This paper asks following burning question: Where is a critical know-whyperspective on education, in teachers’ continuing professional development(CPD)? Point of departure is the first result of an ongoing (2020-2023)government funded research project in Sweden. A follow-the-money approachwas used to collect data. 1000 invoices, from three Swedish municipalities,were inductively analyzed and categorized. The results exposed how ethicalissues, climate crises, and social (in)justice are almost absent in the CPDcontentas is critical know-why professional knowledge. Framed by the notionof professionalism, we here further explore one of the municipalities anddiscuss fast policies imprint on local sites, the lack of cultivating know-whyknowledge, and how CPD might be a threat to teachers’ professionalism.

There is an international body of knowledge about teacher development in general as well as the potential problems with commercial actors in the CPD-field. Less is known about the CPD-content and the impact it has on teachers’ professionalism.  

The aim of this paper is to investigate what types of teacher professionalism that a CPD-field dominated by commercial actors shape in Sweden. The starting point is an analysis of 679 invoices and the content (knowledge) offered on the CPD-market, and purchased under two years. The result is part of an ongoing research project funded by the Swedish Research Council (2020-2023).

679 invoices from 73 schools were collected. The coding built on the extraction of information from the total set of invoices and on entering data into a statistic program file (SPSS) consisting of a multitude of variables – both deductively and inductively set. 

A practice-ecological ontology, the theory of practice architectures (TPA) is adopted, to explore how CPD-practices shape teacher practices and teacher professionalism. CPD concerns changing peoples’ sayings-doings-relatings i.e. practices (like teaching). To analyse how the CPD-content shape Swedish teachers, teacher professionalism is here conceptualized as three constituent components: behavioural, attitudinal, and intellectual. These components are previously described as overlapping but analytically seperable. 

 The behavioural change, dominate. Teachers are supposed to develop various teaching skills related to for example computer-programs, to diagnose students and to meet students' reading-, mathematics- or communication- difficulties.  This CPD is part of a world-wide edu-tech-business.  

The attitudinal component, where teachers’ attitudes are (to be) modified, is indeed visible in the data. Costs concern kick- off/summing-up-the-year activities, including conference-facilities, food, etc. The principal, teachers or the school health group are engaged in the content delivered. Teacher-collaboration, student-motivation or school-development etc. is focussed. Another CPD-content, overlapping attidunal and behavioural changes. Teachers are supposed to change their behaviour in relation to “problematic student behaviour” and diagnoses like ADHD. The intellectual component is not as frequent. Subject-specific CPD in Mathematics or Second Language Teaching is , however, purschased.  

Next step in the project is teacher- and principal-interviews to investigate the experiences of and motives for the CPD purchased and, to get hold of the CPD that take place without generating any fees. and to trace the arangments that enable and/or constrain CPD-practices. The study is limited to three (of 278) municipalities in Sweden, both national and international studies would benefit the knowledge development

Syftet med den här artikeln är att bidra med fördjupad kunskap om innehållet i lärares kompetensutveckling i en decentraliserad utbildningssektor. Specifikt fokus riktas mot hur innehållet i denna kompetensutveckling relaterar till lärares undervisningsuppdrag att utveckla såväl kunskaper som värderingar hos elever. Artikeln tar sin utgångspunkt 679 kompetensutvecklingsfakturor från tre socio-ekonomiskt olika kommuner i Sverige. Teoretiskt är studien baserad i Bernsteins fenomen pedagogisk diskurs, som i sin tur bidrar med de analytiska begreppen instruktionell och regulativ diskurs vilka har styrt analysen av fakturamaterialet. Resultatet åskådliggör i vilken grad kompetensutvecklingsinnehållet orienteras mot ämneskunskaper och generella kompetenser (instruktionell diskurs) respektive det som rör elevers värderingar (regulativ diskurs). Vidare illustrerar resultatet flera samband mellan kompetensutvecklingens diskursiva inriktning, skolform (grundskola och gymnasium) och typ av kompetensutvecklingsaktör. Analysen visar också att innehållet i lärares kompetensutveckling karaktäriseras av att lärare uppmuntras att inta en intraindividuell förändringsambition i relation till sina elever och inte av en ambition om intergruppförändring, det vill säga med syfte att utjämna skillnader mellan sociologiskt definierade grupper.

In this article, we explore the practices of school librarians with a specific focus on norm critical pedagogy, a distinctively Scandinavian concept with a basis in critical pedagogies. In Sweden, norm critique is a practice, a pedagogy and a discourse. Our article offers examples of school librarian practices that deal with issues of sexuality and gender conceptualized in their work with LGBTQ+ literature from a norm critical perspective. We analysed semi-structured interviews with eight librarians in four secondary and upper secondary schools through the lens of the theory of practice architectures (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008). Our findings demonstrate how the norm critical practices of school librarians are enabled and constrained by arrangements within the school site, as well as by management, colleagues and professional learning practices. The projects carried out by school librarians that employ norm critical perspectives are both strengthened and challenged by collaboration with principals and other education professionals at the school site. When teachers challenge the views of librarians, the latter have to re-think and re-negotiate normative positions. Hence, norm critical thinking is not only taught but also practiced in the everyday work in school libraries. This article argues that these norm critical perspectives and the librarians’ practices represent important contributions to the democratic assignment of Swedish schools.

Rapid digitalisation of higher education: leadership of teaching and learning in times of crises.

Since 2020, the academic community in higher education has been rapidly shifted into online environments due to the pandemic COVID-19. In Sweden, this has had several impacts on health care and teacher education, programs that traditionally (mainly) were delivered face-to-face before the pandemic. The overall aim of the project is to investigate how educational leadership practices are being reshaped/are reshaping teaching and learning practices in Swedish HE and with what academic and social consequences at a time of crisis and rapid digital transformation. The research design is framed by practice theory, which treats practices as the primary subject of analysis in the study of human relations. An early phase of the project involved interviews with academic leaders and teaching staff in one Swedish University at the beginning of the pandemic, and a review of literature related to leading teaching and learning in higher education. This will be followed up with interactive shadowing of leaders in their daily interactions with university teachers, students, and other stakeholders in three Swedish Universities. The study will document leadership practices as they happen and particularly how they affect and are affected by teaching practices and what students experience, do, and learn. Student and educator focus-group interviews will also be conducted to capture teacher and student perspectives. Analysis will be informed by the theory of practice architectures.

Analysis of findings from the initial phase has highlighted three main themes which have important implications for leadership practices related to teaching and learning in the fields of teacher education and health care education, but also possibly other professional education fields. They concern the ways in which the shift to online education has affected possibilities for, and highlighted the importance of, spontaneity, authentic relationships, and embodied interactions. Meanwhile, the findings of the literature review have highlighted how much is assumed, but how little is actually known about, the relationship between what leaders do in their everyday work and student experiences. These findings point to the importance of future studies that empirically explore, at an everyday practice level, the complexities and challenges for leadership of working in online environments, and whether and how what leaders do and do not do concretely affects student learning and the student experience.

 Already ten years ago Tomlinson (2012) spoke of the “rise of the expanded and expensive SEN [Special Educational Needs] industry”(p. 75). In this paper, we explore the SEN industry on a continuing professional development (CPD) market for teachers in Sweden. This market seems to well meet the exaggerated importance of teachers’ CPD. Such an exaggeration is a highly globalized phenomenon and thus, we argue, of high significance to the research community (cf Kennedy, 2014). International studies reveal clear evidence of an increasing state-encouraged marketization and privatisation of teacher CPD. Characteristic of this development is that companies establish and profile themselves on the market by selling solutions and improvements aligned with current policy discourses – a dimension of the ongoing privatisation of the education sector that Ball (2009) calls “organisational recalibration” (p. 84).

