The creative use of companion values in environmental education and education for sustainable development: exploring the educative moment

Our paper addresses the emergence and evolution of values in educational settings. It builds upon and extends earlier work on companion meanings to develop a theory of the creative use of companion values and meanings in education. The recognition of companion values in educational practices highlight epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic transactions that occur in ways we characterize as ‘other than modern.’ Introducing the idea of educative moments allows us to identify situations where value spheres interpenetrate and interrogate each other in the meaning-making of students and teachers. These moments occur when students suddenly experience companion meanings and values such that teacher and student must deliberate together rather than the teacher dictating some dominating epistemological, ethical, or aesthetic value. This way, it is possible to accommodate critical and creative reflection in education where new values can emerge or evolve. We illustrate the theory by empirical examples from classroom conversations.     

Technical efficiency and productivity for higher education institutions in Sweden

This study investigates technical efficiency and productivity for Swedish higher education institutions (HEIs). One identified problem in previous research concerns adjusting efficiency scores for input quality. This problem is avoided using grades from upper-secondary schools. A second problem concerns heterogeneity with respect to subjects and institutions between HEIs. Using the Swedish national resource allocation system, students are weighted according to subject. For research production, a bibliometric index that allows for differences in publication tradition is used. A third problem when using the data envelopment analysis approach is the lack of statistical inference. Bootstrapping is used to approach this problem. The results indicate an average inefficiency of 12% and a productivity increase of around 1.7% per year.     

Conceptual and procedural approaches to mathematics in the engineering curriculum: views of qualified engineers*

The research interest underpinning this paper concerns the type of mathematical knowledge engineering students may acquire during their specialised education in terms of the conceptual and procedural dimensions of doing and using mathematics. This study draws on interviews with 25 qualified engineers from South Africa and Sweden regarding their views on the role of mathematics in engineering education, with special focus on the conceptual and procedural aspects of mathematical knowledge. A thematic analysis of the interview data led to the identification of two main themes. According to the conceptual view a predominantly conceptual approach is needed and valued more than procedural skills, while the balanced view emphasises a balance of conceptual understanding and procedural fluency as well as links between them. It is suggested that the mathematical education of engineers would need to be more conceptually oriented to prepare for the demands at the workplace.     

Quality Assurance Issues in European Distance Education

Four major issues concerning quality in European distance education are addressed. (1) The lack of flexibility in educational institutions is a threat to the quality of the present education system. (2) New technologies offer new potential, but also confront us with a need for quality assessment and assurance. (3) New markets in industry and in new regions of Europe highlight the need for quality standards and guidelines. (4) Finally, public assessment and control of quality are under continuous discussion. In general, quality assurance should be approached in various ways and with different measures at institutional, national and international levels.     

Personal authenticity and political subjectivity in student deliberation in environmental and sustainability education

This study problematizes what is meant when one talks about classroom activities concerning environmental and sustainability issues as being authentic or not. It reports excerpts from three classroom discussions which start from questions formulated by the students themselves concerning issues related to sustainable development. It examines how the different questions give rise to altered kinds of participation and shows that the students’ involvement shifted between either a distanced factual level of communication, or a personal level of communication. The result indicated that the nature of authenticity in a discourse differs depending on which question initiates it. If the initiating questions allow the students to distance themselves from the subject matter, then one type of authenticity is created. If, on the other hand, the questions give the students an opportunity to establish value-relations, or to dare to take a personal standpoint, as political subjects, to the issues at hand then the personal authenticity becomes another.     

Measuring strategic processing: comparing task-specific self-reports to traces

This research compares the strategic processing reported on right after the completion of a reading task with physical traces of the same strategies that were found in the study materials. In addition, both task-specific self-reports and traces of strategies were used to predict performance, both in the task context where the strategy data were generated and in another context. Using a sample of 177 Norwegian tenth-grade students, a quite close correspondence was found between learners’ task-specific self-reports about strategies and the strategies traced in the study materials. Moreover, both self-reports and traces of strategies predicted performance not only on the specific reading task but also beyond that context, on the PISA literacy tests. In both contexts, however, strategy data that traced what learners actually did when working on the reading task seemed to predict performance better than did task-specific self-reports.     

‘I don't know what it is to be able to read’: how students with dyslexia experience their reading impairment

Better understanding of the diverse reading abilities of people with dyslexia is necessary for the design of more effective learning situations, which are vital both to students with dyslexia and to their teachers. Seven individuals with dyslexia currently or formerly in higher education were interviewed about their reading experiences to learn how they themselves understand and describe their reading. The interviews are treated as individual profiles. Although the respondents were adult experienced readers, aware of their impairments, none could identify any strategy for overcoming dyslexia other than investing much time in homework and study. Each profile is unique, yet they share some characteristics, including strong parental support and a refusal to accept the label of ‘stupid’. Teachers need to recognise the diverse effects of dyslexia in order to improve the chances of dyslexic students – especially those who cannot rely upon strong parental support – of continuing to higher education.     

School Health Promotion to Increase Empowerment,Gender Equality and Pupil Participation: A Focus Group Study of a Swedish Elementary School Initiative

A school health promotion project was carried out in an elementary school in Sweden where active participation, gender equality, and empowerment were leading principles. The objective of the study was to understand challenges and to identify social processes of importance for such a project. Focus group interviews were conducted with 6 single-sex groups (7–12 year olds) in grade 1–2, grade 3–4, and grade 5–6 on 2 occasions. The analysis used a grounded theory approach. The analysis identified the core category “normalization processes of violence and harassment.” It is argued that school health promotion initiatives need to be aware of normalization processes of violence and, which may be counter-productive to the increase of empowerment and participation among all pupils.     

Economic independence for adolescents with special educational needs

Do young men and women diagnosed with special educational needs succeed in finding full‐time employment that provides sufficient income to live on? The analyses presented in this paper are based on interviews conducted between October 2001 and April 2002 of nearly 500 young people with various types of disabilities. The young people who were interviewed have been studied prospectively since they entered upper secondary school as special needs students six or seven years earlier. These adolescents are followed through a critical phase of life when they are trying to find their way in society as adult individuals. This process is gradual and involves making tentative steps in various arenas. A crucial topic is how these young men and women, between 23 and 25 years of age, succeed in gaining employment that allows them to become economically independent. This is a vulnerable process for most youth, but it is especially challenging for young people with functional difficulties who have experienced protracted and disjointed transitions throughout their educational trajectories.