Upper Secondary School In Sweden Research Articles

Special Educational Needs Coordinators’ Boundary Work in Swedish Upper-Secondary School

Special Educational Needs Coordinators’ Boundary Work in Swedish Upper-Secondary School

Grammatical and rhetorical reasoning in upper secondary students’ collaborative talk about a literary text

This paper explores different talk types and characteristics of grammatical and rhetorical reflections in L1 students’ collaborative talk about a literary text (n = 12, aged 15–17). The data is drawn from an intervention of contextualized grammar teaching in Swedish upper secondary school. To illuminate different talk types and the characteristics of the grammatical and rhetorical reflections, a deductive and inductive analysis in NVivo was carried out. The findings partly confirm previous results concerning rules of thumb and grammatical misconceptions. The current study also indicates that there is a relationship between talk types and prompted questions, and the quality of grammatical and rhetorical reasoning. When students are trying to locate a grammatical concept, the talk type is mainly characterized as cumulative and disputational, whereas linking grammar and rhetoric is exploratory. This paper discusses explanations for these relationships along with strategies for teachers when facilitating and supporting the development of students’ metalinguistic understanding.

Understandings and enactments of social justice pedagogies in Swedish physical education and health practice

Research continues to show that school physical education and health (PEH) is complicit in the reproduction of inequities related to, for instance, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and social class. In this paper, we present findings from a participatory action research (PAR) project with 11 PEH teachers at two upper-secondary schools in Sweden, aimed at enhancing understandings and enactments of social justice pedagogies. Data generated through observations, interviews, focus groups, workshops and teacher reflections were analysed through a thematic analysis ( Braun and Clarke, 2022 ) and informed by the concept of teaching for equity and social justice ( Freire, 1970 ). The findings highlight how the teachers associated social justice pedagogies in PEH with an emphasis on: (1) ‘inclusion’; (2) ‘equity/equality’; (3) ‘adaptations to teaching and assessment’; and (4) ‘relationships’. The findings also demonstrate how, based on the importance they placed on relationships, the teachers developed pedagogies that aimed to create: (1) ‘conditions for building relationships’; (2) ‘continuous engagement from teachers and students’; (3) ‘student involvement and reflection’; and (4) ‘connections with and within the subject’. Although the findings draw attention to productive understandings and enactments of social justice pedagogies, we also argue that the teachers, to some extent, conflated equality of opportunity with equity of outcome and continued to focus on managing inequities within the framework of taken-for-granted practices and knowledge within the subject. We conclude that more work is needed to support teachers in not only addressing the inequities students bring to the classroom, but also in challenging the norms that make these inequities matter.

Conflicts and contradictions in Sweden's temporary residence law for unaccompanied youth

ABSTRACT In November 2015, the Swedish Government claimed that the Swedish reception of refugees needed to change. The government presented among other things a time-limited law, TLUSE. An ethnographic study was conducted with a group of unaccompanied youth and the staff they encountered within a language introductory programme in a Swedish upper secondary school. The following questions have guided the investigation: (i) What are the main expressed principles for interpreting the law among the studied school staff? (ii) How has the application of these principles affected everyday life according to field notes and interview data? (iii) What contradictions and conflicts are there, given that TLUSE came into existence with rapid preparatory work and opinions from referral bodies being left without action? Through the lens of (Bernstein, B. 2000. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. London: Rowman and Littlefield) concept of pedagogic rights, a critical analysis was done. The study shows that TLUSE did not result in stronger inclusionary possibilities to unaccompanied youth.

The Effects of Influencing Factors on Upper Secondary School Teachers’ Use of Digital Learning Resources for Teaching

