This paper presents a study of children’s ideas of the body’s internal structure. Children between four and 13 years (N = 170) individually produced drawings. During each drawing session the children explained their drawings to a facilitator and added written labels either by them- selves or, if they were too young to write, with the facilitator’s help. The results provide an updated comprehensive picture of children in differ- ent age groups and their views on the internal structure of the body. The type and numbers of organs drawn are similar to those documented in previous studies. However, in comparison to recent studies, the children drew more organs, the brain was indicated almost as often as the heart, and the Valentine heart was frequently used as a symbol. In contrast with previous research, children drew connections between organs. This result calls for caution regarding conclusions made from decontextua- lized questions. The importance of providing children with the opportu- nity to clarify their drawings is emphasised since it otherwise becomes a question of the researcher’s interpretation. The connections they draw, and explanations they give to their drawings, have interesting implica- tions for understanding children’s ideas, and hence both for teaching and learning and for science education research.

I det här kapitlet kommer vi att återberätta en berättelse som de tre eleverna Björn, Erik och Cissi1 berättade för oss våren efter att de hade fått sina första betyg. Denna vår år 2014 var också den första på många år som svenska elever i årskurs 6 fick betyg över huvud taget. Berättelsen handlar om just dessa elevers erfarenheter av att få betyg, men den kan också förstås som ett bidrag till en större berättelse om betydelsen av att forma framgångsrika och konkurrenskraftiga elever. Den berättelsen berättas idag av många olika aktörer både i och utanför skolan. Såväl elever, lärare och rektorer på enskilda skolor som nationella och globala aktörer är idag upptagna av att mäta och visa upp framgångsrika resultat (Lingard, 2011; Lingard, Martino & Rezai-Rashti, 2013). Vår ambition med kapitlet är att försöka illustrera hur man genom att lyssna väldigt noga på enskilda människors berättelser och sedan kontextualisera dem – det vill säga sätta dem i ett sammanhang som framstår som relevant för såväl oss som forskare som för dem som berättar – kan bidra med nya nyanser till stora eller dominerande berättelser om vad skola och utbildning är till för. Därmed ansluter vi oss till en forskningstradition som ”är ute efter människornas berättelser om vad de gör när de lever sina sociala omständigheter, och de erfarenheter som detta innebär för deras liv och för det samhälle de lever i” (Pérez Prieto, 2007, s. 289; se även Plummer, 2001; Freeman, 2010).

This article revolves around the educational policy introduced in Swedish schools that has extended national testing to younger pupils. The policy is intended to support equal assessment and grading. With the exception of short-term preparations for the tests focused on here, the testing routines are regulated by the state. The paper aims to examine how the policy of national testing in grade six is enacted in different school contexts from a pupil’s point of view, and how this affects equivalence in school. A narrative analysis was conducted of pupils’ (n = 150) stories about preparing for national tests in 11 schools. Three forms of enactments were distinguished according to how responsibility for test preparations was allocated in each school. In some schools, teachers invited the pupils systematically to the translation process. In other schools, pupils were given most of the responsibility for preparation and were left alone as actors vis-a-vis the policy. Finally, in schools that applied ad hoc preparations, the pupils’ position as actors became less secure and more multifaceted. This variety regarding the pupils’ test preparations in school stress that the different enactments of this policy of national testing have implications for the interpretation of equivalence in school.

