I artikeln undersöks hur elever positionerar sig och vilka kompetenser de använder i skapandet av digitala animationer i hybrida läraktiviteter. Syftet är att bidra med kunskap om centrala utgångspunkter för design av undervisning som innefattar hybrida läraktiviteter. Data består av videoobservationer av elever som tillsammans skapar digitala animationer i svenska, matematik och kemi. Studien tar utgångspunkt i det teoretiska perspektivet Design för Lärande, där undervisning och lärande betraktas som en form av multimodal design. Multimodal interaktionsanalys används för att analysera elevernas handlingar. Resultatet visar att eleverna använder tre kompetenser i de hybrida läraktiviteterna; digital kompetens, social kompetens och ämneskompetens. Utifrån hur kunniga och delaktiga eleverna är framträder fem olika positioneringar: kapten, guide, utforskare, missnöjd passagerare och passagerare. I artikeln diskuteras hur de olika positioneringarna och kompetenserna förhåller sig till och varandra och samverkar i hybrida läraktiviteter, samt vad lärare kan fokusera på i sin design av undervisning med digitala verktyg. 

In this article, the focus is on how students position themselves and what competencies they use when creating digital animations. The aim is to contribute with knowledge about important aspects for designing teaching that includes hybrid learning activities. The data consists of video observations of pupils' collaborative creation of digital animations in Swedish, Mathematics, and Chemistry. Multimodal interaction analysis was applied to analyze the pupils' actions. The study is theoretically framed by Design for Learning, where both teaching and learning are viewed as a form of multimodal design. The results showed five different positionings: captain, guide, explorer, dissatisfied passenger, and passenger. Three different competencies that pupils used in the hybrid learning activities were identified: digital, social, and subject competence. How the different positions and competencies relate to and interact with each other in hybrid learning activities were discussed, as well as what teachers can focus on in their design for learning. 

The purpose of this study is to explore Swedish secondary school teachers' experiences ofparental involvement in their children's education, with a particular focus on how thisintersects with teachers' professionalism. While positive relationships between teachers andparents have historically been seen as essential for students' educational outcomes, recentresearch has highlighted the potential challenges that excessive parental involvement canpose for teachers' professional responsibilities (Dahl, 2017). In Sweden, such parentalinteractions are increasingly seen as problematic, with reports from teachers' unionsindicating that parents make unreasonable demands, such as influencing grading decisionsor showing excessive concern for their own child's progress (Lärarförbundet, 2020).Teachers report that these problems have increased over time (Hedlin & Frank, 2022).This study applies the theoretical framework of teacher professionalism, conceptualized as abalance between two logics: professional responsibility and professional accountability(Englund & Solbrekke, 2015). Professional responsibility is based on trust and a commitmentto act in the interests of concrete others, i.e. citizens, while professional accountabilityimplies that teachers must report and explain their actions to external actors such asparents, school management and society. The study uses these logics to explore howteachers navigate and manage the different approaches to parental involvement Empiricaldata were collected through 17 semi-structured interviews with secondary school teachers.During these interviews, participants engaged with vignettes depicting hypothetical scenariosof teacher-parent interactions, allowing for reflective discussion of their strategies andperceptions. The findings contribute to an understanding of how teachers balancemaintaining their professional autonomy while responding to parental expectations, and offerinsights into the evolving nature of teacher professionalism in an educational context.

References

Dahl, K. (2017). Too much parental cooperation? Parent–teacher cooperation and how itinfluences professional responsibility among Danish schoolteachers. Power and Education, 9(3), 177-191.

Englund, & Solbrekke (2015). Om innebörder i lärarprofessionalism. Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, 20(3-4), 168-194.

Hedlin, M., & Frank, E. (2022). “They Want a Reply Immediately!” Teachers’ PerceptionsAbout Contact Between Home and School. Journal of Teacher Education and Educators,11(2), 271-288.

Lärarförbundet (2020). Varannan lärare utsätts för orimliga föräldrakrav. 

There are positive associations between parent-teacher collaboration and students’ well-being and achievement in school (Epstein, 2018; Borgonovi & Montt, 2012). Policies in many countries state that parental involvement should be an integral part of the school routine and teachers’ work. According to the Swedish curriculum, guardians and schools share responsibility for creating good conditions for students’ development and learning. However, parent-teacher relations are complex as teachers and parents often hold different views of the functions of parental involvement. Moreover, due to a lack of school routines and common guidelines, teachers are often left to develop their own strategies to manage parental involvement (Hedlin & Frank, 2022). This study addresses the question: How do teachers navigate their context with respect to the management of parental involvement? It explores teachers’ perspectives and experiences, drawing upon an ecological view of teacher agency (Priestley et al., 2015) that understands agency as achieved through the interplay of previous experience, aspirations, and available cultural, structural, and material resources.

