Daniel Sundberg

My research examines how educational reforms are inscribed in social and cultural changes historically and presently. In focus of the research I am involved in is the institutional practice of teaching and learning primarily in compulsory schooling. What counts as knowledge in school? How is the selection of content legitimated? How are teaching and learning organized in educational settings and why? What is an output and a result of classrooms processes and what kind of languages are used to make sense of these processes?

My main field of research is curriculum studies and didactics/teaching and learning. Many of my projects have explored the various relations between schooling, teaching and learning from a social and historical perspective. In one research collaboration on "What influences Educational Achievement in the Swedish Compulsory Comprehensive School?" we (three research groups from Linnaeus, Gothenburg and Uppsala university) systematically synthesized knowledge about what factors might have an impact on educational attainment in Swedish compulsory schools. The driving question was: How can changes in learning outcomes be explained? The research review covered the period 1990-2010 and four broad areas; societal factors, reforms, resources, and the inner workings of schools.

In a follow-up research review, the CARL-project (Comparative Analysis of Research on teaching and Learning), we (together with Dr Jan Håkansson) went on to map the international and national research in the field of teaching and learning. Based on a methodological approach of qualitative research synthesis the CARL-project has identified major changes in research positions in the field and the important and robust empirical results that converge between different national as well as theoretical/methodological perspectives. Based on twenty international respectively twenty national research reviews during the period 1990-2010 comparisons and conclusions about the status of the research field of teaching and learning are drawn. An additional purpose of the CARL-project was also to develop the method of qualitative metasynthesis in education, which has not been done previously in Sweden.

I am currently chairing the research network ERECKS (Educational Reforms and Educational Knowledge in Europe) financed by the Swedish Research Council. In the collaboration there are five research groups, (ERHISE - The research group on Educational Sciences History, University of Geneva, CES, Centre for Educational Sociology, University of Edinburgh, CLEG, The Research group for Curriculum Studies: Education and reforms, governance and evaluation systems, University of Oslo, CEC, Comparative Education Center, Humboldt-University Berlin, The Linnaeus research group on Educational Reforms and educational Knowledge, Linnaeus university; STEP, Studies in Educational Policy and Educational Philosophy, University of Uppsala). Several different historical and comparative collaborations have emerged, for example the symposium: ”Processes of borrowing in education and its sciences – transnational and historical perspectives”.