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  • 1.
    Bergström, Ylva
    et al.
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    En reformerad gymnasieskola: med vilka ambitioner?2008In: Utbildning och Demokrati, ISSN 1102-6472, E-ISSN 2001-7316, Vol. 17, no 1, p. 5-16Article in journal (Refereed)
  • 2.
    Englund, Tomas
    et al.
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Quennerstedt, Ann
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Education as a Human and a Citizenship Right - Parents' Rights, Children's Rights, or...?: The Necessity of Historical Cotextualization2009In: Journal of Human Rights, ISSN 1475-4835, E-ISSN 1475-4843, Vol. 8, no 2, p. 133-138Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper serves as an introduction to three following papers, analyzing the contextual background to the different treaties - the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights , and the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child - and focusing on how the relations between parents' rights and children's rights in the matter of education were shaped during the various drafting stages. The paper forms part of a project that intends to study the meaning and consequences of the increased tendency to view education from a perspective of rights. More specifically, the project aims to focus on the implications of parental rights and to analyze potential contradictions between parents' and children's rights in education.

  • 3.
    Sundberg, Daniel
    et al.
    Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Standards-based curricula in a denationalised conception of education: the case of Sweden2012Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In this paper, we examine the development of the Swedish educational reform of 1991 from an international and European perspective, and from the perspective of what counts as knowledge in a recently implemented Swedish curriculum reform. With effect from 2011, the Swedish government has significantly reshaped the curricula for preschool, compulsory school and uppersecondary school education, but in terms of governing principles for schools, these curriculum reforms can be regarded as a continuation of the 1991 reform. We argue that this latest reform, as part of an international policy discourse, can be said to represent a denationalised and instrumental conception of education, and that the implications for the formation of knowledge within this conception can be understood as a standards-based curriculum shaped by two powerful international influences: a technical-instrumental discourse of curriculum, emphasising the form, structure and function of the curriculum; and a neo-conservative discourse of curriculum, with an emphasis on curriculum content as a given and uncontested body of knowledge.

  • 4.
    Sundberg, Daniel
    et al.
    Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Standards-based curricula in a denationalised conception of education: the case of Sweden2012In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 11, no 3, p. 342-356Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In this paper, the authors examine the development of the Swedish educational reform of 1991 from an international and European perspective, and from the perspective of what counts as knowledge in a recently implemented Swedish curriculum reform. With effect from 2011, the Swedish government has significantly reshaped the curricula for preschool, compulsory school and upper secondary school education, but in terms of governing principles for schools, these curriculum reforms can be regarded as a continuation of the 1991 reform. We argue that this latest reform, as part of an international policy discourse, can be said to represent a denationalised and instrumental conception of education, and that the implications for the formation of knowledge within this conception can be understood as a standards-based curriculum shaped by two powerful international influences: a technical-instrumental discourse of curriculum, emphasising the form, structure and function of the curriculum; and a neo-conservative discourse of curriculum, with an emphasis on curriculum content as a given and uncontested body of knowledge.

  • 5.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    A communicative understanding of educational cosmopolitanism2012Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The methodology in this paper is mainly a conceptual exploration of the concept of cosmopolitanism in a time of globalization. In the first part of my paper I will discuss cosmopolitanism in relation to curriculum theory. This has previously been done by for example Camicia and Franklin (2010). There is already a strong policy research in education, which often analyzes globalization in terms with economical connotations, as marketization, privatization, global competition etc (c.f. Ball 2007; Ozga 2009; Lundahl 2007). In this paper I will instead explore globalization in terms of the more philosophically influenced concept of cosmopolitanism, with its (also more) didactic implications. I draw on Kwame Anthony Appiah’s (2003, 2005, 2007, 2008) ethical perspective on cosmopolitanism and David Hansen’s (2008a, 2008b, 2009, 2011) concept of educational cosmopolitanism. In the discussion from which point of reference communication with ‘strangers’ becomes possible, Donald Davidson’s (1991/2001) notion of a shared world and a triangulation between one's own thoughts, others' thoughts and a common object is fruitful.  It is suggested that sharing a language of values is the essential common frame of reference for meaning-making (Appiah 2007). However, as Parker (2006) observes, listening, as an important part of conversation, requires itself special attention. We must, as Garrison (1996) puts it, put our own ideas at risk in listening with openness to others if we understand educational cosmopolitanism as reflective conversations.  

  • 6.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    A European space for education looking for its public2010In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 9, no 4, p. 432-443Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The open method of coordination (OMC) within the Lisbon strategy is discussed in terms of a European Space for Education and ‘programme ontology’. The focus is on indicators and the European dimension, and how they ‘work’ in the forming of contents and identities in this European Space for Education. The OMC is analyzed in relation to Nancy Fraser’s theoretical public-sphere approach of discourses about needs, instead of inquiry from needs. Central to the article is the problematization of the shift from national theories and methodologies to theories that might be better suited to an international European educational arena. Hence, in the final part of the article, the publicsphere theory is discussed from the point of view of globalization and within a transnational frame for education.

     

     

  • 7.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    A relational and communicative understanding of education: on Dewey’s reconstruction of experience and Davidson’s three varieties of knowledge2008Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    The purpose of this paper is to examine in what ways Davidson’s meaning theory might complement a communicative understanding of experience, emphasizing an intersubjective conceptualisation of knowledge, and its implications for education. In this paper I begin with an introduction concerning why relations are coherent with education. John Dewey, as a proponent of a relational view of knowledge of the world, defined in his reconstruction of the concept of experience how experience is permeated with relations (human and others) and knowledge, and, at the same time, has communication as its prerequisite. This is the theme for the second part of the paper. In the third sector I discuss how Donald Davidson’s Theory of Meaning might complement an understanding of how communication ‘works’ more in detail and why knowledge is a relational affair. I also give details about on what points I make the connections between Dewey’s and Davidson’s different philosophies. In the fourth, and final, part I relate this discussion to its implications for education.

  • 8.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    After decentralization: delimitations and possibilities within new fields2008In: Journal of Curriculum Studies, ISSN 0022-0272, E-ISSN 1366-5839, Vol. 40, no 6, p. 725-742Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The shift from a centralized to a desentralized school system can be seen as a solution to an uncertain problem. Through analysing the displacements in the concept of equivalence within Sweden's decentralized school system, this study illustrates how the meaning of the concept of equivalence shifts over time, from a more collective target achievement for the educational system as awhole to a more individually interpreted goal-fulfillment.

  • 9.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Att erfara är att lära - ibland: en diskussion utifrån Deweys experience-begrepp2007In: Utbildning som kommunikation: deliberativa samtal som möjlighet / [ed] Tomas Englund, Göteborg: Daidalos , 2007, p. 51-80Chapter in book (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    Artikeln uppehåller sig vid ett av John Deweys mest genomgående begrepp, hans rekonstruktion av begreppet "erfarenhet". I artikeln belyses hur Deweys erfarenhetsbegrepp har sin grund i kommunikativ handling. Vidare diskuteras hur 'reflekterande erfarenhet' kan ses som ett sätt att förstå hur människan skapar mening och kunskap om världen. Slutligen problematiseras progressivismens 'learning by doing' genom förståelsen av detta bredare erfarenhetsbegrepp som artikeln uppehåller sig vid

  • 10.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Between efficiency and education: different interpretations of learning within a goal- and result oriented educational system2008Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper examines in what different ways the local schools interpret what is sometimes called the “commission of knowledge”, stated in policy documents and emphasized in a result oriented educational system (cf. the term ‘commission of knowledge’ in for example SOU 2007:101). The Curriculum for the Swedish Compulsory School System, Lpo 94, states that “the function of education is to promote learning for stimulating the individual to acquire knowledge”. So, in what different ways do teachers, head teachers and pupils perceive the concept of learning? The purpose of this paper is to examine in what different ways the curriculum’s offer of learning is interpreted and constituted in local school arenas.

