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  • 1.
    Erlandsson, Magnus
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Edu-preneurial marketing to school leaders: strategies, stories and consequenses2019In: NERA 2019 Abstract Book, 2019, p. 187-188Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    Research topic: New actors in the field of education – ‘edu-preneurs’ – now offer a multitude of products and services to schools: digital solutions, school development models, teaching material, conferences, professional development, etc. This paper is part of a larger study, of which the purpose is to explore under what conditions, in what forms and with which consequences these ‘edu-preneurial’ actors market, sell and implement their products and services in Swedish schools. Theoretical framework: Theoretically this project learns from earlier studies concerning neoliberal governing, the marketization of school and the ongoing blurring of boundaries between public and private sectors. Methodological design: The larger study is accomplished through interviews with school leaders as well as with edupreneurial companies. In this specific paper we study what happens inside school because of edupreneurial engagement. We analyse the total amount of marketing material sent via mail and e-mail (and collected in this research study) to 12 participating school leaders during 2018-2019 and our interviews with these school leaders about the collected material. In focus of the paper are the implications for school leaders and how they experience the impact of edu-preneurial actors; what areas and tasks are outsourced, why and how the school organization is affected in terms of administration, teaching and learning. We are also interested in the strategies and marketing of the edu-preneurs themselves and what messages they want to convey to school leaders. The data is analysed from the following questions: • Quantity and distribution. What is the extent of the collected material and how is it distributed between different schools? • Stories. What does the empirical data tell us about the Swedish schoolÅLs challenges and solutions? • Themes. Is every possible school issue addressed, is there something for everyone, or is it all about one dominant theme? Expected findings: The data collection is ongoing and the results to be presented will be preliminary. We expect to have results telling us about 1) the extent and content of the marketing material sent out to school leaders by edu-preneurial actors in the Swedish context, 2) what products and services school leaders buy and under what terms and conditions, and 3) what kind of impact these external actors and solutions have, for school leaders, staff, pupils, and school practice. Relevance: Previous research has studied these questions on a policy-level. This study explores the micro-level where the operationalisation of different policies can be observed. We assert that knowledge about the micro-level help us understand the effects of outsourcing essential parts of education to external actors. As edu-prenurial engagement in education is a global phenomenon this is of importance in our Nordic context. We conclude by discussing this in terms of what counts as valid knowledge, good teaching and effective learning.

  • 2.
    Erlandsson, Magnus
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Inboxes and Outputs: Stories from edu-preneurial marketing to school leaders2019Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    In their Inboxes, Swedish school leaders are confronted with offers of a multitude of products and services awaiting their action: digital solutions, school development models, conferences, professional development, etc. These emails are the point of departure of this study, aiming to analyse what happens inside school because of edu-preneurial engagement. Our study is part of a larger research project aiming to explore under what conditions, in what forms and with which consequences ‘edu-preneurial’ actors market, sell and implement their products and services in Swedish schools. An underlying thesis is that external actors are part of translating educational policy as well as offering tools for implementation of these policies. While previous research has studied these questions on a policy-level (Simons, Lundahl & Serpieri 2013; Ball 2009), our study explores the micro-level where the operationalisation of policies can be observed. Theoretically this project learns from earlier studies concerning neoliberal governing (Rizvi and Lingard 2010), the marketization of school (Bunar and Ambrose 2016), and the ongoing blurring of boundaries between public and private sectors (Ball 2007). The collection of empirical data is ongoing and consists of audiotaped focus group interviews with twelve school leaders as well as all the marketing material sent via mail and e-mail to them and gathered for three weeks (for each school leader, covering the whole year together) in 2018-2019. The data is analysed from the following themes and questions: 1) Stories, themes and policy. What does the empirical data tell us about the Swedish school´s challenges and solutions? How does this story, according to school leaders, resonate with school leaders’ actual realities and with ongoing national educational policy changes? 2) Quantity and distribution. What is the extent of the collected material and how is it distributed between different schools? 3) Content, timing and motive. What products and services do the school leaders eventually buy, when and why? In this symposium we expect to present results from all three themes, all though putting an emphasis on the first one: the stories emerging from the collected marketing materials and the stories about these stories. We assert that researching the educational micro-level in this way contributes to the understanding about the effects of national policies and the impact of external actors in implementing policy. As edu-prenurial engagement in education is a global phenomenon this is of importance in our European context. References: Ball, S.J. 2007. Education Plc: Understanding private sector participation in public sector education. London: Routledge. Ball, S. (2009). Privatising education, privatising education policy, privatising educational research: network governance and the ‘competition state’, Journal of Education policy, 24(1), 83-99. Bunar, N., & Ambrose, A. (2016). Schools, choice and reputation: Local school markets and the distribution of symbolic capital in segregated cities. Research in Comparative and International Education, 1, 1-18. Rizvi, F., & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing education policy. London: Routledge. Simons, M., Lundahl, L., & Serpieri, R. (2013). The Governing of Education in Europe: Commercial Actors, Partnerships and Strategies. European Educational Research Journal, 12(4), 416-424.

  • 3.
    Ideland, Malin
    et al.
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Axelsson, Thom
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Jobér, Anna
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Helping hands?: Exploring school’s external actor-networks2016Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    During the last decade, the “failure” of the Swedish educational system has been frequently reported in the public debate. Due to this, a large edu-political apparatus has been implemented in a tremendous pace, for instance teacher legitimation and new curricula. Aside from these politically organized reforms, we can see a growing apparatus of “helping” actors, changing the educational landscape in Sweden as well in Europe. On the international arena McKinsey & Company, the OECD and Pearson Education are examples of big international edu-business, influencing national school systems all over the world (Gorur, 2011; Tröhler, 2009). Meanwhile, there is an emerging field of “helping” actors on a national level, for instance The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise´s (CSE) and private companies’ support of the teacher education Teach for Sweden, learning game developers, companies organizing and assessing schools, homework companies, teaching materials developed by Non Governmental Organizations. These actors come into being in a discourse of knowledge-based economy (Ball, 2012; Lawn & Grek, 2012) and a school crisis. School’s failure becomes translated into an underused potential to foster employable, internationally competitive and flexible citizens, inviting different actors, often lacking formal educational expertise, to “help”. The discourse of a Swedish schools crisis has come into being through a set of neoliberal ideals shaping common sense ways of imagining and practicing schooling (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010; Savage et al, 2013), such as “transparent” testing and rankings (Ball, 2012; Connell, 2013) with certain implications on educational system as well as other sectors of society, producing strategies, activities as well as subjectivities (Simons & Masschelein, 2008; Popkewitz, 2011; Serder & Ideland, 2015). As well, in the heart of neoliberalism lies the idea that individuals are free, but also obliged, to create their life trajectories through informed choices and life-long learning (Kaščák & Pupala, 2011). This opens up for edu-business activities also in students’ leisure time. In a recently started project we study “helping” actors and practices on a national level to show a Swedish example of the current transformation of education in Europe. We look at the phenomenon as an actor-network unfolding outside the formal edu-political systems, in a myriad of connections (Fenwick, 2011). The marketisation of education and the impact of knowledge economy have been extensively studied on a macro-level, with a neoliberal agenda pointed out and criticised for everything from school profits to emerging poverty (Connell, 2013). Here we leave the well-studied macro-level for near-sighted investigations of how the educational crisis in the knowledge economy unfolds in an unruly landscape outside formal educational systems. The purpose of the overall project is to study with what aims, under what conditions, in what forms and with which consequences non-educational actors engage in Swedish schools. This will be done through exploring enactments and negotiations of the discourse of Swedish school in crisis in and through contexts and activities outside the formal edu-political system. However, this specific paper presents results from the first part of the project, a pre-study in the shape of a network analysis built on netographic and ethnographic investigations of different actors in the external network. The questions are: How are edu-political discourses translated and materialised through different practices and negotiations in the network? What kinds of different actors are trying to “help” Swedish school and how are they linked to each other? What kinds of problems are they offering solutions to and with which means? In what ways do they legitimate their “help”? The study contributes to the understanding of politically un-governed enactments of the well-described marketisation of school, how the marketization in combination with an experienced crisis open up for new actions and actors.

  • 4.
    Ideland, Malin
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Jobér, Anna
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Axelsson, Thom
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Erlandsson, Magnus
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Edu-preneurs in the welfare state. On how commercial actors make themselves indispensable through defining problems and offering solutions2018In: NERA abstract book, 2018, p. 480-480Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    Research topic/aim: According to current debates, Swedish schools are experiencing severe problems: decreasing results in international large-scale assessments, increasing segregation, and not preparing students for job markets. This discourse has enabled an apparatus of commercial actors, ‘edu-preneurs’, offering solutions. This paper explores what happens when governing and practicing of education becomes distributed on commercial actors. The aim is to shed light on how educational policy is moved, translated, and fixed in entanglements of public and private rationalities and what this means for understandings of knowledge, teaching, and learning. Theoretical framework: We understand this growing apparatus of edu-preneurs as a result of that a shift in the responsibility of Swedish schooling is taking place (Ball, 2009). ‘Statework’, in terms of educational governance, is now carried out through an assemblage of public and private actors. This shift is understood in a historical context of neoliberalism. With Ball’s (2009) words we can call it a ‘recalibration of the state’, through which the organization of public institutions has changed – but also the meanings and practices of schooling as well as possible subjectivities for teachers and students. Methodological design: Empirically, the paper illuminates what we call the public/private statework through entering three different policy fields: research-based education, digitalization, and entrepreneurship. The data consist of a nethographical mapping of edu-preneurial companies and a close-up analysis of how three companies make themselves up as normalized educational actors. The analysis employs actor-network theory to explore of how the idea of schooling is constructed on the edu-preneurs’ websites through, formulating problems and solutions and enrolling a range of actors into the governing and practices of education. Findings and conclusions: The edu-preneurs made up themselves as taken for granted as actors, first, as defining problems: the Swedish school system is in crisis and in need for help. This is done through explicitly relating to a narrative of teaching as outdated, educational research as ‘fuzzy’ and unpractical, and schools distanced from ‘reality’ and the labour market. In the companies’ solution to this problem, they become important actors through talking about structured work, practical solutions, and modern (digital) ways of teaching. They enrol ‘friends’ into the assemblage in the shapes of education superstars, partner companies, technological devices, and policy bodies. We suggest that the companies translate the idea of schooling and carry with them epistemic implications, as well as a cultivation of desirable subjectivities. Understandings of what is useful ‘research’ as well as ‘important knowledge’ are claimed and limited. Teacher subjectivity is characterized as flexible and effective and the student subjectivity as entrepreneurial. The ideas of what knowledge is, and how teaching and learning should ‘happen’, privilege ‘business-like’ methods. Relevance to Nordic educational research: The Swedish case is interesting in a wider Nordic context since it sheds light on on-going processes in the Nordic countries through which the welfare state is transformed into a market. References: Ball, S. J. (2009). Privatising education, privatising education policy, privatising educational research: network governance and the ‘competition state’, Journal of Educational Policy, 24(1), 83-99.

