The effect of frame factors on (vocational) teacher educators’ teaching work

Abstract

This study is about six teacher educators’ descriptions of their teaching of (vocational) subject-specific didactics to teacher students at a university in Sweden. The analysis has been carried out categorically on the basis of material from two focus group interviews and with a narrative approach. Central to the narrative approach is the basic assumption that narratives are constructed together with and in relation to other people. The theoretical approach in the study is based on the concept of frame factors. We have assumed Hiim’s (2010) didactic relationship model, but use only the frame factors in her model. The study tries to answer the research question: What categories of teaching-related frame factors appear in the teacher educators’ descriptions of their teaching? The results comprise four categories and show that time, authorities, evaluation, and student base, aspects that are related to other factors in Hiim’s relationship model, govern their teaching. The conclusion is that the teacher educators try to create opportunities for their students, who are prospective teachers, to acquire teaching skills alongside an ongoing societal development, but this attempt is governed by frame factors that they themselves are unable to change.

Knowledge Transfer through Public-Private Development Partnerships

“…This approach, allows for a deeper understanding of core stakeholders' priorities, choices, and decisions, on a macro system level concerning knowledge transfer through the PPDPs (Yin, 2016). We have applied a narrative approach positioned in this qualitative study, which is useful to incorporate experiences elicited through semi-structured interviews (Espedal and Synnes, 2022;Asghari and Andersén, 2022). Based on stakeholders' told experiences and intentions, it is appropriate to explain how better to tailor PPDP interventions to local TVET systems (Goodrick, 2014).…”

“…However, we take a social constructivist approach to narratives viewing them as «social acts that do not take place in a social vacuum, but in specific social contexts» (Asghari and Andersén, 2022, p.66). It is argued that the narratives of the core stakeholders may not necessarily reflect real knowledge practices occurred in actuality; rather indicate meanings constructed from their perspectives uncovered through interviews (Asghari, 2014;Asghari and Andersén, 2022).…”

“…We develop the use of narrative approach to illustrate core stakeholders' voices and produce an account of their experiences of transferring PPDP interventions based on their experiences and therefore on meanings that the stakeholders ascribe to what actually happened in their practice of ensuring the sustainability of PPDPs (Asghari and Andersén, 2022). Narratives enable us to identify how core stakeholders work on their experiences and value practices to develop, change, and sustain their collective work (Espedal and Synnes, 2022).…”

Towards industrial careers in Sweden

“…I work as both a researcher and a vocational teacher educator at a university in Sweden. Among my vocational teacher students who studied on the short-track teacher education programme (for further information on short-track teacher education in Sweden, please see Asghari and Andersén, 2022) during the academic years 2019 -2022, there were dozens of industrial teacher students. The teacher students worked as unauthorized industrial teachers at various vocational upper secondary schools in various cities in Sweden.…”