This paper draws on data collected in a wider study of national testing and grading policies for school year six that were introduced in Sweden 2012. The research project focuses specifically on elementar y students’ experiences of receiving grades and taking the national tests. In this paper we direct the interest towards the positions given to parents in the student’s stories about talking about grades with their parents. The purpose of the paper is to ex plore how ‘territories of agency’ take shape in student’s stories in relation to discursive narratives of performative pressure within global and national education systems. The now stronger focus on grades in Sweden is considered a part of the delivery chain -stressing learning outcomes as the main issue for everyone involved in education – reaching from global actors such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to the individual students (Ball, et al. 2012). The performativ e pressure on schools, teachers, and students aiming to improve results and schools’ ranking positions affects the local actor’s actions and identities. As subjects to policy their agency is limited but in their stories student’s make claims of having some degree of freedom to act. These ‘claims of territories of agency’ are understood as expressed through narrative performances of individual and collective identities in student’s stories about experiences of talking about grades with parents. This narrativ e approach lets us focus on the links between how students position themselves relation to their parents and vis - a - vis discourses of performativity (Ball, 1997) in their stories and through their storytelling (Bamberg, 1997). Students from eleven differen t schools in five different municipalities were interviewed with the purpose of obtaining a great variety of student experiences. In total we have conducted 80 interviews with 195 students and some of them have been interviewed twice. Students were intervi ewed in groups (n= 2 - 5). The analysis in this paper is based on what students told us about their experiences of talking to parents about grades. In a thematic analysis we found three different themes regarding how the students described their parent’s att itudes towards grades and the student’s efforts related to grades. The first theme is about parents that do not talk about grades with their children. The second is about parents that put pressure on their children to get good grades often without engagin g -or knowing how to engage -in how this is done. The third theme is about parents that focus on their children’s wellbeing by putting the grades in different perspectives – e.g. by downplay the importance of grades or emphasize the importance of having one’s own agenda. In this paper we further investigate how the positions are given to parents in the “story - world” (Bamberg, 1997) and how the students position themselves as students when telling the stories. Preliminary results suggest that students ‘cla im territories of agency’ for themselves by positioning their parents in different ways in the story - worlds.

De senaste åren har fritidshemmen präglats av en ”reformträngsel”. Hur påverkar det den dagliga verksamheten? Genom att ta del av lärares och rektorers egna berättelser om fritidshem har vi undersökt hur reformerna förändrar fritidshemmens verksamhet idag och hur det påverkar det systematiska kvalitetsarbetet.

This paper investigates students ́experiences of getting grades and explores the identities as students that take shape in their stories. Recently, grades from school - year 6 instead of year 8 were introduced in Swedish schools. However, granting their importance in students´ life, little is known abo ut the personal meaning of grades to students, especially the feelings and understandings that students hold about grades both in a present tense as well as in a future tense. One main function of grades is to select students into higher levels in the educ ational system but they are also expected to motivate students to learn more and provide information about learning outcomes. Previous studies have shown that grades in early years contribute to stable perceptions of student selves over time and to pessimi sm in terms of possible change (Kasanen & Räty, 2002; Kärkkäinen, 2008). Often, issues of “high stake” deal with questions of tests and grades as objective gatekeepers for students ́ future possibilities to education. However, in this paper, we consider “hi gh stake” as a subjective matter linked to students ́ feelings and future dreams. The overall aim of the paper is to problematize “high stake” as a matter of objectivity by stressing students ́ subjective feelings in their stories about grades and grading. O ur research questions are: How do the students talk about the possibilities to influence their grades now and in future? What feelings take shape in the students’ stories about their experiences of grades? Students from eleven different schools in five di fferent municipalities were interviewed with the purpose of obtaining a great variety of student experiences. In total we have conducted 80 interviews with 195 students. The students were interviewed in a group of students (n=2 - 5) and asked to refer to the ir experiences and feelings of grades. We listened to the interviews and read the transcripts and conducted a narrative analysis of the students’ stories. Some students express feelings of pressure and say that the grades are deemed important for their po ssibilities to get a job in the future. This we regard as an expression of grades as “high stake”. Other students express more relaxed feelings and talk about a limited value of grades in school - year 6 for their future plans. To them the grades do not stan d out as “high stake”. Several studies indicate that younger students seem to see grades as labels that are hard to change. From this perspective all grades are “high stake” in a kind of objective sense. However, this study indicates that the grades are no t “high stake” to all students when considering their feelings and future dreams. Many of the students in this study talk about future in terms of possibilities to change their grades or find grades and grading not an important issue yet. To them the grade s might be “high stake” later on – or not.