A recent estimation is that about 25 000 commercial actors operate within the Swedish education sector (It-pedagogen, 2021) and previous research exemplifies how some of these “edupreneurs” offer CPD packages to schools and teachers, which in many cases can be linked to policy trends (Forsberg & Wermke, 2012; Player-Koro & Beach, 2017). Over the past decade, there has been a flood of governmental initiatives in Sweden offering various forms of professional development programs for teachers – as for example the ‘Special Educator Initiative’ – and commercial actors seem to pick up the discourses of these policy reforms and develop their businesses accordingly (Ideland et al., 2020; Levinsson & Norlund, 2018). Ideland et al. (2020) illustrate “how companies enact spaces of business possibilities made up through discourses of ‘schools in crisis’ and policy reforms” (p. 85). However, what characterizes dicsourses in the content descriptions of CPD offered at a commersialised CPD-market – and how this might influence SEN-oriented practices – needs further investigation. 

In this paper, we present results from the ongoing project Following invoices – finding professional learning (the Invoice Project), funded by the Swedish Research Council. The overall aim in the project is to deepen the understanding of teacher learning, in times when different stakeholders try to control and impact on education and teachers’ work.  

We started the project by “following the money” (Ball, 2012) in three municipalities in Sweden and analyzed a multitude of invoices concerning teachers’ professional development. One of the results, so far, is the fact that the CPD market in Sweden to great extent offers content with a SEN focus. 37 % of the collected invoices relate to SEN content. 

The aim of this paper is to unpack prevalent SEN-oriented discourses on the CPD market and to discuss the possible impact these may have on various educational practices, such as professional learning and teaching practices. From a practice-oriented perspective educational practices are interdependent; they enable and constrain each other mutuallly in the ‘education complex’ (e.g., Kemmis et al., 2012; Mahon et al., 2020). 

Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used

In the overall study - the Invoice Project – 674 invoices from 2018 and 2019, were collected from the CPD accounts for elementary and upper secondary school teachers in three Swedish municipalities (municipal invoices are subject to the principal of openness in the Swedish constitution). The selected municipalities were chosen to reflect rural and urban areas with varying socioeconomic characteristics. 

A first analysis of the invoices revealed that a majority of the invoices (37 %) had a SEN-oriented content. The criterion for the categorization was that the CPD title and/or the content description included not only the notion of Special Needs Education but also phenomena such as ‘dyslexia’, ‘dyscalculia’, ‘ADHD’, ‘gifted children and ´neuropsychiatric disorders’.

The data production and analytical work for this paper included the following steps:

1. Extending information. The collected invoices regarding SEN-oriented CPD did not always supply the information needed to address the purpose of and the questions posed in this paper. Therefore, we made further Internet searches and/or contacted schools and/or CPD providers via email or phone to obtain the information required. 

2. Extracting and coding. Information was extracted from the invoices and coded into an SPSS program file comprising a number of variables including SEN-oriented CPD. We distributed all SEN invoices evenly among the three of us to organise the work and perform the first step of the coding process in individual SPSS files based on the same variable structure. We continuously engaged in formal and informal coding sessions to construct subcategories of SEN-oriented CPD. 14 different SEN categories were developed in this process. The data in the individual files were later transferred into a joint SPSS file for analysis.

3. Mapping and analysing.  We used descriptive statistics, mainly frequencies and relative frequencies, computed in the SPSS program to explore the distribution of invoices, costs and actors over SEN related CPD contents. Frequencies and relative frequencies were mapped via bar charts and tables to illustrate and summarize the characteristics of SEN-oriented CPD in the studied municipalities. 

4. Identifying discourses. We identified tentative discourses in the CPD actors’ content descriptions collected from our Internet searches. To deepen the analyses, we exploited our joint experiences in working with educational discourses in a Faircloughian and Foucauldian critical sense (see Langelotz 2014; 2017a; 2017b; Norlund, 2009; 2021; Norlund & Levinsson 2018).

Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings

The findings show a number of prevalent discourses, of which we will present a few during our presentation this paper. These discourses seem, in turn, to be embedded within an umbrella discourse of solutionism. The discourse of solutionism starts with a well-defined (and often simplified) problem to which the CPD offers a solution (cf. Ideland et al., 2020).

We will discuss the potential consequences in relation to each practice in the education complex (practices of teaching, learning, researching, leading and CPD) respectively. 

References

Ball, S. (2009). Privatising education, privatising education policy, privatising educational research: network governance and the ‘competition state’. Journal of Education Policy, 24(1), 83-99. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680930802419474

Ball, S. (2012). Show me the money! Neoliberalism at work in education. Forum, 54(1), 23-27.

Forsberg, E. & Wermke, W. (2012). Knowledge soursces and autonomy: German and Swedisch teachers’ continuing professional development of assessment knowledge. Professional Development in Education, 38(5), 741-758. 

Ideland, M., Jobér, A., & Axelsson, T. (2020). Problem solved! How eduprenuers enact school crises as business possibilities. European Educational Research Journal, 20(1) 83–101.

Kennedy, A. (2014). Understanding continuing professional development: the need for theory to impact on policy and practice. Professional Development in Education, 40(5), 688-697.

Kemmis, S., Edwards-Groves, C., & Wilkinson, J. (2012). Ecologies of practices. In P. Hager, A. Lee, and A. Reich (EDs.), Practice-Theory Perspectives on Professional Learning, 33–49. Dordrecht: Springer. 

Langelotz, L. (2014). Vad gör en skicklig lärare? En studie om kollegial handledning som utvecklingspraktik.(Doctoral thesis, Gothenburg Studies in Educational Sciences, 348). Göteborg: Universitatis Gothoburgensis.

Langelotz, L. (2017a). Kollegialt lärande i praktiken. Kompetensutveckling eller kollektiv korrigering? [Collegial Learning in Practice: Professional Learning or Collective Correction?]. Stockholm: Natur & Kultur.

Langelotz, L. (2017b).  Collegial mentoring for professional development. In K.  Mahon, S. Kemmis, S. Fransisco & Lloyd, A. (Eds.) Exploring educational practices through the lens of practice architectures. Singapore: Springer. 

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

Mahon, K., Edwards-Groves, C., Fransisco, S., & Kauko, M. (2020). Pedagogy, Education and Praxis in Critical Times. Singapore: Springer 

Norlund, A. (2009). Kritisk sakprosaläsning i gymnasieskolan. Didaktiska perspektiv på läroböcker, lärare och nationella prov. Göteborg Studies in Educational Sciences 273. Göteborg. Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. 

Norlund, A. (2020). Suggestopedi som språkdidaktiskt verktyg i vuxenutbildning - en kritisk textanalys. Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, 25(2–3), 7–25.

Player-Koro, C., & Beach, D. (2017). The influence of Private Actors on the Education of Teachers in Sweden. A Networked Ethnography Study of Education Policy Mobility. Acta Pedagogica Vilnesia, 39. 

Tomlinson, S. (2012). The irresistible rise of the SEN industry. Oxford Review of Education 38(3), 267-286.

Our aim in this paper is to discuss praxis and its possibilities for helping academics understand and challengethose aspects of contemporary higher education making academic work quite meaningless. Praxis, for thepurposes of this paper, is broadly interpreted as a concept that captures the moral-political dimensions of humanactivity. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first we address the question 'What is praxis?' from atheoretical perspective (to explore praxis as a concept) as well as from an empirical perspective (using empiricalexamples to explore praxis as a phenomenon; as a kind of action). In doing this we hope to depict what praxiscan look like in higher education in its individual and collective forms. In the second part, we extend this discussion to highlight some of the key tensions facing academia today, and raise questions about the possiblerole of praxis (in its more critical forms) in reclaiming the meaningful in higher education and in researching higher education complexities. The paper will draw on empirical material from higher education studies undertaken by the authors for illustrative purposes.

