policy actors; The National Agency for Education and The National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools, SPSM. The latter advocated the concept in connection to a large national effort on special educational needs.

The presentation explores how the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) constructs (1) problems related to education and (2) how these problems should be addressed. The study is based on critical discourse analysis, a theoretical and methodological approach introduced by Norman Fairclough where a discourse bears reference to a ‘way of signifying experience from a particular perspective’ (1995, p. 135). The ‘critical’ refers to injustices and power which is supposed to be revealed by a close look at linguistic features in certain texts.  

Methodology or Methods/ Research Instruments or Sources Used  

To study the phenomenon of UDL we primarily chose the main webpage of the responsible organization CAST (2020). The main webpage has an extensive number of links, and we considered also these. Thus, the probably most well-known resource in UDL contexts, the UDL guidelines was also included in the text material.

Our analysis of the selected webpage is based on a combination of Fairclough´s analytical steps (Fairclough, 2003, p. 209 – 210) and a modified version by Guo and Shan (2013). This combination has been applied previously by Levinsson and Norlund (2018), Norlund (2020), and Levinsson et al. (2022) and involves the following five steps: 

Focus on a social problem which has a semiotic aspect. Analyze how the problem is portrayed/construed. Identify which discourse/s that are involved.Analyze how the suggested solution is portrayed/construed. Identify which discourse/s that are involved.Map which network of practices within which the problem and solution are located, and how relevant practices are potentially reorganized. Consider whether the network of practices (the social order) ‘needs’ the problem.Identify potential contradictions and gaps in the material. Give space for counter-voices.Reflect critically on the analysis (1-4) Consistent with step 1 in the analytical tool we focused on a social problem that has a semiotic aspect (we found images, fonts, links, punctuation marks etcetera in the material). Together semiotic resources signal something particularly to the reader (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006). For the verbal part of analysis, we affiliated to Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) systemic-functional linguistics (SFL) with its focus on how language functions in context. SFL, which shares several starting points with the approach of Fairclough, is built on the phenomenon of transitivity analysis, from which we collected a set of adequate linguistic concepts. 

* Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings 

Our analysis shows that the problem of concern (step 1) can be found in the ‘barriers to learning that millions of people experience every day’, stated as a problem on the CAST webpage. The barriers are not explicitly defined but further exploration makes this obvious; traditional teaching is too rigid and does not consider students’ differences. Both verbal (‘millions of people’) and semiotic resources contribute to the urgency and scope of the message and to the discourse of rigidness. Concerning solutions (step 2), the reader of the webpage gets a multitude of recommendations on how to meet students’ differences, materialized in both visual and verbal representations. We suggest a discourse of potency here, including universality and eternity. The vast network (step 3) that appears from content on the webpage emphasizes this. Referring to possible counter-voices (step 4), one counter-voice would invoke that UDL shares similarities with the heavily criticized neuromyth of learning styles (Howard-Jones, 2014; Murphy, 2021). Another counter-voice would invoke that the expectancy of teachers to provide individual solutions to all their students regarding all the aspects recommended in the UDL Guidelines should, needless to say, be considered impossible. According to Fairclough (2003), the point in making critical discourse analyses is that they make possible the assumptions that are made by involved actors and by extension how power is exerted in a particular practice. In this case we show how the popular policy phenomenon put teachers at risk of being the object of heavy workload and the performers of unscientific approaches. The final step (step 5) generated no particular methodological concerns. 

References  

Ball, Stephen J. 2012. “Show Me the Money! Neoliberalism at Work in Education.” Forum 54, no. 1: 23–27.

CAST. (2020). About Universal Design for Learning. Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/our-work/about-udl.html.

Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis. Longman.

Fairclough, N. (2003). Analyzing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. Routledge.

Guo, S. & Shan, H. (2013). The politics of recognition: critical discourse analysis of recent PLAR policies for immigrant professionals in Canada. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 32(4), 464–480. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2013.778073

Halliday, M. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar (2nd edition). Edward Arnold.

Howard-Jones, P. (2014). Neuroscience and education: myths and messages. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15, 817-824

Kress G. & van Leeuwen T. (2006). Reading images – the grammar of visual design. Routledge.

Levinsson, M., & Norlund, A. (2018). En samtida diskurs om hjärnans betydelse för undervisning och lärande: Kritisk analys av artiklar i lärarfackliga tidskrifter. Utbildning och Lärande, 12(1), 7–25

Levinsson, M., Norlund, A. & Johansson, J. (2022). En samtida diskurs om betydelsen av fysisk aktivitet för undervisning och lärande: Kritisk analys av artiklar i lärarfackliga tidskrifter. Nordic Studies in Education, 42(3), 249-271. 