  • 5.
    Ideland, Malin
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Childhood, Education and Society (BUS).
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Edu-business within the Triple Helix: Value production through assetization of educational research2021Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    Growing demands on evidence-based teaching and an increasing business involvement together constitute a double-sided transformation of compulsory education in which educational research has become a commodity and a selling point for commercial companies. Thus, new intersections – or Triple Helix – between business sector, research and school are emerging as an asset within business contexts.  The aim of the paper is to explore in what different ways, and with what different motives, do people in edu-business use research, and what kinds of values do they expect to produce through the use of research? The paper builds on interviews with 30 Swedish edupreneurs, i.e. people working within edu-business such as ed-tech .

    From an analysis the interviews, five different approaches are identified, describing the edupreneurs’ manifold ways of using, relating to, and translating research into sellable products. The different approaches are categorized as Philanthropists, Influencers, Ambassadors, Brokers, and Engineers. Using the theoretical lens of assetization, we show how different values are produced through these different approaches. The value could be (1) economic – strengthening the company’s credibility and brand; (2) pedagogical – changing teaching and learning practices; (3) political – lobbying for policy change; (4) academic – defining useful research and (5) social – building networks.  However, there are also similarities regarding the different approaches; they all emphasize that Triple Helix collaborations ought to be naturalized, however preserving the entrepreneurial right to define useful research and meanwhile providing legitimacy through the power of research – an important asset on the edu-market. A remaining question, then, is what ‘research use’ becomes in school, when its existence and dissemination is translated through commercial interests? What does it mean for an education system struggling to become ‘based on science’?  

    The study is relevant in a Nordic perspective (and beyond) since Triple Helix collaborations, evidence-based education and a growing edu-business are cultural and political phenomena travelling across national borders. Considering that, we claim that there is an urgent need for a discussion on how they are played out in the context of Nordic welfare states. 

  • 6.
    Ideland, Malin
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Childhood, Education and Society (BUS).
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Edu-business within the Triple Helix. Value production through assetization of educational research2023In: Education Inquiry, E-ISSN 2000-4508, Vol. 14, no 3, p. 336-351Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Growing demands on evidence-based teaching, combined with increasing business involve-ment, constitute a transformation of education in which research and research collaborations have become commodities and selling points for companies. This article, building on interviews with 30 Swedish edupreneurs, explores how the discursive trope of the Triple Helix organises collaborations between the business sector, research, and school. In what ways do people in edu-business use research and research collaborations and what kinds of values do they expect to produce through different practices? The study identifies five approaches to research - philanthropists, influencers, ambassadors, brokers, and engineers - and describe the edupreneurs' manifold ways of using, relating to, and translating research into sellable products. Using the theoretical lens of assetization, we show how different values are produced: (1) economic - strengthening the company's brand; (2) pedagogical - changing teaching practices; (3) political - lobbying for policy change and changing public conversations; (4) academic - defining useful research and funding research, and (5) social - building networks. We conclude that the striving for Triple Helix collaborations preserves the entrepreneurial right to define useful research and providing legitimacy through the power of research, an important asset on the edu-market.

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  • 7.
    Ideland, Malin
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Childhood, Education and Society (BUS).
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Joy, pride, and shame: on working in the affective economy of edu-business2023In: British Journal of Sociology of Education, ISSN 0142-5692, E-ISSN 1465-3346, Vol. 44, no 5, p. 860-878Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This study focuses on what people working in edu-business want to achieve. The aim is to explore (1) how the edu-business sector is discursively constructed as a work-place and part of the education system, and (2) how this discourse is organized within an affective economy - that is how the valuation of emotions distinguish what are considered as 'good' or 'bad' subjectivities, practices, and institutions. The analysis draws on interviews with 22 people working in Sweden's edu-business sector. The results illuminate three discourses: a bureaucratic, an entrepreneurial, and a profit discourse. Emotions attached to the bureaucratic discourse are anxiety, guilt, and boredom. Connected to the entrepreneurial discourse are joy, creativity, and well-being. Shame and pride are attached to the profit discourse. The affective economy constructs the business sector as desirable and the public sector as its opposite. Studying 'the bright side' of neoliberalism helps us to understand its power.

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    fulltext
  • 8.
    Ideland, Malin
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Childhood, Education and Society (BUS).
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Restless souls and the joy of edupreneurialism.2022Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    As many studies have illustrated, education systems all over the world have been subjected to neoliberal politics and commercial agendas. Not at least is this taking place in the Nordic countries. The present paper seeks to understand these transformations from the perspective of the people working in the Swedish edu-business sector; that is, in commercial companies selling products and services to educational institutions. What do they want to achieve – for themselves, for school and for their companies – and how is that related to how it feels to work in school versus in edu-business? The aim is to explore (1) how the edu-business sector is discursively constructed as a workplace and part of the education system and; (2) how this discourse is organized within an affective economy; that is, how the valuation of emotions distinguish what are considered as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ subjectivities, practices and institutions. 

     

    The paper builds on 22 interviews performed in a larger ethnographic study, in which we followed the work of education companies in the Swedish education market. The companies operate within different business areas, such as the production and retailing of teaching materials, in-service teacher-training, consulting services, and digital education products. The analysis of interviews is approached from Ahmed’s notion of “affective economies”. This concept makes it possible to understand how feelings are culturally valued and capitalized on. Hence, the study contributes with knowledge on how neoliberal policies, subjectivities, and affects interplay.

     

    From the interviews we conclude the that reasons for working in edu-business relate to career opportunities, but also to personal well-being and to aspirations to do good for school or for a company. Two main discourses – the entrepreneurial and the bureaucratic – organize how the interviewees make sense of working in the business sector. These discourses constitute each other as opposites, forming a crisis narrative of a bureaucratic school system stretched to its boundaries by administration, versus a flexible, joyful private sector. The bureaucratic discourse reflects the ‘dark side’ of neoliberalization – which is taking place in school and is attached to feelings such as boredom, anxiety, and guilt. The entrepreneurial discourse represents the “bright side”, opening possibilities for individuals to work in the private sector and is attached to emotions such as joy, creativity, and well-being. Also, a profit discourse organizes the talk, addressing the role of economic gains and how that is connected to feelings such as shame, but also pride. The affective economy constructs the business sector as desirable and the public sector as its opposite. 

     

    We argue that studying the affective economy of neoliberalism helps us to understand why the business sector is a luring workplace. Studying not only the problems, but also the possibilities, of neoliberalism helps us to understand its power. Thus, we can engage deeper in the forces that are upholding the system. Some of the forces are political or economic, others are emotional. Most of them are both. 