Taking a practice perspective, this article explores how built spaces within the university can impact on, and enable, practices of everyday professional learning amongst university educators. The discussion draws on analysis, informed by the theory of practice architectures, of interviews with six academics at a Swedish university. Three main themes emerged in the analysis as significant for the enablement of educators’ professional learning practices within the physical university: spontaneity, authentic relationships, and embodied interactions. Because the interviews were conducted during the coronavirus pandemic, when most academics were required to work remotely, the analysis offers a comparison between affordances of certain built spaces for professional learning compared to online spaces. We consider what opportunities for professional learning might be missed if the academic community continues to be separated from campus.

During the COVID-19-pandemic, many academics have experienced profound changes to theirdaily work. This is especially due to sudden and wholescale shifts to online forms ofcommunication for teaching and studying, researching, and community/industry engagement. Working and studying from home has become the new normal, in universities as in worklife ingeneral. This presentation draws on an ongoing empirical project designed to investigate such changes, almost from the time a pandemic was declared. In the project, entitled Academics’ Learning in the Time of Coronavirus, we have interviewed 42 academics across four countries, Finland, Norway, Australia and Sweden, 31 of them at two points in time. Some of the interviewees (27) have also kept regular diaries of their experiences. Diaries and interview transcripts have been analysed using the theory of practice architectures. This has generated several insights into how academics’ practices (i.e., their sayings, doings and relatings) have changed during the pandemic and with what consequences. It has also given insight into how these changes have been enabled and constrained by existing and evolving practice architectures (i.e. cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements in sites of practices).

In the presentation, we focus on a practice architecture that emerged as salient to many of the changed practices identified in our analysis: the computer screen. As we shall show, the computer screen has played a key role in prefiguring academic practices, particularly in synchronous online meeting forums like Zoom and Teams. The screen mediates what is/not,and can/not be, said (including e.g. through emojis and ‘chat’ comments, and ‘live’ spoken exchanges). It also mediates what is, and can be, done (including through technical hardwareand software features). Finally, it mediates how people (can) relate to each other and their virtual and physical environments (e.g. through on-screen arrangements of people’s images,‘host’ versus ‘non host’ access to functions like mute buttons, or sound-image delays). This inevitably has implications for academics’ capacities to create and maintain personal ties with colleagues, students, and research partners/participants, and to engage in meaningful work.

Through empirical examples, we aim to highlight how the screen has positively and negatively affected relational dimensions of academic work (especially those related to power). We also hope to provoke discussion about what our findings might mean for research, teaching and learning, and community engagement in the post-pandemic university.

In developing anewacademic journal,ourcoreintention, asmentionedin previouseditorials,has beentogenerate,disseminate, andpromote the interrogation ofknowledgeandscientific and/or philosophical investigationofhigher education.Thisis our way ofpromoting the important andcritical taskof sustaininghighereducation,and indeed higher education research,asmaybe-ingarenas’1. By this,we meansustainingspacesof possibility; of pushing at the boundaries notonly ofwhatIS, butalsoof what is thinkable, knowable, and doable; of imagining howthings can be otherwise.

This chapter draws on an integrative literature review of the corpus of Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP) publications between 2008 and 2018, examining research conducted in and for praxis, that is, research that helps us to understand and facilitate praxis. The chapter maps some of the central foundations that cut across educational research facilitating praxis and praxis development, including the theory of practice architectures and educational action research. It also touches upon approaches that, despite their connections with praxis, appear to be less common. The chapter also deliberates on the conditions under which research in and for praxis might be conducted, and by whom, in different educational settings and national contexts. The findings show that research in and for praxis is possible via multiple approaches and various positionalities, as long as the aim is to go beyond understanding praxis into realising its possibilities in actual educational sites. These multiple approaches include “insider”, “outsider”, and “in-between” researcher locations. Overall, our review reveals that the rich and varied works on, with, and for praxis discussed in the chapter can provide a powerful armoury with which to speak back to increasingly homogenised and homogenising research approaches in education. It also suggests that the emergence of new ideas and less dominant theories has the potential to further facilitate the (re)imagining of new possibilities for research/praxis development.

This special issue is a collection of articles that emerged from a series of symposia on praxis in higher education, aimed at critically exploring challenges and possibilities for educational praxis, including its role in the contemporary university. The collection highlights the need for asking critical and uncomfortable questions about what is and what could be in higher education. It calls for more focused attention on the consequences of what we do as teachers and university communities, both intentionally and inadvertently, so that higher education can be more socially just and responsive to student and societal needs amidst contemporary challenges. In explicating the concept of ‘educational praxis’, the editorial introduces the metaphor of ‘walking on the edge’ to illustrate the concept’s ‘uncomfortable dimension’ in terms of academics’ responsibility to engage critically with challenging issues in endeavours to address educational concerns.

Hur villkoras ungdomars och vuxnas lärande i olika utbildningssammanhang? Vilka olika omständigheter och förhållanden inverkar på det som sker i pedagogisk verksamhet?Hur möjliggörs och begränsas pedagogisk utveckling? Vad händer här i det här klassrummet?

Dessa frågor hör hemma i praktiknära forskning. Samtliga texter i denna antologi utgår från en specifik inriktning i sådan forskning - teorin om praktikarkitekturer. Denna teoribildning hjälper oss att analysera och förstå utbildningspraktiker som en del av större, språkliga-kulturella, sociala-politiska och materiella-ekonomiska sammanhang. Boken riktar sig till studenter och forskare intresserade av praktiknära forskning. Den kan också användas av lärare, rektorer och andra pedagogisk verksamma i kompetensutvecklings och för kvalitetsarbete.

This symposium is exploring how research and theoretical recourses reveal structures that constrain, enable or force changes in educational practices. In an uncertain time, when for example democratic values are at stake in Europe, schools democratic fulfilling, and the professionals’ possibilities to explore and change their practices are fundamental. In a number of different empirical studies, across different educational settings, from preschool to higher education in Sweden, we address two fundamental questions: What is happening in this educational practice? How can we understand it? The theory of practice architectures (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008; Kemmis et.al, 2014) was applied to explore the educational practices and the conditions that enabled and constrained them in their sites. Practice is here understood open and changeable and are activities hanging together in time and space (Schatzki, 2002). According to the theory, practices are shaped and hold in place by three kinds of overlapping arrangements: Cultural-discursive arrangements such as how discourses and languages affect what is possible to sayin and about practice (e.g., deficit discourses, critical discourses, discipline-specific discourses, languages). Material-economic arrangements, how material, technological, financial, organisational, and other resources affect what it is possible to doin practice (e.g., buildings, schedules, workload calculators, funding). Social-political arrangements are arrangements that affect the ways in which it is possible for people to relateto others (and things and places) in practice (e.g., organisational rules, mandates, solidarities, hierarchies). In this symposium, we would like to first: present the theory and discuss it as a methodological, theoretical and analytical resource for professionals in educational settings (Nicolini, 2012), and second: discuss some of the results from the empirical cases, which highlight how practices in different ways can be understood from the lens of the theory of practice architectures e.g. how practices are hold in place from cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements. How these arrangements enable and constrain practices at the site. And finally, the studies will show how the theory gives an understanding on how to be able to change practices, often in dialogue with teachers/leaders. References 890 Nicolini, D. (2012). Practice Theory, Work and Organization. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. Kemmis, S., & Grootenboer, P. (2008). Situating praxis in practice: Practice architectures and the cultural, social and material conditions for practice. In S. Kemmis & T. J. Smith (Eds.), Enabling praxis: Challenges for education (pp. 37–62). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P. & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing Practices, Changing Education. Springer Verlag, Singapore. Schatzki, T.R. (2002). The site of the social: a philosophical account of the constitution of social life and change.University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Drawing on the work of Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP) research network across the last eleven years, this presentation maps research approaches that have been used to facilitate praxis and praxis development in different (inter)national contexts. Starting from theoretical approaches that seem to cut across educational praxis research (theory of Practice Architectures and its roots in Aristotle and Marx), we move to emerging trends within the PEP research literature (such as feminist approaches). We also deliberate on the conditions under which praxis research might be conducted (and by whom), in different educational settings, and in different national contexts. Here, the differing ideas, discourses, philosophies and educational traditions underpinning different national contexts are significant. We argue for the potential of praxis research to draw on multiple, less dominant theories and methods to enrich the knowledge base and, in order to ‘see things differently’, encourage diversity in methods within praxis research.

