Upper Secondary School In Sweden Research Articles

A floating concept and blurred teacher responsibilities: Local interpretations of health promotion work in Swedish upper secondary schools

A floating concept and blurred teacher responsibilities: Local interpretations of health promotion work in Swedish upper secondary schools

Teaching with simulators in vocational education and training – From a storing place to a new colleague

This study investigates the formation of VET teaching practice when using simulation as a teaching method to support students' vocational learning at upper secondary schools in Sweden. The study is based on repeated interviews with twelve VET teachers from two schools over the course of three years. Drawing upon practice theory, the findings show that the use of simulators brought about both new knowledge and new relationships in teaching practice, as well as side effects such as dependency on other relatings outside the school. A new practice for vocational learning emerged, which required rearrangement of teachers’ work, roles and relatings.

Resources for planning and teaching mathematics: a Swedish upper-secondary school case study

ABSTRACT This study investigates resource use by upper-secondary mathematics teachers in the context of collaborative planning. A thematic content analysis is conducted on audio-recorded teacher discussions in order to find out what resources are used by the teachers, how they are used, and for what reasons. The findings show that although teachers use a variety of resources to support their instructional enactment as well as instructional design, there is a difference in how they use different resources to support different planning practices. For instructional design, curriculum resources provide support for the mathematical content, while social resources, self-generated documents, and cognitive resources provide support for the design of instructional activities. Authority is given by teachers to curriculum resources, but conflicts of authority emerge in discussions, when teachers’ abilities to exert their agency are not supported by curriculum resources. We discuss the findings in relation to authority and resource use, as well as for established conceptualizations of resources. The findings bear practical implications for the design of curriculum resources.

Collective pedagogical content knowledge for teaching sustainable development

It is vital that upper secondary students gain a rich and deep knowledge of sustainability issues, as they will enter adulthood and working life within a short time. The students belong to a generation that will be intensely involved in managing several environmental issues to achieve sustainable development for our Earth. However, earlier research indicates that many teachers have a low self-efficacy for teaching sustainability issues. This study aimed to explore how science teacher teams in Swedish upper secondary schools can develop their knowledge and expertise in sustainable development (SD) through collective reflections with the support of the reflective tool Content Representation (CoRe). Science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development in teaching SD was examined. Twelve in-service science teachers participated in the study. The qualitative research design included semi-structured interviews and science teacher teams’ collective meetings. The findings covered four themes about how the collective reflections with support of the CoRe tool stimulated teachers’ PCK development: (1) creating structure and a focus for learning conversations, (2) modification of the teaching approach, (3) development of new content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge in SD, and (4) shared language to stimulate equal opportunities for students to learn SD. The conclusion is that with the support of CoRe, the teacher team’s collective PCK in SD was developed; therefore, we recommend that decision-makers within the school system organize regular meetings in science teacher teams and introduce CoRe to the teachers.

Teacher profiles concerning upper secondary school teachers' views on and use of digital learning resources for teaching – a cluster analysis

ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to characterize upper secondary school teachers’ views on and use of digital learning resources (DLR) for teaching and explore whether there are differences between teachers’ profiles in relation to demographic aspects. The data was collected through an online survey from a sample of 243 teachers from 23 upper secondary schools in Sweden. The survey included questions on why and how teachers used DLR for teaching. The data was analysed using exploratory factor, cluster, and post hoc analyses. Five different teacher profiles were identified: high, high general, medium, medium general, and low DLR capacity. These profiles differed significantly concerning self-reported skills, use, and purposes of DLR. Moreover, the five profiles also differ significantly on demographic factors such as teacher degree. These findings have important implications for the design of in-service teacher training and pre-service teacher education programs concerning teachers’ skills, didactic purposes, and use of DLR.

