In this study we want to call attention to and discuss two aspects of importance for work toward change regarding fundamental values through action research. The first aspect is time, and taking it into account according to “the action research spiral”. The second aspect concerns the importance of critical events for making progress and challenging preconceived notions. We also stress that researchers as “outsiders” have the opportunity to overview the process in a way that the other participants (insiders) do not. The empirical data is collected from an action research project on science and gender conducted inSweden with teachers from preschool and K-6. The collaboration was proceeded during 2005 to 2010, a total of 57 months.   

Collaboration or assessment? Some perspectives on mentoring in Finland and Sweden

JESSICA ASPFORS, Faculty of Education, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

GÖRAN FRANSON, Faculty of Education and Business Studie, University of Gävle, Sweden

HANNU L. T. HEIKKINEN, Finnish Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

In this presentation, some tensional trends within mentoring, which we call a contradiction between collaboration and assessment, will be addressed. The aim is threefold: firstly to describe and compare the development of mentoring programs in Finland and Sweden at a system level, secondly to illustrate how the various mentoring systems have been experienced by the persons involved and thirdly to discuss the political and ideological circumstances and the possible effects of these solutions. The study is based on empirical data from the Finnish and Swedish contexts, both on the level of mentors’ and NQTs’ experiences, based on interviews and/or focus group discussions and on the national policy level, based on policy documents on teacher education and, in the Swedish part, the responses of teacher educators to them.

The tentative result indicates profound differences between the two national initiatives of mentoring in Finland and Sweden. The mentoring process in Finland, peer group mentoring, is clearly based on social constructivist assumptions on knowledge and learning. The integration of formal, informal and nonformal learning as well as the equality and professional autonomy as persons and professionals is central. The proposed system of a mandatory induction system in Sweden is, however, very different with mentoring, probation year, registration of teachers and possible assessment of NQTs as central components. In the presentation these issues will be discussed upon in terms of teachers’ continuing professional learning and development.

In this chapter, some tensional trends within mentoring, which we call a contradiction between collaboration and assessment, are addressed. The aim is threefold: First, to describe and compare the development of mentoring programmes in Finland and Sweden at the system level; second, to illustrate how the various mentoring systems have been experienced by the persons involved; and third, to discuss the political and ideological circumstances and the possible effects of these solutions. The study is based on empirical data gathered in Finland and Sweden and examines the experiences of mentors and newly qualified teachers (NQTs) as well as the relevant national policies. The findings indicate profound differences between the two national initiatives of mentoring in Finland and Sweden. The mentoring process in Finland, using peer group mentoring, is based on social constructivistic assumptions regarding knowledge and learning. The integration of formal, informal and non-formal learning, as well as the equality and professional autonomy as a person and as a professional, is central. The system of mandatory induction in Sweden is very different, with mentoring, a probation year and the registration of teachers being central components. In such a system, the mentors' role of avoiding direct or indirect involvement in the assessment may become more challenging.

In this paper, we describe contested practices of mentoring within and between Australia, Finland and Sweden. Our study is based on national policy documents and empirical data from participants involved in mentoring. The theoretical framework will build on practice theory (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008; Kemmis & Heikkinen 2012). The aim is to demonstrate three archetypes persisting in literature and practices: mentoring as supervision, support and collective self-development. In Australia, we find the three kinds of mentoring jostling with one another. In Finland, the perspective of collective self-development is emphasized. In Sweden, the traditional model of mentoring (support) has been typical since 1995, with a current reform of teacher induction which turns mentoring more into supervision.

Our paper will show (1) that the meanings of 'mentoring' are contested within and between the countries involved; (2) that the three forms of mentoring identified represent three different projects: (a) assisting newly qualified teachers (NQTs) to pass through probation or (b) traditional mentoring of NQTs by more experienced teachers or (c) peer-group mentoring (PGM); and (3) that these three projects, that could be simultaneously present, also involve and imply quite different practice architectures in the form of different materialeconomic, social-political and cultural-discursive arrangements.

