Handledning är en stor del av yrkesutbildning på olika nivåer. Den handledning som förekommer i en utbildning beskrivs som ett sätt att stödja och uppmuntra studenterna i deras lärande (Croninger & Lee, 2001), men även handledaren är lärande i handledningssituationen (Andersén, Berglund & Gustavsson, kommande). I artikeln beskriver vi handledningssituationer som berättas i tal eller skrift av handledare, och analyserar de lärar-/handledningsidentiteter som framträder i berättelserna. Vi utgår från ett socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv på berättande (Goodson, Biesta, Tedder, & Adair, 2010; Mishler, 1999) där handledarnas narrativa reflektioner kring sina berättelser (Freeman, 2010) har en avgörande roll i rekonstruktionen av handledningssituationen. Handledare i vår studie är lärarutbildare på gymnasiala yrkesprogram som handleder inom verksamhetsförlagd utbildning (VFU), högskolelärare som arbetar med handledningsmodellen Reflekterande Handledning i Omvårdnad (RHiO) inom sjuksköterskeprogrammet samt yrkeslärare som handleder elever inom de gymnasiala yrkesprogrammen. De som blir handledda är följaktligen universitetsstudenter (yrkeslärar- och sjuksköterskestudenter) och yrkeselever. Omgivningen varierar beroende på yrkesutbildning, men är exempelvis för yrkeslärarna gymnasieskolor och deras gymnasielever. Studien visar att de lärar-/handledaridentiteter som framträder ur lärarnas/handledarnas berättelser om deras handledningsarbete handlar om handledare som mentor och förebild, handledare som reflekterande samtalspartner samt handledare som bedömare och kontrollant. Dessutom visar studien att lärarna/handledarna främst positionerar sig gentemot de studenter de handleder, men också att den som bli handledd kan positionera sig i förhållande till sin egen handledare. 

The purpose of this article is to investigate learning goals, content, working methods and examinations in the vocational didactic sections of the vocational teacher education programme. In a case study, a total of forty study guides from one vocational teacher education programme have been analysed in order to answer what central content is highlighted, how the goals are examined, and what course literature is used in vocational subject didactics in a selected vocational teacher education programme at a Swedish university. The aim of the analysis, based on Hiim’s (2010) model, is to find both clearly expressed and more latent elements. The results answer questions on what the subject didactics contain in three different courses. Vocational teacher educators plan their teaching with regard to the goals of vocational subject didactics, but the interpretation of goals varies among different educators and within different vocational subjects. The result also gives some indications of what could be general differences and similarities within and between different didactics teacher groups and/or vocational subjects. The analysis of the study guides also shows that educational background and the form of employment of educators seem to be of importance.

Industrilärares berättade erfarenheter om undervisning av och möte med elever på svenska yrkesgymnasieskolor står i centrum för denna studie. Studien har berättelseforskning som teoretisk och metodologisk utgångspunkt och undersöker de olika teman som framträder ur lärarnas berättelser om begreppet yrkesdidaktik. Centralt i berättelseforskningen är grundantagandet att berättelser konstrueras tillsammans med och i relation till andra människor. Artikeln visar att ur industrilärarnas berättelser framträder tio teman om yrkesdidaktik. Den gemensamma nämnaren i dessa teman är begreppet yrke. Det är relaterat till anställningsbarhet som industriarbetare och har betydelse för industrilärares yrkesundervisning och yrkeslärande. Yrkesdidaktiken och dess ingående teman diskuteras i relation till verkstadsmiljö (mästar-lärlingstradition) och skolmiljö. Slutsatsen är att yrkesdidaktik kan beskrivas som yrkesundervisning och yrkeslärande med allt vad det innebär av yrkesskickligheter och tillvägagångssätt för att fostra en elev till yrkesutövare inom ett yrke för en arbetsmarknad som kontinuerligt, i takt med teknikutveckling och samhällsförändring, förändras.