The aim of the paper is to investigate students’ concern for the national test in science as an effect of changes in the education system toward a stronger state interest in knowledge measurement in a decentralized and competitive school system. Our research questions are: What are students’ experiences of national tests in science? How do the students conceptualize the test questions? This paper focuses on elementary students’ experiences of assessment against the backdrop of the now extensive practice of national testing in the sixth grade of Swedish schools. The students were interviewed in a group of students (n. 2-5) a few days after the national test. They were asked to refer to their feelings about performing the test (e.g. Can you tell us what it was like to take a national test?) and about their strategies to answer the questions (e.g. Can you tell us about your experiences about the test questions?). All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. We listened to the interviews and read the transcripts and conducted an analysis of narratives of students’ stories about their experiences of the national test. The students tell about a great concern for the national tests in science and how important the national tests are for their grades. They tell stories about limited possibilities to prepare before the test. They also talk about questions that do not challenge their knowledge, as well as questions that are difficult to conceptualize. From a student perspective, some questions are impossible to answer because they are “dealing with the wrong stuff” since the science content in the test questions do not always reflect the content of the science teaching in school. It is evident in our data that the now extended practice of assessment is in a process of taking shape. The national tests do not just create opportunities for students to improve their grades, but they also limit students’ opportunities to participate in a science practice.

The aim of this paper is to describe and discuss how students are prepared and prepare themselves before conducting national tests. Recently the routines of national testing were extended in Sweden by introducing national tests in Science and Social science in grade six. The intentions with the test is to contribute to that the assessment will be equal and fair, to concretize the curricula and to improve students’ results. The tests are conducted during the spring term and they are supposed to mirror the summative learning results of the students’ achievements for the passed school years. An implicit idea in this policy is that students and schools should not prepare for the tests. The policy of extended national testing is regarded as an expression of the state’s increased demands on accountability and of a need for unambiguous information on a national school market. The research builds on a vision of educational reform as something that both frames the terms of the school’s stakeholders and is shaped by the local translations and enactments of the reforms. Data consists of interviews with sixth-grade students from ten schools who are characterized by different background factors, such as socioeconomic conditions and geographic location. The students were interviewed groups of students (n. 2-5) a few days after the national test. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. We have conducted an analysis of micro-narratives of students’ stories about their experiences of preparing for national tests. Preliminary results indicate that schools and students in varying degrees prepare for individual tests. Students variously spend a lot of energy to prepare, or just follow the preparations done in school, or do not prepare at all. Some schools prepare students a lot and others leave the task of preparation to the students to solve alone. A conclusion suggested in the paper is that the tests from a students’ perspective can be said to contribute to differences in students’ possibilities to prepare and perform good results in school.

The aim of the paper is to investigate students’ experiences of the national test as an effect of changes in the education system toward a stronger state interest in knowledge measurement in a decentralized and competitive school system. Our research questions are: What are students’ experiences of national tests in relation to their grades? How do the students talk about their own malleability? The students were interviewed in a group of students (n. 2-5). They were asked to refer to their grades in relation to the national tests (e.g. Are the national tests important for your grades?) and about their possibilities to change their grades. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. We listened to the interviews and read the transcripts and conducted an analysis of narratives of students’ stories about their experiences of the national test. The students tell about a great variation when talking about the role of national tests for their grades, some students say that the national tests are very important for their grades whereas other say that the national tests only can raise the grades never lower them and some state that the national tests are of no importance for their grades. They also tell stories about their ability to change their grades later on in school. However, from a student perspective the national tests and the grades in school year six do not just create opportunities for students, they also limit students’ opportunities.

Theoretically and methodology framework

In Sweden the practice of national testing now is extended through the introduction of national tests in Science (Chemistry, Physics and Biology) and Social Science (History, Geography, Religion and Social Studies) in grade six. This is one in a series of reforms aiming to tighten the impact of learning goals formulated by the state. The reform is regarded as an expression both of the state’s increasing interest in managing and controlling schools and of a need for unambiguous information about schools’ effectiveness from actors on a national school market (Lundahl, 2005). Both the state and parents choosing schools for their children ask for simple measures of schools’ quality (Lindblad, 2000). Further, one fundamental aspect of the system is that by providing information about learning outcomes, students themselves can develop their own learning. Yet we know little about the ways students, the subjects of governance, experience and share their experiences of national tests.