Academic Leading with a Focus on Student Learning

Few people would deny that universities are becoming increasingly complex educational environments due to significant changes in the nature of academic work (e.g., digitalisation of work and learning, educational administration, changing faculty values[1]) and to changing societal expectations. Those in university leadership roles face challenges and opportunities amidst this complexity, especially regarding responsibilities associated with student learning. The capacity of leaders and managers to respond is arguably affected by the arrangements and practices embedded within their own universities. Understanding these challenges and opportunities, and how current arrangements and practices contribute to or limit them, is central for finding sustainable ways of meeting educational responsibilities and supporting leading for student learning.

This paper explores one university’s efforts to enhance academic leading with a focus on student learning, and to understand the site-based arrangements and practices affecting the practices of leading. These goals underpinned a series of four seminars on ‘Academic leading – with a focus on student learning’ developed for staff in management positions. The seminars were inquiry-focused, generating participant artefacts (e.g., diagrams, PowerPoint presentations, notes) that were used to inform seminar discussions. This material was also analysed to form the basis of this paper. Both the seminars and analysis were theoretically framed by the ‘theory of practice architectures’ and ‘ecologies of practices’[2]. According to the theory, practices are shaped by three kinds of overlapping arrangements: Cultural-discursive arrangements such as discourses and languages affect what is possible to say in and about practice (e.g., deficit discourses, critical discourses, discipline-specific discourses, languages). Material economic-arrangements – material, technological, financial, organisational, and other resources – affect what it is possible to do in practice (e.g., buildings, schedules, workload calculators, funding). Social-political arrangements are arrangements that affect the ways in which it is possible for people to relate to others (and things and places) in practice (e.g., organisational rules, mandates, solidarities, hierarchies). These arrangements form the practice architectures of practices like leading, teaching, and learning. 

The analysis highlighted, from a cultural-discursive perspective, the need for explicitly focussing on the learning environment in everyday activities, and for clear articulation of goals and visions on both institutional and departmental levels. These are important for the emergence of shared understandings needed for growth in the area of student learning. From a material-economic perspective, analysis also pointed to the need for opportunities (i.e., time) for staff to reflect in organised ways on their practice and engage in professional learning activities, and for managers to engage in strategic development. This means looking closely at minimising activities and reorienting arrangements that take up time that could otherwise be spent on developing good pedagogical work (e.g., administrative tasks). From a social-political perspective, the analysis emphasised the need for building trusting, productive staff relations within and between departments, academies, and administration.

The paper invites discussion of the issues raised and consideration of how these issues resonate with educational environments in other universities and how they are being, or might be, addressed. It raises the question of how we can more effectively and sustainably support leading for student learning given the challenges and complexities of academic environments, by creating new practice architectures or by reorienting existing ones that constrain leading and professional learning in unhelpful ways.

[1] Slaughter, S., and Leslie, L., L.  (1997). Academic Capitalism. Politics, Policies and the Entrepreneurial University. Baltimore, Maryland USA: John Hopkins University Press.

[2] Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing practices, changing education. Singapore: Springer.

This paper explores teacher learning. It focuses on access to ‘communicative learning spaces’ (a concept we coin and develop within this paper) and argues that the creation of such spaces can be a powerful enabler of teacher learning. We draw on the findings from three studies conducted in three different countries - Norway, Australia and Sweden. The studies focused on different stages of teacher learning - initial teacher education, the induction phase of teacher learning in the workplace, and the continuing professional learning of in-service teachers.  The paper considers the features that characterise communicative learning spaces and their development. Using the theory of practice architectures we examine what enabled and constrained the development of these communicative learning spaces in each of the three cases. 

This abstract is part of symposium 'Pedagogy, Education and Praxis: A ten-year progress report from an international research network'

Drawing on the work of Pedagogy Education and Praxis (PEP) research network across the last ten years, this presentation maps research approaches that have been used to facilitate praxis and praxis development in diffrent (inter)national contexts. Starting from theoretical approaches that seem to cut across educational praxis reserach (theory of Practice Architectures and its roots in Aristotle and Marx), we move to be emerging trends within the PEP reserach literature (such as feminist approaches). We also deliberate the conditions under which praxis research might be conducted (and by whom), in diffrent educational settings, and in diffrent national contexts.Here, the differing ideas, discourses, philosophies and educational traditions underpinning different national contexts are significant. We argue for the potential of praxis research to draw on multiple, less dominant theories and methods to enrich the knowledge base, and, in order to 'see things diffrentley' encourage greater diversity in methods within praxis research.  

Leading for learning in higher education – challenges and possibilities

Lill Langelotz and Kathleen Mahon, University of Borås, Sweden

Few people would deny that universities are becoming increasingly complex educational environments due to significant changes in the nature of academic work and to changing societal expectations. University leaders face challenges and opportunities amidst this complexity, especially regarding responsibilities associated with student learning. The capacity of leaders and managers to respond is arguably affected by the arrangements and practices embedded within their own universities. Understanding these challenges and opportunities, and how current arrangements and practices contribute to or limit them, is central for finding sustainable ways of meeting educational responsibilities and supporting leading for student learning.

This paper explores one Swedish university’s effort to enhance academic leading, and to understand the salient site-based arrangements and practices affecting leading for learning. These goals underpinned a series of four seminars on ‘Academic leading – with a focus on student learning’ developed for all staff in management positions (including administration). The seminars were inquiry-focused, generating participant artefacts (e.g., diagrams, PowerPoint presentations) that were used to inform seminar discussions. This material was also analysed as part of an ongoing practitioner inquiry aimed at understanding and addressing site-based challenges for academic leading. Both the seminars and analysis were theoretically framed by the ‘theory of practice architectures’[1].

Initial results show a need for explicitly focussing on the learning environment in everyday activities, and for clear articulation of goals and visions on both institutional and departmental levels. They also point to the importance of opportunities (i.e., time) for staff to reflect in organised ways on their practice and engage in professional learning activities and strategic development, as well as the need for further interrogation of activities that take up time that could otherwise be spent on developing good pedagogical work (e.g., administrative tasks). From a social-political perspective, the results emphasise the need for building trusting, productive staff relations within and between departments, faculties, and administration teams.

The paper raises the question, on the basis of the analysis, of how we can more effectively and sustainably support leading for learning given the challenges and complexities of academic environments, by creating new practice architectures and/or by reorienting existing ones that constrain leading and professional learning in unhelpful ways.

[1] Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing practices, changing education. Singapore: Springer.

The tension between how the concept of inclusive education is verbalised in various educational policies and practices, and how it is realised in classroom practices, is examined in this paper. The data derive from an ongoing research and development programme (Inkluderande lärmiljöer/Inclusive learning environments) in seven municipalities in Sweden, orchestrated by a research institute (Ifous) over three years (2017-2019). The aim is to enhance inclusion within the schools taking part in the programme, through for example lectures and seminaries arranged by the institute. The programme includes administrative management at municipality level, school management, teachers and student health professionals from across the school sector. It also includes a group of researchers, conducting different studies, with ‘inclusive learning environment’ as a common and overall orientation. This paper is theoretically framed by the ‘theory of practice architectures’ and ‘ecologies of practices’ (Kemmis et al, 2014). According to the theory, practices are shaped by three kinds of overlapping arrangements: Cultural-discursive arrangements such as discourses and languages affect what is possible to say in and about practice (e.g., deficit discourses, critical discourses, discipline-specific discourses, languages). Material economic arrangements – for example material, technological, financial, organisational, and other resources – affect what it is possible to do in practice (e.g., buildings, schedules, workload calculators, funding). Social-political arrangements are those that affect the ways in which it is possible for people to relate to others (and things and places) in practice (e.g., organisational rules, mandates, solidarities, hierarchies). These arrangements form the practice architectures of practices such as leading, teaching, and learning. The first analysis shows a gap between the different levels involved. The administrative management and the teachers have different views on whether or not there are student groups divided into smaller ‘special need’ groups. Furthermore, there is an ambition at the administrative level to transfer students, labeled as ‘students with special needs’, into ‘ordinary classes’. This ambition clashes sometimes with the teachers’ understanding of how to promote inclusion. The data also reveal a worry concerning ‘transitions’. Participants in the programme describe transitions, as ‘critical moments’ as well as ‘challenging’. The transitions include for example, the transfer of students from third grade to fourth grade or merging two classes together, including special education classes. How well these transitions are handled varies significantly amongst the schools in the programme.

