Doctoral Theses / Doktorsavhandlingar Institutionen för pedagogik och specialpedagogik

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SENCOs’ agency in Swedish upper secondary schools. A lifeworld phenomenological study of how Special Educational Needs Coordinators navigate and manage their everyday worklife.
(Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 2025-09-18) Udd, Jonas
The research interest in this thesis concerns what it means to be and to act as a SENCO. More specifically, the thesis explores nine SENCOs’ lived experiences of agency. To study this, focus has been directed towards existential aspects of their everyday worklife, such as intersubjectivity, corporality, temporality, spatiality and ethics. The research gap this thesis wants to address is further knowledge regarding the professional role of SENCOs in upper secondary schools, with a specific focus on agency. The study utilises a lifeworld phenomenological approach. To get access to the participants’ lived experiences, a hermeneutically informed research design was employed. Three interviews were conducted with each participant, and on two occasions between these interviews, the participants wrote diaries. The empirical material generated for the study was analysed utilising the hermeneutic circular motion. The analysis was aided by phenomenological theory. Findings in the study suggest that the participating SENCOs utilised intersubjective relationships to create and maintain agency and to deal with an unclear definition of their role and remit. There seemed to be a continuous push and-pull movement regarding the demarcation of the SENCO role and remit between agents within and outside of school. Between these agents and settings, SENCOs performed competitive and collaborative boundary work. In addition, the participants’ moral responsibilities seemed central to their choices of tasks and missions, as an expression of equity and equality, alluding to a professional ethos. Furthermore, several findings in the thesis highlighted the ways in which existential aspects characterised how the participating SENCOs maintained and created agency, especially when acting as agents of change. A further conclusion of this thesis is that the participating SENCOs everyday worklife appeared to be in a continuous state of becoming. Moreover, dealing with different understandings and attitudes towards inclusion appeared to be prevalent. Finally, the professional role of the participating SENCOs seemed to become political when they displayed a political agency rooted in their morale, understood here as an expression of a professional ethos. In this, the participating SENCOs seemed to represent a view on education that contrasted current neoliberal tendencies, such as marketisation, measurements, standardisation, quality control, and viewing students as customers
Does teaching quality matter for student learning outcomes?
(2025-05-23) Asp, Lena
High-quality teaching is assumed to provide students with learning opportunities that may mitigate educational inequities and narrow achievement gaps. This thesis aims to examine aspects of student-perceived teaching quality in relation to student learning outcomes. Measuring the multidimensional construct of teaching quality is a conceptual and methodological challenge. Empirical results are inconsistent, while some studies report significant and positive relations between teaching quality and student learning outcomes, others do not. The thesis is a secondary analysis of data from the international large-scale assessment Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019, Grade 4. Teaching quality is conceptualised using student-perceived teaching quality in the mathematics classroom. Aggregating students’ perceptions of the teacher’s actions in the classroom provides a valid and reliable measure of teaching quality. The hierarchical structure of TIMSS facilitates investigations at the classroom level. Comprising three empirical studies and an integrative essay, the thesis examines teaching quality from different angles. Study I examines the construct validity of the mixed-worded scale of mathematics confidence in TIMSS. The validated construct serves as a mediator when analysing the relations between teaching quality and mathematics achievement. Study II examines the relationships between student-perceived teaching quality (classroom management and instructional clarity) and mathematics confidence and mathematics achievement at student and classroom levels. Study III widens the scope to include four Nordic countries. The Nordic context is suitable for analysis as these countries share educational values such as the compensatory task of the educational system, the Nordic Model. Findings revealed evidence of method effect from negatively worded items. Teaching quality aspects were significantly related to mathematics confidence and achievement. The relationship between instructional clarity and mathematics confidence was substantial at the student and classroom levels. Classroom management related significantly to mathematics achievement at the student level in the four Nordic countries and also at the classroom level in Denmark and Sweden. Results showed classroom-level composition effects across the Nordic countries.
Teachers' Professional Competence and Working Conditions in Swedish Schools. Relationships with Student Achievement
(2025-04-30) Paloniemi Lindström, Mari
The Swedish teaching profession has undergone extensive reforms over the past four decades, leading to variations in teacher competence and specializations. More recently, the teaching profession has also faced challenges related to declining status, as well as difficulties in recruitment and retention. These disparities contribute to inequalities in teacher distribution and a widening achievement gap, yet there is limited understanding of how variations in teacher competence affects student achievement. This thesis investigates how teachers’ professional competence and working conditions relate to student achievement in Swedish middle schools (grades 4-6). It analyses data from TIMSS and PIRLS, combined with Swedish register data, to explore relationships between teacher competence and student outcomes in mathematics, reading, and overall performance in grade 6. The thesis consists of an integrative essay and three empirical studies, each focusing on different aspects of teachers’ professional competence and working conditions. The essay evaluates various models and frameworks of teacher competence while also summarizing research in this field. Study I investigates how formal education, subject-specific specialization, and teaching experience relate to grade 4 mathematics achievement, finding that a latent construct of formal teacher competence is strongly related to student performance. Study II examines teacher qualifications, reading specializations, reading comprehension activities, and cognitive activation strategies in grade 4, exploring their short- and long-term associations with student achievement. Study III examines how teachers’ working conditions and school climate relate to their job satisfaction and student achievement. Findings highlight the importance of formal education in improving students’ mathematics performance and subject-specific expertise in enhancing outcomes in both mathematics and Swedish. A curvilinear relationship emerges between reading comprehension activities in grade 4 and student achievement in PIRLS and Swedish by grade 6. Additionally, cognitive activation strategies appear to have a positive cross-subject relationship. The findings also underscore the importance of a positive school climate for both teacher well-being and student success.
