Kursplaners möjlighetsrum
– om nationella kursplaners transformation till lokala av
Charlotta Pettersson
Akademisk avhandling
Avhandling för filosofie doktorsexamen i Pedagogik, som kommer att försvaras offentligt
fredagen den 11 oktober 2013 kl. 13.15, Hörsal P2, Prismahuset, Örebro universitet
Opponent: Docent Silwa Claesson
Institutionen för didaktik och pedagogisk profession Göteborgs universitet
Örebro universitet Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhällsvetenskap
Abstract
Charlotta Pettersson (2013): Kursplaners möjlighetsrum – om nationella kursplaners transformation till lokala. (The syllabus as a space of possibili-ties – a study of the transformation of national syllabuses into local ones). Örebro Studies in Education 41.
This study explores the transformation of national syllabuses into local ones, as expressed in teachers’ organized conversations. It also investigates what view of knowledge is expressed in local syllabuses and what implica-tions that view has for the educational task entrusted to schools by socie-ty. The data collected consist of six focus-group conversations in which teachers discuss national and local syllabuses. The thesis takes its theoreti-cal point of departure in relational curriculum theory, with support from Ricoeur. These perspectives form the basis for the model that is used to study the transformation of national syllabuses are transformed into local ones – and what they are transformed in relation to. This transformation process results in four local ‘spaces of possibilities’: The analysis shows that teachers interpret the national syllabuses as documents which open up unlimited freedom in their teaching. The teachers use this freedom to turn from the content of national syllabuses towards other texts. Teachers feel that the only thing limiting them in their teaching is the grading of stu-dents, which places many different kinds of demands on them. The view of knowledge that emerges from the spaces of possibilities described is an individualistic one. The teachers fall back on their own experience, rather than reading, interpreting and developing an understanding of what the national syllabuses mean in relation to their experience and knowledge. In terms of content, the education provided is directed inwards towards the teacher’s own individual view of knowledge, rather than outwards to-wards the task given to schools by society. It is concluded that it is the teachers who, individually and based on their personal points of view, decide what knowledge students need to prepare them for life, rather than the goals set out in national syllabuses.
Keywords: curriculum research, relational theory, teachers, syllabus,
trans-formation process, space of possibilities
Charlotta Pettersson, Department of Education, Örebro University, SE– 701 82 Örebro, Sweden, charlotta.pettersson@spsm.se
