‘We have our own religion’: a pupil perspective on minority religion and ethics instruction in Finland

The Finnish system of religious education offers instruction in the pupil’s own religion or in ethics throughout comprehensive school. By taking the pupil’s background as a basis for instruction, this system aims at promoting equality and integration with respect to religion and one’s worldview. However, there has been little knowledge about how the system of instruction is experienced by pupils themselves and how it affects pupil’s identities at school. This study illuminates through a participant observation study in grades 1–6 how pupils in five minority instruction groups experience their classes and perceive themselves in relation to other pupils in school. The study shows how working in small groups represents an important element in pupils’ experiences. Pupils generally experienced participation in instruction as positive and fun, but age integration, organisation of schedules and classrooms were also important concerns. Even if pupils were content about having their own instruction group, feelings of otherness and a negative sense of difference in relation to the majority of pupils were found particularly among pupils of religion.     

Interviews with deaf children about their experiences using cochlear implants

Within the framework of a longitudinal study of deaf children with cochlear implants, 11 children with implants were interviewed. The objective was to shed light on what it is like for a child to use a cochlear implant, based on these children's own experience with implants, which ranged from 5.0 to 7.5 years. Six of the children were in schools for the deaf, five in regular classes. All but one used an implant daily. The children appreciated that an implant enabled them to perceive sounds in the environment. Some of the children in regular classes could take part in one-to-one conversations with teachers but had difficulty following teaching and discussions. This observation was consistent with what the children's parents and teachers had maintained. Peer interaction was said to be best when other children had the use of at least some signs.     

Teachers’ response to curriculum change: balancing external and internal change forces

The present study investigates teachers’ perceptions of curriculum change targeting the expanded freedom teachers were given as curriculum developers in the implementation process of the 2006 school reform in Norway. The new curriculum marks a distinct shift, moving from a content-driven to a learning outcomes-driven curriculum. Policy makers expressed confidence in teachers’ professional autonomy: local curricula had to be designed in all subjects to meet the learning outcomes defined in the curriculum. This qualitative study uses focus group interviews and addresses teachers in primary and lower secondary school. Teachers do not see their expanded freedom as real freedom; their world is deeply contextualized and they see a gap between their experienced world and the intended world of the curriculum. What was communicated as extended freedom by policy makers is perceived as extended demands. In this initial phase the teachers place themselves in the position of respondents rather than being progressive change agents themselves.     

Writing to learn ecology: a study of three populations of college students

Being an ecologically literate citizen involves making decisions that are based on ecological knowledge and accepting responsibility for personal actions. Using writing-to-learn activities in college science courses, we asked students to consider personal dilemmas that they or others might have in response to how human choices can impact coastal dead zones around the world. We explored how undergraduate students (42 biology and 47 elementary education majors at a 4-year college and eight Native studies majors at a tribal college in the United States) identified their ecological dilemmas after reading about aquatic hypoxia. About 30% of the 4-year college students’s essays demonstrated a more ecologically literate understanding of hypoxia by the end of the study. The tribal college students improved their ecological literacy by 50%, albeit with a small sample size. Biology majors made more human-centered comments than the education majors. The Native American students often discussed trade-offs between quality of life and ecological consequences, and were classified as both human-centered and ecosystem-centered.     

News in Special Education

The purpose of the reported interview study from Sweden is to contribute to our understanding of how head teachers can promote inclusive practices. Five head teachers were selected from a larger sample of head teachers working in compulsory schools (6–16) according to specific criteria in order to obtain head teachers who work effectively and express inclusive values relative to a relational perspective. The interviews were semi-structured, and a thematic analysis was performed. Head teachers’ strategies were in focus. The theoretical point of departure is critical pragmatism. Overall the five head teachers reported similar strategies. The head teachers describe the importance of educational leadership through observation and participation in activities in the classrooms. They advocate flexibility in the solutions provided for students in need of special support preferring solutions carried out in the regular classroom by the class/subject teacher. Head teachers see special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) as important partners in their work towards more inclusive practices. Head teachers express the importance of consensus among their staff. They seem to welcome government’s increasing demands and steering concerning how head teachers should manage their schools. Finally, it is discussed whether the head teachers can be said to work ‘inclusively’ and, more generally, the methodological challenges researchers must confront in studies concerning ‘inclusive’ education.     

Understanding glocal learning spaces. An empirical study of languaging and transmigrant positions in the virtual classroom

The use of digital tools like computers and tablets in institutional learning arenas give rise to forms of flexibility where time and space boundaries become diffuse. Online learning sites are understood as being crucial today, especially in large parts of the Global North, where anyone anywhere potentially can become a student and have access to educational opportunities.

This study focuses on the analysis of recorded sessions, part of an ‘Italian for (adult) beginners' online course. Our interests relate to accounting for how students negotiate different language varieties, including modalities, and how communication in virtual learning settings enables both flexible participation trajectories and identity positions in and across the boundaries of time and space.

The sociocultural and dialogical analyses here are framed in terms of fluidity of ‘glocal' positions and (trans)languaging that emerge in and across time and space in Technology Mediated Communication. Our findings suggest that online environments support meaning-making where it is possible to identify alternative ways of (co)constructing and mediating learning. Such hybridity as well as the performative character of learning and identity display have important implications for online glocal communities.     

Students’ Views of Learning in Vocational Education

The aim of this study was to investigate students’ conceptions of learning and approaches to learning within vocational education. A group of car‐mechanic students (n = 30) were interviewed at the end of their programme. The phenomenographic approach was used as the point of departure, and, as a result of the analysis, qualitative similarities and differences in students’ conceptions and approaches were found. The distribution of conceptions and approaches showed that half of students were classified as representing a quantitative view of learning and as favouring a surface approach. However, in order to encourage students to develop a qualitative view of learning and to use deep approaches, more attention must be paid to the ways in which students conceive learning within the school context and how they actually do in order to meet the demands they experience within their education.     

School district administrators’ perspectives on the professional activities and influence of special educators in Norway and Sweden

The purpose of this study is to investigate school district administrators' perspectives concerning the professional activities and influence of special educators in Norway (n?=?266) and Sweden (n?=?290). We examine three themes drawn from a survey of practices and policies in each country: (a) the organisational arrangements in which special educators work, (b) perceived changes in special educators' activities, and (c) ratings of special educators' influence on the content of instruction and the availability of resources for children with special needs. Findings suggest that special educators frequently work in teams, function largely as advisors, and spend less time working with individual students than in previous years. There appears to be a more pronounced increase in special educators’ time devoted to advising and documentation in Sweden than in Norway. Swedish special educators were also more frequently described as working in multidisciplinary teams. Participants in both countries rated the influence of special educators significantly higher than that of parents and teachers on the availability and distribution of resources; and significantly higher than politicians, public officials, teachers, and parents with regard to influence over the content of instruction. We discuss these findings in relation to the goals and development of inclusive education in Scandinavia.