  • 9.
    Jobér, Anna
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Dovemark, Marianne
    Player-Koro, Catarina
    Dobrochinski Candido, Helena Hinke
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Erlandsson, Magnus
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Popkewitz, Thomas
    Seppänen, Piia
    Thrupp, Martin
    Doing democracy. Research Perspectives on Risks and Responsibilities within a Marketised Education. PART 12019Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    Description of the symposium A general aim for school systems around the world is to prepare future citizens to participate in and contribute to society. In most western countries, this is upheld and developed within notions and practices of democracy and citizenship. Consequently, there is a close relationship between education and democracy. In times of increased global movements and diversity among students, issues of democracy therefore gain further attention, becoming a high-stake concept, recently seen in for example the new OECD framework on Global competence. At the same time, marketisation and privatisation of education rapidly change the foundations of schooling (Ball, 2009; Rizvi, & Lingard, 2010). This could be understood as parts of global transformations and trends that in many cases are supported by neoliberal visions, visions that reshape educational systems (Beach, 2010; Popkewitz, 2008). This rearrangement influences all parts of schooling and creates consequences on many levels. To name a few, the rearrangement involves profitable businesses, competitive and governing structures, digitalisation, rearranging of decision-making and responsibility, and renegotiation of discourses, positions and processes (Ball, 2009; Bunar, & Ambrose, 2016; Dovemark & Erixon Arreman, 2017; Verger, Lubienski, & Steiner-Khamsi, 2016). Furthermore, new ways of acting and communicating can be seen when policy actors, private companies, NGOs, school leaders, researchers, and lobby groups collaborate in entangled networks resulting in blurring boundaries and interwoven practices (Ball, 2018; Simons, Lundahl, & Serpieri, 2013). This in turn impacts on accountability, risk-taking, responsibility and transparency. Thus, educational spaces become fundamentally transformed and issues of democracy, societal problems, citizenship, accessibility and the like need to be renegotiated in relation to a changed educational landscape. This symposium will illuminate and discuss these changes and their consequences. For example, what happens with decision-making processes, accessibility, diversity, and political actions? What logics becomes changed, manifested or inscribed? What can be marketed, and becomes possible to sell? Could one say that citizenship and democracy have become commodities, something to trade? These questions will be addressed at the symposium alongside the discussion of the role of educational research. We stress that researchers’ engagement in education are of great importance in our European context and have the possibility to affect schools, national and international policy-makers, so called edu-preneurs and all actors involved in education. The symposium consists of contributions representing a wide range of perspectives and approaches taken by researchers from Sweden, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, and Brazil. Consequently, the symposium will mirror a variety of national and educational contexts all with the dual focus on the theme of the symposium and the theme of the conference. Many of the researchers in the symposium belong to a newly formed network called Researchers on education and marketization (the REM network) founded within the Swedish research project Education Inc. The network now consists of nineteen researchers from three countries and eight universities that in different ways problematise and scrutinise marketisation and education and the urgent and necessary issues that evolves in when education becomes marketised and new logics change the conditions for schooling. The symposium has two parts. The first part starts with an introduction given by Anna Jobér, coordinator and co-founder of the REM network followed by presentation of six papers in two sessions. They are arranged in order to give a thought-proving and interesting symposium regarding the variety of research project, methodological and theoretical perspectives as well as cultural contexts. Finally, the symposium is wrapped up by a discussant, Professor Marie Brennan https://www.vu.edu.au/contact-us/marie-brennan.

  • 10.
    Jobér, Anna
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of School Development and Leadership (SOL).
    Ideland, Malin
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Erlandsson, Magnus
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of School Development and Leadership (SOL).
    Axelsson, Thom
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Children, Youth and Society (BUS).
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Good Intentions and Altruistic Objectives: Observing ‘Edu-preneurs’ at a School Fair2018Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    Background: As an answer to a discourse on a Swedish school in crisis a large edu-political apparatus has been implemented. Arguments on e.g. decreasing results, segregation, and equal opportunities has reinforced a number of actors to enter the educational field – actors here called “edu-preneurs” (Rönnberg, 2017). The actors offer a multitude of products and services and essential parts of everyday schooling thus become outsourced on external actors using education as an arena to reach the core of the society – the children. This process, nurtured by political reforms such as the possibility to profit on public funds (Jober, submitted) has “re-calibrated” the Swedish school – from a government-dominated and unified educational system to an unruly free market (Ball, 2009; Hamilton, 2011). This market and its edu-preneurs will be investigated in the project ‘Education Inc.’, funded by the Swedish Research Council (Ideland, Axelsson, Jobér & Serder, 2016). The project aims to study how private actors and logics change the conditions for what counts as good education. Three forms of commodification of education, outlined by Molnar (2006), will be studied: (1) actors selling to schools; (2) actors selling in schools; and (3) actors buying for schools. In order to create a baseline for the Education Inc. project this paper describes one the first sub studies. This sub study aims to scrutinise foremost actors selling toschool when presenting themselves and engage with the school community at a school fair. Research Questions: The overarching aims of the Education Inc. project is to study under what conditions, in what forms and with which consequences ‘edu-preneurial’ actors engage in Swedish schools. This particular sub study focus on with what objectives do edu-preneurial companies, NGOs and their employees engage in Swedish school. Objectives: The aim of this sub study is to conceptualise and analyse processes on how good intentions and altruistic objectives are used as arguments to justify actors’ place in education. An earlier pre-study (Jobér, submitted) showed that tutoring companies, actors in the educational market, used arguments regarding children with special needs to justify their presence and actions. This pre-study raised a number of questions: Will the companies, whatever good intentions, overlook profit? Are arguments regarding children with special needs used as a lever for businesses to survive and profit rather than to help? Similar has been showed elsewhere (Dovemark & Erixon Arreman, 2017), therefore we claim there is a risk that actors in the educational market will not consider all children as profitable enough. There is therefore a need to scrutinize if money spent (through public funds) will increase profits and exclusion rather than to support inclusion, and in addition, if students with low exchange value fit into a neoliberal market. Theoretical framework: We argue that processes in Sweden, which is a traditionally strong and well-trusted welfare state, have become entangled with neoliberal rationalities (see e.g. Dahlstedt, 2009) and that ways of imagine and practice schooling today are shaped by neoliberal logics (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010). The neoliberal state has opened up for a commodification of education (Steiner-Khamsi, 2016) and educational reforms become a way to make up a specific kind of subjectivity (Ong, 2007). The marketization of education is thus not only about earning money, but also about making up meanings and practices of schooling and a certain kind of ideal citizen (Olmedo, Bailey & Ball 2013). This is what Ong (2007) conceptualizes as a neoliberalism which concerns how possible and desirable subjectivities are produced. The questions are what kind of objectives the actors put forward and how this correspond with what kind of desirable subjects that are produced in this neoliberal logic. Method: The sub study presented here will take a closer look at the actors selling to school when they attend a large school fair, SETT, which will take place in Sweden in April. In a pre-study to the larger ‘Education Inc.’ project this kind of educational ‘trade fairs’ has been identified as one of the spaces where policy becomes translated and turned into business ideas (Ideland et al, 2006). Observations will take place at this fair by four researchers. The observations will be written down using an observation scheme. The observations will also include photographs of the showcases and the messages that can be found there. In addition the research team will gather advertisement such as flyers and follow ongoing twitter flows. These data will be reflected on within the research group and finally analysed employing an analytical framework developed from the work by Callon (1986, used by, e.g., Hamilton 2011). The aim with this analysis is to more carefully explore how a problem is articulated through the actors and their relationships i.e. the problematisation moment in Callons work (1986). Callon proposes that translation of actions and actors analytically can be studied as four different moments: Problematization, Interessement, Enrolment, and Mobilization. It is the first step, the problematization moment and how a problem is articulated through the actors and their relationship that is in focus here. The problematization is the moment when actors (such as those the selling to schools at the school fair) or clusters of actors articulate a problem. It often involves a focus on a particular goal or a problem to be solved where the actors locate themselves as gatekeepers and problem solvers. Within the problematisation moment, the analysis can show what problems actors enhance (for example, in schools or in society), how do they want to solve these problems, and the argument that makes them indispensable to the problem and action. With this framework we can thus scrutinise with what kind of intentions and objectives these actors engage in Swedish school. Expected Outcomes: The hypothesis is that the observations conducted at this school fair and its following analyses will give insights in with what objectives and intention edu-preneurial companies, NGOs and their employees engage in Swedish school. Building on a pre-study (Jobér, submitted) and earlier research (e.g. Dovemark & Erixon Arreman) the hypothesis is also that the actors will bring forward a number of altruistic arguments. These might regard supporting the society to decrease widening socioeconomic gaps, including children with special needs, opening possibilities to equal opportunities for all, and reaching out to students living in rural areas of Sweden. However, as shown in above earlier studies, these are complicated arguments, given for example that a number of initiatives in the educational market, such as private tutoring, is not used at all by those with low incomes (Björkman, 2014, 21 November). There are reasons to believe that the expected outcomes from this pre-study not only will show what kind of altruistic objectives the actors use to justify their presence but also bring forward initial data that in forthcoming studies can be used to identify if the actors in educational market desire profits rather than inclusion and equal opportunities for all. References: Ball, S. (2009). Privatising education, privatising education policy, privatising educational research: network governance and the ‘competition state’, Journal of Education policy, 24(1), 83-99. Callon, M. (1986). Elements of a sociology of translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay. In J. Law (Ed.), Power, Action and Belief: A New Sociology of Knowledge? London: Routledge, pp 196-233. Clarke, J. (2002). A new kind of symmetry: Actor-network theories and the new literacy studies. Studies in the Education of Adults, 34(2), 107-122. Dahlstedt, M. (2009). Governing by partnerships: dilemmas in Swedish education policy at the turn of the millennium, Journal of Education Policy, 24(6), 787–801. Dovemark, M. & Erixon Arreman, I. (2017). The implications of school marketisation for students enrolled on introductory programmes in Swedish upper secondary education. Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, 12(1), 1–14. Hamilton, M. (2011). Unruly Practices: What a sociology of translations can offer to educational policy analysis. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 43(1), 55–75. Ideland, M., Axelsson, T., Jobér, A. & Serder, M. (2016) Helping hands? Exploring school’s external actor-networks. Paper accepted for ECER, Dublin, August 2016. Jobér, A. (submitted). How to become Indispensable: Tutoring Businesses in the Education Landscape. Submitted to Special Issue of Discourse titled Politics by Other Means: STS and Research in Education. Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Molnar, A. (2006). The Commercial Transformation of Public Education, Journal of Education Policy, 21(5), 621-640. Olmedo, A., Bailey, P. L., and Ball, S. J. (2013). To Infinity and Beyond…: heterarchical governance, the Teach For All network in Europe and the making of profits and minds. European Educational Research Journal, 12(4), 492–512. Ong, A. (2007). Neoliberalism as a mobile technology. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 32(1), 3-8. Rizvi, F. & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing education policy. London: Routledge. Rönnberg, L. (2017). From national policy-making to global edu-business: Swedish edupreneurs on the move. Journal of Education Policy, 32(2), 234–249. Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2016). Standards are good (for) business: standardised comparison and the private sector in education. Globalisation, Societies and Education 14(2).