Due to the disruptive societal challenges in the 2020s and increased use of digital tools in education, there is a growing need for more studies that investigate and reveal the factors that influence teachers’ use of digital learning resources (DLR). Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the effects of influencing factors on upper secondary school teachers' use of digital learning resources for teaching. 243 teachers from 23 upper secondary schools in Sweden participated in a survey that included a six-point Likert scale. The data was analysed using exploratory factor- and correlation analyses. The study contributes with five unique different influencing factors: 1) facilitating school environment, 2) social support, 3) previous work, education, and hobby, 4) student-oriented factors, and 5) stress. The previous work, education and hobby, and the stress categories differ significantly from previous studies. The findings also revealed five different dimensions of teachers’ use of DLR: creative purposes, providing teaching materials, providing student feedback, tests and games, and the use of film, audio, and virtual simulation. The findings indicate that teachers who use DLR with a focus on their students’ learning are more creative in their use of DLR. The implications are that some teachers need more time and in-service training to develop basic skills with DLR to reduce their stress for using DLR. Based on the findings of this research, it can be suggested that in-service training programs need to focus more on students’ needs to promote a more creative use of DLR for teaching.

Accommodating beginner language learners in level-based language introduction

The paper builds on ethnographic fieldwork in a Language Introduction program for recently arrived students in an upper secondary school in Sweden. In a short period of time, this program prepares students for using Swedish as an academic language, in order to enter a national program. One response to this challenge is that schools allocate the recently arrived students to level-based groups. We contribute new knowledge about this practice by focusing on the nature of teacher support in one beginner group and one more advanced group, based on ethnographic data from classroom observations and interviews. Drawing from language scaffolding theory, we show how the teachers in both groups initiated collaborative dialogue. This dialogue was most prominent in peer work in the advanced group, affording space for flexible language use and affective-relational dimensions. The peer work seemingly compensated for less teacher bridging to students’ previous language resources, less explicit feedback, and less use of multimodality. The findings contribute new knowledge about how teachers accommodate beginner learners in their everyday teaching, although accommodating all students was not feasible. Other possible ways of grouping and supporting learners while closely attending to learner development could be explored further.

Spegeln som resurs i hår- och makeupstylistklassrummet: Yrkesämnesundervisning på hantverksprogrammet

This study explores the interaction between students and teachers in subject-specific vocational education, specifically focusing on the hair and make-up stylist classroom within the handicraft programme in Swedish upper secondary school. The aim is to understand the role and significance of the mirror in enabling teacher-student interaction and mutual understanding. By integrating Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory into a unified approach (CAVTA), the study seeks to provide comprehensive insights into the ‘what’ and ‘how’ aspects of learning. CAVTA enables the identification of the visible content in teaching and how it manifests in the staged vocational education setting. The findings reveal the teacher’s strategic use of the mirror to emphasise critical aspects of the Object of learning, in this study referring to the application of eye shadow. This utilisation of the mirror serves as a valuable teaching tool in the interaction between the teacher and student.

Political emotions in a literature classroom

ABSTRACT The democratic potential of literature education has often been accentuated. In this article, we draw on Gert Biesta’s subjectification conception of democratic education, and view democracy as a concept open for (re)negotiation in the classroom. We are informed by Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic democratic theory, and its view of dissent as a foundational aspect of democracy, in that the struggle itself constitutes the identities of the opponents. Agonistic proposals for democratic education also pay attention to political emotions in the classroom. We pair agonism with Sara Ahmed’s view of emotion as performative to explore how power, identity and emotions are entangled in a student group and how this entanglement is integrated in the students’ conceptions of democracy. The students were in their last year of upper secondary school in Sweden. We analysed audio recordings from three group interviews with a total of eleven students. The interviews followed a literary discussion about the short story ‘Farangs’ by Rattawut Lapcharoensap, which was video recorded. The analysis shows that students referred to emotion when constructing the collective identities of themselves and their opponents, and that the power relations between these collective identities influenced what literary interpretations were centred in the discussion.