The Quality Dialogue. An Activity-Theoretical Study on Systematic Quality Work in a Municipal Preschool Administration.
(2024-11-14) Karlsson, Marina
Quality dialogues have become increasingly common in systematic quality work which is legally mandated by the Swedish Education Act. The present thesis aims to contribute to knowledge on quality dialogues in local education administrations’ systematic quality work, focusing on the tension between support and control. The research questions are: What is the intended purpose of the quality dialogue, and how does this purpose align with the actions of the quality dialogue participants? How do culturally and historically shaped contradictions influence the development and function of the quality dialogue? The aim and research questions are addressed through a study conducted within a large Swedish municipal preschool administration. The thesis examines quality dialogues occurring at the unit level, the authoritative level, and at the intersection between these two levels of the organisation. A qualitative research design was adopted for the study. The empirical data consists of municipal documents and interviews which were elicited with examples from observed dialogues and participants’ written reflections. The empirical data is analysed through the lens of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, CHAT. The findings show how quality dialogues have developed locally over time, under the influence of culturally-historically shaped contradictions caused by national and local policy, municipal reorganisation, and societal needs. The findings also show that quality dialogues have multiple purposes and that several culturally and historically shaped systemic contradictions influence the development and function of the quality dialogues. Most contradictions were found in the quality dialogue conducted at the intersection between the unit level and the authoritative level. This is also the quality dialogue most focused on control. Quality dialogues at the unit level and the authoritative level, respectively, focus more on support even though control is also at play. Findings further show that the actions taking place in quality dialogues might not entirely be addressing the shared object of activity because quality dialogue participants’ actions are directed towards substitute objects. Participants display to each other sets of interactional and content-related procedures that could count as procedural display. Based on the key findings, the importance of common preparations when designing quality dialogues and careful follow-up is emphasised.
The self in the school context: Mathematics self-concept and self-efficacy in PISA
(2024-09-18) Ding, Yi
Self-concept and self-efficacy are important constructs in educational psychology, defining an individual’s general perception of their abilities in school subjects and belief in accomplishing specific tasks. These constructs are crucial in understanding academic achievement, motivation, well-being, and overall educational experiences, particularly within the context of school and in different school subjects. International large-scale assessments (ILSAs) like the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), facilitate comparisons across various educational systems and cultural backgrounds. Utilising ILSA data aids in examining how self-concept and self-efficacy influence educational outcomes across different settings, while also allowing analysis of subgroups by socioeconomic status, gender, and immigration background. This helps guide teaching practice and shape educational policies by providing insights into the psychological factors driving educational success. This dissertation has two purposes: Firstly, it examines the factor structure and measurement invariance of mathematics self-concept and self-efficacy, ensuring valid comparisons across different demographic groups and over time. Secondly, it explores the relationship between these constructs and mathematics achievement, considering student and school characteristics like socioeconomic status and type of school. The analysis uses data from the 2003 and 2012 PISA cycles. The dissertation includes an integrative essay and three empirical studies. Study I assesses the factor structure and measurement invariance of the constructs across 40 education systems participating in the 2003 and 2012 PISA cycles. Study II examines potential paradoxical relationships between self-concept, efficacy, and achievement across multiple educational systems, establishing measurement invariance separately for each PISA cycle. Study III focuses on Sweden, analysing the correlation of sociodemographic factors on the relationship between self-concept/self-efficacy and achievement in mathematics, comparing public and independent schools. Overall, the findings emphasise the importance of validating the measurement properties of these constructs and caution against presuming their uniform application across diverse educational contexts. The studies highlight the significant role of self-concept and self efficacy in enhancing mathematical achievement, considering student and school dynamics.
Skrivundervisning i svenska som andraspråk inom vuxenutbildning
(2024-09-05) Palm, Clara
I dagens globaliserade värld är behovet stort för många vuxna att lära sig tala, läsa, skriva och förstå nya språk. För att lära sig svenska, till exempel, erbjuder Sveriges kommuner språkutbildning i form av svenska som andraspråk, där dessa delar ingår. I avhandlingen fokuseras skrivandet. Eleverna utgör en heterogen grupp och vi vet lite om vilken skrivundervisning de möter. Avhandlingens övergripande syfte är därför att bidra till ökad kunskap om skrivundervisningen i svenska som andraspråk på grundläggande nivå inom kommunal vuxenutbildning. Avhandlingen undersöker skrivundervisningen utifrån tre olika perspektiv: skrivdiskurser i styrdokument, lärares föreställningar och lärares undervisning. Fyra datainsamlingsmetoder användes: dokumentanalys, enkät, intervjuer och klassrumsobservationer. Avhandlingen utgår teoretiskt från en social förståelse av skrivande och skrivundervisning som bygger på New Literacy Studies. Resultaten visar att föreställningar om skrivande som manifesteras i styrdokument, med en överlappande socialpraktisk diskurs, skiljer sig delvis från lärares utsagor och undervisning, som domineras av en genre- och färdighetsdiskurs. I lärarnas undervisning kommer olika föreställningar om skrivande till uttryck, vilket reflekteras i olika skrivuppgifter och olika sätt att organisera undervisningen, även om det finns en genomgående textnära kärna. Undervisningen innefattar ett genomtänkt upplägg med stöttande inslag i syfte att explicitgöra textkvalitet inför ett avslutande individuellt skrivande. Avhandlingen bidrar till att synliggöra hur litteracitetspraktiker är knutna till kontexten, bland annat genom kollegiala överenskommelser om upplägg och innehåll som till stor del styr undervisningen. Sammantaget visar avhandlingen att lärare inom vuxenutbildning genomför skrivundervisning i ett utmanande sammanhang, där få undervisningstimmar, kontinuerlig antagning, korta delkurser och heterogena elevgrupper sätter ramarna. Detta väcker frågor om likvärdighet och lärares möjligheter att realisera styrdokumentens intentioner om en bred skrivundervisning samt elevers möjlighet att uppnå de krav på skrivförmåga som utbildningens litteracitetspraktiker förutsätter. Didaktiska implikationer av avhandlingens resultat innefattar organisatoriska, innehållsliga och klassrumsnära aspekter samt visar vikten av fortsatt forskning i den specifika kontext som vuxenutbildningen utgör.