The association between pain and psychiatric conditions in adolescents: The impact of gender and ADHD diagnosis

Background and objectivesThe relationship between pain and psychiatric conditions in children and adolescents has been understudied. This study aimed to investigate the influence of gender on the association between pain and psychiatric diagnoses, as well as the specific relationship between pain and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in a sample of adolescents from the general population. Additionally, the study explored whether pain frequency or intensity in individuals with ADHD was influenced by coexisting psychiatric disorders and ADHD medications. MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 1608 conveniently sampled Swedish upper secondary school students aged 15–19 years. Data were collected at the end of 2020 using the electronic "Mental and Somatic Health without borders" survey. ResultsA significant positive association (p < 0.001) was observed between pain frequency, intensity, and the presence of any psychiatric diagnosis. Female adolescents reported more frequent and intensive pain in the groups with or without any psychiatric diagnosis and in those with ADHD, however the presence of a psychiatric diagnosis had a comparatively lesser impact on pain frequency in females when compared to males. In adolescents with ADHD, pain frequency, but not intensity, showed a significant further increase. Moreover, the presence of coexisting depression and/or anxiety further heightened the association between pain frequency and ADHD. Notably, common ADHD medications did not have a significant impact on pain experiences. Headache emerged as the most prevalent type of pain across all groups of adolescents. Back pain specifically appeared as the next most common type of pain among adolescents with ADHD. ConclusionThe findings suggest a positive association between pain and the presence of psychiatric diagnoses, including ADHD, in adolescents. Gender modified this association. Back pain arised specifically coupled to ADHD. Common ADHD medications did not show a significant impact on pain experiences in this study. These results highlight the importance of a holistic approach to child and adolescent care.

Effect of using Desmos on high school students’ understanding and learning of functions

This study examines the effect of using Desmos on students’ performance in learning functions. An embedded mixed methods design was applied and involved 98 students from an upper secondary school in Sweden. Students’ assessments (pre- and post-test) and opinion polls were the two main data collection instruments. The results show that both groups (experimental and control) experienced a significant improvement in their post-test scores. However, the experimental group had a statistically significant improvement in comparison with that of the control group across the five constructs used in this study. The qualitative data revealed that the majority of the students ascribed a positive effect of the use of Desmos on their general understanding of function concepts, their ability to analyze functions and check their answers through visualization, which are difficult when working using paper and pencil.

A Longitudinal Study of Swedish Upper Secondary School Students’ Vocabulary Development

The importance of vocabulary is stressed as a central aspect of language learning. The aim of this investigation1 was to study how lexical input from a textbook and use of individual vocabulary notebooks affected Swedish upper secondary school students’ vocabulary acquisition by answering the three following research questions: What frequency levels are represented in the vocabulary taught in the textbook? To what extent does the productive vocabulary knowledge of the group, as measured by the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT), change after exposure to the textbook? To what extent did the students benefit from the vocabulary notebooks? Firstly, a corpus of texts from the textbook was created and analysed to establish the frequency levels of the vocabulary in the corpus. Laufer and Nation’s Vocabulary Levels Test was then used to establish the group’s productive vocabulary knowledge. Lastly, the effectiveness of the vocabulary notebook was examined. The results indicate that the particular textbook was well-suited in terms of frequency levels and the students’ knowledge of K3 words improved, but the vocabulary notebook was not found to be effective.

The Role of Scientific Language Use and Achievement Level in Student Sensemaking

Many science students struggle with using scientific language and making sense of scientific phenomena. Thus, there is an increased interest in science education research and public policy with regard to understanding and promoting scientific language use and sensemaking in science classrooms. However, there is a lack of comparative studies on how upper-secondary school students of different achievement and language levels use scientific language to make sense of phenomena. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between achievement level, scientific language use, and sensemaking in chemistry for students being set a sensemaking task while constructing concept maps on the topic of chemical equilibrium. The concept maps were collected from five different upper-secondary schools in Sweden from two school systems (Swedish and International Baccalaureate). Using content analysis, these concept maps were examined for scientific language use as well as structuring of sensemaking. A majority of the students had difficulty structuring sensemaking in their concept maps, independently of achievement level. These difficulties included unstructured reasoning, symbolic representations being used as explanations, surface-level learning, and linear reasoning connected to rote learning. There appeared to be a connection between learning context and student individual structuring of sensemaking as expressed in the concept maps. The results also showed a clear relationship between scientific language use and achievement level in the student sample. The results indicate that the structuring of sensemaking and scientific language use are not always connected processes. In conclusion, teachers may need to adopt a teaching practice that includes directed and differentiated support for scientific sensemaking.

