Earlier research shows an arrest in reading and writing development among 9–12-year-old students with severe speech and physical impairment, SSPI. This article explores what five students with SSPI who have reached beyond beginner’s phase without arrest in their literacy development have experienced as significant for their reading and writing development. The research design was explorative and case based. It contained researcher–participant longitudinal dialogues focusing on the students’ experiences of literacy learning. Computer assisted email interviews were used. A semi-structured interview manual guided each dialogue. With the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems and assistive technology devices, the participants could read and write (with alphabetical print in Swedish) independently. The analysis revealed four themes of great importance for the students’ development of alphabetical print literacy skills: assistive technology use in writing and reading, continuity in long-term pedagogical relationships, mutual persistence in communication, and visions of nearer goals and future work life. The results are discussed in relation to the theoretical frameworks of self-efficacy and the capability approach.

Förlagets sammanfattning:

Praktiknära forskning har som mål att förena den vetenskapliga kunskapsprocessen med praktiskt utvecklingsarbete. Den skolnära forskningen är ett exempel på en sådan process, där vetenskaplig kunskap möter lärares erfarenheter för att på så vis stärka måluppfyllelsen i skolan. Det kan handla om lärare som beforskar sin egen praktik, men begreppet hänvisar även till forskning som bedrivs i nära samverkan med skolpraktiken. Sådan forskning tar sin utgångspunkt i lärarens frågor och behov. Ett annat kännetecken är närheten till undervisningen och faktiska situationer i klassrummet där lärare och elever är aktiva.

Den här boken erbjuder en översikt av och handledning i olika skolnära forskningsmetoder. Exempel på metoder som tas upp är: Learning study, följeforskning, skuggning och medvandrare. Metoderna är beprövade i olika empiriska sammanhang och exempel ges både från skola, förskola och fritidshem

Skolnära forskningsmetoder vänder sig till studenter på olika lärarutbildningsprogram samt till verksamma lärare och skolledare inom skola, fritidshem och förskola. Även forskare bör finna boken relevant.

Global teaching and learning for sustainable development reaches from the classroom to the world outside, and is therefore a particularly interesting setting for practising transition skills. The article suggests a number of features perceived as crucial in developing young people's capability to act in a changing world and under circumstances that are difficult to predict. The suggestions are based on an empirical study of the Lund Calling project, which aimed at implementing a web-based international programme for teaching preventive environmental strategies in Swedish secondary schools. The article first presents some of the conditions in Sweden that particularly impact on young people's transition to adulthood. Related research in sustainability education is also briefly outlined. Knowledge capability theory is used to discuss results from the empirical study of the Lund Calling project, where interviews were conducted with secondary school students, teachers and headmasters. Based on these interviews, features that appear to be particularly relevant as transition skills in global learning for sustainable development include transdisciplinary action, democratic collaborative action, as well as self-directed and independent initiative. The article concludes that young people today cannot, as in earlier periods of history, base their actions entirely on the traditions of the family or community. Instead, they also need to learn to form their own communities, capable of acting at both local and global levels. Education here plays an important role in developing the necessary transition skills that enable young people to be prepared for a rapidly changing and uncertain world.

The aim of this article is to examine the role of children’s awareness of the function of language use in expressing understanding. Preschool and elementary school children were asked two questions presenting a problem that could be described in classical mechanics and basic astronomy. They were then encouraged to reflect on their own language use when expressing their conceptions of the physical phenomena they had discussed. The article concerns learning from a phenomenographic perspective, with emphasis on the interplay between language use and meaning-making when developing understanding. Understanding is seen as an activity, while awareness of language use in understanding is regarded as an important aspect. 40 children in preschool and elementary school (six and ten years old respectively) participated in an empirical, qualitative investigation. A particular dialogue format was used, that has been developed within the intentional-expressive approach. Dialogue excerpts where the children expressed awareness of their own language and understanding were selected from the empirical material, and contextual analysis was used to delimit qualities of awareness expressed in these excerpts. The qualities of awareness were grouped in four descriptive categories: 1) awareness of the relation between language form and language meaning; 2) awareness of the nature of understanding; 3) awareness of the expressive function of language for new meaning; and 4) awareness of the function of language use in understanding. A widened definition of language awareness is proposed and discussed, in which awareness of the close relationship between language use and meaning-making is taken into consideration.

The Young Masters Programme provides young people around the world with a net–based global–local learning environment for sustainable develop-ment. The present study investigates certain aspects of the implementation of this programme in the secondary schools of a Swedish municipality, in the context of the Lund Calling project. The research focuses on critical abilities to act globally, referred to as “knowledge capabilities”, and how they relate to the implementation process of initiating global learning for sustainable development (GLSD). A phenomenographic approach and semi–structured interviews were used in the investigation of the experiences of secondary school pupils, teachers and headmasters who participated in the project. Participants’ experiences of the changes carried out are described in relation to examples of knowledge capabilities needed for GLSD. Critical knowledge capabilities found to have been developed through the implementation were: to take command, and to collaborate. Critical knowledge capabilities perceived as necessary, but not developed through the programme were: to be prepared, to act in a transdisciplinary manner, and to lead for a holistic understanding