Studies in Teaching and Education (SITE)

Within the research environment SITE, we explore how knowledge, governance, and teaching are shaped in a society marked by globalization, digitalization, and shifting democratic conditions. Through critical and comparative studies of policy, practice, and learning – from early childhood education to adulthood and working life – SITE contributes with knowledge that help schools, decision-makers and professionals to navigate an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world.

Schools are a central part of society’s democratic infrastructure. In a time of major societal transformation – globalization, digitalization, migration, and climate challenges – new demands are placed on governance, knowledge, and teaching. Questions about what school should be, what kinds of knowledge matter, and how curricula are designed are more relevant than ever.

SITE (Studies in Teaching and Education) at Linnaeus University examines these issues from a critical, comparative, and interpretive perspective. We investigate how policy and reforms shape the mission of schooling, how leadership and school development can promote equity and quality, and how teaching in early childhood settings and classrooms (from preschool to adult and higher education) is influenced by transnational, national, and local governance processes. Our research environment also includes studies within the field of workplace pedagogy, focusing on education and learning in working life and other practices outside school.

Our research revolves around the following themes:

  • Governance and the school’s democratic mission:
    What role do schools and education play in a time of political and social uncertainty? How have their missions and curricula changed over time?
  • The school as a social institution:
    How is the role of schooling being reshaped in relation to global, national, and local challenges and policy shifts?
  • Knowledge and curricula:
    Which forms of knowledge and values are prioritized – and for what reasons?
  • Teaching and classrooms:
    How are reforms and policies translated into practice? How does politics shape the work of educational professionals?
  • Leadership and school improvement:
    Which strategies support sustainable development in and of schools?
  • Workplace pedagogy:
    How are conditions for learning created across different organizations?

More about SITE

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Calendar

Conferences

European Conference of Education (ECER)

Ninni Wahlström, professor of education and one of the research leaders in SITE, was a keynote speaker at the European Conference of Education (ECER) in Geneva, 7–10 September 2021. 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.

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

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