  • 11.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Budget och bildning: om villkor som formar folkhögskolerektorns uppdrag2010In: Folkhögskolans praktiker i förändring II / [ed] Bernt Gustavsson, Gunnel Andersdotter, Örebro: Örebro universitet , 2010, p. 103-134Chapter in book (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    Hur formeras villkoren för att vara rektor inom folkhögskolan i 2000-talets inledning? Folkhögskolan är en skolform som dels präglas av sin drygt hundraåriga historia, dels påverkas nära och omedelbart av samhällets förändringar. Studien tar sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i Quentin Skinners talhandlingsteori och Gunther Kress språkteori om relationen mellan språk och samhälle i annonstexter. I syfte att undersöka vilka grundläggande villkor och ramar för folkhögskolans rektorer som de språkliga handlingarna öppnar för, analyseras språkhandlingar i platsannonstexter för folkhögskolerektorer tillsammans med språkhandlingar från sju intervjuer med representanter från olika huvudmän.  Begrepp som folkbildning, huvudmannaskap, rektor och omvärldsfaktorer utgör alla så kallade omstridda begrepp som ges olika innebörder.

    Download full text (pdf)
    Folkhögskolans praktiker i förändring II
  • 12.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Creating cosmopolitan meaning through conversation2012Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In this paper, I have tried to examine classroom conversations as a site for expressions of cosmopolitization. The concept allows for an understanding of cosmopolitanism as an ongoing and dynamic interaction between different societies at the same place and time. Thus, cosmopolitanism is not a goal or a distant ideal, but something societies and individuals must relate to; creating situations that they handle - of course - in different ways (Beck & Grande 2010). With the notion of ‘critical cosmopolitanism’, self-understanding and self-reflexivity are highlighted (Delanty 2006), and with the displacement from ‘translation’ to ‘transaction’ as the process for cosmopolitization, I want to emphasize the inter-subjective and transactional character of the reflexivity in a cosmopolitan perspective.

     

    I take my starting point from a cosmopolitan view that we are inhabitants of the same world (albeit in very different ways) rather than being citizens of the world (c.f. Hansen 2011). To understand the process of people coordinating their lives across personal and cultural differences, communication and imagination become crucial notions. With reference to Appiah (2006), cosmopolitanism is possible because humans have a capacity to imagine other ways of life and to learn from one another, through listening to each others’ stories. Thus, the language of values is placed at the center of communication, and conversations on values are, in this case, conversations across different boundaries. What I have tried to do in this paper is to capture these moments of learning, by listening to conversations on values in local educational arenas. This implies some methodological considerations. First, I distinguish between ‘cosmopolitan orientation’ (Hansen 2011) and ‘cosmopolitan resistance’. Secondly, I use the term ‘critical cosmopolitanism’ as an expression of self-understanding and self-reflexivity in the space in between the global and local, and between the universal and particular.  For example, I interpret the tension between ‘the global’ and the local as encounters between ‘different societies’, between different particularities, in the one and same educational setting.  Thirdly, I use Dewey's concept of transaction, to emphasize the intersubjective condition of self-understanding and self-reflexivity, and I distinguish between efferent and aesthetic-reflective experiences, to be able to capture expressions of cosmopolitization in classroom conversations in terms of cosmopolitan encounters.

     

    What I found was vivid conversations going on, not so much in general conversations on different values, but rather in 'snapshots'; a conversation that is interrupted by individual reflections and questions, the exchange of quick comments and debate, and then a continuation of the conversation in line with its original purpose. Or, put another way, the shift between efferent and aesthetic-reflective experiences which, in this examination, turned out to take the form of temporal shifts in terms of an ongoing efferent communication and its aesthetic-reflective interruptions. But even from these rapidly conducted ‘micro-conversations’ of reflections on values crossing borders, however unforeseeable and improvised they are, I suggest that these “ordinary” conversations in education contribute to reflections on cosmopolitan perspectives through their aesthetic-reflective potential. So, rather, the question is if the classrooms will remain a site for cross-border conversations in a time of increasing diversifying on the local level.

     

     

     

  • 13.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Den effektiva läraren: om konstruktionen av den goda läraren på en internationell utbildningsarena2012In: Föreställningar om den goda läraren / [ed] Tomas Englund, Göteborg: Daidalos, 2012, p. 247-270Chapter in book (Refereed)
    Abstract [sv]

    Intresset för läraren som företeelse och begrepp inom internationell utbildningspolicy grundar sig på antagandet att lärarens yrkesutövning är av avgörande betydelse för att eleverna ska nå de internationellt och nationellt formulerade målen. Flera internationella arenor pekar således ut den enskilde läraren som grundbulten i ett lands utbildningssystem. Intresset för lärarprofessionen är en följd av grundantagandet att en ökande internationalisering leder till snabba förändringar och ständigt ny teknikanvändning. Det kräver i sin tur att medborgarna har tillägnat sig en allmän kompetens som gör det möjligt för dem att hantera ständigt nya villkor, såväl inom arbetsmarknaden som i samhällslivet i övrigt. Läraren, konstrueras diskursivt som kontextoberoende, internationell och generell. Eftersom de kompetenser som eleverna ska uppnå är desamma i den industrialiserade världen, krävs det också samma kompetenser hos alla lärare vilket öppnar för standarder för lärarutbildning och kompetensprofiler för lärare som utformas gemensamt och samordnat inom organisationer som OECD och EU. Det är lärarens undervisningsförmåga som ska borga för effektiviteten i ett lands utbildningssystem. Med en sådan utgångspunkt är den effektiva lärare som beskrivs som ett ideal i de internationella policyinriktade utbildningstexter som har refererats till i detta kapitel att betrakta som en leverantör av utbildningstjänster.

  • 14.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Den nya öppna samordningsmetoden - en paradox?: Om ökad samverkan genom konkurrens och om statens roll i det mellanstatliga arbetet2007Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    I detta konferensbidrag problematiseras frågan om statens roll i utbildningspolitiken med hjälp av Nancy Frasers (2003) utgångspunkt i den ”kamp om behoven” som hon menar utmärker senkapitalistiska samhällen. Den huvudsakliga frågan är således: Vilka implikationer får den öppna samordningsmetoden som används inom EU:s s.k. Lissabonstrategi för statens roll som centrum för kamp mellan olika sociala krafter vad gäller undervisningens, i vid mening, samhällsrelaterade innehåll och form? Ett försök att närmare illustrera den eventuella problematiken görs genom att följa upp vissa förarbeten inför uppdraget att ta fram indikatorer avseende den ”europeiska dimensionen” inom den internationella ICCS-undersökningen (International Civic and Citizenship Education Study).

