Discourses on academic teachers and higher education
Within this main line, we adopt different types of critical discourse analyses to shed light on discourses about academic teachers and higher education. Through this methodological approach, we are interested in the ideologies, stakeholders, and values embedded in the discourses and how they contribute to shaping pedagogical practice in different directions.
Ideological images of teachers through the history of academia
Even though teaching is a central part of the mission of higher education, it is not always given the same value as research in academic contexts. However, history reveals that the relationship between teaching and research has not always been unequal, but that the current situation can be traced in part to the ideological tensions and discourses that followed the expansion of higher education in Sweden. In this study, we approach the problem within the contexts of Lund University and Uppsala University by analysing daily newspapers, student magazines, staff magazines, and government reports from the higher educational reform in 1977 until today.
Would you like to know more? Contact Eva Brodin.
Discourses on the digitalization of education
The digitalization of society is a megaproject on local, national, and international levels, and the important role that education is expected to play in the digitalization process is reflected in policies, strategies, and digital infrastructures at Swedish institutions of higher education. Actors from various sections of society with diverse interests are involved in shaping the discourses around digitalization of and through education that have an impact on both policy and practice. For this reason, it is important to critically examine the ideologies and values underlying the construction of the digitalization of education. In this research project we study, for example, constructions of digitalization in policy, actors engaged in the governance processes concerned with digitalized education and education policy, and the discursive relationship between the digitalization of education and responsibilization of citizens through concepts such as lifelong learning, self-regulation, and entrepreneurship. In a related project, we study high school teachers’ experiences of teaching online during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Would you like to know more? Contact Marita Ljungqvist or Anders Sonesson.