The article is a critical sociological analysis of current transnational practices on creating comparable measurements of dropout and completion in higher education and the consequences for the conditions of scientific knowledge production on the topic. The analysis revolves around questions of epistemological, methodological and symbolic types and, in particular, how the social processes in the creation and use of different measures offer researchers different positions in the knowledge production. Descriptions of statistics and measurements from statistics agencies in Sweden and the UK and from the OECD, EUROSTAT and Eurydice, as well as policy texts and data collection manuals from European Union bodies, have been compared and analysed. Particular interest is directed towards examples of measures used in Sweden and the UK. The results suggest that available data on student completion offers only a very limited basis for research-driven comparative analysis. It offers also a problematisation of the notions of researchers seen as users or producers of data and different position takings in statistical reasoning in using statistics as for example different types of evidence for policymaking.
With environmental awareness in the societies of today, political steering documents emphasize that all education should include sustainable development. But it seems to be others competing ideals for teaching physics, or why do the physics teachers teach as they do? Physics teachers in secondary school in Sweden have generally, been focused on facts and a strong link with scientific theories and concepts. In general, the curriculum sway the teaching, a standard text book in physics is used, the teaching is organized according to the book and the teacher deals with and demonstrates typical tasks on the whiteboard and group work is common for special issues related to tasks from the textbook or elaborating. The aim with this study is to analyze why physics teachers in upper secondary school choose to teach energy as they do. Data emerging from a questionnaire focused on indicators of the teachers' cultural and economic assets, or capital, according to the work of Pierre Bourdieu´s sociology. Especially his concept on life styles and habitus provide a tool for analysis. We focus on physics teachers' positions in the social space, dispositions and standpoints towards the ideal way to teach physics in upper secondary school (n=268). Our response rate is 29 % and due to the low response rate a non response bias analysis was made. In our analysis we primarily sought for groups, with a cluster analysis based on the teaching practice, revealed common features for both what and how they teach and three different teaching types emerged. Then we reconstructed the group habitus of the teachers by analyzing dispositions and standpoints and related those to the specific polarization of sacred values, that is struggles about the natural order (doxa) in the social space of science education, which is a part of and has boundaries to dominating fields like the natural sciences and the political fields (curriculum etc.). Three teacher-groups' habituses are described and analyzed; 1. The Manager of the Traditional, 2. The Challenger for Technology and 3. The Challenger for Citizenship. By constructing the habitus of the teachers in the different groups we can explain why teachers teach as they do and thereby make a contribution to both science education research and to teaching training, whereas reflective approach which also includes the individual dispositions and representations are paramount. In our paper we elaborate the grounds and implications of these findings further.
KeywordsPhysics teachers · Physic teaching · upper secondary school · habitus · life styles 2 Sammanfattning Med den miljömedvetenhet som råder i samhället i dag och de politiska styrdokument som finns för skolan, betonas att all utbildning bör omfatta hållbar utveckling. Det gäller även fysikämnet. Men det verkar trots det finnas andra ideal för skolfysikens innehåll, eller varför skulle annars fysiklärare undervisa som de gör? Fysiklärare i gymnasiet i Sverige har generellt sett varit inriktade på fakta och undervisat med en stark koppling till vete...
Artikeln syftar till att undersöka på vilket sätt Bourdieus perspektiv kan bidra till en fördjupad förståelse av professionell praktik. I artikeln har Andrew Abbotts arbete om professioner som system valts ut som jämförelseperspektiv. Hur kan Bourdieus ansats bidra till och komplettera professionsforskningen?
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