Upper Secondary School Science Teachers' Values in Sweden:

AbstractThere is a substantial literature in science education research showing that many students experience a lack of relevance in science education. For this reason, science teachers’ selection of content and the way content is treated when exposed to students for learning purposes is an important part of the problem. In this connection, research show that science teachers’ values strongly influence several aspects of teaching and learning science. Therefore, science teachers’ values are important to investigate, to be empirically informed and to be able to develop science education. Accordingly, there is an increased volume of research studies about teachers’ values in science education and their effects. The study presented here is part of a larger national exploration of biotechnology education in upper secondary schools in Sweden and contributes by showing variation in teachers’ values and relations with practice. Theoretically, the study is rooted in a philosophy of science recognizing the potential importance of teachers’ non-epistemic values. Empirically, it is based on surveyed upper secondary school biology teachers’ views of the importance of including value-laden topics in their science teaching. Their responses were analyzed by latent profile analysis and non-parametric testing, to assess the variation in their views and explore associations with several explanatory factors. The results show that the surveyed teachers could be divided into two distinct groups: one favoring inclusion of value-laden topics in their teaching and another (smaller group) opposed to it. The result also shows a variation in teachers’ selection of topics to teach and their teaching approach, as the former group were more inclined than the latter to include value-laden aspects in their teaching which contributes to the research literature. Furthermore, experienced science teachers were overrepresented in the group holding more negative views, a result not reported elsewhere in the research literature. The importance of the results is discussed in relation with the theoretical framing of non-epistemic values and points out the importance to further investigate underlying causes to science teachers’ expressed values and ways that they might vary temporally together with ways that they cluster, as they are shown to be grouped. The result is also discussed in relation with practice in being able to make use of the evidence to develop science education.

Negotiating epistemic congruence

Based on fieldwork in an upper-secondary school in Sweden, this paper centers on Swedish as two school-subjects: Swedish (SWE) and Swedish as a second language (SSL), as taught in one class. Adhering to separate curricula, and taught by SWE and SSL teachers respectively, they are often implemented as physically separated subjects. By contrast, this paper explores three different learning spaces in relation to everyday negotiations of belonging and participation among the migrant language learners: combined whole-class teaching, a separate SSL group, and combined book-group discussions. Drawing from the notion of the classroom as a contact zone (Canagarajah, 2020) and theory of spatial repertoire (Pennycook &amp; Otsuji, 2014), I discuss how minoritized second language learners negotiated social belonging and linguistic participation in these differently embodied learning spaces. Engaging a linguistic ethnographic approach, the data production consisted of fieldnotes from classroom observations, audio-recorded book discussions and semi-structured interviews. The material was analyzed by means of an epistemic stance analysis. Findings indicate that while an epistemic incongruence prevailed in the combined whole-class teaching, the reverse was found in the separate SSL group. In the space between these opposites, the book-group discussions served as a growing ground for epistemic congruence at the interface of SWE and SSL. The article thus contributes insights into how the organization of SWE and SSL affects how students navigate their multiple and hybrid identities as well as the extent to which they feel a sense of social belonging in order to fully participate in different educational practices.

Is ‘immigrant optimism’ in educational choice a problem? Ethnic gaps in Swedish upper secondary school completion

Abstract In many Western countries, researchers have documented ambitious educational choices among students of immigrant origin, for example, the tendency to choose academically more demanding routes than others at given levels of school achievement (e.g. grades, GPA). While this may indicate integration, some warn against an ‘immigrant optimism trap’, because choosing more demanding tracks at lower levels of GPA may increase risks of non-completion. Using longitudinal Swedish population data (n ≈ 90,000), we estimate an upper secondary ‘ethnic completion gap’ of 12 per cent to the detriment of students of immigrant background. We then address the ‘trap hypothesis’ via two analyses. The first shows that if students of immigration background would make similar educational choices as other students at the same GPA, the completion gap would shrink by 3.4 percentage points. The second analysis, based on simulations, suggests that restricting admission to academic programmes based on prior GPA, would lead to a massive relocation of low- and mid-GPA students to—usually less demanding—vocational programmes, but would only reduce the completion gap by 2.2 percentage points. These changes must be considered marginal in view of the substantial restrictions of choice that either of these measures would entail. We conclude that completion gaps are not primarily a result of unfounded immigrant optimism, and that optimistic choices are likely to be a net positive for integration by improving the chances of immigrant youth to reach tertiary-level qualifications and professional occupations.

