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

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

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

Researchers:

Jorryt van Bommel, jorrbomm@kau.se

Héctor Pérez Priéto, hector.perez@kau.se

Yvonne Liljekvist, yvonne.liljekvist@kau.se

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

Johan Samuelsson, johan.samuelsson@kau.se

Erica Sandlund, erica.sandlund@kau.se

Pia Sundqvist, pia.sundqvist@ils.uio.no

Marie Tanner, marie.tanner@kau.se