The research in the present study focuses on preliterate people’s ways of modelling and drawing. Our aim is to understand how the participants solve the problem of making three-dimensional sculptures and two-dimensional drawings of themselves or animals in their surroundings. Also, we compare the meanings of the participants’ first-ever drawings, based on one of two ways of starting the activity. The first group was asked to draw a human figure or an animal without first creating a sculpture. The second group was asked to create sculptures before drawing the same motives. We found that both children and adults drew tadpoles. However, single view representations were more common in the group who had only made drawings, while in the sculpture/drawing-group half of the drawings showed more than one view in their representations of human figures. There were examples of culture-specific features with significant recognizable social meanings in both sculptures and drawings. The findings are discussed in terms of socio-cultural theories on the development of imagination and creative combinations in settings where new tools and tasks are at hand

Det handlar om hur människor i olika sammanhang samspelar och skapar mening. Gemensamt för bokens skribenter är att de är eller har varit doktorander för professor Karin Aronsson vid Institutionen Barn och tema Kommunikation, vid Linköpings universitet. Sedan mitten av 1980-talet har institutionen erbjudit en dynamisk forskningsmiljö för personer med intresse för samtal, kulturella uttryck och socialt liv i och utanför institutionella sammanhang. Boken vänder sig till studenter, lärare, forskare samt praktiker med intresse för samtal, kulturella utryck och andra vardagliga fenomen som t.ex. tolkade samtal, flerspråkighet, visuell kultur, kamratrelationer, läsning, bildanvändning, grupparbete, etc. Kapitlen i boken kan med fördel användas såväl inom utbildning, arbetsliv som på fritiden för att fördjupa förståelsen av igenkännbara vardagliga fenomen och öka kunskapen om dessa fenomens komplexitet och mångfacetterade betydelser.

The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge about conditions for boundary crossing between academic and vocational practices and to identify dimensions of social practice within workplaces. The data consist of 28 questionnaires and 14 in-depth interviews with newly qualified secondary school teachers in their first year of teaching. We use the lens of sociocultural theory to analyse qualitatively what we can learn from newcomers talk about their experiences and whether theories provided during their teacher education helped them to meet challenges in their new workplaces. Theoretically, notions of participation in social practices in terms of social space are in focus. In the findings, such space is identified as social adjustment, social distance, social inclusion and social expansion. Drawing on these concepts, we suggest that professional development depends strongly on the way new teachers boundary crossing is supported by collaboration and to what extent they belong to professional dialogues in settings with inclusive and expansive relationships.

The overarching aim of this study is to investigate how newly qualified Rwandan teachers can contribute to the creation of theoretical and practical knowledge for professional development with information and communication technology (ICT). Questionnaires, focus groups and interviews were used for data collection. The findings show that novice teachers are motivated to acquire ICT and that they succeed in situations where school administrators grant easy access to computers. The novice teachers expressed a strong desire to be trusted and be allowed time to use computers and related skills in their learning and teaching. These views are discussed in terms of learning conditions created in schools so that participants become active, responsible and committed practitioners. We assume that such attitudes can be a model for their future roles in fostering change in social practice. For example, this study shows that gender equity becomes an aspect of change in an ICT-learning environment, which creates new opportunities for continuous education. To achieve this, as revealed by the findings, there is a need to develop school-based curricula, appropriate pedagogy and teacher professional development in the area of ICT literacy, which allows the teachers to develop a critical mind to the new tools.

This qualitative study focuses on newly qualified teachers' use of information and communication technology (ICT) as a tool for meeting the challenges of their everyday work. The overarching aim is to investigate whether they can contribute to new knowledge about learning in ICT contexts. Theoretical points of departure concern the changeable nature of learning in situations where ways of communicating knowledge and skills are changed. The study draws upon interviews and observations. The findings show intersections picturing the new technique as partly changing the circumstances for teaching, learning and collaboration between colleagues. The new teachers' utterances show that ICT utilisation is extensive and exhibits great variation both among female and among male participants. Boundary-crossing changes become visible in the collaboration between more experienced teachers and those who are newly qualified, especially when they work on a common development project. However, there are relatively few teachers who bring up active ICT use in connection with pupils' learning. Changed roles because of ICT competence raise questions about the importance of systematic ICT features within teacher education. Many of the newly qualified teachers wish they had more knowledge about ICT and related techniques. Another question is whether newly qualified teachers who show interest in using the technique can take on the role as agents of change in their active and creative use of ICT. © 2006 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.

This paper reports a case study in which 53 adult refugees initiated their own forms of learning with the aim of strengthening their opportunities for integration into Swedish society. The overall research interest was to find out what theoretical implications can be drawn from a case study where two different forms of learning were implemented. One alternative was offered in a formal setting and another in a non-formal setting where the group members shaped forms of learning themselves. The findings show that many features of non-formal working procedures correspond with basic assumptions and key concepts of sociocultural theory. Furthermore, these features accord well with key concepts of authentic learning. In a similar way as theoretical aspects of “situated learning” can be seen as an integrated part of sociocultural theory, we discuss whether the notion “authentic learning” could be used as a dimension of supporting meaningful learning in contextualised inclusive learning environments.