Whose Christianity? The influence of a majority culture in Swedish textbooks

ABSTRACT Christian plurality is challenging for a religious education teacher in a classroom of students with different orientations of Christianity, not least due to immigration. As Christianity represents an essential component of the majority culture in many European countries, in this study we examine how it is represented in religious education textbooks used in upper secondary schools in Sweden. The purpose is to examine how liberal Christianity is shaped in the textbooks and the possible implications for educating citizens in a plural society. The selection of books is based on those used by religious education teachers in Sweden. The results show a tendency towards a modernised liberal Christianity, the implications of which are discussed in relation to the significance of religions and worldviews in education for social cohesion.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Swedish Adolescents' Mental Health, Psychosocial Functioning, Risk Behaviours, and Victimisation: Gender Differences and Implications.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown varying effects on adolescents' mental health, psychosocial functioning, risk behaviours, and victimisation. This study aims to examine the changes reported by a sample of Swedish adolescents (N = 1607) at the end of the first year of the pandemic in relation to these factors. Data were collected with an electronic survey between September 2020 and February 2021, targeting upper-secondary high school students (aged 15-19 years). The results indicate a relatively low overall impact of the pandemic on Swedish upper-secondary school students, with notable gender differences. Compared to adolescent women, a higher percentage of adolescent men reported experiencing elevated levels of anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, anger, and increased illicit drug use as consequences of the pandemic. In contrast, women demonstrated an increase in several salutogenic behaviours. Victimisation rates generally decreased during this period. These findings underscore the importance of heightened awareness among professionals within schools, social services, and healthcare settings regarding the distinct challenges encountered by a larger portion of adolescent men during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden.

The Dataveillance and Care in Teachers’ Work with Early Warning Systems

It has now become a widespread practice in both public and private organisations to analyse data collected through digital systems and tools. Datafication in schools has resulted in additional work tasks for teachers and an increased level of accountability on their part. One of these data-work-related tasks of teachers is to proactively recognize students who may be at risk of dropping out of school and help them. Machine learning holds significant promise in the creation of advanced early warning systems (EWS) for predicting such student dropouts. Such systems are in line with a positive discourse supporting teachers’ effective decision making and a deeper understanding of student behaviour. In contrast, critical scholars raise concerns about the impact of data-driven practices in education on the teaching profession. This study adds to this body of literature by exploring how teachers are regulated by and regulating EWS as part of their work practice.In this study as part of a larger working life funded project, we focus on one digital tool used in Swedish upper secondary schools called StudyBee, integrated with Google Classroom and connected to the Swedish National Agency for Education. We conducted a combination of ethnographic methods such as desktop research of application’s website and social media posts to gain a deeper knowledge on the StudyBee’s Graphical User Interface, interviews with teachers and principals, as well as go-alongs with teachers to understand their interactions with EWSs. Based on Decuypere’s (2021) topological framework, we analyse what is happening on, with, behind, and beyond EWS.To argue that teacher work is shaped by accountability mechanisms, we use a critical perspective on teacher work within the digital platform/accountability discourse, aiming to reveal underlying power dynamics. We apply the concept of dataveillance (datafied surveillance, Clarke in Lyon, 2022) to illustrate how power operates, encouraging teachers to self-regulate in alignment with school accountability. Furthermore, we utilize the concept of care (Zakharova & Jarke, 2022) to understand technology-related aspects and care for students.

Landscapes of Performance: Using Local Geography for the Testing of Sport School Pupils in Sweden, 1972–2023

Does nature still matter in sport? In the balancing between natural and scientific training, Swedish upper-secondary ski schools have played an important role. This paper deals with specific landscape features for testing at three Swedish ski schools: Hallstatestet in Sollefteå, Hovfjällsracet in Torsby, and Stoltjonastestet in Järpen. The following questions will be addressed: How do the coaches at each school use local tests to analyze performance? How is the importance of local tests articulated, and what roles do history and nature play in this process? The paper concludes that the use of local landscapes to articulate elite performance connects ideas of measurability and scientization to the lingering tradition of natural training. Local landscapes thereby become a mediator between scientific and experiential knowledge about sport performance and point out how local sport heritage can be used for addressing environmental issues in sport.

Exploring Student Agency in Narratives of English Literacy Events across School Subjects

In contemporary academia, English-language reading assignments are prevalent, even in contexts where English is not the primary medium of instruction nor the local language. This presents a challenge for students with English as a foreign language (EFL) who seek to pursue a university education in their home country. This study investigates the presence of English literacy events in Swedish upper secondary schools outside of English classes and explores their implications for university readiness and educational equity. Using survey data from 163 EFL students and qualitative content analysis, students’ written comments revealed a notable absence of English literacy events in non-English subjects, with limited exposure to written English texts and occasional use of multimodal English activities. The findings underscore disparities in students’ opportunities to engage with academic English literacy practices, primarily influenced by individual factors. This paper delves into the interplay between individual dimensions, and institutional and social practices, in shaping student agency in English academic literacy practices.