Analysis of 17 interviews with teachers reveals that the best interests of their students typically guide teacher-parent relations. This results in substantial efforts from teachers to establish trustful collaborations and be readily available, especially to parents of children at risk of low achievement. However, experiences of sometimes being questioned and distrusted by parents make teachers spend significant time on demonstrating a solid foundation for professional judgments. The results also show that teachers prioritize among limited resources to meet parents’ demands regarding individual students while caring for the needs of all students. This can be understood in light of the undermining of school as a universal institution in Sweden, which has led to the possibility for resourceful parents to exert a large influence in school, at the expense of educational equity (Englund, 2009).

References

Borgonovi, F., & Montt, G. (2012). Parental involvement in selected PISA countries and economies. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 73. OECD Publishing.

Englund, T. (2009). The general school system as a universal or a particular institution and its role in the formation of social capital. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 53(1), 17-33.

Epstein, J. L. (2018). School, family, and community partnerships in teachers’ professional work. Journal of Education for Teaching, 44(3), 397-406.

Hedlin, M., & Frank, E. (2022). They want a reply immediately!: Teachers talk about contact between home and school. Journal of Teacher Education and Educators, 11(2), 271-289.

Priestley, M., Biesta, G., & Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher agency: what is it and why does it matter? In R. Kneyber & J. Evers (Eds.), Flip the System: Changing Education from the Bottom Up. Routledge.

 The aim of this study is to explore teachers’ experiences of parental involvement in a digital era and its impact on their work environment. The research question guiding the study is: How do teachers describe their use of digital technologies in communication with parents and in relation to different boundary strategies? Data were generated through 17 in-depth interviews with teachers. The theoretical foundation informing the study is Rosa’s theory of social acceleration (Rosa, 2003). A central point is that digitization and the growing reliance on digital technologies in daily activities are significant game-changers for education and for educational research (Säljö, 2018). Digitization has significantly altered the communicational landscape, making interaction and information distribution more complex (Jewitt, 2011). This aligns with Rosa’s argument that technological acceleration leads to social change acceleration, which in turn impacts the “pace of life” (Rosa, 2003, p. 12). Consequently, this also affects parent’s communication with teachers, parental involvement and how teachers handle parental contacts (Alieva, 2021; Hedlin & Frank, 2022; Krumsvik et al., 2016). Preliminary results highlight teachers’ nuanced descriptions of handling parents’ communication and involvement in a digital era, addressing both challenges and opportunities in relation to their work environment. The challenges seem to be related to the impact of digital technologies on the boundary between work and leisure time – for some teachers, it has become blurred. Meanwhile, other teachers’ use digital technologies to uphold a strict boundary between work and leisure time. Furthermore, there is a noted difference in how parents use digital technologies. A significant issue is that some parents lack “BankID” a simple electronic form of identification required to log in to digital platforms. As a result, these parents are limited in their ability to be involved in their children’s education because they cannot access all the available information.

Collaboration as means for development purposes is a widely desired goal within educational organizations and encapsulates an array of different actors linked to school operations as well as interconnected practices. While this holds true, implementing collaborative structures is associated with multiple hardships and challenges in practice. The aim of this study was to explore processual aspects of collaboration between two interconnected practices in the Swedish school system: the compulsory school and the Swedish school-age educare, and through this exploration propose a framework for understanding how these aspects might affect collaboration between inter-connected educational practices. Designed as a qualitative study, individual practice studies through questionnaires were collected from teachers in the Swedish school-age educare and principals responsible for the educational program. The findings of the study highlight factors hindering and enabling collaboration (and cooperation) between the interconnected practices, and based on these findings propose a frame-work grounded in interorganizational relationship-theory as a tool for future research on similar collaborative processes.

The aim of this study is to explore how School-Age Educare Centers (SAEC) adapt to the circumstances and needs of pupils living in areas with socioeconomic challenges, and how SAEC can contribute to promote pupils’ continued learning and knowledge development for further education and for life. The Swedish school-age educare offers education and care for children aged 6-12 years old, before and after school. The following research question guides the study: What claims are made about the SAEC contribution to pupils in terms of subjectification and qualification? Data consist of 13 interviews with school leaders working in schools in vulnerable areas, neighborhoods at risk, and particularly exposed zones identified by the Swedish Police. Qualitative content analysis was applied. The study is theoretically grounded in Biesta’s concepts subjectification and qualification, which are used as aspects of education. This study contributes with nuanced descriptions of how the SAEC mission to compensate and complement is claimed to be put into practice. One conclusion is that school-age educare centers can make a difference in children’s life conditions and prerequisites for succeeding in school. Another conclusion is that school-age educare centers emerge as potential arenas for crime prevention 

VI LÄRARE DEBATT: Regeringens uppdrag till Skolverket – att göra utbildningen i förskolan skärmfri – riskerar att ge negativa och allvarliga konsekvenser, särskilt för barn som är i störst behov av att möta en digitaliserad värld med stöd av utbildade förskollärare och barnskötare. Det skriver 27 barn- och förskoleforskare i ett gemensamt upprop.

