University of Gothenburg
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Martin Harling

Avd-/Sektionschef, Inst

Unit for General Didactics and Pedagogic Work
Telephone
+46 31-786 66 36
+46 700-89 62 90
Mail
martin.harling@ped.gu.se
Visiting address
Läroverksgatan 15
41120 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 300
40530 Göteborg

Senior Lecturer

Management
Telephone
+46 31-786 66 36
+46 700-89 62 90
Mail
martin.harling@ped.gu.se
Visiting address
Läroverksgatan 15
41120 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 300
40530 Göteborg

About Martin Harling

Research interests My main interest concerns political dimensions of pedagogy, education and teaching. This applies, among other things, to how individuals and populations are shaped and controlled in various pedagogical practices. In a school context, this translates to how students are increasingly perceived as customers and how knowledge is transformed into goods. The increasing marketization of the school world in recent decades is thus a central research interest.

In the spring of 2017, I defended my dissertation Choosing Subjects : A Study on Upper Secondary School Choice, School Fairs and the Battle for the Future at Linköping University. Here, the market logics of education were analyzed, in particular in the context of so-called upper secondary school fairs. A main result of the dissertation is that the logic of the market seems to legitimize an increased inequality and differentiation among the school's students.

Between 2019-2021, I will be the research leader for a network funded by FORTE that consists of international researchers, activists and unaccompanied young people. The network is entitled "After the crisis: migration, education and working life in interdisciplinary light".

Together with my colleague Ola Strandler, I lead a research project called "Collaboration for attendance: a comparative case study of school social teams", which will run between 2024 and 2026. The project is conducted in collaboration with staff in three municipalities and aims to study the consequences of the establishment of a new state grant to establish school social teams, where school and social services work together around students with e.g. problematic school absenteeism to improve school attendance.

Teaching interests I teach courses in pedagogy and special education, as well as teacher education programs. My lectures are about the marketization of education, about (in) equality, poststructuralist theory, subject-formation and discourse analysis. I also teach about educational sociological traditions, curriculum theory, and questions about normality and deviation. I am more than happy to supervise essays in the above areas. I currently co-supervise one PhD-student.

Network In addition to leading the network "After the crisis", I participate in IDPP's ongoing seminar work and have collaborations with researchers from Linköping University and UW Madison in the USA. I actively participate in the research group KRUF (Critical Educational Research), at IDPP.

Keywords Marketization, educational sociology, curriculum theory, poststructuralism, discourse analysis, exclusion and inclusion.