Úvod Knížka, kterou držíte v rukou, je výsledkem projektu ECECC –

Embedding a Culture of Enterprise and Creativity in the Curriculum (Začleňování kultury podnikavosti a kreativity do učebních osnov).

Nejde o příručku ve vlastním smyslu slova. Chtěli bychom, aby byla informativní a praktická a aby vedla k pochopení toho, jak lze tvořivost a podnikání zasadit do učebních osnov a do regionálního rozvoje, jakož i do mnoha forem vzdělávací a vývojové praxe z pohledu kultury.

Jaké jsou rámce projektu a jak jsme shromáždili naše příklady? Projekt se zaměřuje na učení prostřednictvím sdílení postupů z praxe a tím na určení a prosazení myšlenky a kultury inovace, kreativity, podnikání a podnikavosti v učebních osnovách v Evropě. V průběhu projektu měli učitelé díky sdílení příkladů zajímavých postupů z praxe příležitost rozvinout své pedagogické dovednosti a didaktické kvality a přemýšlet o nich.Měli také možnost prohloubit své chápání kultury a prostředí učení, na jejichž vytváření se podílejí a které jsou součástí vyššího společenského a vzdělávacího kontextu, jenž tuto kulturu a prostředí také ovlivňuje. Učení v těchto případech z větší části neprobíhá v izolovaných třídách. Třída se rozšiřuje do vnějšího okolí, města a světa. Má různé formy, využívá bezpočtu materiálů, výrazů a procesů. Internet se stává naprostou paralelou virtuálního vesmíru, který zahrnuje.

Má ještě jiné aktéry než pouze učitele, žáky a zaměstnance. Formální a neformální vzdělávací prostředí učení se scházejí a mění. Ve většině případů se jeho aktéři vzájemně ovlivňují a jsou ve vzájemném vztahu, chápou sami sebe v druhém a druhého v sobě samých jako tvůrčího účastníka světového života. Transparentnost kultury a prostředí učení se posiluje a prohlubuje. Každý se stává žákem a učitelem ve snaze učinit učení vědomým a určitým a jednat v rámci schopnosti tvořit, učit se a realizovat se. Tímto jsme se dostali k zásadnímu povědomí o pevně zakotvené a rozvrstvené, jakož i o organické a vlastní povaze učení a vzdělávání. Statický typ třídy se stává neurčitým. Tím se odhaluje skutečnost, že učení probíhá v organizačních, jakož i kulturních, konkrétních a abstraktních úrovních či vrstvách, jež se navzájem prolínají. Vrstevnatá a holistická komplexnost hýbe předscénou s klasicky oddělenými částmi, kterými jsou obsah, cíl, metoda, učitel a student, jako svými interdynamickými silami. Stejně činí nadšený, zvědavý a podnikavý „homo ludens“

1 a lidský prvek ve hře kultury.

TEACHING AND LEARNING GEOMETRY IN PRESCHOOL

The main aim of the study presented in this paper is to explore how preschool teachers can use everyday life settings as teaching and learning situations. The research is praxis near and a goal is to shed light on teaching and learning geometry in three Swedish preschools. In the Swedish preschool curriculum (Lpfö 98 revised 2010, 2011) it is expressed that preschool teachers will create learning environment that enable children to develop the ability to discern and perceive the relationships between concepts. In this on-going research the variation theory (Björklund, 2007; Marton et al., 2004; Runesson; 2006) is used as a theoretical and an analytical framework. In this theory, learning always has an object, ‘what’ and in this study it is geometric figures. The objects are experienced and conceptualized by the children (the learners) in different ways, ‘how’. Marton et.al. (2004) describe three types of the object of learning: the intended object of learning, the enacted object of learning and the lived object of learning. In all, 15 preschool teachers from three preschools are involved in the study. The children are between 1, 5 to 5 years old. In this study the preschool teachers work with variation and contrasts in order to make the object (for example circles) visible for children, and thereby possible to discern. They use fairy tales and children’s play with artefacts as pedagogical tools in everyday life. Observations and documentations are methods to have knowledge of the different forms of the object of learning. So far the findings show that teaching in preschool can be based on a theory of learning where children learn geometry by the discernment of differences and similarities between objects with the help of artefacts in play. The results also show that preschool teachers need knowledge about both the learning theory and the subject. The findings have relevance to Nordic educational research and also in wider areas because it highlights the opportunities for education in preschool; teaching and learning in everyday life.