  • 15.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Do we need to talk to each other?: How the concept of experience can contribute to an understanding of Bildung and democracy2010In: Educational Philosophy and Theory, ISSN 0013-1857, E-ISSN 1469-5812, Vol. 42, no 3, p. 293-309Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In this article it is argued that the contested concept of Bildung, with its roots in the late 18th century, remains of interest in the postmodern era, even if there is also certainly a debate about it having had its day. In the specific discussion about Bildung and democracy, it is suggested that Dewey's reconstucted concept of experience has several points in common with a more recent understanding of  Bildung, at the same time as it can provide insight into how democracy can be understood within the field of Bildung. In brief, in this article it is suggested that if we wish to discuss democracy and Bildung, Dewey's notion of experience might offer a bridge between the two concepts, as well as an understanding of subjectivity, learning, and communication as a whole. Finally, communication is a nesessary part of both democracy and Bildung - not because of certain human similarities, but because of the similarities in some of the problems which we humans encounter, and which we think are worth reflecting upon.

  • 16.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Education - the most difficult question: a study of the struggle for the right to education in the European Convention on Human Rights2007Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    I detta paper undersöks under vilka omständigheter och i vilken kontext som Europakonventionens text om rätten till utbildning tar form. Genom att studera samtida protokoll växer bilden av en historiskt situerad konventionstext fram, där rätten till utbildning i artikel 2 i Första tilläggsprotokollet får sin innehållsliga bestämning i relation till den tidens erfarenhet av totalitära stater och indoktrinering. Europakonventionens text följs upp genom Europadomstolens uttolkning av artikel 2 om rätten till utbildning. Genom Seyla Benhabibs begrepp 'democratic iterations' erbjuds en förståelse av hur universella rättigheter kan ges olika nationella uttolkningar

  • 17.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Educational cosmopolitanism: making meaning through reflective conversations2012Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In the theoretical framework, I draw on Kwame Anthony Appiah’s (2005, 2007) ethical perspective on cosmopolitanism and David Hansen’s (2008a, 2008b) concept of educational cosmopolitanism. In the discussion from which point of reference communication with ‘strangers’ becomes possible, Donald Davidson’s (2001) notion of a shared world and a triangulation between one's own thoughts, others' thoughts and a common object are fruitful (Wahlström 2010). Davidson’s emphasis on a shared world is in accordance with Appiah’s (2005) claim that human beings can learn from each other’s stories only if they understand that they share a single world.  According to Appiah (2007), one of the central ways to coordinate our lives with others is through language of values. Thus, conversation means to be engaged in others and others' ideas, rather than coming to a common agreement. Hansen (2008a) examines curriculum as a ‘cosmopolitan inheritance’ and pays attention to which issues the world puts forth to students today. Rizvi (2009), on the other hand, inquires into cosmopolitan learning, with an emphasis on the identity and the connectivity with the rest of the world. I will use the concept of educational cosmopolitanism in this broader meaning of global interconnectedness and actual intercultural meetings in classrooms.

    In understanding educational cosmopolitanism as conversations on values, listening becomes the crucial point.  We must, as Garrison (1996) puts it, put our own ideas at risk in listening with openness to others. A reason to take such a risk, is, according to Garrison, that we already always are vulnerable, and at risk, since we are all already members of different cultures and groups, and are already in dialogues with others, even if we perhaps are not always fully aware of it. However, in a cosmopolitan view of education, the importance of listening needs to be emphasized, and the role of the listener needs to be recognized. 

     

     

  • 18.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Equivalence and knowledge: a discussion with its starting point in two ambigous concepts2007Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Utifrån ett perspektiv om språket som konstituerande för social handling problematiseras de båda begreppen kunskap och likvärdighet i ett svenskt läroplansteoretiskt perspektiv. Genom en analys av tre kunskapsperspektiv som kan sägas konstituera läroplanens uppfattning av kunskap, problematiseras lokala måldokument och den kunskapsuppfattning som kommer till uttryck i de ur ett likvärdighetsperspektiv intressanta formuleringarna om mål att uppnå

  • 19.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Ett nytt språk om skola?: Recensionsessä2010In: Utbildning och Demokrati, ISSN 1102-6472, E-ISSN 2001-7316, Vol. 19, no 2, p. 113-118Article, book review (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    När AERA[1] presenterar sitt konferenstema för 2011 års konferens ställer man forskning kring ”the public good” i centrum, med en ambition att väcka en ny dialog om relationen mellan pedagogisk forskning och det offentliga skolväsendet.  AERA pekar på det till synes motstridiga i att vi å ena sidan lever i en tid av exceptionellt intresse för utbildning och utbildningsfrågor som tar sig uttryck i stor reformiver, en våg av lagstiftning inom utbildningsområdet samt en policyretorik om skolans möjligheter att öppna upp för social och ekonomisk utveckling. Samtidigt har dessa ambitioner lett till att skolans dagliga liv och frågeställningar kanaliserats in i teknokratiska och marknadsinspirerade banor vilket å andra sidan leder till ökad skolsegregation, stor tro på utvärdering och tester samt en förskjutning från ett allmänt till ett privat drivet skolsystem.

    Boken ”Why School?” av Mike Rose. Som en introduktion till 2011 års konferens på temat ”Inciting the Social Imagination: Education Research for the Public Good” relaterar AERA sitt tema till boken Why School? Reclaiming Education for All of Us” av professor Mike Rose, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Boken Why School? är såväl till omfång som till innehåll en behändig och lättillgänglig skrift. Det riktigt intressanta med boken är kanske främst dess roll som en symbol för en ny diskussion om en allmän skola genom att den på detta sätt lyfts fram av AERA, med en uppfordran att gå till botten med våra föreställningar om varför allmän utbildning behövs.

    [1] American Educational Research Association

  • 20.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Från olikhet till valfrihet2012In: Uppdrag lärare: en antologi om status, yrkesskicklighet och framtidsdrömmar / [ed] Leif Mathiasson, Stockholm: Lärarförbundets Förlag , 2012Chapter in book (Other academic)
  • 21.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    I spänningsfältet mellan likvärdighet och måluppfyllelse2008In: Vadå likvärdighet?: Studier i utbildningspolitisk språkanvändning, Göteborg: Daidalos , 2008, p. 147-164Chapter in book (Other academic)
  • 22.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Internationella konventioner och debatten om fristående skolor i Sverige2011In: Utbildning som medborgerlig rättighet: föräldrarätt eller barns rätt eller… ? / [ed] Tomas Englund, Göteborg: Daidalos, 2011, p. 87-127Chapter in book (Refereed)
    Abstract [sv]

    Kapitlet belyser på vilka sätt Sveriges undertecknande av internationella konventioner, främst då Europakonventionen, har använts i den svenska debatten om fristående skolor från mitten av 1900-talet och framåt. I kapitlet ges en historisk översikt över utredningar och propositioner som har lett fram till ändringar i skollagen, från 1958 års folkskolestadga fram till propositionen om ny skollag 2010. Det material som har undersökts består huvudsakligen av offentliga utredningar, departementsskrivelser och riksdagstryck.