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  • 11.
    Jobér, Anna
    et al.
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Ideland, Malin
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Axelsson, Thom
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Children, Youth and Society (BUS).
    Helping hands? Exploring “policy retailers” in an unruly and unruled educational landscape.2016Other (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.))
    Abstract [en]

    The project aims to understand under what conditions, in what forms and with which consequences non-educational actors engage in schools. It explores how a discourse of Swedish school’s failure is translated in and through different contexts and activities outside the formal edu-political system; “school’s external actor-network”. We ask what it means that parts of education are distributed to diverse actors on a non-regulated, unruly market.

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  • 12.
    Jobér, Anna
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of School Development and Leadership (SOL).
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Vetenskapliga teoriers funktion och roll i utbildning2021In: Vetenskapliga teorier för lärare / [ed] Serder, Margareta; Jobér, Anna, Stockholm: Natur och kultur, 2021, 1, p. 15-25Chapter in book (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    I denna antologi har vi samlat en mängd teorier som är betydelsefulla för förskolans och skolans verksamhet, och i synnerhet de som gäller undervisning, fostran och barngruppens eller klassrummets ledarskap. I det här kapitlet beskriver vi de olika funktioner som teorier oftast har i det utbildningsvetenskapliga fältet och ger en introduktion till boken och hur du som läsare kan närma dig olika teoriers begreppsväldar. 

  • 13.
    Lundahl, Christian
    et al.
    Örebro universitet.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Figures fighting figures: unpacking state authority's mis/trust in PISA statistics2023In: Discourse. Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, ISSN 0159-6306, E-ISSN 1469-3739, Vol. 44, no 6, p. 829-843Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    How can we understand the uncertainties in high-stake measuressuch as PISA in relation to the claims that different authoritiesmake from them? In this paper, we use a rather remarkable casefrom Sweden involving conflicting interpretations of the PISA2018 results at a national political level and afight over statisticsbetween two national agencies: National Agency for Educationand the National Audit Office. The aim of this paper is to unpackprocesses of interpretations and claims that are often black-boxed in PISA debates: How can we understand the process thatled up to thefight and what followed? Our data consist of mediaarticles, broadcasts from the national television and radio (2018–2021), reports and memos from the two-state authorities involvedin this debate, and email conversations between the two. Ourresults stress the need for further transparency in how PISA dataare collected and calculated.

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  • 14. Lundahl, Christian
    et al.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    “I have read some articles on the subject”: selective truths in the education debate2019Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of post-truths – or, rather, a version that we call selective truths – in educational debate. Specifically, we look at how references to PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and/or to educational research are used as arguments for various reforms. We investigate this in two sets of data: press media and Parliamentary debates between 2000 and 2018. Our main findings are (1) that educational research has become less interesting to public debate, only to be replaced with references to PISA; (2) that, PISA is referred to, for almost any educational cause, in a highly selective way.

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  • 15.
    Lundahl, Christian
    et al.
    Örebro universitet.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Internationella kunskapsbedömningar - hur används PISA?2021In: Hållbar bedömning: Bildning, välbefinnande och utveckling i skolans bedömningsarbete / [ed] Åsa Hirsh och Christian Lundahl, Stockholm: Natur och kultur, 2021, 1, p. 357-382Chapter in book (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    Internationella kunskapsjämförelser har sitt ursprung i det sena 1800-taletsvärldsutställningar där skolmaterial och skrivböcker, och ibland faktiskt till och med undervisning, visades upp. Världsutställningarna syftade till att jämföra konst och industriföremål men för att förstå vad som låg bakomdenna produktion kom kultur och utbildning snart att bli en naturlig del avdet som jämfördes. Fort blev det politiskt viktigt att vinna de så kallade pristävlingarna i de olika kategorierna och då bland annat i fråga om utbildningsväsendetskvaliteter. Mycket har hänt sedan dess. Sedan 1960-talet och fram till idag sker dessa jämförelser utifrån kunskapstester där inte minst det så kallade PISA-testet som lanserades första gången år 2000 röner stor uppmärksamhet. Intressant nog tycks jämförelserna inte handla så mycket om att lära av andra länder, som med världsutställningarna, utan snarare används resultaten i den inhemska politiska debatten som slagträ för både det en och det andra, vilket är vad detta kapitel handlar om.

  • 16.
    Lundahl, Christian
    et al.
    School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Is PISA more important to school reforms than educational research?: The selective use of authoritative references in media and in parliamentary debates2020In: Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, ISSN 2002-0317, Vol. 6, no 3, p. 193-206Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Two separate data searches underlie this analysis of how references to educational research and to PISA are used in the Swedish education debate. The data consist of 380 newspaper articles from the eight largest print media outlets in Sweden and 200 protocols from parliamentary debates (2000 to 2016) that made explicit reference to ‘PISA’ and/or to ‘educational research’. Based on a content analysis of this material, in which notions of policy borrowing and de-/legitimization are central, we describe the result as a selective use of PISA data and of educational research in the education debate. PISA is used to legitimize selective (party political) solutions that are oriented towards problems of teaching. The analysis also shows that politics and the media debate concerning education seems disinterested in educational research in a broader sense and that PISA seems to offer sufficient and ‘neutral’ authoritative knowledge and support for policy and reforms. We argue that PISA is the first way to obtain legitimate support for educational reforms. In so doing, the kinds of problems that these reforms aim to solve have been narrowed down to teaching- or practice-oriented problems.

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  • 17.
    Lundahl, Christian
    et al.
    Örebro universitet.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Riksrevisionen och PISAs validitet2021In: Skola och samhälle, ISSN 2001-6727, no 2021-05-02Article in journal (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.))
    Abstract [sv]

    I förra veckan kom Riksrevisionens utredning om att de svenska PISA-resultaten från 2018 hade förskönats med hjälp av att exkludera vissa elevgrupper från provet. Rapporten har debatterats högljutt och det har blåst snålt om öronen på både Skolverket och utbildningsminister Anna Ekström, som ihärdigt hävdar att det går att lita på PISA. Christian Lundahl och Margareta Serder reder här ut vad rapporten handlar om och menar att resultaten i  PISA – i alla lägen – bör förstås och tolkas med försiktighet.

  • 18.
    Løken, Marianne
    et al.
    Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, Oslo, Norway.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS). Skåne Association of Local Authorities, Sweden.
    In-Between Chapter: Troubling the Social: Entanglement, Agency, and the Body in Science Education2017In: Cultural, Social, and Political Perspectives in Science Education: A Nordic View / [ed] Kathrin Otrel-Cass, Martin Krabbe Sillasen, Auli Orlander, Springer, 2017, p. 133-137Chapter in book (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    This introduction to the “social” in science education that is troubled in the following texts will be based on our own experiences of adopting various socio-material theories in research. These experiences have brought us to recognize the challenges that emerge and which we wish to address in this in-between chapter.

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  • 19.
    Løken, Marianne
    et al.
    University of Oslo.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    “Significant Matter” in Sociomaterial Analysis of Educational Choices2020In: Physics Education and Gender: Identity as an Analytic Lens for Research / [ed] Allison J. Gonsalves; Anna T. Danielsson, Switzerland: Springer Nature , 2020, 1, p. 115-127Chapter in book (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    This chapter thematises gender and educational choices by close-reading three women’s stories about choosing physics-related STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) taken from a more extensive qualitative study of atypical educational choices. Taking an interest in the subject is an established explanation of what drives us to choose a particular education. Strategies and campaigns to recruit women to the STEM subjects have therefore been designed to attract women for the very reason that they are women. In this chapter we have dispensed with gender as a background variable for explaining interest in STEM, and we will use empirical examples to demonstrate how the act of choosing an education can be interpreted as sociomateriality. The interaction between human and material factors also involves embodied experiences, something which gives gender agency. The chapter is thus a contribution to gaining a wider understanding of which factors come into play when choosing an education and how these factors relate to each other. In turn this will enable us to understand how educational choices can be influenced through material experiences and practices both in and outside educational institutions.

  • 20.
    Muhonen, Tuija
    et al.
    Malmö University, Centre for Work Life and Evaluation Studies (CTA). Malmö University, Faculty of Culture and Society (KS), Department of Urban Studies (US). Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of School Development and Leadership (SOL).
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS). Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of School Development and Leadership (SOL).
    Erlandsson, Magnus
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS). Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of School Development and Leadership (SOL).
    Edvik, Anders
    Malmö University, Centre for Work Life and Evaluation Studies (CTA). Malmö University, Faculty of Culture and Society (KS), Department of Urban Studies (US).
    From National Policy to Local Practices: Systematic Quality Work in Education from the Perspective of Local Authorities2023Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    Over the last 20 years systematic quality work has become the main tool for developing Swedish schools (Håkansson & Adolfson, 2022). According to the Education Act (2010:800), quality work – at the local educational authority level as well as in the schools themselves – should be conducted in a systematic and continuous way, with respect to planning, follow-up, analyses, and actions taken to develop education. By continuous assessments and evaluations, the goal of the systematic quality work is to identify and address issues that need improvement for students to achieve the educational goals (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2012a). A review of the literature reveals the problematic aspects of evaluation practices and quality management, such as the risk to focus on what is measurable rather than what is desirable as well as the diverse definitions of quality (Lundström, 2015). However, what the local quality systems consist of, how they have been designed, and what practices and perceptions of quality they entail is less understood.

    Previous research has primarily focused on individual schools’ quality work (Håkansson, 2013; Jarl, et al., 2017) , while less attention has been paid to the way the local educational authorities conduct systematic quality work. Thus, the aim of this study is to fill this knowledge gap by investigating how the ideas of systematic quality work in the Swedish Education Act's requirements are interpreted, translated, and materialized at the local education authority level.