The aim of this study is to describe what kind of knowledge base is needed when pre-school teachers work goal-oriented with children’s mathematical learning. The question of this study aims to answer is: What kind of knowledge base do pre-school teachers need when they work with the object of learning in the pre-school context? Both as a theoretical and an analytical framework, we use variation theory. In all, four pre-school teachers are involved in the study. The research results indicate that it is important for pre-school teachers to have subject and pedagogical content knowledge in order to recognize children’s experiences and be aware of their expressions.

Preschool teachers need a knowledge base that includes pedagogical and didactical knowledge together with the subject knowledge. This paper sheds light on preschool teachers’ experiences in mathematics and science teaching in the early years. The paper covers the situation in Botswana, a developing country and Sweden, a developed one. The aim is to present a comparison of the pedagogical and didactical knowledge of a preschool teacher in mathematics and science. The study highlights Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) and didactical considerations of maths and science teaching in preschools with reference to varied contexts, cultures and values. The Research intends to find out existing practices and derive the best method of teaching math and science in countries with diverse cultural and traditional framework. The survey conducted used a sample of 72 preschool teachers in Sweden and 64 in Botswana. Questionnaires and Focus Group Discussions were used for data collection; quantitative as well as qualitative analysis was used to compare the groups in the research study. The findings show that the context and culture play a significant role in teaching learning process. In a developing country like Botswana, the teachers were untrained in ECE and needed professional training to acquire pedagogical and content knowledge to plan maths and science activities and use available resources effectively. In a developed country like Sweden, on the contrary, teachers were trained in ECE, who planned activities and used available resources effectively and yet emphasised on updating content knowledge through specialized training. Both the countries however, need a Science Centre, documentation of experiences, knowledge handling and an administrative support to execute the BEST PRACTICE in teaching of mathematics and science to young children.

I samband med implementeringen av den reviderade läroplanen har matematik och undervisning som begrepp samt hur förskollärare förhåller sig till detta aktualiserats. När förskollärare ska förhålla sig till barns matematiska lärande är omsorg hela tiden en lika viktig aspekt. Det är viktigt att båda begreppen finns med i förskolans pedagogik och didaktik. Syftet med aktionsforskningsprojektet är att förskollärarna och barnskötarna med stöd i teorier ska fördjupa sina kunskaper. Med frågeställningar som rör undervisning i matematik ska deltagarna tillsammans utveckla metoder för att tillgodose alla barns möjlighet att lära utifrån sina perspektiv.

Projektets utgångspunkter och frågeställningar berör och problematiserar:

• Undervisning i förskolan,      omsorg och lärande
• Matematik i förskolan
• Barns intressen och      erfarenheter
• Urskiljning av lärandeobjekt
• Dokumentation
• Värdering

Teoretiskt ramverk är variationsteori (ex.  Björklund, 2007),  estetiska uttrycksformer (ex Bamford, 2006) och  TAKK - Tecken som Alternativ och Kompletterande Kommunikation (Nylund m.fl, 2010). Förutom dessa teoretiska perspektiv har de 15 deltagande förskollärarna från tre etniskt mångkulturella förskolor läst Nylund, Rönnerman, Sandback och Wilhelmsson (2010). De pedagogiska verktyg som förskollärarna använder sig av är loggboksskrivande, observationer, intervju/samtal med barnen och dokumentation (förutsättningar-process-resultat-reflektion. Projektet är en del av arbetet inom forskargruppen Early Childhood Education (ECE) vid Högskolan i Gävle och i samarbete med University of Botswana (ett Sida finansierat projekt).

Matematikundervisning i förskolan - Vad då undervisning!? 