Lärares lärande i gränslandet mellan skolans och vetenskapens praktiker – Aktionsforskning som socialt lärande
(2024-05-23) Johannesson, Peter
The study aims at deepening the knowledge about how teachers learn as they collaborate to improve their teaching practices through action research. The research questions are as follows: How does teachers’ professional learning unfold in school practice as they engage in improving their teaching practices through action research? What opportunities and challenges emerge from and for teachers’ professional learning at the boundaries between school and research practices? What is the significance of the social context, which also involves students, for teachers’ learning? This action research study, involving an upper secondary school in Sweden, was carried out in the academic year 2017/2018. The action research methodology entailed the abductive process of combining empirical work with the theoretical framework developed by Wenger and colleagues, commonly referred to as ‘communities of practice’. Teacher learning through action research is explored in three papers. Together, the findings show how teachers learn collectively by developing their repertoire, developing forms of mutual engagement, and tuning their enterprise when negotiating on the local improvement work and the action research approach. The process involves dialogues, the use of research and theory, planning and realising interventions, and reflecting on experiences. Joint work between the teachers and the professional development leader functions as a boundary process where two sets of practices, classroom and research, are coordinated and contribute to the learning process in the professional development practice. The process involves negotiations on three competing sets of norms and values: the school’s local development area, the action research approach, and the teachers’ individual values in relation to classroom practice. Collaboration within the local community is essential for meaningful value creation and thus, learning. Findings suggest that teachers should be given recurrent opportunities to define values throughout the process. Learning at the boundaries in between school and research practices entails a mutual openness to deal with differences and engaging uncertainty in the process of learning of what is yet unknown. In addition, the findings show how student participation can contribute to teachers’ learning by adding valuable viewpoints regarding classroom experiences. The study contributes with knowledge about how teachers learn in a social mix of practice, meaning and contexts.
Individualising processes in adult education: The case of Swedish for immigrants (SFI)
(2024-03-14) Papadopoulos, Dimitrios
Adapting education to individual students is a prominent demand in the context of Swedish for immigrants (SFI). Teachers, schools, and municipal authorities are expected to establish educational frameworks corresponding to the needs of rather diverse student groups. However, such initiatives – defined here as individualising processes – are difficult to implement due to the active engagement in SFI of other societal actors related to labour market and integration policy. Establishing common grounds to address individual students’ needs is a challenge for all involved actors, because of their often conflicting agendas. Nevertheless, previous research in the area remains limited and focuses mostly on interactions between teachers and students, without problematising other actors’ active involvement. The present thesis examines how individualising processes emerge and unfold in policy and practice of SFI. Cultural-historical activity theory is employed to trace individualising processes in interactions and negotiations between actors responsible for adapting education to individual students’ needs. The thesis comprises three studies, addressing individualising processes i) in their historical emergence, informed by previous research, ii) within municipal authorities’ organisational frameworks and measures, and iii) through SFI teachers’ collective efforts to overcome emerging challenges. Empirical data consist of public policy texts and semi-structured qualitative interviews with seven municipal officers and 18 SFI teachers from various Swedish municipalities. The findings suggest that the emergence of individualising processes in the context of SFI is the result of historically shifting societal challenges reflected in the involved actors’ current practices. In trying to adapt education to individual students’ needs, municipal authorities are simultaneously engaged in the making of broader objectives, such as in increasing control over – and efficiency within – adult education, or in sustaining social cohesion. The findings also show that efforts to adapt education to individual students’ needs elicit tensions, the handling of which leads SFI teachers to either retain their roles as adult educators or to expand their practices over institutional boundaries. By synthesising findings from the three studies, the thesis problematises individualising processes beyond the teacher-student interactions and offers new insights on how efforts to adapt education to individual students’ needs have the potential to challenge established practices and offer possibilities for the emergence of creative solutions.