This report provides a summary and analysis of activities and material generated in the seminar series ‘Academic leading – with a focus on student learning’ developed for staff in management positions at the University of Borås (UB), 2017. The aims of the report are (a) to draw attention to some areas of need and concern that arose during discussions in the seminars (reflected in participants’ written responses in seminar activities); and (b) to make recommendations for consideration of the University’s executive team related to identified concerns/areas of need.

Seminar discussions highlighted that there are currently many practices (including leading practices) and arrangements within the University that enhance, or support enhancement of, the learning environment. However, discussions also highlighted some constraining university arrangements and challenges faced in fulfilling leading/managing responsibilities that have implications for the learning environment. These include a range of issues from staff workloads to staffing issues and staff relations.  Such issues, it is argued in this report, warrant further discussion/investigation and potentially changes to practices and arrangements in order to sustain and create an environment more conducive to student learning and leading with a focus on student learning.  As well as offering some recommendations in this regard, the report also presents an evaluation of the seminars. 

Various forms of mentoring and 'collegial learning' are often used to enhance teachers' continued professional development. When teachers come together to scrutinise their own questions raised from practice, sustainable changes in teaching and classroom situations increase. To understand what happens in the practice of continuing professional development (CPD), and to examine what professional learning is possible in the specific practice, it is crucial to examine the arrangements that hold the practice in place. In this chapter, a practice of teachers'professional group mentoring is examined through the lens of practice architectures. Foucault's notion of power is also used as a theoretical frame. This analytical approach brings new insight to what enables and constrains professional learning in mentoring practices. 

Boken Kollegialt lärande i praktiken – kompetensutveckling eller kollektiv korrigering? förklarar hur kollegialt lärande kan bidra till att lärare, elever och deras föräldrar får reellt inflytande på undervisningen. Med avstamp i praktiknära studier i utbildningssammanhang och utifrån en praktikteoretisk ansats – teorin om praktikarkitekturer – analyserar och problematiserar Lill Langelotz fenomenet kollegialt lärande, samt belyser både emanciperande och stigmatiserande processer. Boken visar även hur demokratiska praktiker med elevers lärande i fokus möjliggörs. Då det svenska utbildningssystemet ska genomsyras av en demokratisk undervisning utgör boken därmed ett unikt, teoretiskt och viktigt bidrag till litteraturen om lärares kompetensutveckling.

Kollegialt lärande analyseras och problematiseras ur ett praktikteoretiskt perspektiv. Boken introducerar teorin om praktikarkitekturer och dess analytiska begrepp med utgångspunkt i empiriska studier där kollegialt lärande tar sig olika uttryck. Teorin om praktikarkitekturer kombineras med resonemang hämtade från Hanna Arendt och Michel Foucault, för att förklara hur lärare, elever och deras föräldrar får reellt inflytande på undervisningen, samtidigt som stigmatiserande föreställningar om såväl elevgrupper som kollegor också riskerar att befästas.

Over the past two decades there has been a strong push for evidence-based inclusive education. As an example, the European Union has co-funded projects that aim to develop the potential of evidence-based practice in inclusive educational approaches in schools across Europe. Critics emphasise, however, that there are democratic deficits in the evidence-based approach. One main argument is that the idea of evidence-based practice provides a framework for the role of research in educational practice that not only restricts educational decision-making to questions about ‘what works’, but also restricts the opportunities for participation in educational decision-making. It is emphasised that teachers have to be involved in continuing professional development as autonomous professionals to enhance the teaching and learning practice. The evidence-based practice movement has been regarded by numerous critics as a major threat to teacher professionalism that undermines efforts to increase teacher autonomy. The consequences of adopting an evidence-based approach have, however, not been the subject of much empirical research. The many controversies that have arisen between proponents and opponents have mainly taken place on a theoretical level.

This study goes beyond previous controversies by investigating evidence-based inclusive education in practice. The study draws on data from an EU-financed education project aimed at implementing and developing evidence-based inclusive teaching strategies at the primary school level in five countries in Europe. In Sweden, one municipality took part in this project. Two project leaders, two school psychologists, three principals and sixteen teachers working at three different primary schools in the municipality were involved. One of the main purposes in the EU-project was to educate teachers on inclusive teaching strategies via education interventions (i.e. continuing professional development). Two researchers (the authors of this paper) were involved in continuous evaluative contract research ordered by the municipality to explore what kind of professional learning practices were constituted in the project, and how these practices promoted or impeded the development of inclusive teaching practices.

In this paper, we present the part of this study that focuses on how the professional learning practices influenced teachers’ participation in educational decision-making.

The study takes its point of departure in the practice theory terrain and more specifically in the theory of practice architectures. A practice is, from this point of view, an organised nexus of actions such as ‘sayings-and-doings’. Added to these actions is, according to the theory of practice architectures, ‘relatings’. People talk, act and relate to one another in certain ways in a site. These specific sayings-doings-relatings constitute a practice. Furthermore, a practice is historically, culturally, socially, politically and discursively constituted and it is enabled and constrained by its cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements. The arrangements constitute the architectures of practices, although practices are not seen as determined by the arrangements: participants have an agency and the power to change practices. The theory is understood and used as an ontological, epistemological, methodological and analytical resource.

Method

According to the study’s theoretical point of departure, ethnographic methods have been adopted. The analysis mainly draws on data from participative observations of: - professional learning practices - teaching practices - practices of meetings: continuous meetings between project leaders and researchers (the authors) focusing on the progress of the development project.

The first practice observed was organised as a continuing professional development practice. The project leaders planned and took responsibility for the content. Sixteen teachers from three different schools were gathered on six half-days over four months. These half-day sessions focused on conveying inclusive teaching strategies related to domains such as meta-cognition, peer-learning, formative assessment and learning styles. In view of the lessons learned from similar projects, the teachers were encouraged by the project leaders to make up their own action plans based on inclusive strategies which they had found particularly interesting.The teachers discussed their views on the different types of action suggested and how these strategies could be combined with specific techniques and materials to meet student needs and to develop more inclusive teaching practices. In total, six half-day sessions were observed. 

The second professional learning practice was formalised as collegial learning aimed at follow up individual teaching (to put their action plans into practice) in the context of their local school.Taking part in these follow-up sessions were researchers, school psychologists, teachers from the local school, the principal and one project leader. The aim was to provide teachers with feedback on how they had implemented their action plans. In total, four follow-up sessions were observed at one of the participating schools. 

Field notes were made by both authors and used for joint reflections and first analyses. Some of these reflections were discussed continuously with the project leaders as part of the contract between the municipality and the university. Some document material was also analysed. This included material such as PPT-files and PDF-documents that, among other things, contain information about the EU-project, the different inclusive teaching strategies promoted and various teacher assignments performed in the project.

The theory of practice architectures has been used as a lens in the analyses of the empirical material to explore what enabled and constrained teachers’ possibilities of participating in educational decision-making. The analyses of the empirical material have been conducted by the authors as a team and any disagreement has been resolved by discussion.

