Swedish Curriculum Research Articles

Music-specialized teachers’ reasoning on music practice in preschool: Music knowledge, courage, and visions

According to the Swedish curriculum (SKOLFS 2018, p. 50), preschool teachers bear the responsibility for teaching and incorporating music into preschool practice. However, due to limited time dedicated to music in preschool teacher education, teachers specialized in music play a critical role as valuable resources in practice. Existing music education research has focused predominantly on music in preschool from the perspectives of preschool teachers and students, rather than specifically examining a group of teachers specialized in music. Hence, this study aims to explore and discuss how teachers specialized in music approach music practice within preschool settings. The study adopts an educational philosophy and music didaktik perspective in analyzing focus group discussions with teachers specialized in music. The results reveal that music knowledge focuses on craftsmanship, courage, and visions for the music specialist. Alternative combinations of theoretical perspectives shed light on a complex and intertwined practice with shifting emphases.

Sustainability, play and children´s agency: a comparative study of the Swedish and Turkish preschool curricula

ABSTRACT In this study, we compared how sustainability, children’s agency, and play are addressed in preschool curricula in Sweden and Turkey. Content analysis was used to analyse, interpret, and compare the content. The findings indicated that sustainability is explicitly integrated into the Swedish curriculum but only partly mentioned in the Turkish curriculum. Play is a core part of children’s learning in Sweden, whereas, in Turkey, play is mainly referred to as a method. The Swedish preschool curriculum emphasises democracy as a central aspect, which reflects the dedication to fostering children's agency and their comprehension of rights and participation. The Turkish curriculum, meanwhile – while acknowledging democratic principles, child rights, and participation – does not provide a comprehensive framework for promoting children’s agency. Our qualitative study contributes to knowledge about policies that may lead to practices concerning preschool education in Sweden and Turkey that focus on sustainability, children’s agency, and play.

Computational thinking: Visible in the classroom but invisible in the curriculum

In our technology-intensive world, computing and programmed technological solutions have gained in importance, and their influence on curriculum, teaching, and learning has been substantial worldwide. Sweden, along with many countries, has integrated programming into the compulsory school curriculum as an integrated part of the teaching of Mathematics and Technology. In addition to a focus on programming, the new curricula also place significant emphasis on digital skills and on enhancing awareness of how the digitalisation of society affects us. Programming is described as a digital competence and computational thinking (CT) as important knowledge through which to facilitate learning and understanding of programming. Thus, it seems that CT, as seen in the Swedishcontext, should relate to both programming and digital competence. In this article, the aim is to examine the presence of CT in Swedish research literature and as a part of the discourse around the development of the Swedish curriculum. A content analysis of the curriculum and a thematic analysis of research publications show that CT is not well integrated into Sweden’s educational system. However, CTrelated activities are found in several subjects and research about CT, and programming is thriving. Requirements for the design of complex systems where understandings of humans and technology are equally important put new demands on education. Meeting these demands in education can be a challenge, but one subject in the Swedish curriculum seems to be suitable for the task, the technology subject. We conclude that the subject technology should be revised to include a greater focus on creativity regarding CT and the construction of computational technological artefacts.

Assessment and Gifted Discourse in Swedish Early Years Education Steering Documents: The Problem of (In)Visibility

This study explores how assessment is presented in Swedish early years’ steering documents and considers risks for young gifted students in relation to assessment (or lack thereof). Document analysis was undertaken on, firstly, Swedish curriculum documents for the preschool and for the compulsory school, and secondly, mapping materials used in the preschool class with six-year-old children. Results show that assessment is not a term used in Swedish early years curricula. Instead, preschool teachers are asked to evaluate their own practice; preschool class teachers are asked to engage with mapping and only to consider working toward later assessment goals in year 3 of school. A plethora of alternative assessment terms are used in the curriculum without definition. Giftedness is also invisible in the curriculum. However, the mapping materials used with six-year-old students in the subject areas of mathematics and Swedish do encourage teachers to consider children who achieve mastery early. Further, these materials provide supportive questions and activities for teachers to use in exploring further. The specific examples of assessment discourses and the need to consider gifted children are combined in this article to highlight aspects of teacher work that are important for the educational rights of an often-forgotten group of learners.