Young students’ Language Choice in Swedish compulsory school – expectations, learning and assessment
(2023-04-05) Finndahl, Ingela
The second foreign language, referred to as Modern Languages in the Swedish curriculum, begins no later than year 6 in compulsory school. Swedish students normally make their Language Choice (in Swedish “Språkval”) in year 5 and begin their learning of the chosen language in year 6. Almost nine out of ten students choose a Modern Language (normally French, German or Spanish) but as an alternative to a Modern Language, they can also decide on additional Swedish or English, Swedish as a Second Language, their mother tongue (if other than Swedish) or Sign Language. Spanish is by far the most popular Modern Language and more than half of the students choosing a Modern Language decide on Spanish in year 6. However, the drop-out rates are substantial and in school year 9 the percentage of students learning a Modern Language is around 70%. Consequently, approximately 30% of the students in year 9 have either dropped the language or have not started to learn one in school year 6. Drawing on a socio-cognitivist approach, this thesis investigates the attitudes, perceptions and experiences that young language learners (11 to 12 years old) hold prior to making their choice and during their first year of learning a new language. The students’ perspective is essential, and based on three thematic aspects, namely Wanting to learn, Learning and Having learnt, the study investigates their experiences concerning language learning, teaching and assessment. Three Modern Language classes and their teachers were followed during school year 2019/2020 (one class in each language). A mixed methods approach was used including qualitative methods (classroom observations, interviews and fieldnotes) in conjunction with quantitative methods (three questionnaires). The students’ Language Choice was primarily inspired by their families, by visits to a country where the target language is spoken and by the comfort of having a friend in the Modern Language group. Furthermore, it was found that among the participating young language learners, motivation for learning a Modern Language in year 6 was high prior to their Language Choice (in year 5), as well as during and after their first year of learning. However, a small decrease in motivation was noticeable at the end of the first year. In terms of gender, the analyses generated no conclusive results to indicate that motivation for language learning differed between the girls and boys participating in the study. There seem to be several contextual parameters that are interrelated and influence students’ motivation, such as group dynamics, learning conditions, peers, and parents/legal guardians. Furthermore, results indicate that emotions are closely connected to language learning and that these emotions can be both motivational and demotivational. Other findings show that the majority of the students were content with the teaching practices they encountered in the Modern Language classroom, that many of them had their own strategies for studying and that they believed that they had learnt a lot during their first year of learning the new language. Findings also reveal a certain ambiguity towards language learning. Although many students liked and thought that they would have good use of their Modern Language in the future, some also believed that they would probably manage well without knowing any other foreign languages besides English. Another important finding was that contextual parameters play a significant role in relation to the Language Choice. Organizational and administrational features influenced the teaching and learning practices in the language classroom as well as the teacher’s assessment. The conditions for learning a Modern Language also varied between the three languages, mainly due to the large groups of students learning Spanish. These differences have implications for the students learning and for the teachers’ teaching and assessment and can therefore be considered problematic from a comparability perspective.
Teacher sorting and the opportunity gap: a cross-national investigation of institutional differentiation and educational equity
Glassow, Leah Natasha
Inequitable access to teacher competence (‘teacher sorting’ or the teacher ‘opportunity gap’) is increasingly the focus of international educational bodies worldwide but is still relatively underexplored empirically. The overarching purpose of this doctoral thesis is to investigate the relationship between teacher sorting and educational inequity from a cross-national perspective, while empirically addressing theoretical questions related to social reproduction and inequality of educational opportunities in school systems. A final aim is to provide empirically grounded policy recommendations related to the findings. With these aims in mind, the constituent studies in the thesis cover several facets of the phenomenon of teacher sorting: the magnitude and development cross-nationally over the past two decades, the impact on inequity in student test scores, as well as the associated institutional features. The data come from international large-scale assessments such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS, 1999-2019) and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS, 2018), and include 32 and 46 education systems, respectively, with a special focus on mathematics and science teachers. The main analytical approaches include descriptive statistical methods, panel data regressions with country fixed effects, and hierarchical generalized linear modelling. The dissertation is comprised of four empirical studies. Study I investigates the magnitude of teacher sorting cross-nationally as well as its development since 1999. Results show that the magnitude of inequity varies by the country and teacher qualification in focus. Few countries show widening inequities in the teacher qualification gaps. Study II investigates the impact of teacher sorting on mathematics achievement inequity and finds that more pronounced sorting by specialization exacerbates inequity in student achievement, and that this finding remains marginally significant after controlling for increasing socioeconomic school segregation. Studies III and IV investigate policy- and institution-level correlates of teacher sorting and teacher turnover, respectively. The results of Study III show a general pattern of mixed results related to stratification, accountability, autonomy, and competition, depending on the teacher quality indicator in focus. National economic development level as well as school competition were positively related to the slope on more than one occasion, however. Study IV found a more pronounced relationship between teacher turnover intentions and classroom SES in school systems with more widespread use of external accountability practices with student performance data. The results point to several key conclusions. First, there was evidence of inequity in teacher sorting across many educational systems to varying degrees. The patterns varied depending on how teacher qualifications and socioeconomic status were measured as well as how students were grouped. Next, the studies provided mixed results regarding school autonomy, accountability, competition and stratification, indicating that the determinants of socioeconomic teacher sorting do not easily generalize according to cross-national patterns. School competition was the single system-level variable to be associated with both qualifications. Despite this, performance data-based accountability (teacher appraisal) was consistently associated with higher turnover intention rates in low-SES settings. Appraisal of teacher performance for those working in lower-SES classrooms should rely on metrics other than performance data and should be conducted by those with appropriate knowledge of the school context. With respect to inequity in student outcomes, socioeconomic teacher sorting by specialization was found to have a modest effect. In most cases, priority should be given to democratizing access to teachers with appropriate content knowledge, but educational systems must go beyond providing socioeconomically disadvantaged students with teachers with basic qualification levels. While incentivizing the most competent teachers to work in socioeconomically disadvantaged settings is an ongoing challenge for many educational systems, building upon the content knowledge of underqualified mathematics teachers currently working in hard-to-staff settings is a worthwhile endeavor. Last, while reducing teacher sorting by specialization is likely to alleviate some degree of inequity in educational outcomes, it is not a panacea in the wider context of rising income inequality and social segregation in many educational systems.