I föreläsningen presenteras ett aktionsforskningsprojekt där vi fokuserat på förskollärares matematikundervisning i etniskt mångkulturella förskolor.  I projektet medverkar 15 förskollärare som alla arbetar på etniskt mångkulturella förskolor.

Vi problematiserar undervisningsbegreppet och beskriver hur vi med stöd i bl.a. variationsteori synliggör det matematiska innehållet i förskolans vardag, där omsorg och lärande, tillsammans med barns intressen och erfarenheter utgör en grund. I undervisningen används estetiska uttrycksformer och Tecken som Alternativ och Kompletterande Kommunikation (TAKK). Pedagogiska verktyg i aktionsforskningen är till loggboksskrivande, observationer, intervju/samtal och dokumentation (förutsättningar-process-resultat-reflektion).  Vi visar hur barns intressen och erfarenheter kan synliggöras och tas till vara i undervisnings- och lärandesyfte. Exempel från verksamheterna kommer att visas tillsammans med hur vi dokumenterar barns erfarande.

Projektet har även ett samarbete med lärare och forskare i Botswana och vi kommer också att berätta om våra erfarenheter från de enkätundersökningar vi gjort beträffande vilka kunskaper som förskollärare i anser sig behöva i matematikundervisning.

Projektet är en del av arbetet inom forskargruppen Early Childhood Education (ECE) vid Högskolan i Gävle och i samarbete med University of Botswana (ett Sida finansierat projekt).

Drawing on discrepancies between people expressed in for example interviews with young people the aim of this article is to address the linear image of time as a foundation to combat various forms of violence. Drawing on Iris Marion Young, the desire to contest violence cannot be distinguished from people’s everyday (moral) responses to others, since it is in these conscious or/and unconscious responses that stereotypes of others tend to linger on and form unjust patterns in society. The progressive conception of moral, which influences Western educational thinking, is based on a belief that the subject can become better-and-better in promoting other’s well-being through knowledge and training. Emanuel Lévinas lapse of time and Julia Kristeva’s time/memory paradox enables  an understanding and alertness to the making of the present where the gap between people and the interventions of bodily reactions that transform the subject in time, through her or his ways of being with others.

The purpose of this study is to theoretically discuss a specific aspect of teachers’ responsibilities: their responsibility for pupils’ or children’s well-being. We ask two interrelated questions: firstly, how might (Swedish) teachers’ sense of responsibilities for their pupils’ well-being be understood in relation to ethical theory? Secondly, what does this insight bring to the discussion of teachers’ professional responsibility within the global discourse of educational policy that increasingly stresses accountability and efficiency in an ‘age of measurement?’ Education can be described as an intervention in a pupil’s life, motivated by the idea that it will somehow improve it. When one implements this intervention, from a legal/political perspective, it boils down to a series of responsibilities assigned to teachers, as expressed in current policy documents. However, an exploration of empirical examples in a Swedish context of teachers’ sense of responsibility for their pupils’ or children’s well-being, expressed in everyday situations, indicates that the matter is complex. In order to find tools with which to better understand such expressions, we turn to the field of ethics. A thorough inquiry into the various reasoning regarding responsibility reveals that responsibility as socially defined and given is not sufficient to capture the intimacy and relational uncertainties of the teachers’ stories, which is why we turn to the writings of Lévinas and his ethics of responsibility. His ethical language helps to capture relational processes that cannot be predefined and that are based on an infinite sense of responsibility for the other person. We continue by discussing and problematising the increasing demands for measurability and accountability in the field of teachers’ professionalism. Here, we illuminate risks involved with the movement towards the fixed and calculable, since it overlooks the intricate ways in which teachers’ given and felt responsibilities are woven together.