The life and professional experiences of vocational teachers in Sweden are at the centre of this study. Vocational teachers are greatly influential in shaping their students into professionals. The specific life experiences of vocational teachers can play an important role in preparing vocational students for their future professional lives. This study investigates the different themes that emerge from the teachers’ professional life stories regarding the term professional skills. Through life story interviews with four vocational teachers I could see that professional skills do not only involve the tangible work done in the profession (for example, welding, turning or milling), but there are also other skills that vocational students should acquire to become successful professionals. In this article, I show what other skills the vocational teachers may emphasize and how these other skills can be understood in relation to vocational teachers’ previous experiences.

The thesis is based on eight vocational teachers’ life stories with the aim to provide knowledge about vocational teachers and their work with pupils in teaching in the industrial-technology programme, in the context of both a working life and a vocational education which is continuously changing. The thesis answers two research questions: 1) the themes that recur in vocational teachers’ life stories about how they meet and teach their pupils and 2) the teaching goals and strategies which emerge from vocational teachers’ life stories. All in all fifteen interviews were conducted from which life stories and teacher profiles were constructed.

Results show five recurring themes in the teacher profiles.  The themes are; to be a caring adult for vocational pupils, to teach them basic knowledge considered important for the education, to teach them respect and discipline, to teach them the value of fighting and not giving up, and to show them the possibility of international employment. Moreover, the teacher goals and strategies emerging from the life stories show that the teachers can be said to educate different types of industrial workers. In line with these results, vocational education can be seen as more than a preparation for working life. Vocational teachers with different life experiences create different relationships with their pupils in order to create opportunities for them to manage school and to succeed in a life after school. In an industrial-technical education and in a working life which is constantly changing, vocational teachers have received various educations and worked in various industries during different time periods. They both educate their pupils and prepare them for a future working life based on these experiences.

I kapitlet tar sig Hamid Asghari an yrkesutbildningarnas centrala aktörers uppfattningar av vad som är mer eller mindre viktigt för yrkeselever att kunna, samt hur detta skapar didaktiska dilemman för yrkesläraren. Dessa lärare har inflytande över att utbilda ungdomar till industriarbete och inte bara till arbete utan också att utbilda yrkespersoner inom industrin, med allt som det innebär. Vad som är viktigt för yrkeselever att kunna för det kommande yrkeslivet framträder ur sex yrkeslärares, tre från Sverige och tre från Polen, berättelser om deras undervisning i detta kapitel.

This article presents the stories of four teachers teaching newly arrived refugee youths at a vocational uppersecondary school. The youths came to Sweden in 2015 and later, and they live in a so-called vulnerable area.This is a period when many unaccompanied children and adolescent refugees arrived in Sweden.The studyaims to contribute to knowledge about teaching newly arrived refugee youths and the way these youths caninfluence teaching in a vocational school.The methodological and theoretical starting point for the studyis based on a narrative perspective. The stories are analysed thematically and show that these studentshavegreat solidarity with each other,areambitious, and create a good mood in the classroom.In addition, thereis always “someone” who does not believe in democratic values, although most of the students value theSwedish democracy and equality between men and women. The expulsion decision that some studentsreceive affects the teachers’ teaching as well, since it means that theyalso have to deal with teachingsituations where their students’ lives and deaths are involved in the sense that they are refugees threatenedby expulsion.

In this study, the focus is on three vocational teachers’ stories of their lives and teaching experiences. The research method that I use in this study is life story and the teachers are Johnny, Oscar and Omed. From the teachers stories emerge the technical knowledge that they believe that their students should learn during their Industrial-technology education.

In terms of analytical method I focused on the stories content and I chose to do a thematic analysis of the stories, and through a holistic approach to see the different patterns which emerge from the stories. Based on Johnny’s, Oscar’s and Omed’s stories about their lives and teaching experiences, various themes of knowledge which their students should learn, became apparent. These themes are: knowledge about being a good citizen, knowledge of technology, knowledge about coping with life as an adult, knowledge which can be used in real life and knowledge which can lead to employment. In the article, I even discuss how these prominent aspects of knowledge can be understood in relation to Aristotle’s definition of the concept of knowledge Episteme, Techne and Phronesis. 

