Subproject 1 – informal and formal subject construction

School subjects are in constant change and in this project we put a focus on how school subjects are constructed in relation to formal and informal aspects and how this can be understood in relation to powerful knowledge. In addition we have a special interest in how these constructions can be understood from a policy perspective. With regard to formal aspects, we study how subjects are constructed and manifested in national tests of English, History and Swedish. National tests in Sweden have lately come to play an important role in monitoring and evaluating how students and schools succeed. Preparing, implementing and following-up the tests take a great deal of the teaching time and the tests also define for the teacher what subject content is relevant and important, i.e of high epistemic quality. Thus, the tests have a great influence on the teachers and the teaching. In this part of the project we combined qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the different test components in terms of frames, tasks and assessment guides is used. Also, teachers’ conceptions of the test components and the role of the tests in shaping the teachers’ understanding of their respective subject over time, are studied. 

Regarding informal aspects of subject constructions we explore a) how subject content and enactment take shape in various discussions in social media, especially Facebook and b) what role the use of digital devices, with a special focus on the student’s smart phones, play in the classroom interaction and subject construction. Thus, this part of the project specifically addresses issues related to digitalization of school and powerful knowledge. The Facebook-study follows Swedish Facebook groups where teachers of English, History, Mathematics and Swedish exchange tips and advice on lesson content, lesson design and assessment issues. It has a mixed method approach using both quantified data as a starting point followed up by text analysis and in depth interviews. In the other part we focus classroom and student activities from an interactional perspective and through video- and screen recordings we study how the connectedness is shaping and framing teaching in different subjects.

Project leader:

Christina Olin-Scheller, christina.olin-scheller@kau.se

Researchers:

Jorryt van Bommel, jorrbomm@kau.se

Héctor Pérez Priéto, hector.perez@kau.se

Yvonne Liljekvist, yvonne.liljekvist@kau.se

Ann-Christine Randahl, Ann-christine.randahl@kau.se

Johan Samuelsson, johan.samuelsson@kau.se

Erica Sandlund, erica.sandlund@kau.se

Pia Sundqvist, pia.sundqvist@kau.se

Marie Tanner, marie.tanner@kau.se