Pupils’ development: Policy enactment in Swedish school-age educare

ABSTRACT The historical roots of what is now a modern Swedish school-age educare (SAEC) were formed from a social pedagogical starting point in which children’s social development, freedom and well-being were prioritized. SAEC has now become more focused on an educational pedagogical assignment and has been incorporated into the Swedish curriculum. SAECs could therefore be seen as institutions under reconstruction, in that their current work is formed in what can be regarded as a transition period. This transition could imply new points of departure concerning work practices and forms of documentation, both of that could challenge older traditions. Using policy enactment theory as a methodology, this case study discusses the work practices and forms of documentation that are in use now, with a specific focus on the latter. The main purpose of the article is to explore and develop SAEC staff’s points of departure for developing their documentation and assessments and how the new curriculum assignment is enacted in the context of SAEC’s pedagogical practices. The study’s findings show that the enactment process could be seen as an initiative based on local needs for clarity. The developed documentation and assessment practices are described as a cultural shift away from former practices.

Models and modelling in secondary technology and engineering education

The common purpose of models is to provide simplified representations of other phenomena. Depending on type, they are suitable for communication, documentation, prognostication, problem solving, and more. Various types of models, such as drawings, mock-ups, flow charts, and mathematical formulae, are important tools in engineering work. An introduction to the area of technological modelling is therefore an essential component in secondary technology and engineering education, both to prepare for future studies and work, and to instil a general technological literacy. Models in the form of technical drawings and physical models are mentioned in several international curricula and standards for secondary education, but the nature of models or the modelling process are seldom elaborated upon. The purpose of this article is to investigate the ‘why?’, the ‘what?’, and the ‘how?’ of teaching and learning about models and modelling in secondary technology and engineering education. We discuss the roles of models and modelling and suggest a modelling framework for technology and engineering education consisting of a six-step modelling process that can be used in education with increasing level of complexity: identification, isolation, simplification, validation, verification, and presentation. Examples from Swedish curricula and secondary school textbooks are used to highlight the progress (or lack thereof) concerning model creation and model use. It was found that especially validation and verification are downplayed or missing in these accounts. Special attention needs to be given to the simplification step, where the balance between simplicity and realism often leads to difficult decisions in the modelling process.

The future scribe: Learning to write the world

This study takes its point of departure in academic scholarship that points to how programming – reading and writing code – is the literacy of the future, in other words, non-specialized competence that should be acquired in education in parity with traditional reading and writing skills. The goal is to shed light on how programming can be orchestrated in education to break with the outworn dichotomy between the ‘two cultures’ that C. P. Snow formulated as a gap between, on the one hand, natural sciences, mathematics, and technology, and, on the other hand, the humanities, and social sciences. A discursive analysis of Swedish policy documents and curricula forms the empirical ground for discussing how reading and writing code are introduced, taught, and learnt within Swedish compulsory school. The results show that Swedish curricula are framing programming as specialized knowledge within technology and mathematics, rather than allowing it to be a dimension of several subjects, such as the humanities and social sciences. These findings are discussed in the light of recent studies in education that have explored interrelations between coding and reading and writing texts. The discussion leads up to suggestions for implementing reading and writing code as digital literacy in education.

Non-denominational RE teaching based on a Christian ethical heritage: the Swedish case

This article discusses whether there is a contradiction in prescribing a religious, more specifically a Christian, tradition as the ethical basis for a teaching that is prescribed to be non-denominational. In the Swedish curriculum, the ethics borne by a Christian tradition and Western humanism are used as a platform for the school's teaching at the same time as this is not allowed to be of a denominational nature. It has been argued that there is an incompatibility or even an adversarial contradiction here, which must be eliminated by dethroning and removing either of the two poles. The article analyzes such a stance, and it is argued that such a position, indicating general claims, can be said to rest on a weak argumentative base. A critical and complex interpretation of the concepts of non-denominational and denominational teaching, and of intensional and extensional references associated with them, can open up for a less dichotomous positioning.

