Swedish Compulsory School Research Articles

From subjects of knowledge to subjects of integration? Newly arrived students with limited schooling in Swedish education policy

The education of newly arrived students is a debated global policy issue. Less attention has been paid to the sub-group of students with limited experience of schooling, referred to here as ‘newly arrived students with limited schooling’ (NALS). This article explores Swedish policy frameworks that inform the education of newly arrived students, comparing policy approaches from two time periods (1983–1996 and 2013–2016) during which the numbers of NALS were said to be increasing in Swedish compulsory schools. Framed within a poststructural approach to policy analysis and Foucault’s theorisation of heterotopian spaces, the analysis explores policies’ representation of separate teaching groups for newly arrived students, with a particular focus on what these spaces have to offer NALS. The findings indicate a shift between the two periods: from a focus on knowledge acquisition in policies of the 1980s and 1990s towards an emphasis on integration in those of the 2010s. This shift is particularly evident in relation to NALS, whose educational needs are discussed only to a limited extent in relation to subject knowledge in the 2010s policies. It is argued that this serves to homogenise the educational needs of the category newly arrived, thereby potentially obscuring the conception of NALS.

Teacher–Student Relationship Quality and Student Engagement: A Sequential Explanatory Mixed-Methods Study

ABSTRACT The overall objective of this study was to examine the links between teacher–student relationship quality and student engagement, delimited to affective and behavioural engagement. We used a sequential explanatory mixed methods research approach that consisted of a quantitative phase, in which survey data were collected and analysed within a short-term longitudinal design, followed by a qualitative phase, in which focus group interviews and constructed grounded theory analysis were conducted. Participants included 234 students from two Swedish compulsory schools in the quantitative phase, and 120 in the qualitative phase. The quantitative findings revealed that teacher–student relationship quality predicted student engagement one year later, even when controlling for sex, age, and prior student engagement. The longitudinal association between teacher–student relationship quality and student engagement was unidirectional. The qualitative findings reported students’ own perspectives on what they considered to be a good teacher and their ideas of how their teachers and classroom setting influence their affective and behavioural engagement at school. Two significant categories emerged: ‘teacher being’ and ‘teacher doing’.

Teaching with Google Classroom

The use of digital tools in education is subject to debate in school as well as in wider society. This motivates studies on the potential of these tools to facilitate teaching and learning. One of the digital tools being used is Google Classroom (GC). In order to increase knowledge of its usage and effects in content teaching, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 teachers in Swedish compulsory school. The aim is thus to answer three research questions: 1) How do teachers describe their usage of GC in teaching? 2) What effects of using GC do teachers perceive? 3) How can GC be used to develop students’ communicative and metacognitive abilities? In the interviews teachers primarily described usage of GC as structuring, but also with some pedagogical objectives. Teachers also reported on perceived effects on students’ motivation to learn and development of knowledge and skills. In summary, the interviews indicate teachers’ different degrees of appropriation of GC and opinion on its affordance. 
 We conclude that GC has the potential to promote students’ learning, but that teachers may need training and support to take advantage of that potential.

Three Decades of School Failure in Swedish Compulsory School

ABSTRACT In Sweden, compulsory school grades determine admission to upper-secondary school. The article maps grading outcomes in compulsory school for 1990–2017, when three different grading scales were used, in terms of students’ distribution across grading steps. Statistics of grades for all Swedish grade 9 students (all school subjects) are used. Contrary to policymakers’ expectations, the results show that a large proportion of students failed to pass compulsory school immediately after a criterion-referenced system with a sharp pass/fail distinction was introduced in the late 1990s. The failure rate has since then remained strikingly constant. Swedish as a second language differs from the main pattern, with a substantially higher failure rate that is increasing over time. This outcome is discussed with reference to grading policy as a matter of social choice.

The Decrease of School Related Reading in Swedish Compulsory School – Trends Between 2007 and 2017

ABSTRACT Even though the importance of extensive reading practice is well documented, as are students’ changing leisure-time reading habits, knowledge of how much students read at school is still limited. Therefore, this study investigates how many pages of continuous text, nonfiction as well as fiction, students in middle (Grades 4–6) and lower secondary (Grades 7–9) school read during an ordinary school day. Comparing data from two large-scale surveys, in 2007 and 2017, our analyses indicate that the proportion of students who read one full page or more has decreased significantly. More students in middle school compared to lower secondary still read nonfiction, whereas the reading of fiction is now equally low. We conclude that the growing achievement gap among Swedish students on reading literacy tests is mirrored in the widening divide between students who still read extensively at school and those who do not read at all.