  • 23.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Kan vi tala med främlingar?: Om Danielle S. Allens bok "Talking to Strangers" och om att känna tillit2007In: Utbildning och Demokrati, ISSN 1102-6472, E-ISSN 2001-7316, Vol. 16, no 3, p. 107-110Article, book review (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    I "Talking to Strangers" ställer Danielle Allen viktiga demokrati- och samhällsfrågor om samhörighet och rättvisa. Boken har sin främsta styrka just i diskussionen om vad som krävs av ett demokratiskt medborgarskap. Allens betoning av begreppet "tillit", grundat i ömsesidighet mellan människor (som man inte känner), som ett centralt begrepp för medborgarskap är intressant också som en del av en större filosofisk diskussion. Danielle Allen har, som jag uppfattar det, genom denna bok försökt att flytta fokus i en sådan diskussion från ett mer ensidigt ansvar för att vara-med-andra till ett mer ömsesidigt åtagande av att vara-med-varandra, även om vi fortfarande är främlingar.

  • 24.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Learning to communicate or communicating to learn?: A conceptual discussion on communnication, meaning, and knowledge2010In: Journal of Curriculum Studies, ISSN 0022-0272, E-ISSN 1366-5839, Vol. 42, no 4, p. 431-449Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    As the conditions for students’ prospects of acquiring knowledge in school often are thought of as something that must be improved in the political rhetoric, it is also urgent, as Michael F. D. Young has argued, to ask what kind of knowledge should be the basis of the curriculum and to recognize the question of knowledge as central to the curricular debate. This article examines the grounds for a relational and communicative understanding of education. Drawing on John Dewey’s reconstruction of the concept of experience and Donald Davidson’s meaning theory in terms of three varieties of knowledge, the emphasis is on an intersubjective conceptualization of meaning and knowledge and its implications. Central themesin the analysis are communication as a condition for the acquisition of knowledge; a shared, but not identical, world as a point of reference; and an approach to specialized knowledge as judgement formation. As a conclusion it is argued that one condition for acquisition of knowledge, in terms of meaning, is to participate in and be influenced by conversations with a shared purpose, within and between different groups.

  • 25.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Likvärdighet: ett begrepp med skilda demokratiska dimensioner2006In: Om demokratins villkor: 2 / [ed] Mats Ekström ..., Örebro: Örebro universitet , 2006, p. 59-75Chapter in book (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    I kapitlet undersöks hur olika uttydningar av innebörder i begreppet likvärdighet samtidigt kan öppna för olika betoningar av hur kunskap uppfattas. Inom utbildningspolitiken har en likvärdig skola diskuterats i termer av enhetlighet, lika möjligheter och måluppfyllelse. Denna förskjutning i konceptionen av likvärdighet leder på samma gång till ett skifte i betoning från utbildning som gemensam referensram till utbildning som en mera individuell angelägenhet. Analysen utgår från John Deweys diskussion om två olika ansatser för utbildning: en betoning av kunskaper som fristående objekt respektive en betoning av utbildning som social handling.

  • 26.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Likvärdighet och kunskap: en diskussion utifrån två mångtydiga begrepp2008In: Vadå likvärdighet?: Studier i utbildningspolitisk språkanvändning / [ed] Tomas Englund, Ann Quennerstedt, Göteborg: Daidalos , 2008, p. 120-146Chapter in book (Other academic)
  • 27.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Mellan leverans och utbildning: om lärande i en mål- och resultatstyrd skola2009 (ed. 1)Book (Other academic)
    Abstract [sv]

    I Mellan leverans och utbildning undersöker Ninni Wahlström olika uppfattningar om utbildning och deras konsekvenser för utformning av läroplaner och för didaktiska frågeställningar. Hon ger en översikt över det läroplansteortiska fältets utveckling samt över hur den nuvarande styrningen av skolan har vuxit fram inom svensk offentlig förvaltning. Mot denna bakgrund studeras så hur begreppet lärande uppfattas och praktiseras på den lokala skolarenan inom ett allmänt skolväsende som präglas av mål- och resultatstyrning. Enligt Wahlström har vi att göra med ett spänningsförhållande mellan två uppfattningar om lärande: å ena sidan en resultatfokuserad (lärande som leverans), å den andra en relationell och kommunikativ som betonar elevernas utveckling av självförståelse och till medborgare (lärande som utbildning)

  • 28.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    National and transnational conceptions of knowledge in Swedish curricula2013Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    If one accepts Ulrich Beck’s (2006) argument that modern societies are characterized by a state of ’cosmopolitanization’, the nation as a unit for research cannot be taken as a given. Transactional interactions, whose boundaries are not clearly defined, do not replace – but incorporate – the nation-state in transnational systems of regulation, not least in education policy; and an important task is to examine national education documents, like curriculum, embedded within transnational policy forces (‘methodological cosmopolitanism’, c.f. Beck & Grande 2010). In the paper, I take this transnational ‘reality’ in consideration and analyze the curricula, specifically Swedish and Civics, in curriculum 2011 in relation to these subjects in curricula from 2000, as well as to the PISA 2009 Reading Framework and national and transnational policy texts.       

    In this case, the nations-state is an adequate unit of analysis; however, the analysis also needs to go beyond this unit to provide a full picture (Lawn & Grek 2012). Methodologically, I draw on critical discourse analysis based in the following features; distinguishing relations between discourse and other elements of the social process, analyzing texts in a systematic way, observing recontextualisation of discourses and recognizing the normative elements by discussing different consequences for social transformation  (Fairclough 2010). I also discuss my analytical results in relation to two main pedagogic models: competence models and performance models, in relation to discourse, space, evaluation, control and pedagogic text (Bernstein 2000). These models are in turn pointing at different orientations of curricula (Ross 2000).   

    A broad and preliminary conclusion is that the curricula for the subjects in the version of 2000 and the Pisa framework is mostly emphasizing the competence model, while the curriculum 2011 are mostly emphasizing the performance model (Sundberg & Wahlström 2012). Through the analysis it is possible to nuance and distinguish the characteristics within these broader models in problematizing the tensions between traditional and essential curricula. Exploring different (transnational) methodological approaches to curriculum studies is highly relevant to the Nordic countries considering their respectively relation to EU.  

     

  • 29.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Om det förändrade ansvaret för skolan: vägen till mål- och resultatstyrning och några av dess konsekvenser2002Doctoral thesis, monograph (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    (On the shift of responsibility for compulsory schooling. The path to management by objectives and results and some of its consequences).

    The aim with this thesis is to contribute to the discussion about the responsibility for compulsory schooling in the 1990s. The decade began with a shift of responsibility for the compulsory school, a process generally referred to as 'municipalization', which on an everyday basis makes it perfectly clear where the responsibility lies. This thesis probes a little further into the problems of the distribution of responsibility, through investigating how the issue of responsibility for the nine-year comprehensive compulsory school has been discussed and motivated over time, in order to analyse more precisely the conditions at hand as the municipalities were to take over responsibility for the different schools in the 1990s. As a sequel to the fundamental direction of this study it enters into a discussion about the consequences following the distribution of responsibility: the effects of management by objectives and results on the school's cognitive approach and problematizing the issue of power and influence under the new model of responsibility.