Everyday Language Practices and the Interplay of Ideologies, Investment and Identities - Out-of-School Language Use and Dispositions among Young Adolescents in Multilingual Urban Settings in Sweden
(2022-11-11) Bylund, Jasmine
This thesis explores the out-of-school language use of young adolescents in contemporary multilingual urban neighborhoods, located in the three largest cities in Sweden. More specifically, the thesis explores the potential interplay of out-of-school language use, language ideologies, investment in languages and identities. Dimensions of multilingualism have attracted wide scholarly interest, yet the knowledge about the out-of-school language use and encounters among this group of adolescents in connection to language ideologies and identities, is limited. Employing an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, three different instruments have been used (questionnaire, language diaries and interviews). The study was conducted between 2019–2021 with young adolescents (N=92) aged 11–14 at schools located in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. Adopting a Bourdieusian approach, the notion of habitus, and the related pillars of capital and field, have guided the integrated analysis of the findings of the young adolescents’ practices and perceptions. Findings reveal patterns of young adolescents’ everyday use and encounters with Heritage Languages, Swedish, English and additional languages in a wide range of different activities and interactions. The patterns demonstrate a high prevalence of Swedish and English in most everyday activities. The use of Swe¬dish also dominates in interactions with siblings and friends whereas Heritage Languages tend to be more prevalent in interactional practices at home with parents and relatives. The findings also indicate how participants’ out-of-school language use is intertwined in various multifaceted ways with their language ideologies, investment in languages, identity constructions and linguistic sense of placement. While the language use patterns showed the distribution of languages in different activities and situations, integrated findings revealed underlying foundations of language practices and how the use of languages could be tied to several intersecting dimensions. The overall findings demonstrate how everyday language use and ideologies of languages play a vital role in shaping the young adolescents’ investment in languages, sense of placement and construction of identities. The findings in this thesis signify the importance of bridging the gap between home and school and for education to take a critical view on the role of language in educational equity. The young adolescents’ accounts and level of awareness signal the urgent need for education to take seriously how hierarchical relations of languages and language use impact young individuals’ perceptions of themselves, their imagined futures and sense of place in the social world.
Linking Recent and Older IEA Studies on Mathematics and Science
(2022-09-09) Majoros, Erika
The purpose of this thesis was to develop procedures that allow researchers to make reasonable comparisons of grade-eight mathematics and science achievement and motivation scales over a long time period, despite changes to the instruments, populations, and procedures between administrations. The data were selected from international large-scale assessments administered by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Student data were used from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and its four predecessors conducted before 1995. The assessments have targeted slightly different populations (13-year-olds, 14-year-olds, and eighth-grade students), and the constructs changed somewhat across administrations. The thesis, therefore, aimed to: 1) evaluate the degree of comparability across these assessments; 2) link the cognitive test results onto the TIMSS reporting scale with the use of item response theory (IRT) modeling; 3) explore the feasibility of linking the motivational scales in these assessments with different approaches in the IRT and structural equation modeling frameworks. Despite the assessments being carried out since the 1960s, a high level of stability in the inferences and cognitive constructs of the assessments was found. The measurement of the motivational constructs was found to be less stable. Overall, the results indicated that the comparability of the scales has improved over time. Different linking approaches were explored, and they yielded similar results in the country-level trend descriptions of achievement and motivation. The linking techniques applied in this thesis may be beneficial for linking other large-scale assessments, in which changes have occurred between administrations. Moreover, with the scales established in this thesis, it is possible to examine long-term changes in educational systems. Powerful statistical approaches may be applied to these system-level longitudinal data to address causal research questions.
Learning Principalship: Becoming a Principal in a Swedish Context
(2022-04-26) Jerdborg, Stina
Novice principals are expected to acquire professional skills by participating in education. Consequently, expectations are set for principal education to support novice principals in how to take on principalship. The aim of this study is to explore novice principals’ learning and their understanding of principalship in a Swedish context as the principals are socialised into their role through education and practice. The research questions are: How do principals engage in principal training in the interaction with their professional work practice? How can principals’ process of learning and understanding be explained? What is the importance of principal training in relation to the creation of a coherent school leader role for a contemporary school context? The study focuses on principals in Swedish compulsory schools who participate in their third and final year in the mandatory Swedish National Principal Training Programme. A qualitative research design elaborated from a practice perspective is adopted to explore principals’ processes of learning in complex contexts. A situated perspective is applied, interviewing and observing principals in both their educational and their workplace practice. In addition, teachers are interviewed in schools. Wenger’s social theory of learning constitutes the theoretical framework for the study. Three papers address principals’ processes of learning. In paper I, Educating school leaders: Engaging in diverse orientations to leadership practice, novice principals engagement in principal training is investigated together with how their identity forms in the interaction between their school leadership education and professional working practice. In paper II, Participation in the Swedish National Principal Training Programme: How does it intertwine with principals’ practice?, the focus is set on how participation in the Swedish principals’ programme actually intertwines with principals’ work. In paper III, Novice school principals in education and the enactment of pedagogical leadership in practice, novice principals’ enactment of pedagogical leadership in relation to their preparation and overall professional path toward principalship is examined. The findings show different understandings of leadership at play that effect socialisation into the role differently. Principals’ orientation toward work influences their participation in the educational programme and their experience of working practice. Three approaches are depicted, each of which describes professional identity development. Processes of learning and understanding are intertwined through principals’ engagement in programmes and practices, which affects school. This leads to development but also to conflicts and ruptures. Based on their programme participation, principals mirror their schools becoming external reviewers. The results show the importance of the principal moving into the schools’ core business and leading ‘from within’. Principals thus can take support from principal education, acting as brokers and gaining legitimacy as professional leaders. The findings show that leadership knowledge is developed in relation to principals’ previous areas of experience and expertise. However, the study makes clear that novice principals in taking the step into principalship, are often deprived of their expertise. If they cannot share their repertoire (with which to understand and develop practice), the principal cannot engage in pedagogical leadership. Likewise, not sharing a school leadership repertoire stemming from experiences of leadership practices means that principals are obstructed from learning in the programme and making connections with practice. Thus, novice principals in Sweden are at risk of becoming all new; that is, new in all senses of their professional lives and deprived of their ability to engage in pedagogical leadership practices. These findings suggest that the principal programme in its current format is focused on expert principals aiming to develop professionally but excludes novice participants who are still on the journey to becoming a principal. In sum, findings show that novice principals’ understandings of leadership can be closely attached to identity and neither easily nor naturally develop. Moreover, professional socialisation through education does not overcome former organisational socialisation. However, participation in the programme enables further development for participants with former experiences of their school practices and school leadership who take an organisational orientation to their role and work.