Scaffolding or simplifying: students\u2019 perception of support in Swedish compulsory school

National goals and performance standards were introduced in Sweden during the 1990s as part of a curriculum reform. The intention was to detect shortcomings among students and provide support to those students who did not reach the passing grade in one (or several) subject/s. Despite this reform, approximately one-fourth of the students do not attain a passing grade in all subjects. This study therefore investigates the support provided to low-achieving students in Swedish compulsory school. A questionnaire focusing on support in science studies was distributed to students in grade 9 (N = 1731), and data was analyzed with confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings show that low-achieving students perceive that they primarily receive “simplifying support,” which involves the lowering of expectations and limiting of students’ opportunities to learn. “Scaffolding support,” which involves changes to practices and holding the same standards for all students, seems to be mainly provided to boys, regardless of achievement level.

Between good intentions and practical constraints: Swedish teachers’ perceptions of school lunch

ABSTRACT In Sweden, pupils eat tax-funded school lunches, often in the company of teachers. This article focuses on Swedish compulsory school grade (ages 7–15) teachers’ (n = 823) perceptions of the school lunch in terms of intentions and daily practice. Analysis was based on written answers for an open-ended question that was part of a questionnaire focusing on teachers’ attitudes towards school lunch as a pedagogical activity. It was found that participating teachers saw the potential of the school lunch, placing emphasis on the social interaction that takes place in the school restaurant and the possibility of meeting pupils in a more informal setting. However, a key outcome was teachers’ depictions of the struggle between ideals and reality with the effect that teachers were not always provided with favourable conditions for school lunch interactions. It is important to address this in order to improve meal-time practices and the experience of school lunch.

Adequate Digital Competence

This paper explores how digital competence is conceptualized in recent revisions in the curriculum for Swedish compulsory school. Four themes are identified based on a thematic content analysis of the revisions in the subject descriptions: use of digital tools and media, programming, critical awareness and responsibility. The distribution of the thematic revisions differs among the subjects, but the most dominating theme, permeating all the subjects, concerns the tool-oriented use of digital tools and media. This strong dominance of operational perspective tends to narrow the conceptualization compared to international definitions and frameworks of digital competence.

Students\u2019 knowledge of emerging technology and sustainability through a design activity in technology education

The purpose of this study is to explore whether, and if so how, a design activity could encourage students to express and develop knowledge on emerging technology in relation to issues about sustainability. Several researchers have asserted that, in today’s technologically dependent society, it is important to be able to control technology and make informed decisions connected to technology. Design activities could make a significant contribution to technology education while students are developing their knowledge about technology. Thus, the present study aims to analyze students’ verbal interactions as they work in a design project, which includes designing a model of a house, regarding their ability to develop technological literacy with the support of a physical model. The study is based on several small-group interactions that were recorded, transcribed, analyzed, and discussed. This research project was conducted as an observation of technology education in a Swedish compulsory school. The students (aged 13–14) negotiated and shared knowledge about technology as they interacted with their fellow students. The results indicate that, in a relatively large number of situations, the students expressed knowledge about emerging technology and adopted a sustainability perspective while working in a design activity, and thereby, successively developed technological literacy. This meant that the students were able to integrate knowledge on emerging technology like graphene, nanotechnology, and algae batteries in their models. Furthermore, the results indicate that, during technical development work, students were able to develop reasoning, communication, and collaboration skills.

Om slöjdämnet och sociala aspekter av hållbarhet

This essay is about social aspects of sustainability in sloyd in Swedish compulsory school, against the backdrop that this knowledge area is perceived as difficult to teach by teachers. Drawing on previous research from differing fields, implications for teaching and learning are discussed in relation to students’ emotional experiences and to the role of materials and sloyd artefacts in social interaction. While interaction between the student and the material/artefact is at the core of sloyd, education for social sustainability, as a new challenge, requires new approaches for teaching.

