Children’s Literature and English Teaching – Swedish Teachers’ Methods and Attitudes

This study investigates how primary school teachers of grades F-3 pupils in a number of sample schools in Sweden use children’s literature and other methods to enhance their teaching of English. The study explores the attitudes of these teachers’ to using English children’s literature as a teaching tool to promote language development in their pupils, focusing on vocabulary. An empirical questionnaire study was carried out including a total of twenty-three respondents from seven schools in a Stockholm suburb. The respondents are all working teachers with experience of teaching English to young learners, particularly in grades F-3. This study contributes with new knowledge about the often-recommended use of children’s literature as a method for teaching English to young learners, connecting international research with empirical data from the Swedish context. While the results suggest that the majority of the respondents are positive to using children’s literature in their teaching and regularly do so, many of them feel that it is somewhat difficult to find relevant materials to plan, implement and evaluate lessons within the allocated time-frame. Based on these results, further research about how to create more effective ways of using children’s literature as a method for English vocabulary teaching in Swedish schools is recommended.

"Magistrander" teachers linking schools and university : experiences from the University of Dalarna, Sweden

For some time, a debate has been going on in Sweden on how to link schools and universities to create more efficient and mutually beneficial co-operation. A pilot scheme at the University of Dalarna, financed by the State and local authorities, has created special posts for teachers allowing them to work part time in school and part time at the university. The teachers involved become “magistrander”, post-graduate students working towards a Master’s degree. Initiatives of this type raise some important questions:• What impact, if any, does this type of programme have on teachers’ skills and on activities taking place in schools?• Does it affect courses and research at the university taking part in this co-operation?The purpose of this paper is to discuss expectations and results based on experiences from the University of Dalarna.

School leaders as agents of change : a case study on how two head teachers are trying to implement the learning study method in their school

This paper seeks to describe and discuss the impact of inspections of schools in Sweden. It outlines the political context, based on New Public Management (NPM) theory, according to what role the Schools Inspectorate is supposed to play in order to govern and control. Attention is also devoted, referring an on-going case study, to how inspections influence head teachers and their leadership in their everyday work.   Reports from the Schools inspectorate are public. This forces both politicians and head teachers to take measures. In this case, the head teachers perceived that the inspection reports confirmed what they already knew, but it also gave them an alibi and a tool to push their teachers to take part in everyday school development work. During the first year after the inspection the head teachers mainly strived to adjust formal deficiencies in local steering documents. However, some of the deviations reported from the Schools inspectorate are regarding pedagogical problems that are complicated and difficult to handle. As interventions in many cases will show up much later the results are, for example as increased goal fulfilment, in this case, still an open question. Nevertheless, it seems obvious that the Schools Inspectorate must be seen as a result of the governing philosophy that denotes New Public Management NPM).

How initial vocational education and training (IVET) teachers in Sweden perceive their prospects of being able to prepare upper secondary school pupils for a future occupation

Vocational teachers in Swedish upper secondary schools are a heterogeneous category of teachers, connected to different types of trade. These teachers represent a broad set of trade skills varying in content and character. In their teacher role, they continue to wear the clothes, speak the language, share the culture and remain mentally in their former professions. Still, it is central that they keep up this contact to be able to school the pupils into the environment of the trade in question, but also to help them to understand what skills a profession demands. However, the individual teacher also has to distance himself from the negative elements in the culture of the profession: patterns and habits that, for various reasons, have to be broken or changed. This paper draws attention to the ways in which a group of vocational teachers, who were participants in a project that aimed to train unauthorized vocational teachers, expressed their ambitions to prepare the pupils for a future professional career. When collecting information, we used the degree dissertations they produced and discussed in seminars, and informal dialogues. The result shows that it is important that the instruction location resembles a real working site as far as possible. These places are more or less realistic copies of a garage, a restaurant kitchen, a hairdressing salon, and so on, in order to give the pupils a realistic setting for instruction. However, the fact that these simulated workplaces lack the necessary support functions that exist in a company creates problems, problems which make a lot of extra work for the teachers. Vocational teachers also have to instruct the pupil in the experienced practitioner’s professional skills and working situation, but the pupil herself/himself must learn the job by doing it in practice. Some vocational upper secondary programs lack relevant course literature and the businesses give little support. This also makes extra work for the teachers. Moreover, the distance between the vocational programs and the trainee jobs was experienced as being difficult to overcome. One reason seems to be differences between businesses and differing preconditions between small and big companies’ abilities to take care of these pupils. The upper secondary school vocational programs also play a role in cementing existing gender roles, as well as perpetuating class-related patterns on the labour market.

Must teachers be social workers, as well …? : Reflections on the current teacher role in the Swedish upper secondary school and how it affects teacher training

The Swedish upper secondary school has made a transition from a school for the elite to be a school for everybody. When almost every youth nowadays chooses to continue studying, for some of them this is not what they want to do most of all. However, as there in practice is no choice, there come up problems and many upper secondary school teachers experience a growing frustration. We will here discuss some aspects of the following questions: -  How do upper secondary schoolteachers handle their working-conditions in a new situation? - What possible consequences do this have on teacher education?

Do inspections of schools influence head teachers’ leadership?

This paper seeks to describe and discuss the impact of inspections of schools in Sweden. It outlines the political context, based on New Public Management (NPM) theory, according to what role the Schools Inspectorate is supposed to play in order to govern and control. Attention is also devoted, referring an on-going case study, to how inspections influence head teachers and their leadership in their everyday work.   Reports from the Schools inspectorate are public. This forces both politicians and head teachers to take measures. In this case, the head teachers perceived that the inspection reports confirmed what they already knew, but it also gave them an alibi and a tool to push their teachers to take part in everyday school development work. During the first year after the inspection the head teachers mainly strived to adjust formal deficiencies in local steering documents. However, some of the deviations reported from the Schools inspectorate are regarding pedagogical problems that are complicated and difficult to handle. As interventions in many cases will show up much later the results are, for example as increased goal fulfilment, in this case, still an open question. Nevertheless, it seems obvious that the Schools Inspectorate must be seen as a result of the governing philosophy that denotes New Public Management NPM).