Lesson Enactments: Maintenance in Everyday Educational Practice

Abstract This article explores lesson enactments as co-constitutive of human-technology relationality in everyday schooling, rather than neutral backdrops for educational activities. In doing so, the article introduces maintenance as its key concept, drawing on insights from maintenance studies and actor-network theory (ANT). Being both theoretically and empirically informed, maintenance means reconsidering lessons, and digital technologies, as part of lively and vulnerable objects achieved in sociomaterial practices and not merely stable in function and use. The empirical case of lesson enactments comes from fieldwork with an upper secondary school in Sweden during Covid-19. The article analyses situations of maintenance with online class calls and scheduling meetings. Herein, lessons turn into a topic of concern and mechanisms of maintenance enact educational order and prevent disorder. The article demonstrates how putting maintenance to work articulates and identifies so far neglected and mundane practices with digital technology in education. In light of this, the article argues for recognising maintenance in educational practice as too long overshadowed by use, reinforced by a persistent user-technology dichotomy. Finally, the article discusses how maintenance invites reconsiderations of the dominant before-after debate that the Covid-19 pandemic attracts and calls attention to the mundane maintenance of lessons regardless of breakdowns.

Engaging upper secondary school pupils with integrity and source criticism

The ambition of the article is to create an awareness among upper secondary school pupils on what academic integrity and source criticism mean. Instead of devoting time to a general presentation of academic studies, the claim is that a collective reflection based upon the common practices of pupils (sources) could be efficient to describe the outlines of academic integrity. An action research was made in 2019 and 2020 among Swedish upper secondary school pupils with the help of an instructional video on sources, academic integrity and plagiarism. It revealed a consensus on the notion of source criticism. Furthermore, the findings show that a majority of pupils used platforms such as Wikipedia to get a quick access to facts without daring quoting them in a work for school. This gap represents an opportunity to introduce academic integrity in a very concrete manner with an insistence on the necessity of citing all the sources that contributed to the elaboration of a work.

‘The wrong’ kind of students or ‘Santa’s workshop’? Teaching practices for newly arrived migrant students in Swedish upper secondary VET

At some upper secondary schools in Sweden, newly arrived migrant youths can attend vocational courses while studying in the language introduction programme. The teaching practices in relation to language learning for newly arrived migrant students in this kind of school-based VET and how these practices are conditioned are investigated in the article. Eight VET-teachers were interviewed, and the narratives were analyzed using concepts from the theory of practice architectures. Three teaching practices in relation to language learning were identified within the broader project of teaching newly arrived students in VET: i) Swedish language first, ii) second language learning-in-action, and iii) joint VET and second language teaching. These practices were in turn connected to three different approaches to language learning in VET: language learning understood as a) segregated skills instruction, b) as happening ‘naturally’ while participating in VET-practice, c) integrated in VET but requiring explicit instruction and daily interaction with Swedish-speaking students. A conclusion drawn from the study is that newly arrived migrant students are provided unequal opportunities for development of vocational knowing and language competences in Swedish upper secondary schools depending on local conditions. The results also show how economic resources and support from school-leaders provides conditions for re-shaping teaching practices.

The professional bodies of VET teachers in the context of simulation-based training for vocational learning

It is argued that the use of high-fidelity simulators is educationally effective, since students are able to work more independently and can better control their learning. Therefore, simulations can be used as a teaching method to facilitate and ease teachers’ work situations. This raises questions as to whether teachers’ professional bodies are a bounded physicality, or whether we can understand teachers’ professional bodies in practice in terms of enactments? This article analyses and discusses the enactment of VET teachers’ professional bodies in the context of vocational and simulation-based training. The empirical material is based on ethnographic observations in three classes in two different vocational education programmes at two upper secondary schools in Sweden. Three different cases are presented and analysed as examples of how VET teachers’ professional bodies are enacted. Guided by a practice theory perspective (Schatzki, T. R. Social practices: a Wittgensteinian approach to human activity and the social (1996), Schatzki, T. R. The site of the social: A philosophical account of the constitution of social life and change (2002), Schatzki, T. R. & Natter, W. Sociocultural bodies, bodies sociopolitical. In T. R.Schatzki & W. Natter (Eds.), The social and political body (1996), the study shows that VET teachers’ professional bodies are enacted in multiples, distributed, and delegated in an interplay between the teachers, the students, the simulator, and its material set-up. In these enactments of professional bodies, VET teachers embody both a teacher identity and a previous vocational identity, which they perform simultaneously depending on the educational situation.