Identifying pluralistic approaches in language subjects in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden – A comparative curriculum analysis

ABSTRACT In Scandinavia, plurilingualism has been embraced as an important goal in language curricula. However, research shows that teachers struggle to understand what plurilingualism is and how it can be implemented. To address this lack of clarity, we analysed the curricula for the three main language subjects of schooling in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden with the purpose of identifying which pluralistic approaches can be found in them. We based our analysis on the three main approaches described in The Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures: integrated didactic approach (IDA), intercomprehension between related languages (ICRL) and eveil aux langues (EAL). We found several similarities across the Scandinavian countries, but also some major differences, suggesting that plurilingual education in these countries will likely have different learning outcomes for the students. For example, IDA is lacking in the Swedish curriculum, and the goals for ICRL are more ambitious in Denmark than in the other countries. Furthermore, Norway and Sweden include national minority languages in their pluralistic approaches, whereas no attention is given to language diversity in regions with close political bonds to Denmark, such as the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland.

Swedish students’ everyday school life and teachers’ assessment dilemmas: peer strategies for ameliorating schoolwork for assessment

In contemporary ways of thinking about education there is an enhanced focus on individual students’ results and less on students’ collaborative processes for attaining good results. This may appear peculiar, given that the Swedish curriculum for the nine-year compulsory school states that students should be given opportunities to compose texts together with others and give and receive feedback on them. This is also in line with societal desires to motivate students to take responsibility for their lifelong learning. The evolving ethnographic research design, comprising observations, audio-visual recordings and follow-up interviews with students at a Swedish lower secondary school (Years 8 and 9), investigated the informal social strategies that students enacted when doing formal schoolwork and how they reflected on them. Goffman’s (1959/1990) dramaturgical metaphors of the back region, front region and impression management were applied as theoretical points of departure. The findings showed that some students worked hard at their schoolwork in ways that corresponded with societal desires and ideal learning curves. Other students aimed at more effortless achievements and relied heavily on peers and digital devices when taking shortcuts to produce formal assignments. These students’ potential learning curves showed a broken arrow of knowledge development, resulting in assessment dilemmas for teachers and possible mismatches in their grading.

Computer programming in primary schools: Swedish Technology Teachers’ pedagogical strategies

There is a recognized need for research on how to teach computer programming in primary schools in Sweden grades 4–6 (10–12-year-old pupils). Studies of teaching show the importance of teachers’ knowledge of content and pedagogy and how these two parts affect each other (i.e. pedagogical content knowledge [PCK]). Most teachers in Sweden have little or no formal education in computer programming, the revised Swedish curriculum requires them to teach it. The aim of this study is to explore the pedagogical strategies teachers use when they teach computer programming. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 participants, comprising 12 teachers and 2 teacher trainers. The data were analysed deductively with themes from previous research. The results show that teachers use eight pedagogical strategies, including three new strategies that have been constructed inductively: do-it-yourself, gamification and progression. These eight pedagogical strategies are mostly general, and teachers may be considered regressed experts, as they lack formal training in computer programming. They facilitate learning in a general sense, but, compared to other subjects, their PCK in computer programming is problematized. In-service teacher training is needed to increase content knowledge, thus enabling to develop PCK in computer programming. It would also be fruitful to deepen our knowledge regarding pedagogical strategies in the PCK domain of computer programming.

VTS in the English language classroom in Sweden

The position in this paper is that Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) are very relevant for children’s education in Sweden, and that their practice makes them highly adaptable to English language teaching. The rationale for this position is that this elicitation and communication technique has proven very effective in nurturing the abilities and skills which are identified in the Swedish curriculum for compulsory schooling. The impact of VTS in the Swedish education system could be significant. First, once known and understood by teachers, VTS can be a very efficient technique in the English language classroom and can directly help to fulfil several of the ambitions of the curriculum and the English language syllabus. Second, abilities and sensitivities developed by VTS correspond to the core values of Swedish society in its promotion of democratic values, which are espoused in the compulsory school curriculum. Third, VTS lends itself to being actively used across school subjects and therefore supports an interdisciplinary sensitivity in students. VTS can help student performance and confidence across subject areas, thus again fulfilling the wider ambitions of the compulsory school curriculum and encourage these students in their growing independence as individuals and as active members of society.