Digital studentkultur Om slutna grupper på Facebook som icke-formell arena i högre utbildning
(2022-03-31) Alexandra, Söderman
Sedan Facebook lanserades i Sverige 2006 har plattformen vuxit dramatiskt och utgör numer det dominerande sociala mediet även för svenska studenter. I tidigare forskning har fokus i hög grad riktats mot möjliga pedagogiska vinster med Facebook, eller Facebook som en alternativ lärandearena i högre utbildning. Denna avhandling tar istället avstamp i mediekritiska perspektiv och kultur- och utbildningssociologisk teori, inom vilken sociologen Pierre Bourdieus arbeten är centrala. Detta för att analysera den icke-formella studentkultur som tar form i studentorganiserade slutna Facebook-grupper. Det övergripande syftet är att bidra med fördjupad kunskap om varför digital studentkultur formeras som den gör i tre slutna Facebook-grupper kopplade till tre olika högre utbildningskontexter. I arbetet adresseras därför följande frågeställningar: Hur präglar studenternas dispositioner formeringen av de olika utbildningskontexternas digitala studentkulturer på Facebook? Vilka distinktionsmekanismer och andra dominansförhållanden kommer till uttryck i Facebook-grupperna och kring vilka värden och ställningstaganden formeras dessa? På vilka sätt formas Facebook som digital kulturell miljö av de tre olika högre utbildningskontexterna? De Facebook-grupper som ingår i studien studeras med etnografiska metoder och består av ett förskollärarprogram, ett statsvetarprogram samt en grupp för studenter på konst- och designutbildningar. Resultaten visar hur Facebook kommit att fungera som en första anhalt för nyblivna studenter, men också hur den studentkultur som tar form i dessa grupper är tydligt präglad av studentgruppernas sociala bakgrund. Därigenom framträder bland annat något som kan förstås och diskuteras som Facebooks inlåsningseffekt, eftersom studenternas dispositioner inte utmanas i de egenorganiserade slutna grupperna.
Exploring socioeconomic inequality in educational opportunity and outcomes in Sweden and beyond
(2021-05-17) Rolfe, Victoria
This doctoral thesis aims to explore Sweden’s achievement gap in international assessment and how this may have developed in the context of a network of educational inequalities. Theoretically grounded in the Model of Potential Educational Experiences (Schmidt, Raizen, Britton, Bianchi, & Wolfe, 1997), the thesis investigates how the relationship between the intended and attained curriculum is moderated by actions at the classroom level. Teacher implementation of the curriculum provides opportunities for students to learn yet is a source of inequity in the school system. Student socioeconomic background and the amount of subject content (or Opportunity to Learn – OTL) they are exposed to are judged to significantly influence student outcomes. Socioeconomic inequality of outcomes has been perennially observed in educational assessment and has been a topic of investigation since the mid-twentieth century, while a body of literature suggests that there is an equality gap in OTL, with more advantaged students offered more content coverage through their mathematics lessons. This compilation thesis features an integrative essay and three empirical studies, which apply statistical analysis to data from two international large-scale assessments, PISA and TIMSS. Study I investigated the measurement of socioeconomic status over time in Sweden. After establishing which questionnaire items consistently appeared in PISA, a measurement model bespoke to Sweden was constructed from 2000 data. The model was found to be replicable and trustworthy over time, establishing an alternative measure of SES applicable to 15 years of Swedish PISA data. In Study II socioeconomic inequalities in opportunity and outcomes in mathematics and science, and the question as to whether unequal opportunities perpetuate unequal outcomes were investigated in 78 countries using 4 cycles of TIMSS data. Achievement gaps were observed near universally. These achievement gaps were strong and increased across the cycles of TIMSS. Opportunity gaps were less frequently observed, and evidence that schooling exacerbates socioeconomic inequalities in outcomes was confined to a select group of countries including England, Malta, Scotland, and Singapore. Sweden’s achievement gap was consistent across the time points, and an opportunity gap was only observed in half the cycles. Finally, schooling mediated the effects of SES on achievement in only the 2003 cycle for Sweden, suggesting equitable mathematics provision in Sweden. Teachers are essential to the implementation of the curriculum, and their actions affect the experiences of students. Multiple inequalities in Swedish classrooms were explored in Study III. The 2015 TIMSS cycle was grouped by whether or not teachers were mathematics specialists. Overall, Swedish mathematics students experienced substantial gaps in achievement, opportunity and teacher quality. However, differing patterns of inequalities emerged in the grouped model. Among classes with specialist teachers there was a moderate opportunity gap, while those with non-specialists had a teacher quality gap. In both groups there was a socioeconomic gap in teacher perception of school ethos towards academics. The findings of this study underscore the importance of having high-quality teachers in mathematics classrooms as a temper of outcome inequity. Collectively, the findings of the constituent studies confirm the persistence of the achievement gap in Sweden and globally, contextualize the opportunity gap in Sweden, and underline the importance of item choice and construct measurement when modelling inequality using international data. Suggestions are made for further research integrating the thesis’s contribution to construction measurement into trend analyses of opportunity gaps, and combining register and international data to parse how changes in teacher education may affect equality in Swedish classrooms.