Lost opportunities for globalisation, digitalisation, and socially sustainable education? Advocating for digital and global Bildung in Swedish upper secondary schools

In this article, we point to how the making visible of diverse linguistic, digital, and cultural competences can contribute to more sustainable and inclusive classroom contexts and future societies. Western notions of universal knowledge reproduces a western way of viewing the world and, as a result, this usually discounts alternative knowledge systems, which perpetuates inequality and may cause tensions in today’s diverse classrooms. Our 2022 pilot study, drawing on an online survey with more than 700 respondents and focus group interviews with 27 participants, indicates that for some multiethnic, multi-abled, and otherwise diverse upper secondary students underlying, often ethnocentric, norms of Swedish education create hurdles in educational contexts. Firstly, in the Swedish context, non-normative and often global experiences are not recognised at school. Secondly, topics addressed in the courses they take are primarily focused on aspects originating in a Swedish, Nordic, or Western tradition. Curricular policies and classroom practices must take lost opportunities, which we argue are not socially sustainable, into account as a more global and holistic approach when articulating what educational learning is supposed to be about, for, and for whom, and thus integrating learning, digitalisation, and social sustainability.

Negotiating for influence and resources: A study of Swedish teachers’ and principals’ experiences of aggressive emails from parents

This article focuses on teachers’ and principals’ experiences of aggressive emails in home–school collaborations with parents. Semi-structured interviews with 31 teachers and principals from primary, lower and upper secondary schools in Sweden were conducted. Three categories were identified in the material which illuminate the phenomenon of cyberaggression towards principals and teachers from parents: ‘aggressive emails as reactions to principals and teachers’ performances’, ‘aggressive emails as a way of imposing power’ and ‘aggressive emails as a source of anxiety, loss of joy, and decreased focus on core tasks’. The study concludes that cyberaggression in emails from parents is centred around the act of negotiating and that email communication opens up spaces for negotiation to take place. The study also concludes that email cyberaggression tends to be instrumental in character, intended to result in a specific outcome rather than to cause harm. However, cyberaggression influences professional practice and can create a vicious circle of administrative obligation.

Traces of Bildung in Upper Secondary Science Education: A Critical Investigation of Chemistry Teachers’ Orientation Towards Promoting Bildung in Chemistry Education

AbstractThere is a need of a component in science education that can orient students to the complexity characterising the natural sciences position in relation to a globalised risk society and the Anthropocene. Recently, the implications of the German philosophical and educational construct Bildung have been discussed in this regard. In this paper, we investigate in what aspect an orientation towards promoting Bildung manifests in Swedish upper secondary school chemistry teachers’ visions and views for their teaching. In view of the reported impact of neoliberal policy in narrowing the scope of education, with such narrowing possibly excluding dimensions of philosophical-ethical reflection in science teaching, we also investigate in what aspect economic goals associated with neoliberalism might hinder a Bildung orientation in the vision and views of the five chemistry teachers that were interviewed. Results revealed “Bildung-related elements” to be present in the chemistry teaching visions of all the teachers, however without strong Bildung orientation. Significantly, four of the five teachers reported contextual factors consistent with the impact of neoliberal policy in education as marginalising their work to realise Bildung-related elements. In addition, factors outside of teachers’ awareness were also found to marginalise Bildung. Common for all five teachers were neoliberal values at the level of teachers’ implicit beliefs, with our analysis pointing to the possibility that teachers view Bildung-related elements in their chemistry teaching as commodifiable entities. We argue that these implicit beliefs disempower the teachers in relation to a teaching praxis that seeks to guide students towards their own Bildung.

