Tiden räcker inte till i akademin, ändå levererar forskare och lärare. Det är inte hållbart i längden. Per Gyberg menar att ekonomistyrning präglar verksamheten och att basanslaget utgör för liten del av lärosätenas resurser.

Klimatförändringar leder till ökade och nya risker i samhällen. Översvämningar från skyfall är en sådan risk som redan genererar stora skador, vilka förväntas öka markant i framtiden. Inte minst riskerar många villaägare att drabbas av översvämningar och de har också tillskrivits en central roll i Sveriges klimatanpassningsarbete. Trots detta har inga tidigare svenska studier undersökt specifikt hur villaägare påverkats av översvämningar bortom skadekostnader och ytterst få har undersökt hur de har hanterat eller ser på sitt ansvar att förebygga översvämningsrisker. Bristen på sådan kunskap kan leda till mindre informerade beslut om klimatanpassning. Genom intervjuer med villaägare som drabbats av översvämningar undersöker denna studie hur villaägare; ser på översvämningsrisker, har påverkats materiellt och hälsomässigt, har hanterat situationen, och ser på ansvar att förebygga nya skador. Studien påvisar tydliga effekter på villaägares välbefinnande, att få villaägare har implementerat åtgärder, tendenser att underskatta risker för översvämningar samt att ansvaret för förebyggande åtgärder skjuts över till andra aktörer.

As has been pointed out in previous research, teacher-led learning plays an important role in developing preschool children's technological skills and technological self-esteem. What is missing in research are more detailed analysis of how the children’s and teachers’ actions and interactions shape the learning process. In order to study this within the field of construction, an action research project was conducted, where construction activities were developed, implemented and revised in an iterative procedure. Data from the second cycle were analyzed for this article using graphic transcriptions and multimodal analysis, with a focus on action, interaction and experience from a pragmatist perspective. Our findings show that children who quickly and decisively engage with the material, the teachers and their peers in suggesting which material to use and/or how the material can be used, end up in a central role in the design process. These children (or their actions) often get legitimized by the teachers. Thus, in order to give children access to equal opportunities in the construction activities, it is important for teachers to understand how the children’s construction-focused actions become constitutive and what their role in that process is.

In this study, we adopt a critical perspective on knowledge about sustainable development in Swedish free teaching materials, where certain ways of illustrating sustainable development can make invisible alternative ways to understand and delimit it. We analyse physical, free materials for school teaching, distributed by Utbudet. The materials were produced between 2008 and 2019. Our analysis shows that there is a focus on facts, certifications and technical fixes, as well as scientific and societal consensus. The companies’ perspectives are prominent in the free materials, as are anthropocentric and Western approaches. Taken together, our study shows that the free materials convey that the global situation has improved and that development is on the right track, rather than in crisis, or that the sustainability problems are complex and difficult to manage. Thus, the materials present a fairly one-sided picture of the situation and the future, which does not really agree with the aim in Swedish education of presenting a balanced view of sustainable development.

The aim of this article is to investigate how Swedish teachers manage the uncertainty and complexity associated with sustainable development (SD) as a field of knowledge, in relation to the requirements in the school curriculum. Underlying the whole concept of sustainable development is the vision that there is a possible solution to the ecological, economic and social problems created by humans. However, it is not so clear what this solution actually means in practice. The article builds on an analysis of transcribed individual and group interviews with 40 teachers at Swedish lower and upper secondary schools, related to the topic of sustainable development as a field of knowledge. A thematic analysis was carried out by identifying four broad themes, including dominating discourses. The results indicate that there is a lack of vision among the teachers for a future sustainable society, while at the same time, it seems to be taboo to talk about what an unsustainable society might mean in the long run. Presentations of the problems and knowledge of what causes them must always be combined with instructions on how problems can be solved and how pupils can influence their own future and help create sustainable development. The starting point for such a solution-oriented approach to SD is based on an assumption that individual behaviour is essential to achieving sustainable development and thus that individual responsibility is crucial. This focus leads to individual consumer choices, behaviours and lifestyles at the heart of teaching, while progressive, alternative visions and critical perspectives are downplayed.