The present study aimed to investigate and problematize an attractive school-age educare (SAEC) from the children’s perspectives. Which different aspects of quality appear in the children’s narratives about the SAEC activities? This was achieved by listening to children’s narratives and their voices. Forty-three children aged 6 to 10 participated in group conversations with the staff intheir SAEC center. The study is theoretically based on a childhood sociological lens where childrenare recognized as active participants and agents for change and therefore important to listen to.The results show that an attractive School-Age Educare requires committed staff who inspire new discoveries, its own identity-specific premises with appropriate materials, the provision of planned and guided activities, the offering of unexpected and non-routine activities, and space for children’s agency to influence and to choose and to direct one’s own time. It is shown that free choices can both expand and limit children’s agency. In addition, the study illustrates how conversations with children can form a basic method for both developing quality and making the contextual factors for children’s agency visible.

Previous research shows that pupils’ participation in educational activities increases when they are allowed to use several forms of expression. Furthermore, digital media have become increasingly prominent as “carriers” of meaning in chemistry education. Based on that, this paper aims to explore ‘what is happening’ and ‘what is possible’ when six-year-old pupils participate in multimodally designed learning activities and create digital animations of water molecules and phase changes of water. This study is qualitative and draws on the frameworks of social semiotics and Designs for Learning, DfL, where teaching and learning are seen as a multimodal design. The Learning Design Sequence model, developed within DfL is used as a basis for the lesson design and as an analytical tool. The analyzed data were generated by filming when pupils participated in multimodal learning activities, created digital animations, and participated in meta-reflective discussions regarding their digital animations. The main findings are that multimodally designed lessons can increase pupils’ meaning making in chemistry, that the creation of digital animations may both increase pupils’ participation and support their meaning making, and that meta-reflection of pupils’ representations is an important part of the lesson design.

This study focuses on how teachers' work-related boundaries are challenged in relation to students' parents. Historically,good relationships between teachers and parents have been regarded as a success factor for students' school results. This isalso how parents' involvement in their children's education often has been discussed in research. In recent years, however,teachers' parental contacts in Sweden have come to be discussed as problematic for teachers. The teachers' union reportsthat teachers feel that parents make unreasonable demands (Lärarförbundet 2020); e.g., attempt to control teachers byexpressing opinions on their grading, or show what is perceived as excessive solicitousness for their own child. Teachersdescribe this as a problem that has intensified over time (Hedlin & Frank, 2022). Against this background, the aim is tocontribute knowledge about teachers' work-related boundaries in relation to parents and how these are maintained andchallenged.Theoretical frameworkIn this study, boundary theory is used to identify how teachers' work-related boundaries are created and maintained(Aronsson, 2018). Boundless work can mean freedom and be experienced positively. At the same time, it can contribute tofeeling the demand of always having to be available, which might be stressful. Individuals can use strategies to safeguardtheir private life by trying to keep work and leisure separate, segmentation. A segmenting strategy can mean not answeringe-mails at home. Other strategies can be about reducing the friction between work and leisure, integration. Betweensegmentation and integration, there is a spectrum with great variation.Female teachers are more exposed to parental demands, because teachers' work is associated with norms of femininity inthe form of expectations to provide care, and prioritise the needs of others (Widding, 2013). Therefore, boundary theory iscombined with Connell's (2009) gender theory, which describes how the verbal, bodily and material aspects of socialrelations create gender patterns, a gender order. Methodological designThe presentation is based on 15 semi-structured interviews with teachers. During the interviews, participants reflected onvignettes that illustrated fictitious cases of teachers' parental contacts.Expected conclusions/findingsPreliminary results show that teachers' work-related boundaries in relation to parents are maintained and challenged byideals of good relations with homes, availability, care for the students, and collegiality.Relevance to Nordic educational researchThe Nordic countries stress the importance of parental involvement in their children’s schooling. Much research has focusedon parents’ opportunities to engage in children’s schooling, but Nordic educational research has also highlighted thatteachers’ professional responsibility can be weakened by too much parental cooperation (Dahl, 2017).

Aronsson, G. (2018). Gränslöst arbete: En forskarantologi om arbetsmiljöutmaningar i ett gränslöst arbetsliv.Arbetsmiljöverket.

Connell, R. (2009). Om genus. Daidalos.Dahl, K. (2017). Too much parental cooperation? Parent–teacher cooperation and how it influences professional responsibilityamong Danish schoolteachers. Power and Education, 9(3), 177-191

Hedlin, M., & Frank, E. (2022). “They Want a Reply Immediately!” Teachers’ Perceptions About Contact Between Home andSchool. Journal of Teacher Education and Educators, 11(2), 271-288.

Lärarförbundet (2020). Varannan lärare utsätts för orimliga föräldrakrav.Widding, G. (2013). "Det ska funka" -Om genus betydelse i relationen hem och skola. Umeå Universitet.