Result

The results show how teachers’ possibilities for acting as autonomous professionals in the practices of professional learning were constrained in numerous different ways. One of the strongest constraints for the teachers’ possibilities for professional learning was the nature of the EU-project. The epistemological approach (cultural-discursive arrangement) in the project was clearly instrumental, which ultimately made teachers into research consumers rather than autonomous contributors to the practices of professional learning. As an example, the project leaders continuously had to report to the project owner (an EU-organisation) the progress of the education intervention, which explicitly was supposed to contribute to the knowledge-base on ‘what works’ in inclusive education. The project leaders expressed that they felt pressure to show ‘good results’ when reporting back. This focus on finding out what works, within in a limited time-frame (6 month [material-economic arrangements]), appeared to hinder any other approach to enhance inclusive teaching practices. When the teachers tried to discuss and problematize the meaning of ‘inclusion for all pupils’ they were fed with pre-defined inclusion concepts and evidence-based inclusive teaching strategies derived from the literature included in the EU-project. Consequently, the teachers’ experiences and knowledge of how inclusive teaching and learning practices might be formed were not asked for. Furthermore, the researchers (the authors) were several times used to justify the chosen approach. The project leaders turned to the researchers to confirm the evidence-based claims made during the half-day sessions. Even though the researchers tried, they found it extremely difficult to promote a completely different kind of professional learning practice within this context (social-political arrangements), and that is partly why this paper characterises the development project as ‘teacher de-professionalisation in the name of educational research’.

Avhandling i pedagogiskt arbete; frågeställning, ämne och praktiknära forskning? Mellan åren 2001-2014 producerades 101 avhandlingar i två nationella och en lokal forskarskola (Rönnerman & Langelotz, 2015). I studien granskades samtliga avhandlingar utifrån de frågor lärare ställer relaterat till sin profession och praktik. I resultatet framkom tre kategorier; Pedagogisk praktik, Utbildningspraktik och Övrig praktik. I detta paper kommer de avhandlingar som skrivits i ämnet pedagogiskt arbete att studeras på nytt i syfte att a) undersöka vilka kategorier dessa avhandlingar representerar och b) analysera avhandlingarna i relation till begreppet praktiknära forskning och ämnet pedagogiskt arbete. Analysen utgår från att lärares frågeställningar är generade ur en professionell praktik som är konstituerad i en specifik tid, ekonomi, kultur och socio-politisk kontext (jfr Kemmis, 2010; Langelotz & Rönnerman, 2014; Nicolini, 2013). En praktik ses här som socialt konstruerad och utgörs av deltagarnas tal (sayings), aktiviteter/göranden (doings) och relationer (relatings). Vidare förstås externa villkor såsom kulturellt- diskursiva, materiellt-ekonomiska och socialt-politiska arrangemang påverka en specifik praktik, samtidigt som praktiken också påverkar dessa arrangemang i ett ömsesidigt beroende (Kemmis, Wilkinson,Edwards Groves,Hardy, Grootenboer & Bristol 2014). Resultaten belyser inriktningen på dessa avhandlingars frågeställningar och hur de kan relateras till begreppet praktiknära forskning samt ger en förståelse till varför ämnet pedagogiskt arbete inrättades i en viss tid.

Denna studie utgör en del av Vetenskapsrådets SKOLFORSK-projekt, vilket syftar till att kartlägga befintlig utbildningsvetenskaplig forskning som underlag till det Skolforskningsinstitut som ska etableras i Sverige 2015. Det specifika delprojekt som är utgångspunkt till föreliggande studie ska bidra i SKOLFORSK-projektet genom att kartlägga frågeställningar som är relevanta för verksamma i skola och förskola.

Studien belyser de frågor lärare ställer relaterat till sin profession och praktik samt undersöker om och på vilka vis frågeställningarna kan spegla sin tid. Vidare diskuteras resultatet i relation till exempelvis utbildningspolitiskt inflytande. Studien har delats in i två delstudier. I delstudie 1 har 101 avhandlingar från tre forskarskolor granskats och kategoriserats utefter respektive avhandlingsstudies frågeställningar och fokus. Avhandlingsarbetena har producerats mellan 2001 och 2014 av doktorander med lärarexamen. I delstudie 2 har 13 lärare verksamma i det svenska utbildningssystemet ingått i två fokusgruppsamtal. Dessa samtal har fokuserat de frågor och utvecklingsmöjligheter som lärare uttrycker som viktiga (2014). Det är således frågeställningar genererade ur utbildningspraktiker av de professionella som här redovisas. 

För att fånga frågeställningarna över tid har ett totalurval gjorts vilket innebär att samtliga 101 avhandlingar som producerats vid tre forskarskolor mellan åren 2001 och 2014 ingår i studien. Vidare har fokusgruppsamtal genomförts med 13 yrkesverksamma lärare. Det empiriska underlaget skiljer sig därmed åt då lärarnas frågeställningar i avhandlingarna under lång tid har bearbetats för att vara vetenskapliga och forskningsbara och de frågor som lyftes av lärarna i fokusgruppssamtalen uttrycktes direkt i samtal med andra lärare och forskare i en specifik tid. Materialet som ligger till grund för analyserna är således texter av två slag. För delstudie ett är det publicerade texter i vetenskapliga avhandlingar medan det i delstudie två är transkriberade samtal från gruppintervjuer. En induktiv kategorisering användes som analysmetod i delstudie ett och i delstudie två gjordes en narrativ samtalskoncentrering, därefter användes kategorierna från delstudie ett i analysen.

Resultatet från delstudie ett visar att samtliga skolformer inom det svenska skolväsendet samt högre utbildning finns representerade i avhandlingarna. Majoriteten av arbetena riktar sig mot grund- och gymnasieskola. Tre huvudkategorier framträder i materialet: pedagogisk praktik, undervisningspraktik och övrig praktik.

Det ena huvudområdet, Pedagogisk praktik, innefattar en tredjedel av avhandlingarna. Här har fyra underkategorier identifierats. Frågorna som ställs i avhandlingsarbetena rör dels lärarprofessionen – hur lärare uppfattar, upplever, ser på eller talar om sin profession, dels verksamheten – om skolan som institution och hur den påverkas av yttre förutsättningar och politisk styrning, dels hur elever uppfattar och upplever sin skolsituation. Dessutom ställs frågor kring skolämnet som till exempel hur historieämnet har förändrats över tid eller elevers intresse för ett specifikt ämne. 

I både avhandlingsfrågorna och i de frågeställningar som formuleras under fokusgruppssamtalen kan man spåra utbildningspolitiska avtryck. I samtalen som genomfördes september 2014 är diskursen om ett kollegialt lärande utmärkande och kan härledas till senare års kollegiala samarbetsdiskurs. I avhandlingsarbetena blir även forskarskolornas inriktningar synliga i lärarnas frågeställningar och i avhandlingarnas fokus. Det samlade resultatet visar att lärares frågeställningar är riktade mot en kunskapsutveckling för lärare. Det visar också vikten av att forska med lärare. Den praktiknära relevansen är framträdande och avhandlingarna speglar metoder och arbetssätt i undervisning som behöver utvecklas i skolan. Vidare framhålls betydelsen av att utveckla kunskaper och förståelse kring demokratiska och inkluderande frågeställningar. Denna typ av forsknings- och utvecklingsprojekt skulle enligt lärarna kunna utgöra ett bidrag för utveckling av professionen och verksamheten.

Kartläggningen skulle kunna utgöra en god grund för kompetensutveckling som involverar lärare, arbetslag eller hela skolor för utveckling av skolan på vetenskaplig grund samt en viktig källa nationellt inom ramen för Skolforskningsinstitutets praktiknära uppdrag. 

