Student teachers who previously have gained academic knowledge or vocational skills often find it challenging to transform content knowledge into teaching activities that contribute to their future secondary students’ learning. Student teachers express a need for pedagogical tools, time to practice, and opportunities for reflection. Previous research has shown that this can be achieved through micro-teaching, which in our interpretation implies that student teachers practice teaching 1) with a limited subject-specific content 2) for a limited amount of time 3) in a low-stakes situation. The aim of this study is to investigate in what ways micro-teaching can support student teachers in designing and conducting subject-specific and pedagogical teaching activities. Our research method is inspired by action research, and conducted in four steps. The first step is to carefully plan how to implement micro-teaching for student teachers in our own teaching. The second step is the implementation. In a third step, we evaluate student teachers’ experiences from conducting micro-teaching through a survey and individual interviews. The fourth step involves analyzing the results, and adjusting our initial plan for implementation of micro-teaching, if needed. Together, these four steps make up the first cycle. We plan to conduct a second cycle before the research questions can be answered. At the time of writing, we are conducting a first cycle in different subjects. Since the study is still in its infancy, there are no results to report, but we expect to find both similarities and differences between the different subjects in how micro-teaching can support student teachers in transforming existing content knowledge into teaching activities.

Denna studie syftar till att bidra med kunskap om i vilken utsträckning blivande förskollärare känner sig redo att arbeta med förskolans digitaliseringsarbete efter avslutad förskollärarutbildning. Deltagare i studien är förskollärarstudenter i slutet av förskollärarutbildningen. I studien undersöks i vilken utsträckning förskollärarstudenterna har haft möjlighet att ta del av någon form av undervisning om hur de skulle kunna arbeta med förskolans digitalisering under sin utbildning. En digital enkät med både förkodade och öppna frågor användes. Resultatet visar att de blivande förskollärarna själva upplever att de har goda kunskaper och kompetenser om förskolans digitaliseringsuppdrag, och att de känner sig redo att arbeta med detta efter avklarad förskollärarutbildning. Samtidigt uppger majoriteten av respondenterna att de inte vet vad begreppet adekvat digital kompetens handlar om, trots att det är vad de enligt läroplanen förväntas arbeta med. Artikeln diskuterar hur de blivande förskollärarna ska kunna lyckas med sitt uppdrag utifrån dessa förutsättningar.

The ambition, each to investigate Teachers' experiences and perceptions of inclusion of students with special educational needs in school years 1-6.Through interviews with five teachers from two different schools in different municipalities, I have received answers to their views of the inclusion and how they work to reach a complimentary activity. The results show that teachers are positive towards inclusion and believe it has worked well. What turns out is that schools have different inclusive approach that involves different approaches.Schools for instance, works in different ways in terms of special educator working in class or if the student is charged for the support of a particular group Students differences will try to be seen as an asset and where the school is for everyone. But it differs in the municipalities, teachers' views of inclusion and how to work with an included activity differs.Keywords: integration, segregation, inclusion, special education groups

Att läsa och skriva är en förutsättning för att klara sig i samhället och det är enligt mig en av skolans viktigaste uppdrag. Det är ett stort ansvar som vilar på pedagogen som översköljs av metoder och teorier om hur detta ska ske på bästa sätt. Under min utbildning har jag blivit specifikt intresserad av just läs- och skrivinlärning. När möjligheten fanns att åka till Sydafrika såg jag min chans att undersöka hur läs- och skrivinlärningen går till i ett land långt borta från Sverige med helt andra förutsättningar än vi har här.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur läs- och skrivinlärningen ser ut i en kåkstad i Sydafrika, hur undervisningen är upplagd och vilka metoder som används. Fokus ligger på att studera de positiva aspekterna av undervisningen och ta fram det som fungerar i klassrummet.

Jag använde mig av kvalitativa intervjuer och observationer för att ta reda på hur undervisningen går till och vilka tankar lärarna har om läs- och skrivinlärningen.

Jag kom fram till att lärarna använder en syntestisk metod där undervisningen bygger på att bygga ord av bokstavsljud och ljudkombinationer. Trots de mottgångar, som till exempel fattigdom och stora klasser inom skolan, är lärarna motiverade att göra det bästa för eleverna och göra undervisningen meningsfull.

Policy regulating Swedish preschool practice stresses preschool teachers’ responsibility to take a leading position towards childcare workers when teaching. Practicum places are sites in which development of students’ professional practical skills and experiences of leading childcare workers are expected to take place. However, research has shown resistance among preschool teachers toward taking the leadership making such skills and experiences hard for student teachers’ to achieve during practicum periods. The research aim is to shed some light on what possible combination of theoretical and practical skills about leadership student teachers experience during their preschool teacher education. Guiding questions are: What were their hopes and visions concerning leadership during their preschool teacher education? How are they, as beginners with a few months' employment as preschool teachers, able to practice their skills in the here and now? What gaps are there to mind? We use the theoretical framework of teacher agency (TA) (Priestley et al, 2015). TA is achieved through an interplay between the context and the individual. Experiences from the past (preschool teacher education), the cultural, structural and material aspects in the here and now (in the preschool settings), as well as visions for the future, affects the student teachers’/beginners’ achievement of abilities to practice their leadership skills. Data consist of a total amount of 70 sound-recorded seminars with 15 student teachers. These students were involved in a longitudinal research study during 7 semesters, continuously meeting with a group of researchers, discussing issues related to the preschool teacher profession. In this study, we conducted follow-up interviews with seven of them as beginner teachers a few months after graduating as preschool teachers. Preliminary findings indicate the student teachers’ experiences concerning leadership in preschool as limited, shaping a gap to mind when they as beginners are supposed to enact their visions. As students, they consider leadership to be an important topic to learn. They talk about theoretical skills achieved at campus but fear they will not be able to develop these skills during practicum periods. The study is of Relevance to Nordic educational research as the topic of theoretical and practical skills during teacher education are at hand in all Nordic countries. 

Priestley, M., Biesta, G., & Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher agency: An ecological approach. Bloombury Academic.

These results derive from a project on preschool student teachers’ professional development. The basic idea was that issues of democracy – discussed and talked about in different forms and contexts – are vital to become part of teachers’ agency. Thus, the project aimed to explore how the student teachers developed democratic agency during their teacher education.

Theoretically, the project was grounded in an understanding of teacher agency, in which experiences, different contextual aspects as well as temporal dimensions are taken into account. For 7 semesters, a group of 10-20 preschool student teachers in Sweden participated voluntarily in the project throughout their entire teacher education. Our method was to gather regularly in conversations with the students in ‘horizontal networks’. These worked as arenas for the students to challenge their thoughts on democracy and values without being graded for their developing opinions. We were four researchers that, in about 70 occasions, met with the students in such conversations about their future profession. Our roles were to take part of reflections on issues of democracy and teaching profession.

Our main results show that the students developed democratic agency though active participating in horizontal networks. The students themselves were able to describe the value of participating and how they perceived their democratic agency to be more developed compared to non-participating fellow students. The students in focus were able to reflect on issues of democracy in society, how they possibly could act differently in situations with children, colleagues and other actors in the preschool, issues that in previous research have been found to be difficult.

The results demonstrate a need to clearly focus on issues of democracy in the teacher education in order to develop future teachers’ democratic agency, which doubtless has become even more necessary in the present democratically troublesome times.