Teachers Matter – but How? An international conference on didactics, pedagogy, and classroom research

Professor Barbara Comber, University of South Australia:

Classroom participation - Teachers’ work as listeners

One of the hardest aspects of teachers’ work, and perhaps one of the most under-rated is listening, really listening. This presentation will examine teachers’ work as part of the everyday life of classrooms, schools and communities, as curriculum design and lastly as an oeuvre which is assembled over time. In particular, I highlight the contributions of teacher researchers who take students and their worlds seriously and help them assemble repertoires of complex communication practices for representation, participation and taking action. Listening to students and their wider communities underpins their critical engagement and creative curriculum designs. I illustrate both the potential of this intense listening and also what can go wrong for students in its absence.

Professor Anna Sfard, University of Haifa:

The devil in details: Teaching as managing inter-discursive gaps

Once teaching-learning events are conceptualized as inter-discursive encounters, it becomes clear that classroom talk is rife with invisible pitfalls. There are many types of unacknowledged discursive gaps, some of them necessary for learning, and some potentially harmful. Such gaps may exist also between the teacher’s intentions and her own habitual moves, most of which are too brief and automatic to be controlled. Unknown to the teacher, her basic communicational routines may constitute invisible crevices through which the prejudice enters the conversation. In this talk, it will be argued that if devil is in the finest detail of classroom communication, it is the detail that must be considered in the attempts to exorcise the devil. The talk will begin with illustrations of these claims and will conclude with a reflection on how teachers may sensitize themselves to discursive pitfalls, how they and their students can benefit from those communicational gaps that are likely to generate learning, and how they can cope with those divides that hinder the process or infect it with unwanted messages.

Professor Kirsti Klette, Oslo University:

Teaching Matters - towards a common language for teaching? How research on curriculum and instruction contribute to a shared vision of teaching and possible improvement of schooling

More than forty years ago, Dan Lortie famously lamented the lack of a common language with which to describe teaching. In this talk, Dr. Klette will explore the use classroom of video classroom research and observation protocols as a tool to develop common language and professional vision around teaching and to improve instruction

Professor Katherine Schultz, University of Colorado Boulder:

The role of listening and silence in classroom participation

This talk will address the ways that teachers can use listening and silence to shift understandings of classroom participation. To build a pedagogy that is respectful and engages students in learning, I suggest that teachers listen deeply to students, locating the knowledge they gain about the students at the center of teaching. Listening to silence in classrooms involves listening to what is said between and beyond words through a stance of questioning and not knowing. Listening for, inquiring into, and honoring silence might lead to louder, more dynamic and engaged classrooms that have moments of stillness when students pause for reflection. Most important, inquiry into classroom silence and participation might lead to classrooms where equitable participation is defined as broadly as possible.

Professor Stefan Hopmann, Vienna University:

Didaktik and Democracy

It is one of the most commonly held beliefs among educators that what teachers teach shapes society. Yet, how does this happen, to what degree and in which areas? If you believe what most of the currently available empirical research tells you, then this is about the contribution of teaching to academic achievement, i.e. the social distribution of school knowledge and/or the competencies which are said to be connected to this. Based on more than thirty years of historical and comparative research, I would like to argue that this is a complete and utter misunderstanding of what teaching in schools should be about and what it is able to do. For me, this is more than an academic question of which theories we prefer or which data we believe in. This is a fundamental matter of if and how democracy can have a future in our societies.

Wednesday October 13

Download programme in PDF.

11.00 am -12.00 pm Registration on site

12.00 - 01.00 pm Lunch

01.00 - 02.00 pm Keynote session, Anna Sfard: The devil in details – Teaching as managing inter-discursive gaps. IKEA, House N

02.00 - 02.20 pm Coffee break

02.20 - 03.20 pm Keynote session, Kirsti Klette: Teaching Matters – towards a common language for teaching? How research on curriculum and instruction contribute to a shared vision of teaching and possible improvement of schooling. IKEA, House N

03.30 - 05.00 pm Session 1 - parallel sessions

Symposium 1a
Ikea, House N
Part 1. Chair: Ninni Wahlström
Discussant: David Hansen

Equity, teaching practice and the curriculum

• Ninni Wahlström: Equity in education - equal opportunities for what?
• Jeff Frank: Teacher feedback and the re-moralization of teaching
• Daniel Sundberg: Curriculum coherence: What is it and how does it relate to teachers’ enacted curricula in different educational settings?

Paper session 1b
Weber, House K
Chair: Jeppe Skott

• Jeppe Skott: Whatever does it mean to 'turn social'?
• Stavroula Philippou & Stavroula Kontovourki: Re-mattering teachers and the subject matter: Exploring the school textbook as curriculum in Greek-Cypriot Language Arts elementary classrooms
• Rachel Heydon & Zheng Zhang: Embedded teacher educator professional learning to support critical reading praxes: The reading pedagogies of equity curriculum
• Roswita Dressler, Roger Nippard: Professional learning for global competencies

Paper session 1c:
N1017, House N
Chair: Ewa Bergh Nestlog

• Erik Bandh: Linguistic inquiry in school – design guidelines
• Ola Henricsson: Embodied pedagogical tact in teachers' spontaneous storytelling
• Marie Källkvist: Practiced language policy in a multilingual English classroom: A nexus analysis of a lead teacher and his students
• Katarina Lundin: Contributing to Students’ Linguistic Development – Who and How?