Johnny’s, Oscar’s and Omed’s life stories show even an important thing. It shows that the technical knowledge that teachers believe that their students should learn are contractions. In these contractions, technical knowledge “creates” in the interaction between teachers, students and their environment. In addition, in this interaction teachers’ life experiences even have certain significance.

The Industrial technology program (ITP) in Sweden suffers from a declining interest and industry experience difficulties in recruiting. Although the choice of ITP pays off in the labour market, this education does not seem to attract young people. Based on the fact that fewer applicants also means fewer trained professionals in the industry and given that the industry is dependent on competent personnel, I am in my study interested in examining the attractiveness of ITP. The material collection has taken place through semi-structured interviews with a vocational teacher and three vocational students about their perceptions of what is positive or negative about the industry and ITP. The attractiveness of ITP is in a close relationship with how industrial companies and industrial work are perceived by industrial students and industrial teachers. The result points to a paradoxical picture of the attractiveness of ITP where the status of industrial companies is important and it can vary depending on the type of company. For example, whether it is a local industrial workshop or a world-famous international industrial company. The paradoxical picture also includes whether the industrial company has had a secure or insecure form of employment with layoffs and operations moving to other countries. Even the type of industrial work tasks, for example whether the tasks are hard and arduous industrial work or it is varied and manageable, are included in this paradoxical picture.

The Swedish Ministry of Education and Research shows that interest in the Industrial Technology program, an upper secondary vocational education, is decreasing among young people in Sweden (SOU, 2020:33). Fewer applicants also mean fewer trained professionals in the industry. Since the industry is dependent on competent personnel, I am interested in investigating the attractiveness of the Industrial Technology program in Sweden with a special focus on newly arrived students. The methodological starting point of the study is based on Life course research (Elder et al., 2003; Vogt, 2018), and eight newly arrived students’ narrated life experiences are combined with Bourdieu’s (1985) habitus theory to understand their choice of the Industrial Technology program.  Due to limited space, this paper presents one student’s narrated experiences of life and studies. From his story four categories emerge that are related to his choice of the Industrial Technology program.

This article is about six students’ descriptions of their choice of the Industrial Technology program. I have applied a narrative perspective and analysed the students’ narratives thematically. The research question is about the prominent themes of students’ descriptions of their choice of the program, and the answer is that four themes emerge from the descriptions. Two of the themes point to the advantages and disadvantages of industry jobs and industrial education. The third theme is about students’ choice of industrial education as influenced by other people such as parents, teachers or study counsellors. The fourth theme is about the choice of the program as a way for newly arrived refugees to get industrial work and eventually a permanent residence permit. The conclusion is that students who choose industrial education do not necessarily have the ambition to work as industrial workers. This may affect the industrial skills supply in the future in Sweden as an industrial country. Newly arrived refugees in industrial education are included in this supply of skills, but these young people can also pursue other careers after completing their education. Although the choice of upper secondary education is free in Sweden, this freedom does not apply to these young people who make the choice based on the pressure on them to get a job after completing their education to be able to stay in Sweden.

Based on industrial teachers’ narrated experiences of teaching and meeting students at Swedish vocational high schools, this study will provide a definition of the concept of vocational didactics. The study is based on two central pillars: 1) the concept of vocational didactics and 2) narrative research. The concept of vocational didactics is elaborated on the basis of previous research, and stories are further described as the theoretical and methodological starting points. The results show that ten themes about vocational didactics (vocational teaching and vocational learning) emerge from the industrial teachers’ stories. The common denominator in the themes is the concept of occupation, which is related to employability as an industrial worker. The vocational didactics and its constituent themes, which are context-bound and change as a result of technological development and societal changes, are processed and discussed in relation to the workshop environment (master-apprentice tradition) and school environment. The conclusion is that vocational didactics comprises teaching and learning professional skills and enabling students to become professional practitioners in a profession and a labour market that change continuously in step with technological development and social change.