Skolämnet hembygdskunskap 1919–1980: Tillkomst och karriär i läroplanshistoriskt perspektiv

”Hembygdskunskap” [Heimatkunde] 1919–1980: Creation and career from a curriculum history perspective. Between 1919 and 1980 ”hembygdskunskap” [Heimatkunde] was a mandatory school subject in the first three years of schooling in Sweden. The subject was composed to comprise the introductory study of the natural and social environments, but also to train the children’s perceptional and expressional skills. This article follows the career of the subject through the Swedish curriculum history based on curriculum documents and official school investigations. The article shows how the creation of the subject was influenced by international progressive educational ideas about reality based teaching, curriculum concentration and student activity. Over time, the educational implications of the concept ”hembygd” changed. In the beginning of the period, the concept ”hembygd” offered a fruitful way to focus and delimit the primary study of the environments. In the end of the period, however, the concept was abandoned, as it no longer had the capacity of gathering the teaching content. Accordingly, the era of this school subject was over.

An in-depth analysis of programming in the Swedish school curriculum—rationale, knowledge content and teacher guidance

This paper reports a study of Swedish curriculum documents for compulsory school in order to unfold how novel programming content is communicated to the main policy enactors, that is, the teachers. Specifically, the study focusses on: (1) arguments for why programming is relevant and for what purposes, (2) what programming knowledge that is specified and (3) what guidance the curriculum documents provide to help teachers realise the programming content in their teaching. Text analysis was used as method of analysis. Two conceptual frameworks were used during analysis to identify and classify arguments for computer science in compulsory education, and to identify types of programming knowledge. Results reveal that the curriculum documents are sparse on details about what programming knowledge entails. Instead, programming is mainly presented as an interdisciplinary tool to achieve other learning goals. Guidance is given mainly in the form of cautious suggestions on how the work can be organised and through broad explanations and examples of how programming can be useful. However, some important and difficult strategic decisions are left entirely to the teachers without any clear guidance. The programming message in its entirety is communicated through several texts from different subjects. Altogether, this may complicate teachers’ process of transforming the curriculum into teaching and learning activities. In turn, there is a risk of inequality amongst schools and that the programming experience for the children becomes fragmented, superficial, misses out on key points, or is omitted, in part or in whole.

Norwegian and Swedish post-compulsory school students’ perspectives on the purpose of school mathematics: An exploratory study

Many countries’ educational aspirations are reflected in government-produced national curricula that specify, with varying degrees of prescription, what should be taught, when it should be taught, and even how it should be taught. These systemic ambitions are typically located in culturally constructed images of the ideal citizen dependent on, for example, whether cultures privilege the individual or the collective, or whether knowledge, particularly mathematics, is construed as practical or abstract. Despite such differences, little research has examined students’ awareness of the systemic expectations that underpin their experiences of school mathematics. In this paper, drawing on data from 35 group interviews involving 92 students from post-compulsory schools, we present an exploratory study of Norwegian and Swedish students’ perspectives on the purpose of school mathematics. Constant comparison analyses yielded six themes, or purposes, concerning the role of mathematics in support of everyday shopping, future employment, the learning of other subjects, logical thinking and problem-solving, the development of an esthetic appreciation, and the management of personal finances. However, despite extensive emphases in both the Norwegian and the Swedish curricula on the role of mathematical knowledge in the creation of just and equitable societies, no students discussed such societal goals. Some implications are discussed.

Literary socialisation through education. A comparative study of Swedish and French upper secondary school students’ reception of a narrative text

Different ways of teaching literature in school are often a result of tradition, cultural heritage, and the underlying assumptions of the motivating reasons for studying literature at all. This paper presents results from a comparative study of Swedish and French upper secondary school students’ reception of a narrative text and discusses the impact of literary socialisation in relation to curricula. In the first part of the paper, Swedish and French upper secondary school students’ written comments on a short story are analysed in terms of literary socialisation, comprehension and interpretation. The study displays differences in the way the students interact with the text. The French students pay more attention to literary aspects, such as style and language, whereas Swedish students tend to focus more on content and extratextual aspects. In the second part of the paper, the Swedish curriculum for the subject Swedish for upper secondary school is analysed. The study argues that a combination of analytic and emotional reading seems to be the most efficient way to create skilful readers. Reading for pleasure in a school context is challenged by the strong framing provided by knowledge requirements and examinations. The study concludes that this paradox of literature education can be met by focusing on the reading experience as a point of departure for in-depth literature studies.