07.00 pm Dinner (pre-ordered at registration)

Thursday October 14

08.30 - 09.00 am Coffee

09:00 - 10.00 am Keynote session, Barbara Comber: Classroom participation – Teachers’ work as listeners
Ikea, House N

10.15 - 11.45 am Session 2 - parallel sessions

Symposium 2a
Ikea, House N
Chair: Daniel Alvunger
Discussant: Daniel Sundberg 

Connecting teacher agency and curriculum making: three European cases

• Mark Priestley: Teacher agency and curriculum making
• Tiina Soini, Jenni Sullanmaa: Teacher agency and meso-site curriculum making in Finnish curriculum reform
• Stavroula Kontovourki, Eleni Theodorou, Stavroula Philippou: Expert teacher-subjects as an emerging ‘site’ of meso curriculum making in Cyprus
• Nienke Nieveen: Teacher agency in Dutch curriculum reform: Call for curriculum space and guidance

Symposium 2b
Weber, House K
Chair: Fredrika Nyström
Discussant: Malin Tväråna

Reports from the Classroom Research Front - Discrepancies between Formal and Operational Curricula in Three Different School Subjects: Swedish, Spanish and Civics

• Jonas Johansson: Non-formal ways to trigger students’ interest in Literary History
• Fredrika Nyström: What matters in teaching and learning speaking
• Viktoria Waagaard: Literacy Purposes in Writing Assignments

Paper session 2c
N1017, House N
Chair: Angela Marx Åberg
Turid Skarre Aasebø,

Ilmi Willbergh: Beyond the postcolonial paradox - empowerment of students in a Bildung-centered general didactics perspective

• Ali Osman: The significant teacher
• Jesper Sjöström: Didaktik models as a bridge between theories and teaching practice
• Anne Kjellsdotter, Peter Erlandson: Didactical challenges – the digital divide

11.45 am - 01.00 pm Lunch

01.00 - 02.30 pm Session 3 - parallel sessions

Symposium 3a
Ikea, House N
Part 2. Chair: Ninni Wahlström
Discussant: Magnus Hultén

Equity, teaching practice and the curriculum

• Catarina Schmidt: Student perspectives on being part of a low-performing classroom
• Bettina Vogt: Students as co-authors of curriculum events in high- and low-performing classroom contexts
• Katarina Ståhlkrantz: School leadership in diverse educational settings—a question of conditions or choice?

Paper session 3b
Weber, House K
Chair: Jens Gardesten

• Lena Boström & Helen Elvstrand: Finding the didactics for School Age Educare Centers
• Jens Gardesten: The teacher as a listener, an interactive agent, or an “excessive pointer”: Lessons from school-age educare teachers
• Birgitta Nordén: Opening up for participatory action research and challenge-based sustainability education in the preschool: Opportunities and challenges for the preschool in a time of diversity and mobility.
• Birgitta Lundbäck: Pupils with special needs - from a School-age educare view

Paper session 3c
J0150, House J
Chair: Ulrika Bossér

• Maria-Sofia Kristina Brännvall: Living in the realm of place.
• Pontus Bäckström: The Mechanisms of Peer-Effects in Education: A Frame-factor Analysis of Instruction
• Anette Emilson: Politics of belonging: Promoting children´s inclusion in educational settings across borders.
• Peter Teo: Private tutors matter! Capitalising (on) shadow education in Singapore.

Paper session 3d
N1017, House N
Chair: Ewa Bergh Nestlog

• Karin Sälj: Policy artifacts for assessment, planning or statistics?
• Lena Glaés-Coutts: “It shouldn’t be something you have to create on your own”; Personal practical knowledge construction and professional learning for teachers in school-age educare.
• Chanette Bach Mikkelsen: Students’ interpretations of interactions in group work - an empirical study showing group work dynamics
• Jenny Uddling, Kristina Danielsson: Signs of learning in a linguistically diverse physics classroom

02.30 - 02.50 pm Coffee break

02.50 - 04.20 pm Session 4 - parallel sessions

Symposium 4a
Ikea, House N
Chair: David Hansen

The Significance of the Call to Teach in Our Time (A Book Symposium)

Presenter: David Hansen
Commentators: Janet Orchard, Tone Saevi, Minna Uitto

Symposium 4b
Weber, House K
Chair: Katarina Schenker
Discussant: Marie Larneby

The subject matter of 'sport didactics' – crossing fields

• Göran Gerdin, Nina Westrin Modell: Equitable assessment practices in PEH?
• Göran Gerdin, Susanne Linnér: Social Justice practices in PEH
• Filip Andersson, Katarina Schenker: Sport schools and competing logics
• Jørgen Bagger Kjær, Camilla Strömberg: The coach and the educator