How initial vocational education and training (IVET) teachers in Sweden perceive their prospects of being able to prepare upper secondary school pupils for a future occupation

Vocational teachers in Swedish upper secondary schools are a heterogeneous category of teachers, connected to different types of trade. These teachers represent a broad set of trade skills varying in content and character. In their teacher role, they continue to wear the clothes, speak the language, share the culture and remain mentally in their former professions. Still, it is central that they keep up this contact to be able to school the pupils into the environment of the trade in question, but also to help them to understand what skills a profession demands. However, the individual teacher also has to distance himself from the negative elements in the culture of the profession: patterns and habits that, for various reasons, have to be broken or changed. This paper draws attention to the ways in which a group of vocational teachers, who were participants in a project that aimed to train unauthorized vocational teachers, expressed their ambitions to prepare the pupils for a future professional career. When collecting information, we used the degree dissertations they produced and discussed in seminars, and informal dialogues. The result shows that it is important that the instruction location resembles a real working site as far as possible. These places are more or less realistic copies of a garage, a restaurant kitchen, a hairdressing salon, and so on, in order to give the pupils a realistic setting for instruction. However, the fact that these simulated workplaces lack the necessary support functions that exist in a company creates problems, problems which make a lot of extra work for the teachers. Vocational teachers also have to instruct the pupil in the experienced practitioner’s professional skills and working situation, but the pupil herself/himself must learn the job by doing it in practice. Some vocational upper secondary programs lack relevant course literature and the businesses give little support. This also makes extra work for the teachers. Moreover, the distance between the vocational programs and the trainee jobs was experienced as being difficult to overcome. One reason seems to be differences between businesses and differing preconditions between small and big companies’ abilities to take care of these pupils. The upper secondary school vocational programs also play a role in cementing existing gender roles, as well as perpetuating class-related patterns on the labour market.

English as a Second Language and Children’s literature : An empirical study on Swedish elementary school teachers’ methods and attitudes towards the use of children’s literature in the English classroom

Previous research has shown multiple benefits and challenges with the incorporation of children’s literature in the English as a Second language (ESL) classroom. In addition, the use of children’s literature in the lower elementary English classroom is recommended by the Swedish National Agency for Education. Consequently, the current study explores how teachers in Swedish elementary school teach ESL through children’s literature. This empirical study involves English teachers from seven schools in a small municipality in Sweden. The data has been collected through an Internet survey. The study also connects the results to previous international research, comparing Swedish and international research. The results suggest that even though there are many benefits of using children’s literature in the ESL classroom, the respondents seldom use these authentic texts, due to limited time and a narrow supply of literature, among other factors. However, despite these challenges, all of the teachers claim to use children’s literature by reading aloud in the classroom. Based on the results, further research exploring pupils’ thoughts in contrast to teachers would be beneficial. In addition, the majority of the participants expressed that they wanted more information on how to use children’s literature. Therefore, additional research relating to beneficial methods of teaching English through children’s literature, especially in Sweden, is recommended.

Teachers’ Views on ICT as a Tool in English Teaching for Students with Dyslexia : An interview study with English teachers in grades 7-9

Information and communications technology (ICT) is a broad concept, which is often discussed in relation to the development of education. More specially, ICT can be seen as a tool to help teachers individualize students’ education. Students who have literacy difficulties, such as dyslexia, are in constant need of new techniques to help them learn and new tools to make their educational development easier. The aim of this thesis is to show what views teachers have regarding using ICT in English teaching at a sample of schools in the south of Sweden. A secondary part of the aim is to see what ICT tools, or other non ICT related methods, these teachers use to improve literacy skills for students with dyslexia.This empirical study is based on interviews with six participants. Previous research within the area is presented and different aspects of ICT within the National Agency for Education in Sweden, and the English syllabus, are also discussed. The results of this thesis show that ICT is seen as a helpful tool to make education easier for both students and teachers. Tools such as ViTal, Spell Right and Legimus are being used and the participants of the study also use iPads and Chromebooks in their teaching. According to the interviews, ICT can tribute to a fun way of learning and a more individualized education. Other non ICT related methods are also used to help students with dyslexia and these are often in terms of pictures in connection to words. These findings are based on a limited number of participants in a small area of south of Sweden. Therefore, further research is needed to see if the findings can be verified with more participants, in different parts of the country.

Using Swedish in the EFL-classroom : An Interview Study on Swedish Upper Secondary Students’ Attitudes towards Teachers’ L1 use in the EFL-classroom

There is very little focus in previous research on first language (L1) use by teachers in the upper secondary English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom from the students’ perspective. In this context and from a Swedish perspective, this thesis examines what attitudes students in the Swedish upper secondary school have towards their teachers’ use of L1 (Swedish) in the EFL-classroom. The method used was qualitative semi-structured interviews, where nine students in total were interviewed. The collected data was then coded, thematized and categorized. The results show that the students mainly believed Swedish should be used when teaching vocabulary, when teaching grammar and for classroom management. They did not believe the L1 should be used by them in questions and answers and in general talk in the classroom. They also endorsed an overall judicious use of Swedish by their teachers and that their use of this language should be adjusted to the specific teaching group. Finally, it can be concluded that further research is needed on how the L1 can be used judiciously in particular situations and on what attitudes students of varying proficiency and age, as well as students who do not have Swedish as their L1 have towards teachers’ L1 use in the EFL-classroom.