    The following research questions will guide our study:

    1. How do local educational authorities interpret and translate the systematic quality work regulations and requirements in the Education Act?

    2. How do these interpretations och translations materialize in the local quality work practices?

    Theoretically we approach the phenomena of systematic quality management within the Swedish school sector from an organizing (Czarniawska, 2014) and practice-oriented perspective (Gherardi, 2019; Nicolini, 2009; 2012). These theoretical perspectives provide us a framework to analyse how the institutionalized ideas (as mental images that are well spread within the society) of systematic quality management - through authorities, policies, regulations, and quality models - are translated and materialized (Czarniawska & Joerges, 1996) into the local quality work organization and practices. The latter refers to the practices of doing and saying something related to the ideas of systematic quality management in different social contexts and time (Gherardi, 2019; Nicolini, 2009; 2012). Although the national guidelines involve the entire school system, these are interpreted, translated, and materialized by actors operating in a local context, which means that quality is understood in different ways and that the systematic quality work is conducted in different ways. An organizational perspective also includes aspects related to the tensions that arise when different interests and logics collide (for example between political, administrative, and professional interests and logics; see Czarniawska, 2014).

    Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedIn this project five Swedish municipalities have participated in a study of what systematic quality work means at a local education authority level and what practices materialize from the national regulations. At the heart of the study is the recognition that quality systems are locally designed to meet the national requirements, thereby allowing diverse interpretations and translations to occur.

    The local education authorities can be understood as mediators, partly between state and municipal control, partly between needs and agendas at different levels in the chain of command. This understanding also characterizes the design of the study. The empirical data has been collected through three complementary methods: document studies, observations, and interviews. The document studies consist of analysing different central documents, e.g., quality reports, provided by the local education authorities covering the past two years. We have also observed meetings related to the systematic quality work (so called “quality-dialogues”). Besides the local education authorities, the key actors in these meetings were the principals, assistant principals, and teacher representatives of the school being followed up. 

    The interviews were conducted with key persons in five different local Swedish education authorities individually by the authors. The duration of the interviews was approximately one hour, and they were conducted either face-to-face, via Zoom, or telephone. The interviews were based on an interview guide including questions about the participants’ role, their experiences, and activities in relation to the systematic quality work, the expected and actual effects, as well as challenges and potential for improvement of systematic quality work. The interviews were recorded with informed consent and were later transcribed verbatim.

    All the research material described above is now gathered and will be analysed during the Spring 2023. As a tool for data analyses, we will apply Bacchi´s (2012) method “What is the problem represented to be?”.

    Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsEqual education for all is includes three fundamental aspects: equal access to education, equal quality of education and the compensatory nature of education (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2012b). All students should receive an equivalent education, regardless of the area they live in, the socio-economic conditions they come from, or their functional variations. But study after study shows that Swedish students' schooling is not equal, and that who you are and where you live play a decisive role in the quality of the education you receive. Many of the last decade's school policy reforms and targeted initiatives have had as their overarching goal to address this lack of equality, so far with few concrete results. In order to break this trend, there has been an increasing focus on the local educational authorities’ responsibility for the individual school's shortcomings, quality, and development. Furthermore, lack of equality is a problem within rather than between different local educational authorities. Although there is paucity of research, the limited results show that schools are often isolated with their problems and that there is a lack of supportive structures and a functional systematic quality work (Jarl, et al., 2017; Swedish Schools Inspectorate, 2021).

    The paper will present results from the ongoing study, results that we believe will have relevance both in the Swedish, Nordic and in a wider European context. Through our investigation we will contribute knowledge regarding how the National Educational Act's requirements for systematic quality work are interpreted, translated, and materialized at the local level, and how this in turn shapes, promotes or hinders the quality work of individual schools.

  • 21.
    Osborne, Jonathan
    et al.
    Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States.
    Oskarsson, Magnus
    Mid Sweden University, Härnösand, Sweden.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Sjøberg, Svein
    University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
    The PISA Science Assessments and the Implications for Science Education: Uses and Abuses2017In: Cognitive and Affective Aspects in Science Education Research: Selected Papers from the ESERA 2015 Conference / [ed] Kaisa Hahl; Kalle Juuti; Jarkko Lampiselkä; Anna Uitto; Jari Lavonen, Springer, 2017, p. 191-203Chapter in book (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Science is the major focus of PISA in 2015. Hence this chapter seeks to explore the positive and negative aspects of the PISA assessments. The chapter begins with a description of the new framework used for the science assessment in 2015. This provides an explanation of the changes and possible improvements from the 2006 framework. There then follow three contributions that explore the major social and political impact that PISA is having on education systems, schools and the learning of science going from the global to the local. Beginning with the global, the first argues that PISA should be seen in a political and cultural context, and as an instrument of power in that PISA has led to a global race in education, and is being used to legitimize neoliberal school reforms that are detrimental to the values usually promoted by educators in many countries. The next two contributions are drawn from an exploration of the effects of PISA in one country – Sweden. Taking a systemic view, the first argues that the PISA results provide a much needed external indicator and measure of the performance of the system in any one country showing how educational attainment has declined significantly in comparison to other countries and, in addition, exposing the increasing divergence between high and low performers. Such data provides a useful contrast to internal measures which may offer a different picture. The final contribution draws on a study that has explored how groups of 15-year-old students from an average comprehensive school interpret the PISA items and construct responses. The findings from this work cast doubt on the validity and comparability of the results between countries. The primary goal of this paper is to explore what PISA offers and to raise questions about its value for researchers and educators.

  • 22. Osborne, Jonathan
    et al.
    Sjoberg, Svein
    Oskarsson, Magnus
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Invited Symposium: The PISA Science Assessments and the Implications for Science Education: Uses and Abuses2015In: Proceedings of ESERA 2015, 2015, p. 1-15Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In 2015, science will be the major focus of PISA. Consequently, the framework for the science assessment was rewritten in 2012. This symposium will begin with a presentation of that framework by Jonathan Osborne, the chair of the science expert group who will provide an explanation of the changes and possible improvements from the 2006 framework. In addition in 2015, all of the assessments will be undertaken on a computer-based platform that has consequences for the form and type of testing. This presentation will be followed by three presentations that take a critical look at the major social and political impact that PISA is having on education systems, schools and the learning of science. Svein Sjøberg will argue that PISA should be seen in a political and cultural context, and as an instrument of power. He will claim that PISA has led to a global race, and that many countries use PISA to legitimize neoliberal school reforms that are detrimental to the values usually promoted by educators. In contrast, Magnus Oskarsson and Margareta Serder will look at the effects of PISA in one country – Sweden. Oskarsson will argue that the PISA results provide one external indicator and measure of the performance of the system. In Sweden performance has declined significantly in comparison to other countries and the divergence between high and low performers increased. As such it provides a useful contrast to internal measures which portray a different picture. Finally, Serder will finish by presenting a study that has explored how groups of 15 year-old students from an average comprehensive school interpret the PISA items and construct responses. Her findings cast doubts on the validity and comparability across countries.

  • 23.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Apollons röst2017In: Bortom PISA: Internationell och jämförande pedagogik / [ed] Joakim Landahl, Christian Lundahl, Natur & Kultur , 2017, p. 81-101Chapter in book (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    Hur kan vi, i termer av vetenskapsparadigm och kunskapsdiskurser, förstå OECD:s position och det faktum att organisationen med en sådan självklarhet yttrar sig om vilka kunskaper dagens femtonåringar behöver i framtiden? Och på vilka antaganden bygger organisationen sina slutsatser om vilka av världens skolsystem som bäst förbereder sina ungdomar för denna framtid? Det här kapitlet tar sin utgångspunkt i metaforen om PISA som ett modernt delfiskt orakel: som någon som oberoende och neutralt uppfattas kunna ge svar på nästan allt.

  • 24.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Att förstå naturvetenskapliga kunskapsmätningar utifrån en sociokulturell teoriram2013In: Utbildning och Demokrati, ISSN 1102-6472, E-ISSN 2001-7316, Vol. 22, no 3, p. 107-124Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article describes how sociocultural theories can be used to gain knowledge of why, in international knowledge comparisons such as the PISA, it seems so difficult for Swedish students to answer test questions in scientific literacy “correctly”. Sociocultural concepts (interaction, contexts, cultural tools, social languages, resistance, and situatedness), which I mean can contribute to understanding what might take place in the encounter between students and test items, are discussed and illus trated with two brief examples from an ongoing dissertation project. The article also describes the motive for the chosen research design: to study an encounter between 15 year old students collaboratively working with a few selected PISA items on scientific literacy. Possible consequences of the items being embedded in “everyday contexts” and the significance of mastering a scientific discourse are discussed. Finally I ask which image of science the students are afforded by the test items.

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  • 25.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Detecting Student Performance in Large-Scale Assessments2018In: International Large-Scale Assessments in Education: Insider Research Perspectives / [ed] Bryan Maddox, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018, p. 69-84Chapter in book (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This book explores the often controversial international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) in education and offers research-based accounts of international testing as a social practice. Assessment exercises, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), produce comparable international statistics and rankings on educational performance, and are influential practices that shape educational policy on a global scale. The chapters in this volume, written by expert researchers in the field, take the reader behind the scenes to document a broad range of ILSA practices - from the recruitment of countries into ILSAs, to the production and performance of large-scale testing, and the management, media reception and use of test data. Based on data that is only available to expert researchers with inside access, the international case study material includes examples from Australia, Ecuador, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Slovenia, Sweden, the UK and the USA. The volume provides important insights for teachers, researchers and policy-makers who use and study assessment data and who wish to evaluate its significance for educational policy and practice.