This study investigates prominent themes about newly arrived immigrant students’ situation in life and at school as reflected in interviews with four teachers in a vocational upper secondary school located in a Swedish city suburb dominated by residents with immigrant background. Foucault’s concept of power and counter-power as well as Riessman’s narrative analysis are used to discuss and analyse the interviewed teachers’ descriptions. The results highlight the power and counter-power mechanisms involved in the discrepancy between well-behaved and ambitious immigrant students and the media representations of the students' housing area as criminal. The study also points to the power and counter-power relations between certain immi-grant student groups with strong solidarity and other non-belonging students. There is also a power and counter-power dynamic between authorities making decisions affecting the immi-grant students' life situation and resistance to these decisions. The study contributes valuable information of the mechanisms involved in the lives of newly arrived immigrant young students in Sweden, with possible relevance to similar contexts in other Nordic and European countries.

This  study  is  about  six  teacher  educators’  descriptions  of  their  teaching  of  (vocational)  subject-specific didactics to teacher students at a university in Sweden. The analysis has been carried out categorically  on  the  basis  of  material  from  two  focus  group  interviews  and  with  a  narrative  ap-proach. Central to the narrative approach is the basic assumption that narratives are constructed together with and in relation to other people. The theoretical approach in the study is based on the concept of frame factors. We have assumed Hiim’s (2010) didactic relationship model, but use only the frame factors in her model. The study tries to answer the research question: What cate-gories of teaching-related frame factors appear in the teacher educators’ descriptions of their teach-ing? The results comprise four categories and show that time, authorities, evaluation, and student base, aspects that are related to other factors in Hiim’s relationship model, govern their teaching. The conclusion is that the teacher educators try to create opportunities for their stud-ents, who are prospective teachers, to acquire teaching skills alongside an ongoing societal development, but this attempt is governed by frame factors that they themselves are unable to change. 

Under 2018 genomförs ett pilotprojekt med medel från lärarutbildningsnämnden (LUN) kring hur didaktiklärarna i den korta lärarutbildningen (KUB) ser på sitt uppdrag. Frågan är viktig att belysa då didaktik utgör en stor del av lärarutbildningen. Dessutom behöver didaktikerna, utifrån de nationella examensmålen för utbildningen, bedöma vilken kunskap som undervisningen skall förmedla, hur, när och varför den ska undervisas samt att vara medvetna om samspelet mellan undervisning, lärande och resultat (jfr Bengtsson & Kroksmark, 1994; Dahlgren, 1990). I det sammanhanget blir det viktigt att undersöka hur yrkesdidaktikerna ser på sitt uppdrag och vilka kvalitéer i lärares kompetens de månar om. Inom KUB är ämnesdidaktiken insprängd i den utbildnings­vetenskapliga kärnans kurser (UK-kurserna). Studenterna är här indelade i olika (yrkes-)ämnes-didaktikgrupper beroende på ämnesinriktning. I samma kurs kan det finnas upp mot 25 olika didaktikgrupper. Sammanlagt fanns inom KUB läsåret 17/18 drygt 40 verksamma didaktiker med olika bakgrund (lektorer, adjunkter och gymnasielärare). Vid kursledarmöten, KUB-konferenser och kursvärderingar har det framkommit att det ser väldigt olika ut i samma kurs avseende vad den didaktiska delen innehåller och hur den examineras. I projektet undersöks genom textanalyser (jfr Boréus & Bergström, 2005) hur kursmålen inom didaktiken examineras och vilket innehåll som lyfts fram i samtliga 90 studiehandledningar som berör yrkesämnes och ämnesdidaktik inom YRK och KPU ht 2017. Resultaten pekar på att didaktikernas syn på sitt uppdrag skiljer sig beroende på deras utbildningsbakgrund och anställningsform. Didaktiker med forskarexamen bygger i större utsträckning sina uppgifter på forskning, har en mer vetenskaplig tolkning av lärandemålen, examinerar studenterna utifrån sin vetenskapliga tolkning av lärandemålen och använder sig utav forskningsartiklar och doktorsavhandlingar i litteraturlistan än didaktiker som inte har forskarutbildning. Didaktiker som några gånger per termin kommer från gymnasieskolor till universitet och undervisar yrkeslärarstudenter konstruerar sina uppgifter och examinerar sina studenter baserad på ”den undervisningsverklighet” studenterna kommer att möta i sina framtida yrken som yrkeslärare. De använder också oftare än didaktiker med forskarexamen texter från sina branschorganisationer i litteraturlistan.