The aim of this paper is to discuss how teacher professionality can be understood in relation to ethics of alterity and ethics of dissensus, which both, in different ways, express a desire to oppose various forms of violence in society. Drawing on pragmatism, post-structuralism, and psychoanalysis we argue that there is a dialectical relationship between ethics and morality, conscious and unconscious deeds, between theory and practice, and between justice and moral (ethical issues). Also, we stress that the quality of a phenomenon is dependent on a specific purpose which we here formulate as follows: how can teacher professionality, as it isused in order to counteract violence, be grasped in relation to moral theory? Hence, we use the notion of uniqueness, power-relations, and importance to take into account people’s feelings when we discuss teacher professionality and the desire to counteract violence. This standpoint informs our mode of presentation, weaving together empirical examples from student and teacher perspectives with theoretical discussions.

Education has been given the role to contribute to the aspiration of a socially just society, which includes countering various forms of oppression in society. Teachers are thus given the responsibility for preparing their students not only to be aware of oppressive structures and practices, such as those related to gender oppression, but also to actively counteract them. How does teacher education prepare teachers for this task? In a planned research project, we aim to inquire into teacher education practices directed towards promoting gender equality, from a curriculum perspective. As teacher educators, we share the experience with many others that introducing gender related content is far from easy, and may raise resistance from several students. Our purpose is to increase our knowledge about what actually happens when teachers and students process this content together, when teachers plan and implement education and when students encounter and process it? It is also to open up a new way of inquiring into meaning making in relation to educational content, a way that takes into account the strong emotions that are not something to be done away with through increased knowledge (cf Britzman, 1998). Our theoretical lense draws from Kristeva’s work. Inspired by psychoanalysis, the creation of identity is in Kristeva’s (2000) way of reasoning an inner process that cannot be separated from the social, but where the meaning of the social stems from a person’s way of imagining it. The way a person imagines the world influences her actions and a shift in imagination involves a shift of ‘identity’ constantly evaporating a stable identity via the inside’s encounter with the outside – united through language. She introduces the expression subject-in-process (Kristeva, 2002) which places the attention upon the cumbersum process for an individual to become conscious of her images in relation to others in order to confront them, and if needed change them. In her way of reasoning images do not only operate on a conscious level – during our process of creating meaning unflattering images of oneself as acting subjects or images generally difficult to bear become supressed to the unconscious. This creates a false image of a stabile and “good” identity which renders it difficult to change our own world view and ways of acting even though we hurt other people. The subject-in-process as an unavoidable coalition and intermingle with the social (culture) is for Kristeva the main site for change and strife for opposing social violence. In a pilot study consisting of interviews with one student and one teacher educator, the teacher educator found that for some students, a change of perspective is achieved through distancing oneself from ones experiences, using theoretical concepts. For others it is only achieved through moving from ones concrete experiences towards theory. The teacher educator is aware of that he cannot separate his physical being from the content he deals with, being a male heterosexual. However, several times he has feared that his teaching and the discussions in class, aimed at challenging dichotomies, may have ended up resulting in the opposite.

The aim of the study was to describe and analyse the design of learning environments and how children in preschool, preschool class and primary school create meaning and learn from the teaching aids offered to them in scientific activities planned by teachers.

The theoretical reference frame was obtained from multimodal and design-oriented theory, with its focus on the creative dimensions of learning and detailed aspects of how learning takes place. The study is based on video-observations and constituted an in-depth study of a limited number of occasions spent in preschool, preschool classes and the first year of primary school when science lessons were in progress. Four children’s groups, thirty-six children and five teachers took part in the study, from different schools and municipalities. The children are aged between three and seven. The video-observations have been transcribed as text and analysed with analytical concepts found within the theoretical framework.