    The thesis contains an analysis of how the issue of responsibility for compulsory schooling has been discussed in official commission reports over time, with the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the compulsory school in the 1990s, and its conditions. The historical study thus focuses on the school reform conducted in the early 90s and the three concepts seen as central to the discussion about responsibility for the compulsory school towards the end of the twentieth century: municipalization, decentralization and turning the school into a goals and achievement-related organisation. The analysis is founded upon an outlook based on discourse, aiming to distinguish any changes in the meaning of those three key expressions as well as to define shifts and discursive breaks in textual references to the responsibility for comprehensive school.

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  • 30.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Om kommunikation som grunden för mening och kunskap - i en värld som vi delar med andra2012In: Vad räknas som kunskap?: Läroplansteoretiska utsikter och inblickar i lärarutbildning och skola / [ed] Tomas Englund, Eva Forsberg, Daniel Sundberg, Stockholm: Liber, 2012, p. 162-178Chapter in book (Refereed)
    Abstract [sv]

    Kapitlet är ett bidrag till hur kunskapsfrågan kan förstås utifrån en kommunikativ utgångspunkt. I kapitlet diskuteras vilka villkor för förvärvandet av kunskap som en sådan utgångspunkt ställer. Kapitlet ger svar, utifrån Dewey och Davidson, på hur man kan förstå meningsskapande och kunskap som läroplansteoretiska begrepp utifrån en kommunikativ och relationell kunskapssyn. 

  • 31.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Om rätten till undervisning: diskursiva omförhandlingar inom tre arenor i svensk utbildningspolitik2011In: Utbildning som medborgerlig rättighet: föräldrarätt eller barns rätt eller… ? / [ed] Tomas Englund, Göteborg: Daidalos, 2011, p. 143-167Chapter in book (Refereed)
    Abstract [sv]

    I spänningsfältet mellan föräldrars rätt och barns rätt, mellan utbildning som social rättighet för barn och ungdomar och som civil rättighet för vuxna, går det att analytiskt urskilja tre delvis parallella arenor för diskursiva omförhandlingar inom svensk utbildningspolitik. En arena är den politisk-juridiska diskursiva arenan; en andra diskursiva arena utgörs av den politiska kampen om fristående skolor och en tredje diskursiv arena exemplifieras av en mera avgränsad studie av ett enskilt politiskt partis argumentering för fristående konfessionella skolor.

  • 32.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Ryms erfarenheten och handlingens kontinuitet i skolan?: Om Deweys kontinuitetsprincip i relation till likvärdighet och kunskap2004In: Utbildning och Demokrati, ISSN 1102-6472, E-ISSN 2001-7316, Vol. 13, no 1, p. 87-109Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [sv]

    The article sets out to discuss John Dewey's notion of the principle of continuity and what this principle means in relation to experience, action and growth. The aim is to discuss if the principle of continuity can be a friutful contribution to a discussion about how activities in school can be understood. The article tries to open up for a wider interpretation of the concept of knowledge as an alternative to a more technical approach to results. The significance of the continuity of action and experience might provide means of regarding equivalence as a potentiality, as a willingness to continously move on to more qualitative experiences which at the same time will lead to the unknown, to the experience beyond habit.

  • 33.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Rätten till undervisning: Europakonventionens svåra fråga2011In: Utbildning som medborgerlig rättighet: föräldrarätt eller barns rätt eller... ? / [ed] Tomas Englund, Göteborg: Daidalos , 2011, p. 33-52Chapter in book (Refereed)
    Abstract [sv]

    Utifrån vilka grunder motiveras rätten till undervisning i Europakonventionen? Hur kan detta rättfärdigande förstås i termer av barns rätt, som en social rättighet, och föräldrars rätt, som en civil rättighet? I kapitlet undersöks kampen för att formulera en artikel om rätt till undervisning i Europakonventionen. Debatten i fråga äger rum mellan åren 1949 och 1952, under det förberedande arbetet med konventionstexten.

  • 34.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Some comments on the relation between curriculum content and assessment from a perspective of literacy2011Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In this paper I use the term “curriculum”, drawing on McCutcheon (1982) and Cherryholmes (1988), as what students have an opportunity to learn, which refers to “the substance” of the opportunities, and to the “rules and procedures by which those opportunities are provided” (Cherryholmes 1988, p. 133). The link I draw between curriculum theory and evaluation research is between this definition of curriculum from Cherryholmes and James Paul Gee’s (2003) understanding of assessment which has what the students have an "opportunity to learn" as its key notion. Thus, the aim with the paper is to examine the relations between curriculum content in a time of globalization on the one hand and evaluation and assessment on the other. In the paper I introduce the concept of literacy as a way to relate to globalization and diversity across curriculum subjects and curriculum content. With reference to Kalantzis & Cope (2000), different forms of education are defined by the way they handle diversity and their argument emanate from four basic forms of modern education: exclusion; assimilation; multiculturalism and pluralism. If assessment in literacy shall be considered as democratic in a way that ties it with equity and social justice, it is not enough to think of assessment as including a broad range of representations of texts, even if this is an important part. From the notion of “opportunity to learn”, assessment is discussed in relation to Gee:s six principles which he argues is developed to apply to assessment of all content areas.

     

     

  • 35.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    The child in the public sphere: early literacy education in the intersection between the generalized and the concrete other2010Conference paper (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    In the first part of the paper I give some brief background to the newly introduced “required knowledge” in reading literacy for grade 3 in the Swedish compulsory school. After that I develop a theoretical framework for the discussion concerning the child/student in the public sphere, that is, in the school with its possibilities and its obligations; in this case the obligation is to take part in a national reading and writing test in grade 3 and to reach the required knowledge. In the third part of the paper I examine the basic political assumptions about literacy in general and on early reading literacy, in particular. This examination consists of studies of policy documents from both the international and national education policy arena, based on the hypothesis that the term “literacy” is primarily rooted in the OECD’s policy strategy.  In the fourth and final section, I discuss the implications of the right of the child to reach certain targets and the problems which might arise with taking part in national tests which might just show failures.  

  • 36.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    The new open method of cordination: a paradox?2007Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [sv]

    Utifrån ett läroplansteoretiskt perspektiv diskuteras Lissabonstrategins 'öppna samordningsmetod' och dess konsekvenser för statens roll som arena för kamp mellan olika sociala krafter. Frågan problematiseras med hjälp av Nancy Frasers diskursiva tolkning angående 'kampen av behoven' i senkapitalistiska samhällen. I detta papers andra del ägnas särskild uppmärksamhet åt att undersöka hur indikatorer inom den öppna samordningsmetoden byggs upp och verkar i två riktningar, styrande och utvärderande

  • 37.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    The role of public education2011Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    I suggest that vocabulary adapted to a public pluralism education, could be thought of as communicative literacies; with literacy understood in its significance of orientation towards the ‘outward’, based in communicative meaning making. If the purpose with public education is understood as pluralism education, we cannot use a vocabulary of (lonely) individuals looking for suitable knowledge and competences on a learning market or merely looking ‘inward’ towards single subject matters. Communicative literacy, associated with Dewey’s concepts of transaction and continuity, emphasizes a reflective, participative and critical attention.  Literacy, in its communicative sense, recognizing the continuity between students’ different literacies and their active ‘transactional’ involvement with their environment, makes it possible to understand public education as developing an informed, critical citizenry (c.f. Damico & Rosaen, 2009). The didactic question will be:  What sort of literacy do I invite my students to be members of? Is it possible for the students to ‘carry over’ some of their earlier experiences from other literacies into this literacy? As Alan Luke (2004, p. 1429) suggests, what if the vision of teaching is that teaching is a cosmopolitan work and profession, in a critical and contingent relation to cultural and economic globalization? If we, in line with Luke, think of teachers and students as world citizens, world thinkers and world critics – will communicative literacies, across subjects and time/space divisions, contribute to a notion of democratic public education, with emphasis on its purpose? 