Upper Secondary School Pupils’ Experience of a Lifestyle Plan Based on Physical Power, Mental Harmony, and Social Capacity

This study aimed to illustrate upper secondary school pupils' experience using a self-administered web-based health-promoting tool, the Swedish Physical Power, Mental Harmony, and Social Capacity (FMS) student profile. Five upper secondary schools in Sweden were included. Focus group interviews with pupils (10 girls, 5 boys, 15-19 years) were conducted, and data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Two themes were generated from six categories: a sense of participation and self-control of health: everyday well-being, objective formulation, disappointment, health awareness, limitations, and health-promoting change. The participants experienced that using the FMS made them aware of factors that influence their health. They also reported that being given feedback visually from the FMS, peers, and staff involved in the school was beneficial in increasing their motivation to maintain a health-promoting change regarding physical activity and lifestyle factors. The use of a self-administered web-based health-promoting tool is viewed as beneficial for raising awareness and motivation to implement strategies that help attain a healthier lifestyle in upper secondary school students regarding factors affecting perceived health.

SENCOs’ lived experiences of working through the COVID-19 pandemic in Swedish upper secondary schools

ABSTRACT This article explores nine SENCOs’ lived experiences of the changes, challenges and opportunities which arose when working in Swedish upper secondary schools through the spring term of 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article provides further insights into the particulars of the SENCOs’ line of work and also aims to say something about the existential aspects of the SENCO profession. The study draws on empirical material generated from semi-structured lifeworld interviews and open-ended diaries. The study design and analysis were conceived and performed using a lifeworld phenomenological approach and hermeneutics. The lived experiences of the SENCOs reveal that they took on new tasks during the pandemic and, at the same time, long-standing issues regarding their professional role seem to have been exacerbated. These findings give insights into the difficulties faced by SENCOs in claiming professional jurisdiction and ask whether SENCOs inadvertently contribute to this problem when driven by a sense of moral obligation towards students with special educational needs. This moral obligation might stand at the heart of what it means to be a SENCO, and is possibly thoroughly intertwined with SENCOs’ agency.

Teachers’ action research as a case of social learning: exploring learning in between research and school practice

ABSTRACT Although action research has a history of bridging gaps between research and school practice, challenges emerge when aligning a scientific approach with development work in schools and in collaboration between research and school practice. In this article, we aim to deepen the knowledge on teachers’ action research as social learning in collaboration with a research-based PD leader. In this study, we follow two teachers conducting action research in a Swedish upper secondary school, in collaboration with a professional development (PD) leader who is also a doctoral student. Qualitative data have been used to write value-creation stories that illustrate the learning process throughout their collaboration. Our findings show how joint work between the teachers and the PD leader functions as a boundary process where two sets of practices – classroom and academic – are coordinated and contribute to the learning process.

Always happy: an ideal is reproduced and challenged in hairdresser vocational education and training

ABSTRACT In the hairdressing occupation emotional labour has often come to overshadow other vocational skills. The present study, using ethnographic methods, explores how students and teachers in vocational education and training (VET) for hairdressers in Sweden describe and explain the emotional labour being carried out when a hairdresser perform good service. The results show that to look happy and smile has a central position in students’ and VET teachers’ descriptions of how an ideal service worker is expected to act. A positive attitude and a special voice are other signs that characterise the hairdresser who provides good service. The happy ideal is both reproduced and challenged from students in the hairdresser education. One conclusion is that an ideal service worker reinforces femininity norms to act as a professional, which is in line with the requirements of the hairdresser education and the customer’s and employers’ expectations. At the same time, the happy ideal limits students’ opportunities to challenge and question prevailing power structures, which is also part of the Swedish upper secondary school mission.