The results show that considering the number of children in the children’s groups, relatively few children take part in the scientific learning contexts. Changes in the balance of power were evident in the learning settings and followed the interaction patterns that were identified in the children’s groups.  The results also show that children create representations – both individually and corporately – in new or different ways that are made up of analogies expressed in terms of equivalent, existential, expressive and figurative analogies. The children’s verbal expressions that corresponded with the responses expected by the teachers were highly valued, were paid attention to and were recognised as know-how. This meant that many of the potential meanings that exist in children’s meaning-making in science become invisible. The results have educational implications for teachers’ work at the local level and for teacher training.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how early years science teaching and learning can be understood as a process of meaning making. From a social semiotic perspective focus of interest is on signs and sign making in early years science teaching and learning. The emphasis is on young children and their teacher as sign-makers and their situated use of modal resources. The discussion is based on authentic examples from an on-going Swedish study. The main object is to describe and analyze the signs young children make in concrete learning situations in science. How do children and their teacher, use different semiotic resources and how do they invent new ways to combine the recourses in science learning as a multimodal meaning making process? I will discuss how this process is semiotically designed by children and their teacher during a couple of small group situations. Secondly the analyse and discussion will focus possible effects of frequent patterns of communication on children´s possibilities to learn. The study is based on micro level analysis of the multiplicity of modes of communication that are active in the learning situations. The analysis focuses on a number of modes including: gesture, speech, gaze and movement as well as the teacher and children’s use of artifacts.

Lida sits on the floor together with her three friends and a teacher. She holds a little plastic bowl in her hand and gaze at a bowl with water, which is placed on the floor in the middle of the group. Her friends fill the bowl with different kind of toys. They are laughing and shouting while they throw toys in in the bowl whith wide gestures. When the bowl on the floor is full of toys they start to pick up the toys again. Meanwhile, Linda leans forward and fills the little plastic bowl she holds in her hand with water. She leans back and waits while her friends fill the bowl on the floor with toys again. When the bowl is full with toys she leans forward and pours back the water from the little plastic bowl in the bowl on the floor. The same procedure continues over and over again.

This  paper starts with a concrete science learning situation in a Swedish pre-school. The purpose is to discuss how early years science teaching and learning can be understood as a process of meaning making. From a social semiotic perspective focus of interest is on signs and sign making in early years science teaching and learning. The emphasis is on young children and their teacher as sign-makers and their situatde use of modal resources. The discussion is based on authentic examples from an on-going Swedish study. The main object is to describe and analyze the signs young children make in concrete learning situations in science. How do four chlidlren and their teacher use different semiotic resources and how do they invent new ways to combine the resources in science learning as a multimodal meaning making process? The study is based on micro level analysis of the multiplicity of modes of communication that are active in the learning situations. The analysis focuses on a number of modes including: gesture, speech, gaze and movement as well as the teacher and children´s use of artifacts.

Hur ser vi på barns lärande? Vad säger deras nyfikenhet oss? Och hur bekräftar vi den kunskap de själva kommit fram till?Hur kan vi tolka barns uttryck så att de hjälper oss förstå hur vi ska vägleda dem i deras spontana sökande efter kunskap? De konkreta exemplen i Design för lärande i förskolan är inriktade på språk och kommunikation, naturvetenskap och matematik. Genom inspirerande analyser som är kopplade till exemplen, ger boken en inblick i allt det lärande som ständigt pågår i barns vardag.För att ta vara på de oändliga möjligheterna som finns i förskolan, behöver vi förstå hur lärande går till och hur det kommer till yttryck. På samma sätt måste vi uppmärksamma vår egen roll i barnens lärande - hur interaktion med barnen, vårt utformande av resurser, miljöer och aktiviteter får betydelse för barnens möjligheter att engagera sig, lära och förstå.Design för lärande i förskolan vänder sig till blivande och verksamma förskollärare och förskolechefer.

Fil. lic Annika Elm-Fristorp, Högskolan i Gävle, och skolformschef Anita Persson, Sandviken, presenterar arbetet i det regionala kommunnätverket Förskola – lärande och yrkesprofession som representeras av företrädare för förskolans verksamhet, skolledare och projektledare i samarbete med Nationellt resurscentrum i fysik (NRCF), Lunds universitet och Högskolan i Gävle. Under presentationen diskuteras frågor om förskollärares utbildningsbehov inom naturvetenskap. En tonvikt läggs vid hur ett nätverksarbete kan verka som en länk mellan forskning och förskollärares vidareutbildning. En fråga i sammanhanget blir hur forskare, företrädare för kommuner och fristående förskolor kan mötas och samarbeta för att bidra till förskolans verksamhetsutveckling inom naturvetenskap.

