Studies in Curriculum, Teaching and Evaluation (SITE)

The Linnaeus-SITE research group incorporates longstanding and inter-related strands of inquiry within the field Pedagogy and Educational Science.

Our research

The theoretical base of the programme is rooted in social theory, oriented towards meaning and communication, including both its foundational epistemic assumptions and empirical implications. What counts as knowledge in school? How is knowledge, values, literacy competencies etc. communicated and how are they related to meaning-making practices? What assumption about the school's democratic mission constitutes the basis for the curriculum and how does it shape the conception of the democratic citizen?

Research includes study of educational reforms in international contexts, for example curriculum discourse formation, the processes by which curriculum is developed, and how it is transformed in pedagogical practices within national education systems and traditions. In the forefront of the research interest are the questions of the school's democratic functioning in society and knowledge in pedagogical and curriculum making practices, i.e. how curriculum is linked to teaching and learning.

The LINNAEUS-SITE research group promotes and coordinates research and knowledge exchange activities in curriculum research and the enactment of curriculum in educational institutions for individuals across the life course: pre-school settings, schools, colleges and universities and lifelong learning. The members of the research group are involved in activities ranging from research exchange and development of theories and concepts in the international research community to involvement in professional development activities and work with professional practitioners at various levels of the educational system.  Linnaeus-SITE promotes a critical engagement with practices in the related fields of curriculum and pedagogy as well as deliberation with educational policymakers and the educational public in general. 

New Publication

A new anthology from SITE has been published on Routledge. The anthology presents results from a four-year research project, funded by the Swedish Research Council.

In the anthology, the theme of teaching and viesw of knowledge in high- and low-performing schools is problematized. The book has open access so it is open for download to your own computer.

Wahlström, Ninni (Ed.) 2022. Equity, Teaching Practice and the Curriculum. Routledge.

Here you will find the anthology as open access.

News

Calendar

Networks

Wahlström is associate editor of the leading research journal in curriculum studies, Journal of Curriculum Studies, with Professor Stefan Hopmann, University of Vienna, as editor.

A long-term collaboration has been developed between the SITE research group and its counterpart at the University of Stirling and the Curriculum and Pedagogy Research Programme led by Professor Mark Priestley.

SITE has an ongoing collaboration with Professor Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Comparative Policy Studies in Education, and Professor David Hansen, The Program of Philosophy and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University.

SITE is involved in networks of experts in comparisons of curriculum reforms, elaborated on in the ERECKS network (e.g., two doctoral projects together with Professors Jürgen Schriewer and Florian Waldow, the Comparative Education Center, Humboldt University, Berlin).

The SITE research group cooperates with Oslo University (Associate Professor Kirsten Sivesind and Professor Berit Karseth), STEP research group at Uppsala University (Professor Eva Forsberg) and Åbo akademi (professor Michael Uljens).

European Conference of Education (ECER)

SITE researcher keynote speaker at European Conference of Education (ECER), Geneva, September 7-10, 2021.

 

Ninni Wahlström, professor of education and one of the research leaders in SITE, was a keynote speaker at the 2021 ECER Conference. In her presentation titled School and democratic hope: the school as a space for civic literacy, Wahlström argued for the school as a place to uphold democratic principles and a democratic way of living together. In line with this argument, the concept of civic literacy is proposed as a guiding principle for both the content and practice of teaching.

Link to the keynote presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aaAPgTGAMw

Teachers Matter 2021

The conference Teachers matter – but how? took place at Linnaeus University in October, 13-15, 2021. The theme of the conference is new ways of exploring teaching and learning activities in diverse forms of teaching groups. The key interest is how to gain new knowledge about the teach­ing conditions in preschool, school, and university, promoting quality in the teaching process: With what fundamental concepts and from what perspectives can we increase our knowledge? The over­riding theme is how we can understand the core questions of pedagogy and Didaktik today. What are the prospects of going beyond the gap between the German-language concept of ‘Didaktik’ and the English-language term ‘pedagogy’ or the divergence between curriculum and pedagogy? What do pedagogy and Didaktik have to offer in relation to teaching understood as moral sensibility – in accordance with a philosophical suggestion of the meaning of teaching? And where is the research front in classroom research today?

 

The conference’s five international keynote speakers represent the research front line in teaching and learning in preschool and school.

  • Anna Sfard, a well-known researcher in mathematics education from Israel, talks about the importance of communication for teaching and learning.
  • Barbara Comber, an internationally established reading researcher from Australia, emphasizes the importance of incorporating children’s and pupils’ perspectives into teaching.
  • American classroom researcher Katherine Schultz examines children’s and pupils’ different ways of actively participating in teaching – also through their silence.
  • Classroom researcher Kirsti Klette from Norway shows how the digitalisation of research can lead to a common language for teachers in different countries.
  • Last in the line of keynote speakers, curriculum researcher Stefan Hopmann from Austria discusses how the concepts of didactics and democracy are connected.

Teachers Matter 2017