En stor andel svenska barn mellan sex och nio år gamla går efter skolan till ”fritids”. Fritidshem kännetecknas av både utbildning och omsorg, och därmed av både formella och informella aktiviteter. På senare år har verksamheten blivit mer och mer influerad av skolan och numera finns ett eget kapitel för fritidshem i den nationella läroplanen för grundskolan. Fritidshemmen genomgår därför en förändring som kommer att medföra att mer formella aktiviteter införs, exempelvis inom teknik, samtidigt som praktiskt taget ingen forskning har gjorts på detta. Syftet med det här kapitlet är att presentera några resultat från en pågående forskningsstudie om teknikens roll i aktiviteter på fritidshem. Observationerna fokuserade på de dagliga aktiviteterna på fritidshemmen där teknik hade en central roll. Vi använder begreppet gränsobjekt för att analysera teknik i aktiviteterna. Resultaten visar att det är en speciell sorts teknikundervisning som uppstår i fritidshem, på gränsen mellan den informella och formella verksamheten: från det informella lekrelaterade byggandet med Lego och träklotsar till den mer formella datorundervisningen. I dessa aktiviteter finns ett tydligt fritidsinslag, framför allt i form av ett fritt val av teknik och vad man vill lära sig. Det faktum att barn kan välja fritt pekar inte bara på att teknik i fritidshem är ett gränsobjekt med en stor tolkningsflexibilitet, utan också att teknikundervisning i fritidshem skulle kunna vara en lustfylld och effektiv väg till teknisk allmänbildning.

Background: Sustainable development, as an area of knowledge, appears in several different places in the curriculum and does not fit neatly within the scope of traditional subject areas. In many countries, including Sweden, it has long been upheld as an important tool for increasing understanding of, and dealing with, environmental problems. It is not clear, however, what role education can actually have in the making of a more sustainable future. Even though there are several potential ways for sustainable development to be involved in education, the concept raises many questions when transferred to the school context.

Purpose: This paper investigates how teachers deal with the difficulty of defining and approaching sustainable development as an area of knowledge in Swedish schools.

Sample: This article is based on semi-structured interviews with 40 teachers, 13 of whom were lower secondary school teachers (pupil age 12–15) and 27 were upper secondary school teachers (pupil age 15–18). The study involves teachers in all subjects where sustainable development is a goal in the syllabus. The study is also based on participant observation in one upper secondary class. A total of 17 different schools were involved, from a wide range of locations in Sweden.

Design and methods: The paper builds on qualitative data and the analysis of transcribed interviews and group interviews with teachers in Swedish lower and upper secondary schools. Group interviews, involving three or more people, were conducted on eight occasions. The pupils at an upper secondary school were also observed while they were working on a course called ‘policy and sustainable development’. Data were transcribed and analysed thematically.

Findings: The analysis suggests that, according to the teachers’ experiences, the demands of equivalence and measurability in school have increased and that this affects how sustainable development is approached in teaching and learning. Three main categories of knowledge were identified. The study also presents two representations that model how teachers may approach knowledge about sustainable development – metaphorically termed ‘the Accountant’ and ‘the Adventurer’ – and their different effects on knowledge.

Conclusions: There is a tendency for complex knowledge areas such as sustainable development, which do not fit seamlessly into traditional curriculum subjects, to become oversimplified when translated into teaching situations. According to the representations that we described metaphorically, the teacher, as an accountant, is characterised by ‘knowledge instrumentalism’, which means that teachers administer knowledge and the pupils consume it. In this transactional model, the accountant is also very dependent on external governance and control. Alternatively, the teacher, as an adventurer, is characterised by authority, knowledge and self-control. In this model, knowledge sometimes grows in an unpredictable way in the meeting between people who share common experiences. For adventurers, sustainable development is a matter of commitment and awareness, and it involves an explicit stance. The metaphors can be placed on a continuum which describes how teachers manage the demands of the school system in relation to the knowledge area of sustainable development.