This article presents a research study of bullying in Swedish private Boarding schools with focus on a child perspective. It analyses even the Education of the Swedish Power Elites starting point from Bourdieu s’ sociological research and from the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This study is based on the analysis of cases of bullying in three private boarding schools in Sweden during 2011-2012. This contribution analyses in which way the child perspective is presented in description of bullying and practices against bullying produced by different actors

Method

This contribution is based on analysis of texts produced by Swedish Education authorities, Polices authorities, Boarding schools staff, parents, pupils and media.

Expected Outcomes

This contribution shows how bullying practices in Swedish boarding elite’s schools are legitimized in terms on traditions and socialization patters for leadership in the Swedish Society. It argues on policies and practices against bullying that pay attention to a child perspective. Even though this analysis focuses on the Swedish experience, it can lead to a better understanding of the need to pay attention on a child perspective in the analysis on policies and practices against bullying in other European educational contexts.

Using the theoretical perspective of ‘educational space’, this paper analyses the Swedish teacher registration reform and it´s induction system and how it changes roles, positions, relations, powers and identities within the Swedish educational system. An educational space can be understood as a relational category in which object and actor are related to another and where changeable positions and boundaries are created (Ferrrare & Apple, 2010). In this sense, actors within an educational system – such as teachers, principals, mentors and NQTs – position themselves and are also actively positioned by others (Leander & Osborne, 2008). They are also positioned by norms, values, curricula and legislation; in this case by the teacher registration reform and the structured induction system.

Introduction

The purpose of this analytical paper is to examine how culturally embedded norms, values, relations and prerequisites operate in the development of a mentoring system. This is done by contrasting the case of Sweden with that of Finland. Although these neighbouring Nordic countries have a lot in common, their educational systems have taken different directions, especially with regard to the mentoring of new teachers (Aspfors, Fransson & Heikkinen, 2012). As is proposed and argued in this paper, these different approaches to mentoring are largely culturally embedded and the results of specific social, cultural, educational, philosophical and political conditions. I will analyse these culturally embedded preconditions for mentoring at an overall macro-level.

In Finland, the mentoring of (new) teachers came into focus in 2010 with the launching of the national programme Osaava Werme, funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. Mentoring is organised as peer-group mentoring with groups of 4-10 early career teachers, from different schools and with different subject skills, in their first to fifth year. In one year they participate in six to eight seminars which are facilitated by an experienced and specially trained teacher. This programme, which is voluntary, has evolved out of research and a series of pilot projects and action research programmes (e.g. Heikkinen, Jokinen & Tynjälä, 2012).

In Sweden, the mentoring of new teachers came about as a result of the Swedish Parliament’s decision in 2011 to implement a teacher registration reform and a mandatory probation year for new teachers. The reform requires new teachers to have a mentor, and to be evaluated by principals as to whether he/she is competent enough to be registered. One-to-one mentoring is emphasised in the policy documents and the reform is regarded as a top-down reform (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2011).

Theoretical framework - the dynamic of culture

The analysis of cultural aspects and the theoretical framework both focus on culture and cultural dynamics. According to McDaniel, Samovar and Porter (2012), definitions of culture often focus on “shared values, attitudes, beliefs, behaviours, norms, material objects, and symbolic resources” (p. 10-11). However, the aspects that construe what we call culture are not fixed and stable (Hall, 2007). On the contrary, they are construed and negotiated in human interactions and are thus always included in processes of transformation and change.   