Through a survey to former vocational teacher students at two universities in Sweden, we explore their perceptions of admission, practicum internship during vocational teacher education, and employment as a vocational teacher after education, since teacher education reform in 2011. The questionnaire used in the survey was answered by 140 former teacher students and the result contributes with knowledge about which vocational subjects were applied for, and which subjects the students later were admitted to, how long the former studentsￜ professional experience was when they applied for the education. The result shows that measures should be taken to support the application process. The study also illustrates how students perceive their practicum at schools and to what extent they were taught in their vocational subjects, and how they value the supervision during the practicum at schools. Here, we can draw conclusions from the questionnaire about differences between different vocational programmes regarding the supervision. Finally, we examined what happened after the vocational teacher education and we see that a large majority of former students have employment as vocational teachers, but that the possibilities of competence development and the broadening of the competencies for more vocational subjects vary.

The focus of this study is on two vocational teachers´ stories of grade assessment. The teachers are Leif and Johnny, who teach in the industrial technology programme in two different upper secondary schools in Sweden. The research method we use in the study is life stories. From the vocational teachers’ stories emerge different categories of assessment criteria that show different considerations, as compared to the national knowledge requirements, when grading students with one of the five pass grades. The categories for passing grades are: the grade awarded as a prize rating, the grade awarded as being an okay-guy, the grade awarded in advance, and the grade awarded as a last chance. The categories show that the vocational teachers Leif and Johnny, in their assessment documents, do not always comply with the requirements that the syllabus and steering documents put on the knowledge assessment. Leif and Johnny use different forms of knowledge measurements when grading their students with passing grades. The forms are based on their social relations with their students.

This article focuses on a learning objective, as part of a teacher education course at a Swedish university, where student teachers should be able to discuss their own professional development and identify further development needs. Since both research and policy documents highlight professional development as an important part of teacher education, it is important to study professional development from the perspective of student teachers. The theoretical starting point is Communities of Practice (CoP), and the study focuses on knowledge and learning within a social community. Ten subject teacher students and six vocational teacher students are interviewed about their descriptions of what the professional development for teachers in teacher educationmeans for them, which results in six prominent themes: 1) the developmentof identity formation, 2) the developmentof subject specific and vocational knowledge, 3) the developmentof leadership, 4) the developmentof relationship-building, 5) the developmentof knowledge about policy documents, laws, rules and regulations, 6) the developmentin relation to changes in the society.Despite common denominators in the students’ descriptions of professional development, there are also nuanced differences that can be understood by positioning actors about the (vocational) teacher education community. The vocational teacher students frequently connect their professional knowledge to industry and working life, whereas the subject teacher students often connect their subject knowledge to university courses and research. Both the vocational teacher students and the subject teacher students in the study describe that they need to stay up-to-date and continue developing their competence in pedagogy. However, the vocational teacher students specifically highlight the need for pedagogical knowledge within the school environment, rather than in the context of working life and workshop settings. This may be because some vocational teacher students are accustomed to training and teaching interns in these environments as part of their professional practice.