Teaching and Fostering an Active Environmental Awareness Design, Validation and Planning for Action-Oriented Environmental Education

In recent years, there have been frequent scientific reports focusing on high carbon dioxide emissions. Many people feel concerned about efforts not happening quickly enough to reduce the negative impact on the climate. The responsibility for reversing this trend rests primarily on adults, but hope is now directed more and more toward the younger generation. The present project, which is a collaboration between design and education, lays the foundation for an educational endeavor based on an idea of environmental citizenship. By creating environmental citizen tokens for children and youths, this project aims to change learned living patterns and encourage a new generation to work toward a sustainable climate. There is also good possibility that the young people’s involvement and striving for a better environment will transfer to adults. This has become clear in the global movement started by the environmental activist, Greta Thunberg. This article describes the work of designing and preparing the implementation of a learning project, with its basis in knowledge about environmental impact and personal responsibility. The methods underlying the project are gamification and digital activities, allied with a proven system for making a progression of skills visible. The project has resulted in a finished design and an implementation plan, which have been validated through interviews with teacher educators, principals, teachers, student-teachers, parents and pupils, and which after this validation will be tested at ten specially selected Swedish compulsory schools.

En ojämlik skolplikt? Problematisering av skolfrånvaro i en decentraliserad skola

All children in Sweden have the right to attend school from the year they reach the age of six. But are all children obliged to be there? Sweden have had compulsory schooling since the end of the 19th century. This means that there is an obligation to be in the school and attend its activities. A changed governance of the school during the last decades of the 20th century, from centralized to decentralized, opened up for the possibility of local school practices to define how the compulsory schooling should be interpreted and applied. In this article we scrutinize whether this has opened for potential inequalities regarding compulsory schooling in Sweden. In doing this we analyze law and policy documents that in different ways prescribe how deviations from school duties, so-called school absence, should be handled and by whom. The purpose of the article is to elucidate the effects of state-formulated guidelines regarding the management of school absence in Swedish compulsory school. Inspired by Carol Lee Bacchis’ WPR (What´s the Problem Represented to be) analysis, we interrogate how departures from compulsory schooling are portrayed as a problem and what meaning are ascribed to compulsory schooling - not least from an equality perspective.

Sustainable food choices? A study of students’ actions in a home and consumer studies classroom

Home and Consumer Studies (HCS) is a subject in the Swedish compulsory school that has sustainability issues clearly enrolled in its syllabus. Among other things, students should learn to make sustainable food choices, i.e.they should understand the consequences concerning health, finance and environment of what food they choose to consume. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion about education for sustainable development (ESD) by investigating how students act in different decision-making processes during foodwork in HCS. Subsequently challenges when teaching sustainable food consumption are highlighted. The empirical material consists of video-recorded students (year 9) foodworking in an HCS classroom. Based on John Deweýs philosophy, Practical Epistemological Analysis (PEA) is used to analyse how the students make choices and proceed in their work. The taste of food is decisive for how the students move on in their foodwork. Sustainability aspects are raised to some extent but do not have the same significance. It is concluded that it is complex to teach sustainable food consumption and possibilities to modify the teaching so that taste become part of the content when teaching sustainable food consumption is discussed.

Studiehandledning på modersmål

In this article focus is directed towards Study Guidance in the Mother Tongue (SGMT) and SGMT tutors’ professional roles in Swedish compulsory school. The aim is to study how SGMT tutors are positioned and position themselves in relation to official documents and other actors in school. Questions that are illuminated in the article deal with forms for participation in school activities, opportunities to agency and voice as well as expressions of professionality in the SGMT tutor role. The empirical material consists mainly of interviews with SGMT tutors together with official documents. The results show that there is considerable variation between individual SGMT tutors when it comes to their opportunities for agency, making their voices heard, participation and influence. Several co-operating factors have been identified that may strengthen the SGMT tutors’ profession: own competence, co-operation with class and subject teachers and organisational concerns (for example, time allocated for preparation).

Professional responsibility and accountability?

This article reports an investigation of new forms of work against degrading treatment in Swedish compulsory school. It focuses particularly on how four schools in one municipality enact the far-re ...

Special needs education and school mobility: School outcomes for children placed and not placed in out-of-home care

The aim of the study is to describe and discuss differences between children placed in out-of-home care and non-placed children in the Swedish compulsory school, with respect to special needs education, school mobility and academic achievement. Data was retrieved from the Swedish longitudinal Evaluation Through Follow-up (ETF) project, which includes a combination of survey and register data. Five cohorts were included in the study: children born 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987 and 1992. The results show that placed children with average cognitive ability have lower grades than could be expected. However, this group of children is not more exposed to special needs education focused on improving academic performances than non-placed children with corresponding cognitive ability. A hypothesis was formulated, that the many relocations that placed children are exposed to could affect the quality of special education services, and that the negative effects of school mobility on grades thus could be mediated through the special needs education students receive. Results from regression analyses suggest that early inclusive special needs education has a positive effect on student achievement in general and particularly so for children placed in out-of-home care. However, for inclusive special needs education in Grades 7 to 9 the estimated effect was negative.