 Murphy, M.P. (2021). Belief without evidence? A policy research note on Universal Design for Learning. Policy Futures in Education, 19, 7–12.

Norlund, A. (2020). Suggestopedi som språkdidaktiskt verktyg i vuxenutbildning – en kritisk textanalys. Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, 25(2–3), 7–25. https://doi.org/10.15626/pfs25.0203.01

 Education on doctoral supervisors has been a part of higher education pedagogy in Swedish universities for the last five decades, introduced in 1969 higher education reform and reviewed in 1998 (Jansson & Román, 2016). The purpose of this study is to identify dominant discourses on the education of doctoral supervision, with a particular focus on the construction of doctoral supervisors’ professional knowledge and practice. The study will be undertaken through a critical and pragmatic discourse analysis of doctoral supervision course plans collected from six universities and two university colleges in Sweden. The eight course plans are selected from two senior universities established more than 100 years ago, two universities established 50-100 years ago, and two universities and two university colleges established less than 50 years ago. Based on Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1993, 2003) and a pragmatic discourse analysis, which draws on Dewey´s transactional perspective (Quennerstedt, 2008) and Foucault´s concepts of power (Foucault, 1980, 1982, 2002), the course plan texts will be analysed and discussed in three interrelated steps: (i) conducting a transitivity analysis (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014), focusing on participants, processes (material, mental, verbal, relational), and circumstances; (ii) identifying the main discourses constructing reoccurring patterns of professional action in relation to supervision practice; and (iii) discussing implications for supervisors professional knowledge base, as well as for power relationships in supervision practices. Through these steps, we will closely scrutinize the purposes, goals, contents as well as the teaching and learning activities of the course plans. There will also be a focus on common areas that are addressed by the course plans, the differences that could be identified, as well as what are missing in the documents. Based on our critical analysis, we will suggest possibilities for considering vital issues in relation to future courses on supervising doctoral students. 

‘Close-to-practice research’ has received increased attention across the Nordic countries. Following the British Education Research Association (BERA), the notion of ‘close-to-practice research’ is used to refer to educational research that is based on problems in practice, often involves researchers working in partnership with practitioners in schools and addresses issues of relevance to practitioners. This roundtable focuses on how close-to-practice research can contribute to the knowledge base of the teaching profession by bringing together perspectives from didactics, school improvement and educational policy. More specifically, the interest is directed toward what characterizes the knowledge produced through practice-based research that may have significance for teachers' professional knowledge base and practice.

The roundtable conversation builds on a previous analysis of what kinds of knowledge products are generated in didactic close-to-practice research where teachers and researchers work together within the research environment Stockholm Teaching & Learning Studies. As a result of this analysis a typology of knowledge products was proposed including: (i) descriptions of knowing, (ii) teaching design, (iii) didactic examples and (iv) methodological tools. It has been proposed that additional knowledge products may be developed, such as artifacts to be used in teaching (e.g. lesson plans, visual representations). The roundtable will include the following points of discussion: 1) a brief presentation of the typology, 2) challenging and developing the typology of knowledge products proposed by previous research by investigating different cases of close-to-practice research from traditions of action research and practice-developing research within subject-didactics, and 3) discussing how the notion of knowledge products may contribute to advancing the conversation on cumulativity in the field of educational research in general, and in relation to syntheses of close-to-practice research in particular. The participants will be engaged in conversations on the desirability and feasibility of striving towards cumulativity.

Over the past decade, the use of rubrics for formative purposes in science education has attracted at-tention for its potential to positively influence students’ self-regulation and learning. This study explores students’ lived experiences of using rubrics as part of learning about the concept of force in the physics classroom. To address these experiences, 19 compulsory school students were interviewed about their use of a rubric specifically designed for an assignment on force and motion. Three main themes emerged from an analysis of the descriptions of their lived experiences: (i) rubrics provide a sense of control; (ii) rubrics are required for high grades, but create stress; and (iii) rubrics foster strategic learning. The experiences revealed in these themes have the potential to deepen our understanding of the challenges involved in using rubrics to teach physics and have implications for teaching students about force