Den synliggjorda vokabulären och praktiken – gymnasieelevers akademiska skrivande på svenska
(2021-05-07) Ohlsson, Elisabeth
The thesis includes three studies and a kappa and it has a twofold focus; the first is on vocabulary, as the relevance of vocabulary skills is increasingly important, not least for writing in academic contexts. The second focus is on the language of instruction. Studies 1 and 2 investigate students’ texts written in L1 by two student groups of which one is taught through Swedish apart from language lessons and the other group through English in some or all non-language subjects. The latter group is referred to as Content and Language Integrated Learning, CLIL. The texts investigated were written at four different occasions at three different upper secondary schools in Sweden in a longitudinal study. The attention is on productive academic language proficiency in Swedish, where the usage of certain linguistic features characterizing academic writing is investigated. In the first two studies, a total of 520 texts were examined. For this purpose quantitative measures have been applied together with corpus linguistic methods in addition with lexical profiling. The various measures seek to explore if there are differences in the vocabulary use between CLIL and non CLIL students or male and female students. The impact of L2 on students’ L1 is sometimes raised as an apprehension against CLIL education in Sweden. The results regarding productive written academic vocabulary indicate that there is no ground for such concerns. Study 3 was carried out at one of the three schools with new secondary students to investigate if and how, instruction about specific text linguistic variables connected to academic writing might impact students’ productive writing. Five classes participated, three as a control group and two as a treatment group. The intervention began with a pre-test where all students wrote an essay. After a treatment both student groups had access to their pre-test essays and were asked to revise them as a post-test. The results showed a significant increase for the students in the treatment group compared to the students in the control group. The study comprises both quantitative and qualitative data. The results in this thesis can hopefully contribute to limiting the fear regarding L1 writing skills in CLIL education in the Swedish CLIL context. Implications regardless of medium of instruction are that a greater focus should be placed on linguistic awareness concerning choices when writing in school. Another implication drawn from the results of the three studies is that by visualizing the vocabulary in upper secondary students’ written texts in Swedish, cognition about language can provide a basis of writing knowledge.
Samtal under lärarlagsmöten. Diskursorienteringar i den professionella praktiken
(2021-03-25) Norrström, Anna
Teacher team meetings are potential arenas for professional communication, but such meetings take many different forms and cannot automatically be viewed as forums for constructive communication. The aim of this study is therefore to contribute with increased knowledge about the communication structures and discourse orientations found in teacher team meetings. The study is based on observations and audio recordings of meeting conversations that took place among five teacher teams. The meetings are analyzed using Basil Bernstein’s theory of horizontal and vertical discourses. An analytic tool is developed to analyze three conversational structures and their discursive orientation during meeting conversations, namely: ideational structure (content), interpersonal structure (relation) and textual structure (form). The results show that a horizontal discourse orientation operated in all observed meetings. This means that the conversations are segmented and characterized by frequent topic changes and multiple subject foci. Topics are mostly strongly context-bound and of a practical and logistical nature. Reasonings are based primarily on direct experience-based knowledge and a subjective approach. The conversations are also characterized by consensus, humor and a strong emphasis on closeness and care orientation. The language use is often vague and informal in nature. Both a vertical and a horizontal discourse orientation are important in teachers' professional conversations, but crucially both discourses must be present. Important parts of contextual awareness and reasoning can be omitted from meetings when solely utilizing a horizontally oriented discourse. It can also entail limitations in professional practice, for example in terms of considering and dealing with complex issues and generalizing beyond individual situations and experiences. This can lead to a lack of common understandings, an absence of joint reflections and insufficiently rigorous problem analyses, as well as the absence of a holistic view on professional issues.
