Practice-near school research in Sweden: tendencies and teachers’ roles

ABSTRACT

The Education Act from 2010 states that education in Sweden ought to be based on scientific knowledge and proven experience. The aim of this study is to explore practice-near school research published by Swedish researchers in the wake of the Education Act with the focus on the participation of teachers in research. As a background, the international and national roots of practice-near school research in Sweden are described. The study is focused on research projects in compulsory and upper secondary school, school years 1–12. 92 articles in 19 journals were detected through a literature search and purposive sampling. Based on the articles, a framework of aspects with categories was developed and the reported studies were analysed accordingly. The findings indicate a multifaceted research field; studies based on a variety of theories and methods and with different roles for teachers. The different categories for teacher’s participation in research and how teacher roles were described in the articles did not give a clear picture on what teachers’ roles could imply for the teachers involved. The article concludes with a discussion of the recent policy initiatives of practice-near school research in Sweden.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaborative research
• education policy
• knowledge interests
• practice-near school research
• teacher roles

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The concept is a literal translation of the Swedish concept praktiknära skolforskning. It is used by the Swedish Institute for Educational Research, SKOLFI (2020), in the Government Directive (U 2017:03) and the Government Official Report (SOU 2018:19). However, the seemingly preferred terms in research in educational sciences published internationally are practice-based or practice-informed research, which are used synonymously (cf. evidence-based and evidence-informed where there is a pronounced difference). There are many other concepts used in research and policy texts (Serder & Malmström, 2020), for example praxis-based research, practice-based research, practice-developing research, school research, school-based research, school development, collaborative research, teacher research, practitioner research, but also action research, design-based research, learning study, and others.

2. A broad search in Swepub a data base covering research published at Swedish universities, with search words in Swedish [(praxisnära OR praktik* OR skolnära OR skolutv* OR samverkans* OR lärarforsk*) AND (skola OR utbildning OR undervisning OR lärande)] results in 160 hits in 2011, 252 hits in 2015, and 253 hits in 2018. Search words translated: [(praxis-based OR practice* OR school* OR collaborate OR collaboration OR teacher) AND (school OR education OR teaching OR learning)].

3. As synonymous concepts, SKOLFI emphasises practice research, practice-based research, clinical research and development, improvement, change research or teaching-improvement research (SKOLFI, 2020).

4. Studies in the ULF agreement are not included in the data material since they are not published within the set time-frame.

5. This means that teachers’ development work and presentations of what is called proven experience are not included, unless scientifically published.

6. Search in Swedish: [(praxisnära OR praktik* OR skolnära OR skolutv* OR samverkans* OR lärarforsk* OR lärar*) AND (skola OR utbildning OR undervisning OR lärande OR aktions*) AND grundskol* OR gymnasi*)], in English: [(praxis-based OR practice* OR school* OR collaborate OR collaboration OR teacher*) AND (school OR education OR teaching OR learning* OR action*) AND (compulsory OR upper secondary)].

7. Five journals were selected based on aims and scope but when scanning abstracts no articles met our criteria: Education and Information Technologies, Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige, Science and Education, Nordisk tidskrift för allmän didaktik, Norsk pedagogisk tidsskrift.

8. Our translations, emphasis in the original.

9. Somekh and Zeichner (2009) investigate actions research studies and show how different discourses of action research emerge: government-funded reform programmes aimed at controlling teaching, reform programs on the initiative of the academy and locally initiated long-term projects; all the efforts are interpreted as contributing to the development of action research and as ways of handling the tension between knowledge development and action for change. Their framework groups studies according to purpose, contextual conditions, views of teachers and teachers’ learning, incentives to participate, funding of the project, the form of inquiry, relation to other research and ways of representing research.

Additional information

Funding

Petra Magnusson’s contribution was supported by the Kristianstad University Research Platform Collaboration for Learning [Dnr 2019–2312–274].

Notes on contributors

Petra Magnusson

Petra Magnusson, Senior lecturer, Kristianstad University.

Martin Malmström

Martin Malmström, Researcher, Lund University, Senior lecturer, Malmö University