Paper session 4c
J0150, House J
Chair: Katarina Ståhlkrantz

• Andreas Bergh: Systematic quality work without quality? A study of local initiatives to challenge segregation
• Jon Terje Hegghaug: The school principal as meaning maker in the professional, pedagogical, and, administrative scope of opportunities and necessities in the powerplay of leadership for student education and socialization
• Helena Reierstam: Teaching and assessment in linguistically diverse settings – Merging interests for equity in education
• Jan Berggren, Ann-Christin Torpsten: A Marriage Made in Heaven? Newly arrived students’ perspectives on the selection of knowledge and organisation of teaching

Paper session 4d
N1017, House N
Chair: Bettina Vogt

• Maria Rosén & Emma Arneback: The paradox of risk – A proposal for teachers navigating free speech
• Charlotta Rönn: Pupils’ informal social strategies “backstage” when dealing with formal individual assignments
• Lene Sirevåg: Democratic practices in school – Children's democratic subjectification in moments of disturbance

04.30 - 05.30 pm Keynote session, Katherine Schultz: The role of listening and silence in classroom participation. Ikea, House N

07.00 pm Conference dinner

Friday October 15

08.30 - 09.00 am Coffee

09.00 - 10.00 am Keynote session, Stefan Hopmann: Didaktik and Democracy
Ikea, House N

10.15 - 11.45 am Session 5 - parallel sessions

Symposium 5a
Ikea, House N
Chair: Karin Sporre
Discussant: Håkan Löfgren

Children and their questions matter – to teachers and to curricula?

• Christina Osbeck, Katarina Kärnebro, Annika Lilja: What questions do children have today and 50 years back?
• Karin Sporre: How are the questions of children to be responded to – according to syllabi
• Katarina Kärnebro, Annika Lilja, Christina Osbeck: Teachers’ perspectives and children’s existential questions

Paper session 5b
Weber, House K
Chair: Daniel Sundberg

• Linda Jonsson, Petra Runström Nilsson: The gap between theory and practice: A study of work-integrated teacher training
• Niels Tange: The school between competence and autonomy - teaching in the light of the double purpose of pedagogy
• Marina Wernholm: Teaching based on children’s experiences of learning at play in a hybrid reality

Paper session 5c
J0150, House J
Chair: Ulrika Bossér

• David Örbring, Jesper Sjöström: Science Studies (“naturkunskap”) as a school subject – implications for teaching
• Elin Berggren, Miguel Perez: Using praxeologies to disclose the potential of tasks with respect to mathematical reasoning
• Andrea Priestley, Alison Hennessey, Claire Ramjan: From implementation to translation: what the development of a teacher network meso site affords to STEM enactment.

Paper session 5d
N1017, House N
Chair: Bettina Vogt

• Helena Grundén: Actors, structures, and power in the process of planning
• Peter Teo: Idealising teachers, ideologising education: A critical analysis of teacher recruitment videos in Singapore
• Anniken Hotvedt Sundby: Teacher and subject curricula: A systematic review
• Linda Eriksson Wilhelmsson, Ulla Damber: Educational science – a discussion about methodology in didactic research

11.45 am - 01.00 pm Lunch

We welcome all proposals for paper presentations or symposia that contribute to the theme of theoretical, methodological or conceptual aspects of pedagogy and/or Didaktik. We also welcome empirically based classroom studies, contributing with new knowledge on teaching conditions and teaching content.

3-4 paper presentations will be scheduled for each session (90 minutes). Proposals for paper presentation should be uploaded as individual files with up to 500 words (excluding references), comprising information about:

• Name and affiliation
• Title of the paper
• Research topic/aim
• Theoretical framework
• Methodology/research design
• Expected conclusions/findings

A symposium should include 3-4 paper presentations. Each symposia will be scheduled for 90 minutes. Proposals for symposium presentation should include up to 800 words (excluding references), comprising information about:

• Name and affiliation of the organizer of the symposium
• Title of the symposium
• Research topic/aim and theoretical framework of the symposium
• A short abstract for each presentation (850-950 characters), including title, name of the presenter, topic, connection to the overarching theoretical framework and method
• Name of the discussant

Proposals should be written in English.

Abstract submission: March 15 – May 15, 2021.

Notice of acceptance of abstracts will be provided by June 1, 2021.

We recommend that you install the zoom client and that presenters use a headset or headphones with an external microphone, please see instructions below.

Install the Zoom client: 
https://serviceportalen.lnu.se/en-us/article/1012280

Join a Zoom meeting:
https://serviceportalen.lnu.se/en-us/article/1045246

How to use the Zoom tools during meetings: 
https://serviceportalen.lnu.se/en-us/article/1012287

How to configure your Zoom meeting audio/video (Video): 
https://www.youtube.com/embed/-s76QHshQnY

How to share your screen in Zoom (Video): 
https://www.youtube.com/embed/YA6SGQlVmcA

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