This study involved six Swedish and Canadian doctoral students who shared interests in using action research in professional education in different disciplines. We employed Noffke’s three dimensions of action research as a theoretical framework (i.e., the Professional, the Personal, and the Political). Using collective biography as a methodology, we cooperatively examined how our personal and professional agendas and macro-level structures have been shaping our intentions to conduct action research projects in our respective disciplines. The key findings of this international and interdisciplinary collective biography relate our growing awareness of the intimacy between research and life in vari- ous professional and geographic contexts. Collectively addressing our shared frustrations, we celebrated action research as a methodology that attends to the dynamic and concrete lived experiences of our participants in various spatio-temporalities. Reflecting upon the hybridity of our own researcher identities, we were also able to see the intimate relation between ourselves as active citizens and critical action researchers who are determined to take up the challenges and engage in critically oriented action research that could nurture more ‘‘caring,’’ ‘‘empowering,’’ and ‘‘transforming’’ public spheres.

This paper scrutinizes 12 development managers’ (i.e. teachers and principals) and two researchers’ practice of continuing professional development in a research circle. A research circle is based on an epistemology whit roots in a Nordic tradition of folkbildning (folk enlightment). This tradition is built on a notion of pedagogy wherein the participants’ knowledge and experiences are valued and provide the point of departure for further knowledge production. The aim of the paper is to highlight tensions and issues in the practice of the research circle and to examine whether this practice develops a ‘communicative space’ where a sustainable democracy can increase, or not. We explore how the practice is constrained and enabled by using practice architectures as a theoretical frame. Foucault’s notion of power as productive is adopted as an analytical tool, to scrutinize the relatings among the participants. The methodological approach is action research. The project is running over one year (10 sessions/3 hours once a month) and started in February 2014. Hence, we do not have results at this particular moment. All the sessions will be audio recorded, individual interviews and parts of the participants’ and researchers’ diaries from the sessions will be used as sources of data. Following questions are of interest and will be followed up in the paper presentation: What kind of critical aspects can be found in the practice of research circles? What are the benefits of such collaboration for the practitioners and the researchers?

The authors of this chapter share a research interest in teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD). They are both active as teachers in university courses and they participate in various collaborative research projects within schools. The chapter draws on such a collaboration with a Swedish secondary school, involving a teacher team encouraged by the principal to participate in peer group mentoring (PGM), which can been seen as a specific kind of continuing professional development. In this CPD the teachers used a constrained and well-structured nine-step model of PGM. The purpose of the mentoring project was to share teaching experiences so as to enhance professional and pedagogical development, with the aim of improving the teaching of a “new multicultural student group” that recently had started at the school. One of the authors, Lill Langelotz, followed this mentoring process over two years. In this chapter this process will be examined in relation to the Nordic tradition of folk enlightment (folkbildning), with a point of departure in the Swedish tradition of adult education through study circles.

This thesis takes its departure from the on-going debate about teachers´(collective) ‘continuing professional development’ (CPD). Teachers’ CPD through an imposed nine-step model of peer group mentoring (PGM) is focused on. The study draws on data from a two and a half yearlong interactive project that took place in a teacher team in a Swedish school. The general aim of the thesis is to study a practice of professional development in a teacher team involving peer group mentoring and to find out how and what kind of teachers’ expertise that is constructed. Furthermore, the aim is to examine how the PGM-practice was constrained and enabled and what kind of CPD was made possible. The theoretical and methodological framework is mainly based on practice theory. Practices and practitioners are seen as mutually interrelated. Practice architectures (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008) are used to uncover the relations between the PGM-practice and its historical, material-economic, social-political and cultural-discursive conditions. Furthermore, Foucault’s notion of power was adopted as an analytical tool to examine how power came into play during the mentoring sessions and how the teachers’ discursively constructed a ‘good teacher’ and teachers’ expertise. The methodological approach is action research. A main finding of the thesis is that professional and personnel development may be imposed through peer group mentoring. Furthermore, democratic processes increased during the PGMmeetings and seemed to have an impact on classroom practice and the practice of parent-teacher meetings. The results show how the PGM–practice and its outcomes are deeply interconnected to global and local historical, material-economic, social-political and cultural-discursive arrangements which constrained and enabled it. When economic cut downs (i.e. materialeconomic arrangements) began to take effect in the local school, along with a neo-liberal discourse (i.e. cultural-discursive arrangements), democratic processes were challenged and threatened. The focus in the PGM discussions shifted from the teachers’ perceived need for pedagogical knowledge development to talk about students as costs. The constrained nine-step model disciplined some individuals more than others. The teachers disciplined each other through e.g. confessions, corrections and differentiations. Inconsistent discourses about good teaching and teachers’ know-how were constructed and the teachers positioned themselves and each other as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ teachers. The interactive research approach partly enabled the PGM-practice but at the same time effected the teachers’ positioning of each other. The interactive research approach disciplined both the teachers and the researcher. Anyhow, power relations became fluent and mutual among the participants. A collegial approach and the ability to carry out reflexive cooperation were both fostered by the model and articulated in the PGM-practice as important teacher skills.

This paper takes its departure from an interactive study conducted in a Swedish secondary school during 2008-2011. The aim is to study the practice of teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) in a teacher team involving peer group mentoring (PGM) to find out how and what kind of teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and expertise that is constructed. And to examine how the PGM-practice was constrained and enabled and what kind of CPD was made possible. The theoretical framework is based on practice theory. Practice architectures are used to uncover the relations between the PGM-practice and its historical, material-economic, social-political and cultural-discursive conditions. The methodological approach is action research. A main finding is that professional and personnel development may be imposed through PGM. Democratic process increased during the PGM-meetings and seemed to have an impact on classroom practice and the practice of parent-teacher meetings as well. Furthermore, the PGM-practice and its outcomes are deeply interconnected to global and local historical, material-economic, social-political and cultural-discursive arrangements which constrained and enabled it. When economic cut downs began to take effect in the local school, along with a neo-liberal discourse, democratic processes were challenged and threatened. The focus in the PGM-discussions shifted from the teachers’ perceived need for pedagogical knowledge development to talk about students as costs. A collegial approach and the ability to carry out reflexive cooperation were both fostered by the model and articulated in the PGM-practice as important teacher skills.

En grundläggande tanke med högre utbildning är att bidra till förmågan hos människor till självständigt tänkande. Ett vedertaget sätt att uppnå detta är att tillhandahålla tillfällen för reflektion kring den information som levereras i form av föreläsningar och litteratur. Reflektion behöver också uppstå när en lärare ger återkoppling till en student på olika former av utfört arbete. Högre utbildning är traditionellt förankrad i begreppet konstruktiv kritik där fokus ofta ligger på att bedöma ett arbete utifrån fel och brister. För lite uppmärksamhet har ägnats åt att förstärka studentens lärande genom att betona det som studenten gjort bra. Gene - rella och svepande formuleringar i positiv anda försvinner lätt i mängden av detal - jerad negativ kritik. I denna artikel presenteras därför en grundläggande modell som konstruerats för att i stället fokusera på att uppmuntra studenten. Modellen utgår från att en öppenhet främjar till att både skapa och ta emot återkopplingen. Med denna modell kan återkopplingen bli verklig och användbar för studenten och därmed kan ett självständigt och konstruktivt tänkande utvecklas.

De utvecklingsarbeten som presenteras i denna rapport är en del av den högskolepedagogiska grundutbildningen som finns vid Högskolan i Borås. Syftet med utbildningen är att stödja universitetslärare att utveckla ett reflekterande och kritiskt undersökande förhållningssätt till sin praktik samt att stimulera till en pedagogisk diskussion. Att forska i egen praktik (aktionsforskning), utvecklar såväl undervisning som utbildning samt bidrar till individens utveckling mot ’Scholarship of Teaching and Learning’.