This article reveals national-authority-endorsed privatisation of teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) in the wake of a shift towards more centralised national interventions in Swedish schools. Drawing on data from the Collaboration for Best School (CBS) initiative, the context of the article is a recent state programme that encourages underperforming schools to collaborate with the Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE) to raise students’ achievement standards and thereby increase equality within and between schools. Guided by meta-governance theory, our analysis revealed that SNAE operates as a meta-governor on behalf of the state to replace university researchers as CPD providers with specific private-sector actors. The results provide evidence of SNAE-enabled substitution processes through three network governance strategies: 1) hidden and authorised substitution, 2) trust building and hybrid participation, and 3) collective reproduction and solutionism. Taken together, these governance strategies reflect national-authority-endorsed privatisation in action, suggesting that SNAE primarily operates as an ideology-driven conduit for private economic interests. The article concludes with a call for new collaborative and autonomous implementation strategies for teachers’ CPD that can further the interests of the teaching profession.

This article reveals national-authority-endorsed privatisation of teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) in the wake of a shift towards more centralised national interventions in Swedish schools. Drawing on data from the Collaboration for Best School (CBS) initiative, the context of the article is a recent state programme that encourages underperforming schools to collaborate with the Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE) to raise students’ achievement standards and thereby increase equality within and between schools. Guided by meta-governance theory, our analysis revealed that SNAE operates as a meta-governor on behalf of the state to replace university researchers as CPD providers with specific private-sector actors. The results provide evidence of SNAE-enabled substitution processes through three network governance strategies: 1) hidden and authorised substitution, 2) trust building and hybrid participation, and 3) collective reproduction and solutionism. Taken together, these governance strategies reflect national-authority-endorsed privatisation in action, suggesting that SNAE primarily operates as an ideology-driven conduit for private economic interests. The article concludes with a call for new collaborative and autonomous implementation strategies for teachers’ CPD that can further the interests of the teaching profession.

Syntheses of research is key to the development and cumulativity of scientific knowledge in most fields (Bohlin, 2010; Eisenhart, 2008). However, it is contested whether syntheses of close-to-practice research in education require the application of formal methods, such as the approaches developed within the systematic review movement, based on the following arguments: (1) Syntheses of close-to-practice research are mainly carried out informally within the field and are integrated into the knowledge production of primary studies, as for example when the findings of previous studies form the basis for and are related to the findings of another study; (2) The production of and availability to knowledge from close-to-practice research in education is too poor compared to many other fields, such as the clinical trials within medicine, to justify the development and use of formal synthesis methods (Levinsson, 2019). However, the push for evidence-based practice in education has led to a range of initiatives aimed at bridging the gap between research and practice. Among these are the establishment of so-called ‘brokerage agencies’ with a mission to synthesise the findings of educational research (Sundberg, 2009). Previous research indicates that brokerage agencies conduct systematic reviews that tend to subordinate the outcomes of close-to-practice research to an aggregative synthesis logic or exclude it by default on the basis of predefined evidence hierarchies and quality assessments that prioritise randomised control trials to measure the impact of interventions (Levinsson & Prøitz, 2017). However, this means that the systematic review movement in education thereby might limit the potential contribution of close-to-practice research to teachers’ professional knowledge and practice. This tendency underscores the need of formal synthesis methods specifically developed for close-to-practice research. Drawing on the typology of knowledge products, suggested by Anderhag et al. (2023), this paper argues that configurative reviews (Gough et al., 2012) are more suitable for synthesising complex bodies of knowledge generated from close-to-practice research. The paper considers the four different kinds of knowledge products as a starting point for developing configurative reviews for different strands of close-to-practice research, and further illustrates how each knowledge product might require specific configurative approaches and techniques. 

In this study, we explored the special educational needs (SEN) industry in relation to teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) by analysing invoices generated by CPD providers in Sweden. Guided by the theory of practice architectures (TPA), we examined the characteristics of the offered SEN content, focusing on the implied elements of ideal teaching practices and the arrangements that have led to SEN becoming a key component of the teacher CPD market in Sweden. The results provided evidence of a SEN industry operating in the interests of private economic growth rather than the needs of teachers or the teaching profession.

The aim of this article is to examine the increased focus on neuroeducational content in teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) and to further explore its characteristics and consequences for teaching. The empirical material is based on 236 invoices representing CPD and other material that followed from extended studies of, primarily, identified CPD actors’ webpages. The cluster of characteristics is presented as a pedagogic modality based on concepts and phenomena from the sociologist of education Basil Bernstein; selection, organization, evaluation, classification and framing. The pedagogic modality is finally discussed, and critiqued, not least regarding its consequences for teachers and students. The overall conclusion is that a neuroeducational modality brings several potential risks, not least concerning conditions for teachers and students.