  • 38.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    The Struggle for the Right to Education in the European Convention on Human Rights2009In: Journal of Human Rights, ISSN 1475-4835, E-ISSN 1475-4843, Vol. 8, no 2, p. 150-161Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper addresses two central questions, namely on what grounds the right to education is justified in the European Convention on Human Rights, and in what terms we can understand the tensions between the right of a child, as a social right, and the right of a parent, as a civil right. I argue that two main reasons served as grounds for a universal right to education; one being the social right of children to free education and the other being to secure an education that was not indoctrinating. In the preparatory work of the article on the right to education the main contests were about who was to protect the child from indoctrination, the state or the parents. I suggest that the contest wae not really about education but about the relation between the state and religion, or where to draw the line between the public and the private.

  • 39.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Understanding the universal right to education as democratic iterations: from preparatory deliberations until today - the example of Sweden2008Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper examines how the universal human right to education can be understood in terms of what Seyla Benhabib considers as ‘democratic iterations’. By examining the use of the article on the universal right to education in the European Convention on Human Rights over a period of almost 60 years, not as an article with an unambiguous meaning, but as an article which from its very start was the subject of different interpretations and desires, I will argue for an understanding of the process of transforming universal right into both national law and debates, as democratic iterations. Thus, the aim of this paper is to explore the process of establishing the article on right to education, the European Convention on Human Rights, First protocol, within the domestic policy arenas in Sweden, until today.

  • 40.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Understanding the universal right to education as jurisgenerative politics and democratic iterations2009In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 8, no 4, p. 520-533Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    ABSTRACT This article examines how the universal human right to education can be understood in terms of what Seyla Benhabib considers ‘democratic iterations’. Further, by referring to the concept of jurisgenerative politics, Benhabib argues that a democratic people reinterpret guiding norms and principles which they find themselves bound to, through iterative acts, so that they are not only the subjects but also the authors of laws. By examining the use of the Article of the universal right to education in the European Convention on Human Rights, not as an Article with an unambiguous meaning, but as an Article which from its very start was the subject of different interpretations and desires, the author argues for an understanding of the process of transforming universal rights into national law and norms as democratic iterations. This way of conceiving democratic iterations is examined empirically, with Sweden as an example, by analyses of three different discursive arenas: a political/legal arena; an arena concerning political contests over independent schools; and a more limited arena for advocating denominational schools. The conclusion is that two different disjunctions – between universal norms and national self-determination and between law as power and law as meaning – are productive interspaces for renegotiating and rearticulating universal law into local/national norms

  • 41.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Utbildningens villkor: globalisering och lokal mångfald2011In: Utbildning och Demokrati, ISSN 1102-6472, E-ISSN 2001-7316, Vol. 20, no 3, p. 29-49Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The conditions of education - globalization and local plurality. Taking some of my previous research as a point of departure, in this inaugural lecture I want to formulate a conception of education that reflects some principles that are specific for the period starting with the Educational Reform 1991. With gradual displacements this reform is still going on. Through an analysis of three different arenas within a framework of curriculum theory; the society arena, the governing- and curricula arena, and the arena of the local school and classroom, it is possible to characterize these arenas in terms of internationalization, management by demand and control, and individual choice. It may be argued that this is a new conception of education; a denationalized – instrumental conception. The national education arena becomes denationalized in two ways: globally there is an increasing influence by transnational organizations (and corporations); and locally, the privatization of schools has been extensive. The conception is instrumental in its basic assumption that there is a fairly simple connection between clearly expressed demands and the productivity of school.  

  • 42.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, Department of Education.
    Var står kampen om utbildningspolitiken?: om statens förändrade roll inom den öppna samordningsmetoden2008In: Nordisk Pedagogik, ISSN 0901-8050, E-ISSN 1504-2995, Vol. 28, no 3, p. 173-192Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [sv]

    In this article I will highlight the ’new open method of coordination’ and its use of indicators within the Lisbon strategy. The central question is: what implications will these methods and tools have in relation to the state as an arena for contesting social interests within the area of educational politics? With theoretical references to Nancy Fraser and the political conflicts of interpreting needs, I will argue that the role of the state as an arena for contesting social interests presupposes that needs-talk contain politicized needs; that is, needs contested among a range of different publics. The article examines and discusses the preparatory work for indicators within the open method of coordination, and especially indicators within the development and evaluation of Active citizenship.

  • 43.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Who is the 'dreamteacher'?: teacher education policy from a critical cosmopolitan perspective2013Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Purpose

    Phelan & Sumsion (2008) raised the question about what is, and what is not, perceived in teacher education, from the premise that until we can address what is absent, it will be difficult to catch sight of an alternative teacher education. In this paper I examine policy texts on teacher education, as authoritative and discursive influential texts, through a cosmopolitan lens. The purpose of the study is to contrast a (perceived) internationalized perspective on teacher education with economical overtones, and a (not perceived) perspective on teacher education from a 'capabilities approach', developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, to examine how ‘new’ questions can generate new discourses concerning teacher competences. The question posed here is: How can the ‘capabilities approach’ contribute to develop a deepened understanding of teacher education policy as an important factor in the struggle for reducing inequalities and poverty?  

    Introduction

    From the perspective of education as a basic need and a fundamental right for all (Nussbaum 2000, Sen 1999); and with Nussbaum’s words “the key to all the human capabilities” (Nussbaum 2007, p. 322), teacher education concerns all nations, and we can ask, from a cosmopolitan perspective, which 'sets of capabilities' does a specific teacher education promote? For example, does this specific teacher education pay attention to a range of perspectives, global as well as national and local, or does it narrow the scope of educational questions to themes of skills and basic knowledge?  As Sen (1999, p. 19) notes, a capability is based on the freedom and power to do something and this power also can make room for demands of duty. Hence, the analytical question can be formulated as: what professional duties are emphasized in transnational policy texts on teacher education?  