  • 26.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Discouraging results: problematizing test questions in science education2013Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The increasing importance and consequences of knowledge measurements and international comparisons calls for problematizing tests and test-questions. Previous studies have demonstrated that the way test-questions are formulated in themselves largely affect the ways the students perceive and answer to them. This paper adopts a dialogical theoretical perspective and aims to discuss one of the assumptions that individual assessment relies on, namely that of message-transfer. It does so through exploring the interaction between students and test-questions in scientific literacy, with PISA as an example. How are the texts, illustrations and everyday context in the test negotiated by students, and what meanings are students’ making from them in a situation of collaborative problem-solving? 16 hours of videotaped talk and actions, from situations in which four classes of 15 year old students worked with a selection of PISA science problems in small groups, have been transcribed and content- and semantically analyzed. The analysis shows that all groups of students discuss the meanings of the test questions. It is argued that test-occurring words, such as “reference”, “factor” or “pattern”, that are negotiated among the students can be seen to have an intended meaning in this specific context, but can also be interpreted within other contexts and with other meanings. It is concluded that the students, when put in this situation of collaborative problem solving, above all act as learners of many disciplines at the same time in the sense that their situational meaning making also borrow meanings from mathematical and everyday contexts. Therefore it is argued that meanings are not unambiguously transferred as intended and that this is also reinforced by the descriptions of everyday context and mathematical illustrations, like graphs and diagrams, in the test.

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  • 27.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Exploring the positivistic assumption of message-transfer in knowledge measurement2013Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    This presentation aims to discuss one of the assumptions that individual knowledge assessment relies on, namely that of meaning- or message-transfer (as in Linell, 2009). I adopt a dialogical theoretical perspective (ibid) by which I explore the interaction between students and test-questions in a test of scientific literacy (through which the students’ knowledge is to be evaluated). The question is how the positivistic assumption of message-transfer translates in the students’ meaning making of the test items and how the texts, illustrations and everyday context in the test are being negotiated among students? In its methodology this study departs from the presumption that meaning making should be studied in action. Therefore, situations were constructed in which 15 year old students worked with a selection of PISA science problems collaboratively in small groups (n=21). In total, 16 hours of videotaped talk and actions were produced and have been transcribed and content- and semantically analyzed. Test-occurring words, such as “reference”, “factor” or “pattern” (which can be seen to have an intended meaning in the test) appear to be interpreted within other contexts and with other meanings. It is argued that meanings are not unambiguously transferred. Further, ambiguity is reinforced by the descriptions of everyday context and mathematical illustrations, like graphs and diagrams, in the test. The results are valuable for interpreting the claims and results of knowledge measurements. Reference: Linell, Per (2009): Rethinking language, mind, and world dialogically: interactional and contextual theories of human sense-making. Information Age Inc.

  • 28.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Heteroglossic properties in written tests of scientific literacy2013In: Disruptions and eruptions as opportunities for transforming education, Nordic Educational Research Association , 2013, article id 79Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    The worldwide growing practice of testing has implications as well on school culture as on current discourses about education; it provides a discursive resource on how to talk about citizens’ knowledge. For instance, in Sweden, the young generation’s knowledge in science is assumed to be decreasing, according to evidence from international comparisons on scientific knowledge, such as the PISA and TIMSS. However, instruments for testing knowledge (such as scientific literacy in PISA) have limitations that are seldom addressed. Among these are the inherent psychometric assumptions that knowledge is individual, hierarchal and stable, and that it can be elicited by clear-cut test questions. I will discuss these assumptions in relation to qualitative empirical findings from my dissertation project, in which I have attempted to explore students’ meaning making of science test questions from PISA 2006. The aim has been to gain knowledge about how young test takers approach and interpret the questions that are used to assess their scientific knowledge. For that purpose I have taken a Bakthinian sociocultural theoretical and methodological perspective. Students’ meaning making was videotaped (16 hours) when 21 small heterogeneous groups of 15-year olds collaboratively worked with eleven selected problems during a science lesson. The semantic analysis suggests that when the students are to interpret these contextual test questions they are confronted with all the heteroglossic properties of human discourse. According to data it seems possible for the students to approach the test-questions with different understandings. Test-language does not appear as univocal but rather as ambiguous, and it actualizes many possible contexts and meanings in the discussions of the students. As such, it becomes crucial to discern between different social languages (scientific, educational, mathematical, everyday life-related or others) and most important: to understand the test constructer’s intentions. The findings raise questions about whether it really can be assumed that students who take tests answer the questions we think they do. The relevance is therefore a caution in not over-interpreting results from large scale assessments.

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  • 29.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Knowledge for sale: The construction of desired knowledge and identities in edu-marketing2024In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 23, no 1, p. 72-86Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The aim of this study is to examine how a particular object for consumption, professional development for teachers and principals, is marketed to schools, and what propositions and understandings are embedded in such offers. Adopting a conceptualization of marketing as a “perpetual questioning machine,” the study deploys and develops a theoretical approach from marketing studies to a new context: edu-marketing. The study is guided by the assumption that marketing functions as projection screen for the products and services offered to schools, but, also as a social and cultural space where dreams and desires are performed and governed. As such, marketing to school is not exclusively about selling things; but about what to be or who to become. Besides the theoretical contribution, the study contributes with empirical knowledge about (1) what concerns and desires this marketing “questioning machine” mobilizes and circulates and (2) how objects for consumption are de/stabilized in the education market. Thereby, it demonstrates some of the intricate relations between the growing education market and the values that those who work in schools are invited to strive for. It is argued that consumption at the education market-place is a question of identity, and therefore of branding and possible success.

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  • 30.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Möten med PISA: kunskapsmätning som samspel mellan elever och provuppgifter i och om naturvetenskap2015Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    This thesis explores the standardized assessment of students’ scientific literacy by studying test items, frameworks and result reports from the international comparative study Programme for International Student Assessment, PISA. My research concerns the negative trend observed for Swedish students’ results in science reported in international comparisons since 2000. In this thesis, PISA is considered as a specific kind of practice that acts through a certain rationality, which frames how the measurement is constructed and interpreted. The overall aim is to highlight the epistemological and ontological assumptions that are embedded in the assessment of students’ scientific literacy by PISA. Data was constructed by video documentation of collaborative encounters between 21 groups of 15-year-old students and eleven selected items from the PISA scientific literacy assessment. This method enabled an analysis of the students’ reasoning and the difficulties that arose in these encounters. I also conducted a text analysis of selected frameworks and reports produced under the PISA label, analyzing how science and student performance are discursively constructed in these documents. In this thesis, I examine the similarities and differences between two theoretical approaches: one sociocultural and one sociomaterial. Both are used to explore the embedded assumptions of the PISA scientific literacy assessment. The sociocultural perspective focuses on the students’ situated meaning making as they solve the test questions. The sociomaterial perspective finds inspiration in science and technology studies, and takes a performative stance on scientific practice. This thesis has been formed as a hybrid of a compilation thesis and a monograph. It comprises three articles in English, published or still in the process of publication. The measured knowledge in and about science in PISA are based on onto-epistemological assumptions that are connected to science traditions which are mainly monologistic and representational, whereas this thesis proposes a dialogistic and performative stance. One identified assumption is that language is a neutral transmitter of information, which can be unambiguously communicated and translated without losing or gaining new meanings. Another is the assumption of a single unambiguous, primary frame for interpretation of the test questions, and a third that in PISA, science is assumed to be a socially and culturally neutral object for learning. It appears crucial that the students are able, and motivated, to discern and privilege the scientific perspectives and interpretations while engaging with the complexity of the tasks. My analysis suggests that framing the tasks within fictive, everyday situations, as is significant for PISA, contributes to this complexity. Further, the image of science as portrayed in the test items that were studied, risk reproducing stereotypical images of science and scientifically literate people. To PISA, students are mirrors of the school system and even future society. In the analysis of PISA documents, low performers appeared as threats to future society, due to the risk that they would become ineffective citizens. Meanwhile, other studies assert that standardized comparison is a practice that, when frequently repeated, contributes to lower results and an increasing disillusion of low achievers. It is proposed that PISA, rather than to be seen as a knowledge measurement, should be regarded a knowledge actor.

    List of papers
    1. Language Games and Meaning as Used in Student Encounters With Scientific Literacy Test Items
    Open this publication in new window or tab >>Language Games and Meaning as Used in Student Encounters With Scientific Literacy Test Items
    2016 (English)In: Science Education, ISSN 0036-8326, E-ISSN 1098-237X, Vol. 100, no 2, p. 321-343Article in journal (Refereed) Published
    Abstract [en]

    Previous research in science education has suggested that difficulties among students learning science relate to challenges in framing its discourse. This article examines the role that language plays in a scientific literacy test for which everyday life is an augmented aspect. Video-recorded data was collected in four ninth-grade science classes in a Swedish compulsory school as small groups of students discussed and collaboratively solved Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) science test items. The theoretical framework assumes sociocultural perspectives as well as that of Wittgenstein's later works on language. The study involves an analysis of students’ meaning making of specific words that occur in the test and the various language games to which these words contribute. Specifically, we analyzed the students’ use of four different words: reference, constant, pattern, and factor. We found that the students use these words in everyday or mathematical language games; for example, understanding the word “pattern” as a mathematical regularity rather than a result of a scientific experiment. The results were analyzed in relation to the specific illustrations and wording that contextualize the items. We argue that a crucial part of being scientifically literate is privileging science content over other possible disciplines and contexts and ignoring the everyday perspective.

    Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
    John Wiley & Sons, 2016
    Keywords
    scientific literacy, meaning making, test items, PISA, everyday context
    National Category
    Humanities and the Arts
    Identifiers
    urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-14510 (URN)10.1002/sce.21199 (DOI)000370655100006 ()2-s2.0-84958679071 (Scopus ID)20281 (Local ID)20281 (Archive number)20281 (OAI)
    Available from: 2020-03-30 Created: 2020-03-30 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved
    2. “Why bother so incredibly much?”: student perspectives on PISA science assignments
    Open this publication in new window or tab >>“Why bother so incredibly much?”: student perspectives on PISA science assignments
    2015 (English)In: Cultural Studies of Science Education, ISSN 1871-1502, E-ISSN 1871-1510, Vol. 10, p. 833-853Article in journal (Refereed) Published
    Abstract [sv]

    Storskaliga kunskapsmätningar, såsom Programme for International Assessment, PISA, spelar en allt större roll i vår tids skolpraktik och skolpolitik. Samtidigt ifrågasätter alltfler forskare mätningarnas validitet, reliabilitet och i vilken utsträckning de utgör trovärdiga representationer av elevers kunskaper. I ljuset av sådana kritiska röster utgår denna artikel från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv med syftet att undersöka mötet mellan elever och de provfrågor i naturvetenskap som deras kunskaper utvärderas utifrån. I studien är det av särskilt intresse att undersöka hur elever hanterar uppgifter som beskriver ”situationer från verkliga livet” (real-life situations) vilka vanligtvis presenteras som relevanta för att kunna mäta elevernas naturvetenskapliga allmänbildning. I enlighet med vår ansats har vi närmat oss elevernas meningskapande av naturvetenskap så som den framträder i uppgifterna. Ett viktigt fokus i studien är att undersöka situationer när elever samarbetar med PISA-uppgifter i små grupper, vilket möjliggör för oss att studera mötet mellan elev och prov in action. Datamaterialet består av videoinspelningar av 71 svenska 15-åringar som arbetar med tre frisläppta uppgifter från PISAs naturvetenskapliga del. Analysen visar att de ”situationer från verkliga livet” som beskrivs i provet framstår som problematiska eftersom eleverna positionerar sig gentemot de fiktiva elever som framträder i provtexterna. Det är framförallt de fiktiva elevernas användning av ett naturvetenskapligt och akademiskt språkbruk som skapar avstånd och motstånd till uppgifterna. Användningen av ett strikt naturvetenskapligt språk och vetenskapliga metoder i vardagliga situationer får de fiktiva eleverna i uppgifterna att framstå som ”små vetenskapsmän” och stereotyper i den naturvetenskapliga kulturen. Vi drar slutsatsen att denna typ av uppgifter egentligen riskerar att utgöra implicita mätningar av kulturell samstämmighet. Även om förståelse av den naturvetenskapliga kulturen är ett viktigt mål för skolans naturvetenskapsundervisning i sig, så blir det problematiskt att resultaten från OECD endast kommuniceras som ”elevers kunskap i naturvetenskap”. Denna studie, i likhet med flera andra, manar till försiktighet när det gäller att tolka resultaten från PISA-mätningarna och betonar att förståelsen av elevers “kunskaper” i naturvetenskap är betydligt mer komplex än vad som vanligtvis kommuniceras i dessa mätningar.

    Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
    Springer, 2015
    Keywords
    PISA, Interaction, science culture, meaning making, identity
    National Category
    Social Sciences
    Identifiers
    urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-14506 (URN)10.1007/s11422-013-9550-3 (DOI)000214454200017 ()2-s2.0-84941996010 (Scopus ID)17808 (Local ID)17808 (Archive number)17808 (OAI)
    Available from: 2020-03-30 Created: 2020-03-30 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved
    3. PISA truth effects: the construction of low performance
    Open this publication in new window or tab >>PISA truth effects: the construction of low performance
    2016 (English)In: Discourse. Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, ISSN 0159-6306, E-ISSN 1469-3739, Vol. 37, no 3, p. 341-357Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article seeks to unpack the taken-for-granted notion of low performance, arguing that performance and competency are not a given categories; rather they are “objects-for-thought” that receive their discursive and material contours through a chain of translations. As suggested previously by Gorur, PISA is analyzed through the lens of Latourian Science and Technology Studies. The arguments in this article are based on an analysis of situations constructed to observe how performance is enacted in socio-material practice, as 15-year-old students collaboratively solve PISA scientific-literacy items. As background a text analysis, concerning how scientific literacy and performance are discursively constructed in various PISA materials, is reported. We suggest the notion of ‘competency’ be linked to the historical event of trying to start to detect it and argue that PISA results are products of the situated adjustments that are enacted by students and items created in the very moments of scientific measurement.

    Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
    Taylor & Francis, 2016
    Keywords
    PISA, performance, Competency, Students, STS, Scientific literacy, Latour, Foucault
    National Category
    Social Sciences
    Identifiers
    urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-3582 (URN)10.1080/01596306.2015.1025039 (DOI)000373396600002 ()2-s2.0-84925434553 (Scopus ID)19315 (Local ID)19315 (Archive number)19315 (OAI)
    Available from: 2020-02-28 Created: 2020-02-28 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved
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  • 31.
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    PISA Truth Effects: The Conctruction of Low Performance2014Conference paper (Refereed)
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  • 32.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Abbott, Jessica
    Lunds universitet, Biologiska institutionen.
    Jobér, Anna
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of School Development and Leadership (SOL).
    Nordén, Anna
    Realgymnasiet, Lund.
    Vetenskaplig läskunnighet2021In: Vetenskapliga teorier för lärare / [ed] Serder, Margareta; Jobér, Anna, Stockholm: Natur och kultur, 2021, 1, p. 26-48Chapter in book (Other academic)
  • 33.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Ideland, Malin
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Björklund, du har valt helt fel utredare av skolan2014In: Dagens samhälle: kommunernas och landstingens tidning, ISSN 1652-6511, no 20140116Article in journal (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.))
    Abstract [sv]

    Alla jublar över Jan Björklunds (FP) förslag att låta OECD utreda krisen i den svenska skolan. Utredningen ska på ett oberoende sätt fördjupa den vetenskapliga analysen. Men OECD är varken oberoende eller experter på utbildning. Så vilken vetenskaplighet och kunskapssyn kommer OECD stå för?

  • 34.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Ideland, Malin
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    PISA: problemet med en metaundersøgelse2015In: Læring, dannelse og udvikling: kvalificering til fremtiden i daginstitution og skole / [ed] Jacob Klitmøller, Dion Sommer, Hans Reitzels Forlag, 2015, p. 123-150Chapter in book (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    Dette kapitel skal handle om en test, der gives en halv million 15-årige hvert tredje år verden over for at få et standardiseret billede af, hvor meget de kan på bestemte fagområder, uanset hvilken undervisning de har modtaget. Det handler om Programme for International Student Assessment – forkortet PISA. I dette kapitel fokuserer vi på en konsekvens af PISA, nemlig at PISA kan siges at påvirke, hvad der anses for vigtige færdigheder – definitionen på den rigtige og vigtige viden i vores samfund.Sigtet er at analysere og diskutere de inhærente begrænsninger i det videnssyn, PISA repræsenterer – hvad sker der, når indholdet af netop dette videnssyn bliver det vigtigste? Hvad bliver valgt fra? Og hvilke elever skal defineres som vellykkede? Derudover er det hensigten at diskutere, hvordan elevers 'mangelfulde kundskaber inden for naturvidenskab', som ofte optræder i debatten om PISA-resultater i for eksempel Sverige og Danmark, kan anskues som produkter af PISA-målingen selv. Vores tese er, at de manglende kundskaber ikke er et givet forhold, men noget, der skabes i selve idéen om en global elevvurdering, en metaundersøgelse. De empiriske eksempler, vi anvender, er PISA's rammeformulering, løsrevne PISA-spørgsmål samt diskussioner mellem elever, der diskuterer og besvarer PISA-spørgsmål i grupper.

  • 35.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Ideland, Malin
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    PISA truth effects: the construction of low performance2016In: Discourse. Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, ISSN 0159-6306, E-ISSN 1469-3739, Vol. 37, no 3, p. 341-357Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article seeks to unpack the taken-for-granted notion of low performance, arguing that performance and competency are not a given categories; rather they are “objects-for-thought” that receive their discursive and material contours through a chain of translations. As suggested previously by Gorur, PISA is analyzed through the lens of Latourian Science and Technology Studies. The arguments in this article are based on an analysis of situations constructed to observe how performance is enacted in socio-material practice, as 15-year-old students collaboratively solve PISA scientific-literacy items. As background a text analysis, concerning how scientific literacy and performance are discursively constructed in various PISA materials, is reported. We suggest the notion of ‘competency’ be linked to the historical event of trying to start to detect it and argue that PISA results are products of the situated adjustments that are enacted by students and items created in the very moments of scientific measurement.

    Download full text (pdf)
    FULLTEXT01
  • 36.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Jakobsson, Anders
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Language Games and Meaning as Used in Student Encounters With Scientific Literacy Test Items2016In: Science Education, ISSN 0036-8326, E-ISSN 1098-237X, Vol. 100, no 2, p. 321-343Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Previous research in science education has suggested that difficulties among students learning science relate to challenges in framing its discourse. This article examines the role that language plays in a scientific literacy test for which everyday life is an augmented aspect. Video-recorded data was collected in four ninth-grade science classes in a Swedish compulsory school as small groups of students discussed and collaboratively solved Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) science test items. The theoretical framework assumes sociocultural perspectives as well as that of Wittgenstein's later works on language. The study involves an analysis of students’ meaning making of specific words that occur in the test and the various language games to which these words contribute. Specifically, we analyzed the students’ use of four different words: reference, constant, pattern, and factor. We found that the students use these words in everyday or mathematical language games; for example, understanding the word “pattern” as a mathematical regularity rather than a result of a scientific experiment. The results were analyzed in relation to the specific illustrations and wording that contextualize the items. We argue that a crucial part of being scientifically literate is privileging science content over other possible disciplines and contexts and ignoring the everyday perspective.