Lärares kollektiva kompetensutveckling genom olika former av handledning ökar i den svenska skolan. Kollektiv kompetensutveckling beskrivs i nationell och internationell forskning ofta som en entydigt positiv praktik för att utveckla yrkesskicklighet. I följande artikel problematiseras denna föreställning genom en analys av en kollegial grupphandledning. Syftet är att synliggöra hur lärare konstruerar diskurser om lärar(o)skicklighet i samband med grupphandledning. Resultatet visar en motstridig bild av vad lärarskicklighet kan tänkas vara. Lärarna disciplinerade varandra i relation till lärarskicklighet genom de undervisningsråd som exemplifierades under handledningen. Subjektskonstruktionen av enskilda lärare, som skapades under den kollegiala handledningen, kan tyckas stigmatiserande. Likväl genererades också utrymme för förhandlingar och nya subjektspositioner. Kulturellt-diskursiva, social-politiska och materiellt-ekonomiska arrangemang på skolan bidrog till att främja den specifika och disciplinerande kompetensutvecklingspraktiken.

Various kinds of mentoring processes to enhance teachers’ collective learning and professional development have become popular. Collective learning and collective practice development within professions may be approached as an integral part of ‘professional learning communities’. Research emphasizes that learning communities cannot be commanded into existence and it requires voluntary participation. It is implicit that the participating teachers are open-minded and willing to share their teaching experiences. Yet in this article the situation is different. The article draws on a three-year-long case study in a Swedish secondary school involving one teacher team ‘forced’ to participate in peer group mentoring. The project aimed at developing teaching team facilitation using a nine-step model of peer group mentoring (PGM). Framed by Michel Foucault’s notion of power, the analysis shows that the disciplining practice of PGM generated new and complex processes. These processes can be described as disciplining, democratizing and developing for both the individual and the teacher team.

För femte året i rad har vi nöjet att i denna rapport presentera en rad olika pedagogiska utvecklingsarbeten från Högskolan i Borås och Högskolan Väst. Utvecklingsarbetena är en del av den högskolepedagogiska grundutbildningen som finns vid respektive lärosäte. Utbildningarna genomförs på olika sätt, men har som gemensamt syfte att stödja universitetslärare att utveckla ett reflekterande och undersökande förhållningssätt till sin undervisning samt att stimulera till en pedagogisk diskussion, allt i syfte till att utveckla ”Scholarship of Teaching and Learning”. Sedan flera år tillbaks har ett utökat samarbete mellan våra lärosäten lett till en gemensam konferens, Pedagogisk utveckling i högskolan (PUH), där högskolepedagogiska utvecklingsarbeten presenteras. Dels för att sprida pedagogiska erfarenheter över lärosätesgränserna, dels för att säkra kvaliteten i de två högskolornas respektive utbildningar. Genom att skriva och presentera ett pedagogiskt utvecklingsarbete i en autentisk konferenssituation blir kunskapen kollektiv och till gagn för fler än den enskilde individen. Årets konferens gick av stapeln vid Högskolan Väst den 19-20 april. Under konferensen visades en stor bredd av arbeten upp. I kvalitetssäkringssyfte skedde dessutom bedömningen av arbetena över lärosätesgränserna. I denna utgåva återfinns alla presentationer i form av papers alternativt abstracts. Syftet med denna rapport är att sprida resultat över ämnes-/institutions- och lärosätesgränser.

Sedan 2004 har barnmorskeutbildningen vid Institutionen för vårdvetenskap, VHB, på Högskolan i Borås bedrivits i form av en modifierad distansutbildning. Med det avses att kurserna dels består av träffar/föreläsningar på campus, dels av kommunikation och information via en Internetbaserad lärplattform . Utbildningen kritiserades för bristande kvalitet i såväl innehåll som upplägg vid Högskoleverkets, (HSV) kvalitetsgranskning 2007. HSV menade bland annat i sin kritik att studenterna blir isolerade på grund av utbildningsformen. Även sambandet mellan utbildning och aktuell forskning samt examinations-formerna ifrågasattes. På grund av den allvarliga kritiken fann VHB ett behov av att evaluera utbildningen och Centrum för lärande och undervisning, CLU, fick i uppdrag att genomföra en utvärdering av studenternas uppfattningar. En enkätundersökning genomfördes därför under våren 2008. Syftet med utvärderingen var att söka ta reda på studenternas uppfattningar om barnmorskeutbildningens kvalitet och genomförande. De frågeställningar som legat till grund är: - Hur har studenterna upplevt barnmorskeutbildningen vad gäller flexibel form? - Hur bedömer de studenter som idag är verksamma inom respektive område att barnmorskeutbildningen motsvarade kraven som ställs i arbetslivet? Resultatet visar att studenternas attityd till barnmorskeutbildningen generellt är neutral eller positiv.Studenterna bedömer att de kunskaper de förvärvat genom utbildningen motsvarar arbetslivets krav vä Sammanfattningsvis visar resultatet att HSV:s kritik mot utbildningsformen inte finner stöd i studenternas uppfattningar.

Bernstein (1971) claims that a curriculum defines what valid knowledge is. A question to be asked in accordance with this then is: what is defined as “valid knowledge” in the teacher education curriculum in Sweden? The governmental bill of 1999/2000:135 states that teacher education will educate teachers to encounter a multicultural school and a society characterized by diversity. What traces of multiculturalism are visible in the curriculum? What perspectives on multiculturalism might teachers of tomorrow thereby receive in their education? The purpose of our study has been to uncover multicultural discourses in the course syllabi in “the general area of education”, AUO, in teacher education. In the study, 177 course syllabi from 22 universities in Sweden were scrutinized. Multiculturalism, according to our interpretation, is not only a question of ethnicity and nationality or religion but also of class. One of our main results has shown that the multicultural discourse is formed on the basis of a monocultural perspective, i e Swedish and middleclass. Culture, irrespective of being about class or ethnicity, is “talked about” as a feature belonging to the Other both on an individual and collective level. Previous research into educational contexts reveals similar findings (for example Gundara, 2005; Lahdenperä, 1997; Sjögren, 2001). Our findings also show that the multicultural discourse is characterized by deficits. In syllabi, issues of ethnicity/nationality and multilingualism are expressed as if they were issues of functional disorder. Pupils when being categorized as “not Swedish”, for example, are seen as having certain characteristics that will disenable them from learning. Their culture affects the pupils’ capacity for learning and teacher students have to learn about the Others’ background. In what follows an introduction to teacher education in Sweden, a presentation of how this study was carried out and a closer analysis of its results will be provided. The concluding section will include a short discussion of the possible pedagogical consequences that this may entail.

Under läsåret 2006-2007 har förändringarna i högskoleförordningen (SFS 2006:1053) och Bolognaprocessens inverkan på högre utbildning varit högaktuell på högskolor och universitet runt om i landet. Bakgrunden till förändringarna som trädde i kraft 070101 i högskoleförordningen finns i stor utsträckning i den så kallade Bolognaprocessen, en deklaration mellan 45 länder i Europa som främst syftar till att stärka Europa som en utbildningskontinent, öka anställningsbarhet och främja rörlighet för studenter och anställda. Till de operativa målen hör bland annat att dela in utbildningen i tre nivåer (grund-, avancerad och forskarnivå) och göra nya examensbeskrivningar. Dessutom har ett nytt poängsystem införts där 60 högskolepoäng motsvarar ett års studier, tidigare 1p motsvarar idag alltså 1,5 hp. Ett nytt 7-gradigt betygssystem införs vid flera lärosäten (ECTS) och diskuteras även inom HB. De studenter som i samband med kursstart begär att få betygssättas i detta system har rätt till det. Det som kan anses vara den största och kanske viktigaste förändringen är att man övergår från ett lärar- och kurscentrerat till ett studentcentrerat och målfokuserat synsätt i och med att studentens lärandemål (learning outcomes/förväntade studieresultat) ska uttryckas i alla kurs- och utbildningsplaner. Detta har inneburit att alla kurs- och utbildningsplaner har skrivits (eller ska skrivas) om. Det innebär också, för en del, ett nytt ”tänk”. Framförallt innebär det att lärare måste synliggöra sitt ”tänk” kring målen med kursinnehåll och undervisning, studentens lärande är i fokus.