Study of Teachers’ Value-laden Socialization Content

Author(s):

Per Sund(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 08 C, Teaching and Learning Socio-Scientific Issues

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-15

08:30-10:00

Room:

KL 23/221,1 FL., 49

Chair:

Joana da Silveira Duarte

Contribution

To make an educational situation meaningful for students necessitates more content than just subject content (Östman, 1995). Subject matter is always taught within an educational context (Roberts, 1982). The context, which could be seen as an indispensable part of the content, is communicated to students by teachers through speech and action during the conduct of teaching (Sund & Wickman, 2008). The context in which subject content is taught is here called the socialisation content (Englund, 1998). Policy level discussions are often focusing mainly on subject matter integration (UNESCO, 2005). The differences in the view on educational content could be the main gap between people on policy level and practice.

One important point of departure for this exploratory and empirical study is that the learning of subject content and socialisation content occurs simultaneously, and together they constitute the educational content. This study focuses on the socialisation content communicated by ten upper secondary teachers, which is studied through their messages to students. These might be different messages about the subject content or different messages in theteachingprocess.

The starting points for teachers’ value-related and often hidden choices of socialisation content are of common political interest. These therefore need to be made visible, rather than implied or insinuated as a kind of tacit background.

Method

Data were gathered through 60-80 min. long interviews with teachers who regularly taught a mandatory course in general science. The teachers were asked to describe how they conduct their teaching by describing: the content -what, the methods -how and the purposes -why. Teaching purposes can be framed on many levels and can include purposes within the subject or the subject field at a micro-level, as well as far-reaching purposes of goals for students’ schooling on a macro-level, which aim towards consequences in the societal life of students. The analysis is founded on the pragmatist tradition associated with John Dewey. What we might call beliefs are actually patterns or habitual ways of making arguments or acting. According to Dewey (1922), an analysis of such habits does not mean comparing repeatedly simple behaviours as in the behaviouristic research tradition, but rather looking at the more complex approaches to life. In this sense a habit is not always something that can be explicitly expressed by the teacher, but can be discerned through reflection, either by an interviewer or by an interviewee, as patterns of one’s own action (Wickman, 2004).

Expected Outcomes

The aim of this study is to contribute to a better developed knowledge of the socialisation content, an indispensable part of the content in environmental education and education for sustainable development. By using an analytical tool developed in earlier research (Sund, 2008) is possible to discern some important differences in the socialisation content within three selective traditions of environmental education (Öhman, 2004).

References

Dewey, J. (1922). Human Nature and Conduct: an Introduction to Social Psychology. New York: Holt. Englund, T. (1998). Problematizing school subject content. In D. Roberts & L. Östman (Eds.), Problems of Meaning in Science Curriculum (pp. 13-24). New York: Teachers College Press. Roberts, D. A. (1982). Developing the concept of "curriculum emphases" in science education. Science Education, 66, 243-260. Sund, P. (2008). Discerning the extras in ESD teaching: A democratic issue. In J. Öhman (Ed.), Values and Democracy in Education for Sustainable Development - Contributions from Swedish Research (pp. 57-74). Stockholm: Liber. Sund, P., & Wickman, P.-O. (2008). Teachers' objects of responsibility - something to care about in education for sustainable development? Environmental Education Research, 14(2), 145-163. UNESCO (2005). UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005-2014. International implementation scheme. Draft. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. Wickman, P.-O. (2004). The practical epistemologies of the classroom: a study of laboratory work. Science Education, 88, 325-344. Öhman, J. (2004). Moral perspectives in selective traditions of environmental education. In P. Wickenberg, H. Axelsson, L. Fritzén, G. Helldén & J. Öhman (Eds.), Learning to change our world (pp. 33-57). Lund: Studentlitteratur. Östman, L. (1995). Socialisation och mening: no-utbildning som politiskt och miljömoraliskt problem [Meaning and socialisation. Science education as a political and environmental-ethical problem]. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.

Author Information

Per Sund (presenting / submitting)

Mälardalen university

Academy of education, culture and communication

Eskilstuna

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.