    Download full text (pdf)
    fulltext
  • 37.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö högskola, School of Teacher Education (LUT), Nature-Environment-Society (NMS).
    Jakobsson, Anders
    Malmö högskola, School of Teacher Education (LUT), Nature-Environment-Society (NMS).
    Opportunities and difficulties for Swedish students’ engaging in PISA Science items2011Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper presents an empirical study on how 15-year old students engage in and discuss three PISA science items. The purpose is to describe and raise questions about what the students’ written answers on a PISA assessment may represent, in the light of how the 71 students in this study understand and choose to answer questions in the test. Departing from a socio cultural perspective on knowledge and action (Säljö, 2000), we chose a design where the students worked with the items in small groups, allowing us to study their conversations in action. We have analyzed the video recorded material in order to describe what difficulties and opportunities the students may meet in PISA. Our first observations of their interactions demonstrate in particular difficulties in completing some of the tasks, due to problems in understanding scientific language, complicated formulations and uncommon Swedish words, and confusing translation mistakes. It also occurs that what the students treat as relevant is not always identical to the constructer’s intentions. Our conclusion about the language use in and the relevance of some PISA tasks should have implications in how new items should be constructed and how written results should be interpreted.

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  • 38.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Jakobsson, Anders
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    “Why bother so incredibly much?”: student perspectives on PISA science assignments2015In: Cultural Studies of Science Education, ISSN 1871-1502, E-ISSN 1871-1510, Vol. 10, p. 833-853Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [sv]

    Storskaliga kunskapsmätningar, såsom Programme for International Assessment, PISA, spelar en allt större roll i vår tids skolpraktik och skolpolitik. Samtidigt ifrågasätter alltfler forskare mätningarnas validitet, reliabilitet och i vilken utsträckning de utgör trovärdiga representationer av elevers kunskaper. I ljuset av sådana kritiska röster utgår denna artikel från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv med syftet att undersöka mötet mellan elever och de provfrågor i naturvetenskap som deras kunskaper utvärderas utifrån. I studien är det av särskilt intresse att undersöka hur elever hanterar uppgifter som beskriver ”situationer från verkliga livet” (real-life situations) vilka vanligtvis presenteras som relevanta för att kunna mäta elevernas naturvetenskapliga allmänbildning. I enlighet med vår ansats har vi närmat oss elevernas meningskapande av naturvetenskap så som den framträder i uppgifterna. Ett viktigt fokus i studien är att undersöka situationer när elever samarbetar med PISA-uppgifter i små grupper, vilket möjliggör för oss att studera mötet mellan elev och prov in action. Datamaterialet består av videoinspelningar av 71 svenska 15-åringar som arbetar med tre frisläppta uppgifter från PISAs naturvetenskapliga del. Analysen visar att de ”situationer från verkliga livet” som beskrivs i provet framstår som problematiska eftersom eleverna positionerar sig gentemot de fiktiva elever som framträder i provtexterna. Det är framförallt de fiktiva elevernas användning av ett naturvetenskapligt och akademiskt språkbruk som skapar avstånd och motstånd till uppgifterna. Användningen av ett strikt naturvetenskapligt språk och vetenskapliga metoder i vardagliga situationer får de fiktiva eleverna i uppgifterna att framstå som ”små vetenskapsmän” och stereotyper i den naturvetenskapliga kulturen. Vi drar slutsatsen att denna typ av uppgifter egentligen riskerar att utgöra implicita mätningar av kulturell samstämmighet. Även om förståelse av den naturvetenskapliga kulturen är ett viktigt mål för skolans naturvetenskapsundervisning i sig, så blir det problematiskt att resultaten från OECD endast kommuniceras som ”elevers kunskap i naturvetenskap”. Denna studie, i likhet med flera andra, manar till försiktighet när det gäller att tolka resultaten från PISA-mätningarna och betonar att förståelsen av elevers “kunskaper” i naturvetenskap är betydligt mer komplex än vad som vanligtvis kommuniceras i dessa mätningar.

    Download full text (pdf)
    FULLTEXT01
  • 39.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Jobér, AnnaMalmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of School Development and Leadership (SOL).
    Vetenskapliga teorier för lärare2021Collection (editor) (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    Den utbildningsvetenskapliga kärnan är gemensam för alla lärarstuderande i Sverige och ska innehålla de grundläggande kunskaper och färdigheter som blivande förskollärare och lärare behöver. Den fungerar därmed som en gemensam bas och utgör i förlängningen grunden för ett gemensamt professionsspråk.

    Antologin beskriver en bred palett av teorier och perspektiv från olika kunskapsdiscipliner, däribland sociologiska, psykologiska, didaktiska, pedagogiska och naturvetenskapliga kunskapsområden. Boken diskuterar också hur vetenskap kan läsas och förstås i ett kapitel som behandlar vetenskaplig läskunnighet. 

    Kursboken Vetenskapliga teorier för lärare riktar sig i första hand till lärarstuderande, men kan med fördel läsas också av aktiva lärare och VFU-handledare. Teorier är redskap både för vetenskaplig kunskapsproduktion och för att tolka och förstå såväl kunskaper som egna erfarenheter. På så sätt är teoretiskt kunnande en väsentlig del i det som lärare i en utbildning som ska vila på vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet behöver erövra. 

  • 40.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Jobér, Anna
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of School Development and Leadership (SOL).
    Ideland, Malin
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Childhood, Education and Society (BUS).
    Axelsson, Thom
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Childhood, Education and Society (BUS).
    Erlandsson, Magnus
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of School Development and Leadership (SOL).
    Utbildning AB Villkor och konsekvenser för en marknadiserad skola: Rapport från ett forskningsprojekt2022Report (Other academic)
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  • 41.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Lundahl, Christian
    Örebro universitet.
    Teknik- och vetenskapsstudier (STS) och aktör-nätverksteori (ANT): fokus på kunskapens tillblivelseprocesser2021In: Vetenskapliga teorier för lärare / [ed] Serder, Margareta; Jobér, Anna, Stockholm: Natur och kultur, 2021, 1, p. 227-248Chapter in book (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    I det här kapitlet går vi igenom och beskriver de två teorierna STS och ANT med fokus på deras betydelse för hur vi kan se på kunskap, och hur vetenskapliga studier kan genomföras. Hur kommer det sig att något blir ett vetenskapligt faktum? Vilket ansvar har forskaren för vetenskapens konsekvenser? Hur skapar vi tilliit till vetenskap? I kapilet presenterar vi teorierna utifrån tre olika exempel på studier. 

  • 42.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Natural Science, Mathematics and Society (NMS).
    Malmström, Martin
    The Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology, Department of Educational Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
    Vad talar vi om när vi talar om praktiknära forskning?2020In: Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, ISSN 1401-6788, E-ISSN 2001-3345, Vol. 25, no 1, p. 106-109Article in journal (Refereed)
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    fulltext
  • 43.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Sörensen, Helene
    Comparing Danish and Swedish versions of PISA scientific literacy2014Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper presents a comparison between the Swedish, Danish, English, and French versions of three scientific literacy test-units from the released PISA items 2006. More specifically it compares how different words and concepts have been translated in the Swedish and Danish tests, compared to the English and French original versions. Differences that occur as a result of the translation process concerning words’ meaning are demonstrated. The possible consequences of such differences are exemplified by an excerpt from a situation in which Swedish 15-year-old students collaboratively worked with these three PISA units. In the paper we claim that in spite of detailed and strongly controlled methods for achieving translations of high standard used by the PISA, important and perhaps even decisive, differences between the four versions exist

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    FULLTEXT01
  • 44.
    Serder, Margareta
    et al.
    Malmö högskola, School of Teacher Education (LUT), Nature-Environment-Society (NMS).
    Sörensen, Helene
    Jakobsson, Anders
    Malmö högskola, School of Teacher Education (LUT), Nature-Environment-Society (NMS).
    Opportunities and difficulties for students’ engagement in PISA Science items2011Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper presents an empirical study on how 15-year old students engage in and discuss three PISA science items. The purpose is to describe and raise questions about what the students’ written answers on a PISA assessment may represent, in the light of how the 71 students in this study understand and choose to answer questions in the test. Departing from a socio cultural perspective on knowledge and action (Säljö, 2000), we chose a design where the students worked with the items in small groups, allowing us to study their conversations in action. We have analyzed the video recorded material in order to describe what difficulties and opportunities the students may meet in PISA. Our results indicate problems with interpretations of the tasks due to translation, to the meaning potential of many of the words used in the text and to the context provided by the items.

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    FULLTEXT01
  • 45. Törnroos, Raja
    et al.
    Nordin, Anna-Karin
    Quennerstedt, Mikael
    Serder, Margareta
    Malmö högskola, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Nature, Environment and Society (NMS).
    Olin, Anette
    Engagemang, autonomi och kontroll2017In: Undersöka och utveckla undervisning: professionell utveckling för lärare / [ed] Jonas Almqvist, Karim Hamza, Anette Olin, Studentlitteratur AB, 2017, p. 173-189Chapter in book (Other academic)
1 - 45 of 45
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