World literature and transformative learning

This study investigates how Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North (2006) can be read and taught as an example of world literature in accordance with the transformative and culturally empowering ambitions of the Swedish upper secondary school curriculum. A total of 18 third-year students in the upper secondary science programme read the novel and recorded their reading experiences in journals. These journals have been thematically analysed, and the results show that the students’ processes of deconstructing and reconstructing the finalised reading, using literary concepts, help forward estrangement effects, which produce critical readings. As the students read for the plot and closed in on the end, their text-centred understandings of the novel were heightened, and by actively using subject-specific terminology (i.e. stylistic devices and modes of reading concepts), they strengthened the sense-making of their relations to the world as mediated through the text. Frames of reference about historical and current Sudan support the students in allowing the novel to become a merging point, at which their cultural horizons are nuanced through the juxtaposing of different perspectives. The students’ meta-reflexive readings allow for experiencing culture on the move as part of their transformative learning.

Turning Students into Stock Market Investors: The Role of Civil Society and Public Schools in Swedish Financialization, c. 1985–2010

This article brings agency to discussions on financialization and financial education in Sweden by zooming in on two barely examined actors and arenas: civil society and public schools, respectively. The civil society organization Aktiespararna (Swedish Shareholders’ Association, founded in 1966) attempted to access and impact school education starting with its launch of youth efforts in the 1980s. Aktiespararna was joined in these efforts by Unga Aktiesparare (Swedish Young Shareholders’ Association), founded in 1990. This study describes the organizational strategies—tools, techniques, and discursive approaches—to reach Swedish upper-secondary school students. The result shows a crucial transition on how young Swedes were expected to relate to investing in stocks: from a special interest to pursue as either side activity or profession, to an inevitable part of everyday consumer life. The Swedish example is especially illuminating because it is general in its overall development from welfare state to market orientation. Yet, it emerges as distinctive in its pace and character. Apart from the apparent brisk, straightforward march from social-democratic hegemony, and one of the most regulated national economies in the mid-1900s, to a highly marketized and financialized society in the 2000s, Sweden holds a sociocultural history of strong popular movements and civil society associations. The article demonstrates important links between this aspect of collective engagement for individual progress and the financialization process.

Students' historicisation of the environmental crisis: A narrative of industrialisation, ignorance and greed

As the field of history education begins to acknowledge the need to respond to the challenges of the Anthropocene, questions arise concerning students' ability to use history to make sense of pressing environmental issues. To address this, 67 Swedish upper secondary school students were asked to historicise issues like global warming and share their ideas concerning the present and the future. Within the framework of Jörn Rüsen's narrative theory, this article analyses how and to what extent these students experienced and interpreted the past and used history to orient themselves in relation to such issues. It also develops on the outcome of this process. While most students historicised the situation, many students made limited use of history. Their typical narrative can be described as a linear story of historical industrialisation driven by the hunger for progression and wealth and facilitated by ignorance. It was told with little detail or reference to evidence and in a way that generally seemed unsupported by historical thinking. Moreover, their typical narrative mostly aligned with the standard science-based Anthropocene narrative, lacking cultural and political perspectives. Although their orientations varied, students focused on technical solutions and lifestyle adjustments rather than civic engagement and politics. Students were worried about the future. However, the narrative of technological and scientific progression and the belief that people in the past lacked awareness and technological alternatives gave students hope. On the other hand, viewing them as informed or inherently selfish contributed to pessimism. Supported by theoretical work, the findings indicate ways school history may support students' ability to deal with Anthropocene issues, helping them to experience and interpret the past and the present in a more nuanced and elaborate way. They also highlight the need for content that aids students' ability to anticipate Anthropocene scenarios and reflect on strategies for engagement.

Student participation in teachers’ action research: teachers’ and students’ engagement in social learning

ABSTRACT In the literature on professional learning communities, students are rarely considered participants. Research indicates that student participation is primarily designated as a ‘data source’, with students having limited involvement in decision making. However, some studies suggest that an agentic approach to teachers’ professional development (such as action research) may foster student agency. This article aims at deepening the knowledge of student participation in teachers’ action research. Drawing on data from 14 teachers’ action research in a Swedish upper secondary school, the findings show that student participation occurs most in the data collection phase, intended to obtain students’ experiences with classroom interventions. Employing a social learning framework, the extent of student participation is suggested as involving issues of accountability and teachers’ prior learning experiences. This article argues that while teachers are responsible for both the classroom instruction and the development work, viewing students as partners in social learning offers opportunities for increased student participation in the development of classroom practices.