In this article, we discuss a tension between the intrinsic and instrumental value in relation to work and human life. This tension is reflected in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which regards work as an intrinsic value for a human life, as well as in the (neoliberal) labour market, that values work and workers for their instrumental ends. In the light of this tension, we analyse how five vocational teachers’ life stories express it through descriptions of their experiences, decisions and teaching. The methodological starting point of our study is based on a narrative perspective, where vocational teachers’ stories are at the centre. Our analytical tools are taken from Bamberg (1997), who discusses how people position themselves in their own stories. In light of four positions as outlined by Bamberg, we discuss three tensions: 1) The right to work as universal and under conditions at the same time, 2) Work as a place for belonging under the shadow that only profit counts, and 3) Performing a good job, while balancing professional pride and the concern for oneself. In our conclusions, we suggest that vocational teachers should provide their students with wider civic knowledge about their rights as well as about possible forms of influencing structures in the labour market that vocational teachers are in part preparing their students for.

In this article, we examine two Swedish industrial teachers’ stories about their education, professional life and teaching. The stories are discussed in relation to the first paragraph of Article 23 of the UN Convention on Human Rights. The methodological starting point of our study is based on life stories and our analysis tools are taken from Bamberg (1997), who discusses how people position themselves in their stories. Our analysis shows three positionings. The first positioning appears in relation to workshop workers and to workshop work. The second positioning appears in relation to the industrial company and employer aspects. The third positioning appears in relation to employability. These three positions show that industry companies did not help industrial workers prevent occupational injuries and unemployment, and the industrial workers who were loyal to their employers did their best in the given set of circumstances. Vocational teachers educate Swedish children and young people to industrial workers, for the competitive industry companies in a neoliberal labour market, but we see a professional ethical dilemma in relation to the first paragraph of Article 23 in the way the industrial companies treats their industrial workers.

The importance of students developing the knowledge required to handle different tools and machines is specified in the curriculum of vocational education as well as emphasized in research. However, there are very few studies that focus on the learning processes that take place when teachers and students attend to tools and machines as a vocational learning content in workshop teaching sessions. This article aims to shed light on these processes by exploring how tools and machines are constituted through the interaction between vocational teachers and students in Swedish upper secondary vocational education. Leaning on the theoretical and methodological framework CAVTA (Conversational Analysis and Variation Theory Approach) when analysing video-recorded lessons, the study shows that the teaching about tools and machines takes place as a result of suddenly emerging problems that the students encounter. The study also shows that the teaching about tools and machines is conducted through the framing method of individualization, which leads to situations in which some students are given the opportunity to learn specific things about tools and machines, and others are not, even within the same session.

Context: This article focuses on teaching and learning processes in a vocational classroom in Swedish vocational education. There are few studies within the field of vocational education that have a focus on how vocational learning is done in interaction in the vocational classroom/workshop, and what vocational learning content is displayed in the interaction between teacher and student, and thus made possible to learn. This article aims to fill this gap by exploring the future-oriented movements that take shape when a vocational teacher and vocational students negotiate how a practical task could, and should, be handled and solved in vocational teaching situations in vocational plumbing school workshop settings. An increased understanding of these processes can help to improve the actual teaching of a specific subject content to support students in their vocational learning, aiming for learning a professional trade. Methods: The data consist of video recorded lessons from the Sanitary, Heating and Property Maintenance Programme in Swedish upper secondary school. Through concrete empirical examples from video recorded lessons the article explores the interaction between teachers and students in vocational school workshop settings using CAVTA. CAVTA is based on Conversation Analysis (CA) and Variation Theory (VT) and is a theoretical and methodological framework that can be used together and integrated to reach understanding of both how- and what-aspects of the learning process in practice, when analysing teaching and interaction. Findings: Findings show how aspects concerning a specific vocational learning content that revolves around a vocational practical doing compete for the space with a vocational learning content of a more general nature. These general objects of learning are also related to work-specific vocational learning and knowledge in relation to the future profession, but on a more general level than the task specific vocational knowledge. Altogether, this illuminates how different layers of work-specific vocational learning are made visible in the interaction, and how they mutually contextualise each other in the here and now. Conclusion: This article illustrates that the specific and the general vocational learning content can complement each other and open up for a more in-depth vocational learning. In conclusion, this article emphasises the importance for vocational teachers to develop teaching strategies to navigate between helping the students in their problem solving here and now, and contextualising the specific vocational learning content and making vocational learning relevant for future vocational occupation and working life.