Stability and Change
(2021-03-10) Mellén, Johanna
The key role Swedish upper secondary education plays in differentiating between higher education and labour market sectors has been discussed from an equality perspective over the last 60 years. Despite political incentives to reduce social biases students’ programme choices, research shows a persistent impact of both home environment and gender. This thesis is part of a long tradition of policy informing, large-scale, recruitment research. It contributes to this tradition by viewing student recruitment in the light of freedom of choice and marketization. Assuming that student recruitment patterns, educational policy, options and choice affect each other in a complex process, it also provides a possible framework for a deepened understanding of student recruitment. The thesis presents results from four separate studies exploring how upper secondary programmes are shaped in national policy documents and how students with different social backgrounds respond to the implemented options. These studies explore policy documents from 1963 to 2008 as well as Swedish national registry data for upper secondary enrolment from 1990 to 2015. The results show that students’ programme choices are deeply stratified along similar lines in all cohorts, but also highlight alternative patterns that emerge in relation to organisational and societal shifts. In general, students from academic homes are continuously overrepresented in academic preparatory programmes and the distribution of students over different programmes is deeply gendered. Moreover, the changes that do occur appear to enforce rather than to counter recruitment biases. The findings also suggest that previous, policy informing, student recruitment research has not only had an evaluating function, but has also contributed to shaping upper secondary programmes. The analytical divides that emerge in policy papers (academic/vocational and science/social) are here shown to shape programmes that are entangled in prevailing power relations and to circumscribe students’ possibilities to choose. In addition, it is shown that the aggregations of data that previous research used as representations of these divides risk hiding other differentiating processes that potentially affect young peoples’ opportunities in life. Consequently, this thesis argues that social biases can be discerned and challenged by continuously revisiting the constructs that shape the understandings of what upper secondary education is – and can be.
Barbiebröllop och Homohundar. Barn och barndomar i relation till queerhet och (hetero)normativa livslinjer
(2021-01-15) Sotevik, Lena
This dissertation investigates relations between sexualities, children and childhoods by examining the following questions: How are heteronormativity and normative life courses repeated, negotiated and challenged by children? How are norms of age, children and childhood given significance in relation to heteronormativity and queerness? How is the child featured in contemporary discourses regarding sexualities, normative life courses and possible futures? The study is based on the discourse analysis methodology of Foucault (1972, 1980, 1993, 2002) and inspired by Marcus’ (1995, 1998) ’multi-sited ethnography.’ Children’s play and meaning-making during the school day are studied using participatory observations. Preschool policy documents are analyzed to investigate in what way ‘sexual orientation’ is discussed in relation to discrimination and equal treatment, and teachers are interviewed on the subject of working with lgbtq certification and norm criticism in preschool. Sources within children’s culture, showing representations of same-sex love, provide another entrance for investigating how queerness is presented, and how this is discussed among adults. Critical perspectives from queer theory and childhood studies, where sexuality and age are considered simultaneously discursive, material and performative (Butler, 1990, 1993; Castaneda, 2003, Foucault, 2002; Lee, 2001), are combined theoretically. How age (childhood) norms and sexuality norms interact is investigated using queer-temporal theories (Ahmed, 2006; Dyer, 2014; Edelman, 2004; Halberstam, 2005; Stockton, 2009). The results of the included articles indicate that children normalize heterosexuality by (re)producing heteronormative family and couple discourses in their family play and wedding play. This emerges as age-coded heteronormativity, where norms of children and adults become visible through the way in which heteronormativity is repeated. At preschool, representations of ‘sexual orientation’ are primarily focused on families and family constellations, rarely mentioning interactions among the children. Queerness in relation to childhood emerges, at the same time, as something that is demanded and questioned. The child is used as a space for negotiation of society values, disguised as the question of what is good or bad for children. A conditional queerness emerges, at the intersection of lgbtq+ questions, as an increasingly desirable symbol of a democratic, modern and urban society, and as the expected absence of childhood sexuality, particularly queer sexuality. Queerness is made conditional through, for instance, desexualized love and family discourses. Age norms, in this case norms of children and childhoods, are significant for how, when and with which arguments queerness is represented.
Val-omröstning-styrning. En etnografisk studie om intentioner med, villkor för och utfall av barns inflytande i förskolan
(2020-05-04) Peterson, Carina
This thesis takes its point of departure in an interest in exploring how children’s participation is expressed in policy texts as well as in preschool practice. Participation can be viewed as a discourse of considerable importance both in Swedish society and its preschools. The aim of this study is to scrutinize and analyze discourses in policy texts dealing with children’s participation (both at national and transnational level). Also, how these discourses are recontextualized and realized in preschool practice. A further aim is to study and analyze how conditions for pedagogical practice affect the manner in which children’s participation is staged. In the analyses, Bernstein’s theory of pedagogy has been applied. Particular use has been made of the pedagogic device, a concept which makes it is possible to explain how policy intentions and preschool conditions are related to the realization of children’s participation. In the study an ethnographic approach has been used. During a period of one year, field studies were conducted in two preschools with children aged 2 to 5 years. Field notes have been taken while participant observation have been carried out. The policy analysis documents related to children’s participation, both at transnational and national level, have been searched, chosen and analyzed.The studying of children’s participation expressed in policy documents showed that certain competencies, such as being active, autonomous and responsible were related to children’s participation were indicative of competencies regarded as necessary in society. It also showed how the intentions for children’s participation were repeated in different policy contexts and related to the demands of a knowledge society. The field studies showed how conditions related to a preschool context, for example concerning curriculum goals and time related structures, affected how the teachers organized their work with children’s participation. The field study also showed that teacher-led formations of children’s participation included a large degree of regulation. The moments of choice, arranged by the teachers, were structured to control the content of the choices made by children as well as their behavior. The moments of choice also worked as a way of grouping children within the learning environment and to prevent them from circulating in the classrooms. The other teacher-led formation of children’s participation, voting, turned out to be hard to comprehend for the children. This was due to a teacher’s lack of complete instruction and implementation of the principles for voting. For example, the children, had problems understanding that they only had one vote at a time, and what the consequences of majority vote were.

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