Critical thinking in national tests across four subjects in Swedish compulsory school

ABSTRACTCritical thinking is brought to the fore as a central competence in today’s society and in school curricula, but what may be emphasised as a general skill may also differ across school subjects. Using a mixed methods approach we identify general formulations regarding critical thinking in the Swedish curriculum of school year nine and seven more subject-specific categories of critical thinking in the syllabi and national tests in history, physics, mathematics and Swedish. By analysing 76 individual students’ critical thinking as expressed in national tests we find that a student that thinks critically in one subjects does not necessarily do so in other subjects. We find that students’ grades in different subjects are closely linked to their abilities to answer questions designed to test critical thinking in the subjects. We also find that the same formulations of critical thinking in two subjects may mean very different things when translated into assessments. Our findings suggest that critical thinking among students comprise different, subject-specific skills. The complexity of our findings highlights a need for future research to help clarify to students and researchers what it means to think critically in school.

Constitutions of Childhood Through Interpretations of a Curriculum

ABSTRACTCentral values promoted in a national curricula are often uncontested (Arnot, Hopman, & Molander, 2007; Colnerud, 2004; Popkewitz, 2009). Therefore, a critical understanding of these values is crucial, as is an understanding of how students are affected by interpretations of certain values as fundamental. The aim of this study is to cast light on how educators in a Swedish compulsory school interpreted the values promoted in the national curricula, when they formulated local work plans. Using critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2010) combined with the sociology of childhood (Corsaro, 2005; James & Prout, 1997; Lee, 2001), the analysis focuses on the constitutions of childhood through local interpretations of values promoted by the curricula. The results suggest that the values upheld in the local work plans were closely intertwined with the educators’ own understandings of what children in the school’s neighborhood needed. The educators identified social problems in the community, such as crime, and built the curriculum from there. As a consequence, the local work with core values risked constituting an even more segregated and stigmatized childhood. However, the study did show that the process of revising allows educators to gain insight and take a salutogenic approach.

Kvalitativa skillnader i lärares samtal om bedömning och elevers kunnande i naturvetenskap <br> Qualitative differences in teachers’ discussions about assessment and students’ science knowledge

In this study we investigate teachers’ collegial discussions about students’ science knowledge, in a context of collaborative planning and evaluation of teaching concerning the human body. The empirical data consists of recordings of four meetings with researchers and one team of science teachers in a Swedish compulsory school. This study contributes to the understanding of collegial discussions as such and in particular what the teachers attend to as salient science knowledge. Making use of a phenomenographic approach, the result consists of a set of categories of teachers’ qualitatively different ways of expressing students’ science knowledge. When teachers relate the students’ science knowledge to their teaching it opens for an interdependent approach to teaching and assessment, in contrast to an instrumental way of viewing scientific knowledge, particularly in grading situations. We discuss how the identified qualitative differences have implications for teachers’ possibilities of professional development, e.g. regarding subject didactical knowledge.

ASSESSMENTS FOR LEARNING IN GRADES 1-9 IN A SPECIAL SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY IN SWEDEN

The aim of this research is to analyze teachers’ and paraprofessionals’ work and reflections on assessments for learning in a Swedish compulsory special school. Research has shown that assessment for learning is a powerful tool to improve student achievement. The theoretical perspectives discuss concepts such as situated learning and collaboration. The research adopted a participatory design; the researchers followed four teams, totally 20 teachers and paraprofessionals’ work through video observation, discussions, feedback and lectures on assessment. The teams documented classroom teaching and assessment of students' abilities in different subject. The data in this study are based on teams’ written texts. The texts are analyzed using a qualitative content analysis and contribute to research on formative assessment by including teachers as well as paraprofessionals. Results show, that professions have developed their educational philosophy and their ability to give children feedback, which will help their learning. The results also highlight the discussion between learning and caring, regarding the duties of teachers and paraprofessionals. A challenge for the teams is to unite the children’s care needs with the curriculum knowledge requirements and ensure them to learn within a holistic perspective. Teaching and assessing students with extensive learning difficulties and in need of alternative communication is another challenge for the teams as well as awareness that change processes take time. Keywords: assessment for learning, intellectual disability, teacher, paraprofessional, special school