     

    Background

    There is an increasing income inequality in OECD countries. It first started in the United Kingdom and the United States in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but from the late 1980s the increase in income inequality became more widespread. In the beginning of the 2000s, there is a widening gap between the rich and the poor, both in high-inequality countries and in traditionally low-inequality countries. Examples of the latter are Germany, Denmark and Sweden, where inequality grew more than in other OECD countries in the 2000s (OECD 2011a). When it comes to inequality patterns for the seven largest emerging economies, they all have levels of income inequality significantly higher than the OECD average (OECD 2011b). The concept of poverty in these findings is perceived as a relative measure: as the difference between the group who have the lowest income and the group who have the highest income (OECD 2011a). The European Union Member States, who also are Member States in the OECD, have as one of their targets for “Europe 2020” to reduce the number of Europeans living below the national poverty lines with 25 % (or 20 million people). So poverty, or inequality, is a current problem also in ‘rich’ countries. As part of the efforts to tackle poverty, EU has formulated another, interrelated, target: to reduce early school leavers from 15% to 10 % in 2020 (European Commission 2010). On the African continent the conditions are different, and poverty is here measured in more absolute terms. According to the African Union Commission (2009, p. 14), a third of the people in much of the Continent are underfed and more than 40 per cent live in conditions of poverty. The conclusion that can be drawn from policy documents and reports from these three international policy organizations are that though the underlying forces of inequality are different between the OECD countries, the emerging economy nations and the countries on the African continent, education are on the list of proposed policy solutions for all three organizations. The policy recommendations claims that access to basic education and higher educational attainment are important; however, to serve as effective tools against poverty these opportunities also must be spread more widely between different social groups (OECD 2011a,b, European Commission 2010, African Union Commission 2009). As shown above, there is no absolute definition of poverty. In the paper I use the poverty definition formulated by the OECD: “An income level that is considered minimally sufficient to sustain a family in terms of food, housing, clothing, medical needs and so on” (OECD glossary), and contrast it with Sen’s (1999, p. 75) definition of capability as “the freedom to achieve alternative functioning combinations.”

     

    Theoretical framework

    The new global knowledge economy is based in an understanding of the economic importance of education. Michael Peters distinguishes between a view of a knowledge economy which posits the economy as subordinate to the state and as providing grounds for ‘education as a welfare right and the recognition of knowledge rights as a basis for social inclusion and informed citizenship’, and a view that sees the knowledge economy only in the service of trade and industry (Peters 2001, p. 13). In the international arena, organizations like the OECD and the European Union have increased their efforts in the field of educational policy (e.g. Grek et al. 2009; Grek & Ozga 2010; Dale & Robertson 2009). A ‘global education policy’, circulating, transformed and ‘borrowed’ between international education policy arenas and nations, has emphasised concepts such as ‘quality assurance’ and ‘teacher quality’ which has had the effect that teacher training has become a focal point for policy interest. In research on international educational policy, exemplified by the references above, the research results are centered around concepts as ‘globalization’ and ‘marketization’. Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) have also marked an increased interest in the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) concerning education during the last two decades, and the collaboration between the two forms of organizations has been intensified, exemplified by the Education for All movement (EFA ) and the Global Campaign for Education (GCE); where in the latter, Oxfam International has played a leading role (Munday & Murphy 2001). In the paper, I complement the current research on international policy of education with a cosmopolitan perspective; and more specifically, with the perspective of ‘capablities approach’. According to Amartya Sen (1999), there is a strong case for seeing poverty as deprivation of basic capabilities and not only, which is the most commonly used in international comparisons, as lack of income and wealth. “The shift in perspective is important in giving us a different – and more directly relevant – view on poverty not only in the developing countries, but also in the more affluent societies” (Sen 1999, p. 20).     

    The relation between cosmopolitanism and the 'capabilities approach', with Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum as its proponents, is ambiguous. Hansen (2011) understands the capabilities approach as part of an economic cosmopolitanism, influenced by values from political and moral cosmopolitanism, in its arguing for a bottom-up perspective on human capabilities, while acknowledging the need for institutional support. There are both similarities and differences in Nussbaum’s and Sen’s concepts of capabilities. Both agree on Sen’s attempt to create a space for understanding quality of life as what people are actually able to do or to be. Nussbaum, however, more explicitly relates the capabilities approach to rights for each person (Nussbaum 2000, p. 13). Further, while Nussbaum emphasizes the notion of “human dignity”, Sen stresses the notion of “public reasoning”, i.e. a person’s capacity to read, communicate, participate, argue, being listened to, being able to make informed choices and decisions and to participate in democratic deliberations (Nussbaum 2000, Sen 1999). The link that can be drawn between the capabilities approach and cosmopolitanism is that the scope of the capability approach (as a philosophical work) applies “to all human beings independently of their country of birth or residence, and not only to social institutions but also to the social ethos and to social practices” (Robeyns 2011, p. 18).  Thus, I place the capabilities approach in the strand of cosmopolitanism that primarily understands cosmopolitanism as a principle of justice; in contrast to the other main strand that understands cosmopolitanism as culture (Scheffler 2001). An additional clarification can be made by contrasting institutional and moral cosmopolitanism, and thereby placing cosmopolitan global justice as premised on moral cosmopolitanism. The moral cosmopolitan view is based on the assumption that individuals are entitled to equal concern regardless of their nationality; but the focus is not on global institution building (Tan 2002). In sum, I view the capabilities approach as a moral claim on justice in a moderate version; that is, recognizing the distinction between social justice within a society, and norms of global justice as an addition to, but not as a replacement of, national principles of justice (c.f. Scheffler 2001). As Robeyns (2011) notes, the capability approach can serve, not only as analysis of inequality in developing countries, but also as a framework for policy evaluations in economically developed communities (c.f. Sen above).

    Method

    The questions raised in this proposal will be answered by analyses of international policy texts on teacher education, read through the lens of four key concepts developed from an analysis of the capabilities approach: 1) having a capacity to consider oneself as a citizen both in a nation and in the world; 2) having a capacity for critical examination of one’s own life as well as of others'; 3) having a capacity to develop an imaginative understanding for other people’s lives (Nussbaum 2006; 2007, p. 323); and 4) having a capacity to act as a member of a public, influencing the rest of the world (Sen 1999, p. 18). The analysis of the policy documents draws on a critical discourse-analytical approach by which I examine how policy texts on teacher education are legitimized by the use of concepts and arguments understood as specific social practices. A special focus in the analysis is the comparative strategy of identifying shifts and discontinuities in the vocabularies between different policy documents for teacher education, and in the naming and framing of teacher quality (c.f. Fairclough 2010 Bernstein 2000).

    Data sources, evidence, objects or materials

    In order to grasp the role of the teacher and its implications for teacher education expressed in different international policy documents, the discourse analysis is based on three main documents, and a number of follow up documents linked to each of these key documents. The key documents are: Teachers Matter. Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers (OECD 2005); Improving the Quality of Teacher Education (European Commission 2007) and Second Decade of Education for Africa 2006-2015 (African Union 2006).

     

    Results

    The preliminary results show that teacher education in international policy documents is mainly discussed in terms of a ‘human capital’- discourse, based on economical concepts of promoting basic learning, teaching efficiency, resources for teaching; and, specifically concerning OECD, the acknowledgement of diversity. At the same time, each of the three organizations' key texts has its own specific emphasis. By examining the policy of teacher education through a perspective of ‘capabilities’, it also becomes possible to make an alternative approach to teacher education and programs for anti-poverty visible. The key factor in this latter perspective is the individual freedom as a two-way relationship - to be able to act and to be able to bring about change. In sum, in the first of the two discourses, the teacher’s task in relation to inequality is understood in terms of being an effective instructor; and in the second discourse, where poverty is related to a more inclusive idea of capability deprivation, the teacher's task is understood in terms of communication and self-reflection, emphasizing an awareness of power relations, reflectivity, deliberations and a cosmopolitan orientation.

