When we are constantly told that there is no alternative, it can be hard to imagine that an alternative might ever exist. This point is illustrated quite starkly in an animated adaptation of Platos’ Allegory of the Cave . The short film was first shown to me by a Mexican critical pedagogue and fellow Masters…
After reading David Örbring’s post (or in Swedish here) about knowledge in the Swedish curriculum, I thought back to my own experiences dealing with knowledge as part of curriculum design. In my time as a music teacher, the most formative of all my experiences with “knowledge” was when I was a moderator for the International Baccalaureate Organization’s…
Cuando empecé a trabajar como profesor, tenía muchas ganas de desarrollar el conocimiento de mis alumnos. Pero a menudo me preguntaba: ¿qué es “conocimiento” en el contexto escolar? Me di cuenta rápidamente que no era una pregunta fácil de responder. Aún así, pensar en el conocimiento era importante. Me hizo evaluar lo que necesitaba ser…
När jag började arbeta som lärare var jag angelägen om att utveckla mina elevers kunskaper. Men jag frågade mig ofta: vad är “kunskap” i skolan? Jag insåg snabbt att det inte var en lätt fråga att svara på, men viktig att tänka på. Mitt begrundande av kunskap i skolan skapade nämligen utrymme till att bedöma…
When I started working as a teacher, I was keen to develop my pupils’ knowledge. But I often asked myself: what is ‘knowledge’ in a school context? I realized quickly that this wasn’t an easy question to answer. Even so, thinking about knowledge was important. It made me assess what needed to be prioritized in terms of my teaching…
I’m a PhD student in Education and the focus of my research is the reforms to Swedish upper secondary schools during the 1960s. The big issue at that time was the change from teacher-centred teaching to more independent work for pupils and this is a subject I want to discuss in the blog. I teach at…
One of the most interesting aspects of researching teacher professionalism in England and Sweden has been trying to understand what a collective voice sounds like. Who are the collective? How do they organise themselves? Do they speak louder together or, despite their number, only in a whisper? What I have discovered is that, in the teaching…
In the construction of a curriculum in Sweden, there are different stakeholders involved. It’s also a democratic process that needs to be maintained. The Swedish National Agency for Education has responsibility for the process. But this process is a negotiation between different voices of different stakeholders. There are many voices that should be listened to.…
Raising Voices in Education 