A central idea in the paper is that reforms are interpreted and enacted rather than implemented, and therefore it is useful to listen to the actors’ experiences (Ball et al., 2012). Theoretically, this research builds on a vision of educational reform as something that, on one hand, frames and shapes the terms of the school’s stakeholders and their ability to shape their identities. On the other hand, the actors’ stories or translations of those reforms reflect how reform is enacted in practice and how its results can be understood (Ball, 2006; Ball et al., 2012). Research on assessment from a student perspective is unusual, especially when it involves young learners (Forsberg & Lindberg, 2010). Most evaluation research focuses on student achievement and on school results rather than on students’ experiences, the core of this project. However, some European studies are relevant to this paper’s discussion. Kasanen and Räty (2002) showed that self-assessment of students in first grade affects their perceptions of themselves at school and that they compete with one another, comparing their own results with those of classmates. In a study of students in grades three and six, Kärkkäinen et al. (2008) found that students develop a perception about their own abilities and their malleability quite early. The students’ results and experiences of success or failure, in conjunction with comparing their results with those of others, contribute to early and stable perceptions of themselves over time and to pessimism in terms of possible change. In addition, two studies have shown that students hold varying perceptions about assessment’s function but a common perception that assessment is done for others rather than for themselves (Törnvall, 2002; Ross et al., 2002).

Method and data

Data in this paper is collected within the framework of a project financed by the Swedish Science Council in which we interview sixth-grade students from ten schools who are characterized by different background factors, such as socioeconomic conditions and geographic location.The students were interviewed in a group of students (n. 2-5). They were asked to refer to their grades in relation to the national tests (e.g. Are the national tests important for your grades?) and about their possibilities to change their grades. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. We listened to the interviews and read the transcripts and conducted an analysis of narratives of students’ stories about their experiences of the national test.

Findings

Our analysis of students’ stories indicates a narrative of an increased performative pressure when national science tests in grade six were introduced. In the students´ stories about how they cope with the pressure, identity formations of insecurity (agony) and competence (pride) are constructed. The students emphasize the importance of the situation both for the teachers and for their own future (cf. Ross et al., 2002; Kärkkäinen et al., 2008). The students tell about a great variation when talking about the role of national tests for their grades, some students say that the national tests are very important for their grades whereas other say that the national tests only can raise the grades never lower them. Some students also tell stories about their malleability i.e. their ability to change their grades later on in school. However, from a student perspective the national tests and the grades in school year six do not just create opportunities for students, they also limit students’ opportunities.

References

Ball, S. J. (2006). Performativities and fabrications in the education economy: Towards the performative society. In H. Lauder, P. Brown, J-A. Dillabough & A. H. Halsey (Eds.), Education, globalization & social change (pp. 692–701). New York: Oxford University Press.

Ball, S. J., Maguire, M. & Braun, A. (2012). How schools do policy: Policy enactment in secondary schools. London: Routledge.

Forsberg, E. & Lindberg, V. (2010). Svensk forskning om bedömning — en kartläggning. Stockholm: Vetenskapsrådet.

Kasanen, K. & Räty, H. (2002). ”You have to be honest in your assessment”: Teaching and learning self-assessment. Social psychology of education 5, s. 313–328.

Kärkkäinen, R., Räty, H. & Kasanen, K. (2008). Children’s notions of the malleability of their academic competencies. Social psychology of education 11, s. 445–458.

Lindblad, S. (2000). Verklighetens omätbara aspekter. Pedagogiska magasinet, 4.

Lundahl, L. (2005). A matter of self-governance and control. The reconstruction of Swedish education policy: 1980–2003. European Education, 1(37), 10–25.

Ross, J. A., Rolheiser, C. & Hogaboam-Gray, A. (2002). Influences on students’ cognition about evaluation. Assessment in Education, Principles, Policy & Practice, 9(1), 81–95.

Törnvall, M. (2001). Uppfattningar och upplevelser av bedömning i grundskolan. Malmö: Högskolan, Lärarutbildningen. (licentiatavhandling).