This presentation focuses on the future-oriented movements that take shape when vocational teachers and vocational students negotiate how a practical task could, and should, be handled and solved in vocational teaching situations in vocational workshop settings. The data consists of video recorded lessons from four vocational programmes in Swedish upper secondary school, and the analysis is based on the theoretical and methodological framework of CAVTA (Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory Approach). By focusing on the longitudinal orientations towards a future doing that are set into play in the teaching situations, we will show how aspects concerning a specific vocational learning content that revolves around a vocational practical doing compete for the space by a vocational learning content of a more general nature. We argue that the specific and the general vocational learning content does not necessarily have to be in conflict with each other in the teaching situation. Rather, they can complement each other and open up for more in-depth vocational learning. As such, our study emphasises the importance for vocational teachers to develop teaching strategies to navigate between helping the students in their problem solving here and now, and contextualising the specific vocational learning content and making vocational learning relevant for future vocational occupation and working life.

In vocational education, the learning content is often considered as concrete and specific, and the vocational learning involves physical work and interactions between participants and artefacts. Furthermore, one teacher has the overall responsibility for several students during classes in the vocational workshop at school, which means that the teacher has limited time for every single student and that the few minutes they meet become very important. However, the documented knowledge about how vocational learning is constituted in the vocational classroom and what learning content is focused on in the interaction between teachers and students is very sparse. In this study, we focus on how the enacted object of learning and its critical aspects are made relevant, when a student and teacher in a plumbing workshop session negotiate the conducting of a task in Swedish vocational education. This will be done by using CAVTA (Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory Approach) to make a close and detailed analysis of video recordings of the interaction between the student and teacher when a task is introduced in the workshop session. The results show a complex process, where the teacher alternates between parts and wholeness, using several semiotic resources at hand when highlighting the learning content.

In Sweden, upper secondary vocational education is organised as school-based as well as workplace-based learning, just like in other European countries. However, few studies focus on the programme-specific teaching and learning in the school-based part of the education. In a three-year project, we address this lack of research in different sub-projects. In this paper we present empirical examples from four of those sub-projects concerning teaching and learning in vocational education workshop sessions carried out in four vocational programmes. Video-recorded teaching and learning in workshop sessions have been analysed based on CAVTA (Conversation Analysis and Variation Theory Approach), with a specific focus on the learning processes that take shape when vocational teachers and upper secondary students interact with tools and materials in relation to technical objects of learning. Altogether, these examples show complex and dynamic interactive processes, which become visible in the analysis of the interaction between teacher(s) and student(s) while teaching and learning in vocational workshops. 