Children’s existential questions – recognized in Scandinavian curricula, or not?

ABSTRACT Do curricular texts address children’s existential questions and how are such questions to be met in school? This is the crucial question of this study. It consists of a comparative content analysis of Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish national curricula for religious education, in use in 2019. To provide a background to this content analysis the varying and shifting ways in which Swedish curricula from 1969 up to 2011 expressed ‘livsfrågor’ and educational responses to them have been studied. As a new theme ‘livsfrågor’, meaning existential questions, was introduced in 1969 in the Swedish curriculum for compulsory school. A comparison of the Scandinavian curricula of today shows that the Danish one most explicitly addresses the importance of children’s existential questions; the Norwegian subtly emphasizes a dialogue with school children; while the Swedish syllabus links existential questions to worldviews, general systems of thought, and not to addressing students’ own questions. In the characterization of the curricula, two curricular codes, a proclamatory and a dialogical, as suggested by Hartman , and the three purposes of education by Biesta (qualification, socialisation, and subjectification) have been used. Although it studies students’ existential questions in religious education, this study contributes towards general didactical discussions on the role of children’s questions and possible educational responses to them.

Joy in Learning

Both in research and in the Swedish curricula, positive emotions such as joy, pleasure and desire are said to stimulate learning. However, it is not clear what the meaning of joy is in relation to learning. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to gain knowledge about the essential meanings of the phenomenon joy in learning for children aged 9 and 12 years in compulsory school. The questions are as follows: What meanings constitute the phenomenon joy in learning in the current context? What implications do the findings have for teaching? The study is phenomenological and is based on interviews with or written stories by the participating children. The findings indicate how joy stimulates learning and emerges when children understand and ‘own’ their learning process. Teachers are important as ‘facilitators’ for joy in learning through being supportive and inspiring. Joy in learning during lessons is related to joy and friendship during school breaks. Teachers’ decisive importance for joy is discussed in relation to various modalities of pedagogical contact. Conclusions can be drawn that school breaks need attention from a learning perspective and that children need teacher support to understand their learning process.

Estimated Effects of Web-Based Course from Adult Vocational Students’ Perspective—A PFA Course in Scandinavian Intellectual Disability Practice

In Scandinavia, the field of intellectual disability (ID) practice lacks specific course, professional training, theoretical foundation, guidelines, and practice consensus. However, Pedagogiskt Förhållnings-och Arbetsätt (PFA model) has the potential to offer a pedagogical attitude and a way of working within ID practice. PFA was developed in the context of Swedish ID practice and has attracted national and European interest. Most staff working in ID practice in Scandinavia are educated to upper secondary school (adolescent students) level or vocational course (adult students) level. In the present pilot study, we examined the effects of providing a web-based PFA course as a complement to the Swedish national curriculum. The aim of this pilot study was to assess the effects of self-assessed knowledge and learning using a web-based PFA course intervention on an adult vocational course. The study involved a quantitative intervention approach involving two equivalent groups in an experimental design: an experimental group (n = 12) and a comparison group (n = 46). These groups were administered a pre-test and a post-test questionnaire that estimated their knowledge of the course through self-reporting tests. The findings provide empirical evidence of the informed and sustained use of knowledge building through complementary web-based PFA courses.

Estimation in the Mathematics Curricula of Denmark, Norway and Sweden: Inadequate Conceptualisations of an Essential Competence

ABSTRACT Acknowledging evidence that the ability to estimate has major consequences for both later mathematics learning and real-world functionality, this paper examines the national mathematics curriculum for compulsory school for each of Denmark, Norway and Sweden for the estimation-related opportunities it offers children. Framed against four conceptually and procedurally different forms of estimation (computational, measurement, quantity and number line), each of which is implicated differently in the later learning of mathematics, analyses indicated that none of the four forms of estimation were addressed explicitly in the Norwegian curriculum. Expectations of computational and measurement estimation were present in both the Danish and the Swedish curricula, although neither referred to either quantity or number line estimation. Even when estimation-related learning outcomes were articulated, there was no evidence of the processes by which they might be realised. Finally, there were no acknowledgements that estimation may contribute to the learning of other mathematical topics.