By means of the Cultural Mentoring Framework, Kochan and Pascarelli (2012) offer an analytical framework for analysing these aspects of mentoring in terms of three cultural constructs: traditional, transitional and transformative. The rationale of the traditional construct is to transmit the existing culture to newcomers, thus recognising the norms, values, beliefs, behaviour and so on as timeless and general. The rationale of the transitional construct is change and adaptation to changing preconditions. Changing the preconditions, such as changing teachers’ tasks or emphasising certain organizational aspects or perspectives of teaching and learning, may lead to mentors facilitating the transformation process of these ‘messages’. The rationale of the transformative construct is, according to Kochan and Pascarelli, to move beyond the transitional construct by questioning norms, values, beliefs and behaviour more, and in that way, contribute to cultural change. In a transformative construct, mentoring may take the shape of networking and learning communities with evolving and transforming roles that challenge and change the concepts of mentoring. This framework offers insights into the different aspects of (possible) cultures and the dynamic of cultures, i.e. the mechanisms for how culture changes, evolves and may be challenged. Thus, the changing preconditions for educational systems and new aspects and ideas all become intertwined with the cultural conditions, and result in culturally-bound outcomes.

Methods and sources of data

The analysis data consists of oral and written information and a qualitative meta-analysis (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005) of policy documents from Sweden and Finland and of presented or published research (n=29) concerning Finnish and Swedish culture and the educational systems in Finland and Sweden, especially research into mentoring or induction systems.  The meta-analysis implies an aggregative approach of studies on micro- and meso-level to macro-level (cultural level), and in the analysis the (possible) interplay between micro- meso- and macro-level has been critically analysed. Thus the analyses have been performed in a deductive way. The analyses of the cases of Finland and Sweden are to be regarded as a qualitative cross-case comparison (Miles, Huberman & Saldaña, 2014) where especially the similarities, differences and patterns in the results are highlighted.

The findings and conclusions presented in this paper have emerged gradually and, since 2005, have developed in conjunction with a series of network projects and collaborative research projects run by researchers from Sweden, Finland and other Nordic and Baltic countries. The mentoring systems in these countries have also been analysed and discussed at a number of national and international conferences and symposia organised by the networks or in connection with other established annual conferences (e.g. Author, XXX & YYY, 2011: Jokinen et al, 2010) in which I have participated.  These kinds of experience have its pros and cons, and Pickering (2008) emphasise the centrality of experience in cultural studies, but warns also for the risk of ‘self-interpreting’. However, in this study the solid base of written information and research are the key-source for the analysis that was performed in 2013.

Results

The culture of education that determines the mentoring approaches is highly influenced by a country’s history, especially in the Finnish case with its history of wars and Cold War living under threat, making the issue of building a nation and a national identity very important. Thus, Finnish educational researchers having the culturally embedded position, trust and task to realise research-based pilot projects (Sahlberg, 2011); the outcomes of which outcomes are able to influence national policy and become more widespread. This culturally embedded trust in educational researchers and Finnish teachers influences the development of peer-group mentoring. However, these highly regarded teachers have great autonomy, and claims have been raised that this not optimises the opportunities to cooperate and learn from each other (Jokinen & Välijärvi, 2006) which makes the idea of peer-group mentoring and collaborative learning more interesting – and perhaps also necessary – ­than one-to-one-mentoring. This innovative aspect of peer-group mentoring has been developed through pilot projects.

Compared to Finland, Swedish teachers do not have the same degree of social standing. While Finnish teachers are highly respected, Swedish teachers and the Swedish educational system, teacher and educational researchers have been under systematic attack over the last two decades, mainly from neo-liberal positions. This ideological shift, its bureaucratic consequences and its steering model, named as new public management (NPM), has been implemented in Sweden to a very high degree an increased focus on control, inspection, regimes of accountability and the evaluation of teachers, (Dyrdal Solbrekke & Englund, 2011; Lundahl et al., 2010) which has meant that the top-down state initiative and implementation of a mandatory one-to-one mentoring system with elements of teacher assessment has been a logical step.

Thus, Finnish teachers seem to be living in a culture of trust, while Swedish teachers have to face an ideology and culture of distrust.

References:

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Aspfors, J., Fransson, G. & Heikkinen, H.L.T. (2012). Mentoring as dialogue, collaboration and/or assessment? In P. Tynjälä, M.-L. Stenström & M. Saarnivaara (Eds.) Transitions and Transformations in Learning and Education. (pp. 271–290). Berlin: Springer.

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