Assessment is described as a process that includes the collection, interpretation and presentation of data which leads to a defined decision (Nyström, 2004). In recent years, the models of formative and summative assessment have been frequently discussed and debated by school researchers such as Gipps (2001), Jönsson (2009), Korp (2011), Lundahl (2006, 2011), Moss, Girard and Haniford (2006), Pettersson (2011) and Wiliam (2006). Formative assessment is a smoothly flowing process of assessment and summative assessment is assessment of the student’s acquired knowledge at a certain time or an exam (see e.g. Black&Wiliam, 2003; Gipps, 2001; Moss et al., 2006; Wiliam, 2006). The discussion of assessment is often about how a teacher, based on curricular goals and knowledge requirements, can implement a similar and equivalent assessment of student knowledge (cf. ibid.). Equivalent assessment is a central concept in earlier research on grading and assessment (see e.g. Black&Wiliam, 2003; Gipps, 2001; Lundahl, 2006, 2011). Teachers’ assessment should not rest on their personal ideas of what knowledge they see as important for the education. Assessment must be based on established criteria (see e.g. Black&Wiliam, 1998) if students are to be assessed equally and fairly. Assessment takes place in an interaction between teachers, students, their environments, language, and the objects which are used in the process, such as or computers, and books (Moss et al., 2006). By assessing, teachers try to create opportunities for students to show what they can (Nyström, 2004).

Research on vocational education shows that the relationship between the vocational teacher and the students is very important in the formative assessment model (Asghari, 2014). Equally important is the vocational teacher’s feedback to the students (Öhman, 2015). In the summative assessment model, students’ vocational theoretical knowledge is often assessed (Lindberg, 2003). Studies of vocational teachers’ assessment practice can contribute to previously unknown views of teachers’ work (Lindberg, 2011). In the forthcoming article, which this presentation is a part of, two vocational teachers’ assessment practice when they talk about their experiences of teaching will be shown and discussed. Assessment can be discussed from many different aspects. It can serve as a way to motivate students in their learning, it can make students’ reasoning about the topic visible for teachers, it can create opportunities for feedback to students, and it can construct different identity formations in students (Moss et al., 2006). And identity formation is what the article, based on the studies of vocational teachers’ assessment practice, will focus on. The assumption is that vocational teachers’ assessment practice leads eventually to the students’ grades and those students can through their grades construct different identities in different contexts (cf. ibid.). It means that a non-passing grade can bring consequences in students’ lives, like losing their self-confidence, dropping out of school and education, and even in some cases, become gang members and get into crime. It appears from vocational teachers told experiences that students, through a pass grade, may identify themselves as students, who may have enough knowledge, are good enough as citizens and are proud to be skilled workers. It also appears that vocational teachers in such situations identify themselves as a caring teacher. Vocational teachers told experiences show different considerations that qualify for a pass-grade and may be categorized as “pass grade in advance”, “pass grade as praise”, “pass grade as a last chance” and “pass grade for being well behaved and socially competent”. These categories of assessment do not proceed from curricular goals and knowledge requirements, but they may be related to vocational teachers’ care for their students.

References

Asghari, H. (2014). Från uppväxt till lärargärning: En livsberättelsestudie med åtta yrkeslärare på industritekniska programmet. Doktorsavhandling, Karlstad: Fakulteten för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap, Pedagogiskt arbete, Karlstads universitet.

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During their teacher education, students need to learn to transform professional knowledge into their own teaching practice. As a teacher, the ability to reflect on and discuss your professional development is essential throughout your entire professional life as a way to develop teaching and enhance student learning. This ability is also a main learning objective for student teachers during their practical placement in this study. However, when assessing students' tasks, where students are supposed to discuss their professional development, teacher educators have identified that students have difficulties in concretizing their own experiences and using them in order to identify the next step in their professional development. This difficulty is also confirmed by previous research. There is, however a need to study how teaching can be implemented in order to address those difficulties and the aim of this study is to contribute to such knowledge. Therefore, we have conducted an intervention study (a learning study) where researchers and teacher educators have collaborated systematically in one cycle to plan, implement and revise teaching by using variation theory as a theoretical framework. At the core we have the object of learning, which in this study is students’ ability to discuss their own professional development and, by identifying critical aspects of the object of learning, i.e. what students need to learn and what may be difficult to learn, teaching was planned and implemented. In order to see what was made possible to learn, students’ written assignments were analyzed and at the conference we will present preliminary results from this study. This study is part of a larger project and the results can contribute both to a research field where there is a lack of research and to developing teacher education in relation to students’ practical placement.