School results and lived curricula in contemporary society
Short description
The project examines and analyzes the meaning of performance management for schools' activities and how students with different social and cultural affiliations are shaped and shaped on the basis of school performance and school results.
About the project
Student performances and school results are dominating the agendas in Sweden and internationally. International comparisons are used as indicators of quality of school systems and evaluations are governing de-regulated and marketized schools. Parts of such a restructuring of school system are demands on organisational transparency, professional accountability as well as student agency.
What are the implications of this turn for the organisation of schooling and students’ lived curricula? We focus on the school class as a social system based on students’ and teachers’ interaction using different tools and resources closing as well as opening alternatives. What are students’ as well as teachers’ perspectives in the making of lived curricula. Of special interest is the dynamic of classification and (self-)categorisation forming and constraining identities and school careers. Is the performative turn translated into teaching and learning or are we identifying decoupling and boundary work here? We are using a combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional methods following three cohorts of lower and upper secondary school classes – in sum ca 1200 students in forty classes.
A similar study from 1993-1995 are used as reference points. Based on this extensive study – in combination with ongoing detailed analyses of classroom interaction in a parallel study – we are getting improved analyses of contemporary education tendencies and school work from a bottom up perspective.