     

  • 44.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Will democratic iterations always end up 'right'?2011Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper problematizes the concepts of democratic iterations and jurisgenerative politics. One problem concerns the process and the ‘result’ of democratic iterations: does the democratic iterations of the European Convention also result in a democratic pluralist school? Another problem that is addressed is that a state, in a striving for its jurisgenerative character, at the same time also must protect insular educational alternatives. What does this mean for a pluralist education?   

  • 45.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    et al.
    Linnéuniversitetet, Växjö, Sweden.
    Bergh, Andreas
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences. Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier, Uppsala universitet, Uppsala, Sweden.
    Teacher agency from a perspective of transactional realism2014In: Teachers matter - But how?, 2014Conference paper (Refereed)
  • 46.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    et al.
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Quennerstedt, Ann
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    I mellanrummet mellan universell rätt och nationell lag: en teoretisk inramning2011In: Utbildning som medborgerlig rättighet: föräldrarätt eller barns rätt eller… ? / [ed] Tomas Englund, Göteborg: Daidalos, 2011, p. 129-141Chapter in book (Refereed)
    Abstract [sv]

    På vilket sätt kan transnationella överenskommelser och rättsligt bindande konventioner förenas med ett lands självbestämmande? Den frågan diskuteras utifrån Seyla Benhabibs analys av spänningen mellan det universella och det partikulära. Benhabib förstår denna relation i termer av diskursiva omförhandlingar, "democratic iterations". Diskursiva omförhandlingar av universella rättigheter förutsätter ett jurisgenerativt förhållningssätt. Jurisgenerativ politik betecknar därför ett specifikt sätt att uppfatta funktionen av juridisk lagtext

  • 47. Wahlström, Ninni
    et al.
    Skillmark, Albin
    Skoog, Marianne
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Contextualizing critical literacy2013Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper concerns critical literacy and its relation to society. The microanalytic focus on texts, methods and learners in critical literacy studies needs to be supplemented by addressing how local text practices are shaped in relation to larger social forces and global changes, as Luke & Freebody (1997) argue, when they emphasize that these larger perspectives “can form the very bases and objects of study of a critical literacy curriculum”. They ask for a stronger social imagination in guiding literacy education, acknowledging globalized political and environmental challenges as well as new communication patterns. To capture these wider social conditions, we take our starting point in the concept of cosmopolitanism.

    Drawing on a growing interest for empirical studies in critical literacy and literacy content in early literacy education (e.g. Bergöö & Jönsson 2012, Schmidt & Gustavsson 2011), we will in this paper more clearly address the question: ‘critical literacy in relation to what?’ when conducting empirical studies. Thus, the aim of this paper is to answer the following two interrelated research questions: With what concepts can the ambiguous term ‘critical literacy’ be characterized? How can critical literacy be related to the wider society through the concept of cosmopolitanism?

    This study is a conceptual analysis in the border zone between empirical literacy studies and studies in sociology/philosophy, where we examine the possibilities of establishing a link between the concepts of critical literacy and cosmopolitanism. Thus we examine connections between basic assumptions in critical literacy through the lens of three scholars within the genre: Anne Haas Dyson (1997), Vivian Maria Vasques (2004) and Hilary Janks (2010), in relation to three perspectives on cosmopolitanism: as cosmopolitan orientation, as cosmopolitanization and as a communicative cosmopolitanism.

    The analysis shows that critical literacy can be understood as a socio-political approach to literacy, framed by a critical social theory of cosmopolitanism, in its focus on deconstructing and reconstruction of texts and images.

    Relevance: The paper elaborate on the relation between two topical international research concepts, critical literacy and cosmopolitanism, which represent an interest for Nordic researchers

  • 48.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    et al.
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    Skoog, Marianne
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    A 'pluralistic literacy' - is there a need for such a didactic concept?2012Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    With the concept of pluralistic literacy, we base the term literacy as a critical notion in an education characterized by pluralism (c.f. Kalantzis & Cope 2000), and transaction (c.f. Dewey 1949/1991). Pluralistic literacy is critical because it starts from the assumption that literacy is about “social power” and that a critical literacy education needs to go beyond literacy as a skill, “to engage students in the analysis and reconstruction of social fields” (Luke 2000, p. 451). Luke starts from the presupposition that reading and writing are about social power (ibid.). The critical aspect opens a reflective gap for the students to what is well-known as well as to what has earlier been unknown; a gap in which students reach a necessary distance to understand others, and others point of view (c.f. Haas Dyson 1997). Besides “which offer of meaning”, or “which story” the teacher choose to teach from, the didactic questions will be:  What sort of literacy do I invite my students to be (new) members of?  Is it possible for my students to ‘carry over’ some of their earlier experiences from other literacies into this literacy?  How to analyze the didactic questions of the what and the how is discussed in relation to an ethnographic two-years study of “written language learning” (and teaching), from preschool class through the first school year (Skoog 2012).

  • 49.
    Wahlström, Ninni
    et al.
    Linné University, Växjö, Sweden.
    Sundström Sjödin, Elin
    Örebro University, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences.
    What counts as reality in teachers’ experiences: Bringing materialism into pragmatism2014Conference paper (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    General description and purpose: In this paper we explore the ‘realist’ dimension in Dewey’s version of pragmatism and especially in his concept of experience. Inspired by Actor-Network Theory (ANT), we suggest that moving Dewey’s ideas towards notions of the significance of material realities would contribute to a more complex understanding of teachers’ experiences of power and constraints that might have a potential influence on their actions in institutional settings, which is also the purpose of this paper. In this, mostly conceptual, inquiry we illustrate our argument with a narrative from an interview in a daily newspaper, where a teacher give her view of the different forms of forces and influences she encounters in her task of grading the students. Our research questions are: How can the concept of transactional realism contribute to a ‘renewed’ understanding of pragmatism that also includes material aspects? How can material aspects contribute to and shed light on teachers' room for action?

    Theoretical and methodological framework: In recent years, there has been a revivification of interest in pragmatist philosophy among social science and a renewed interest of pragmatism, as a “post-postmodern” approach (Hickman 2007), resolving around two turns: the realist version of reflexivity inherent in pragmatic philosophy and the temporal frame of social inquiry that places reflexive realism in a future-oriented ontology (Rosiek 2013). In the paper we explore the relations between transactional realism and the notion of time, space and a more intersubjective interpretation of meaning, consistent with some of the ideas developed in ANT. In the inquiry, we trace the factors, human and non-human, that enact a teacher’s work with grading.

    Expected conclusions: We suggest that the concept of experience is the bridge that links ‘the linguistic turn’ with realism, and that the allowance of transactional agency for non-humans, develop Dewey’s transactional realism, and provide for a more sensitive exploration of the complexities that make up teachers’ realities. In our empirical example, the teacher’s work with grading is enacted in the relational network she finds herself in, a network in which several different actors cooperate: economic, political and material. 

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