Prospective teachers constructing dynamic geometry activities for gifted pupils: Connections between the frameworks of Krutetskii and van Hiele

The Swedish educational system has, so far, accorded little attention to the development of gifted pupils. Moreover, up to date, no Swedish studies have investigated teacher education from the perspective of mathematically gifted pupils. Our study is based on an instructional intervention, aimed to introduce the notion of giftedness in mathematics and to prepare prospective teachers (PTs) for the needs of the gifted. The data consists of 10 dynamic geometry software activities, constructed by 24 PTs. We investigated the constructed activities for their qualitative aspects, according to two frameworks: Krutetskii’s framework for mathematical giftedness and van Hiele’s model of geometrical thinking. The results indicate that nine of the 10 activities have the potential to address pivotal abilities of mathematically gifted pupils. In another aspect, the analysis suggests that Krutetskii’s holistic description of mathematical giftedness does not strictly correspond with the discrete levels of geometrical thinking proposed by van Hiele.

Bortom mitt barn och andras ungar. Omsorgsetisk grammatik för skolväljande föräldrar

A grammar of ethics of care for school choosing parents. To choose a school for one’s child is part and parcel of urban parenting in the contemporary Swedish educational system. While previous studies have investigated the consequences of the school choice empirically through both qualitative and quantitative methods, there are no previous studies investigating the issue of school choice as an ethical concern. Through the author’s situated experience of being a school choosing parent in Sweden’s third largest city, Malmö, the author uses educational philosopher Nel Nodding’s work on ethics of care and applies it to the question of what situated, responsible parenting in Malmö could mean today. The author introduces the metaphor of a grammar of ethics of care where the relationship between “our kid” and “our kids” is seen as relational, with an opening for caring for children outside the immediate family.

The marketisation of education and the democratic deficit

This article deals with the question of what has happened to ‘the public’ in the Swedish education system during the last three decades. In our search for an answer we illuminate and discuss how the process of marketisation, together with the learnification and individualisation of education, replaced ‘the public’ from public education with the logic of the market place. To shed some further light on the current discourse on Swedish education, we contrast two principles in education and teaching, the aristocratic principle and the democratic principle. According to the aristocratic principle, education is about fixating and reproducing existing power relations as the cornerstone of a well-ordered society. According to the democratic principle of education, equality is the cornerstone of a well-ordered democratic society. Considering the shift in the very infrastructure of the Swedish educational system, we arrive at the conclusion that the principles in education and teaching are characterised by the aristocratic principle, rather than those we have characterised as democratic principles. The educational message is clear: upcoming generations are to accept the rules of the market economy and play the game accordingly.

PLANNING OF THE WORK OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN SWEDEN IN VIEW OF GENDER ASPECTS

The article deals with gender inequality in educational institutions. Gender problems in general educational institutions are revealed, as well as opportunities to overcome gender inequality in Ukrainian society. The structure of the Swedish educational system in the context of gender inequality is explored. The 3R method is proposed to improve the education system in Ukraine. Gender budgeting is presented and grounded as a source of analysis of state budgets and planning in educational institutions taking into account gender equality. The effectiveness of planning the work of educational institutions in Sweden is determined.

John Dewey and Entrepreneurship in School-A Swedish Case

<p>Progressive education, with its purpose of educating young people to become democratic citizens, has influenced the Swedish educational system for many years. Critical voices have been raised, claiming that progressive education has diminished Swedish pupils’ results. Since 2011, when entrepreneurship as a concept and as a pedagogical approach was instituted in Swedish curricula, the debate has emerged again. In this case, however, the problem was with the pedagogical ideas of the entrepreneurship in school. Critical voices claim that entrepreneurship is a part of the neoliberal agenda and that the language of progressive education has been appropriated and misused in order to create productive citizens who will maintain the capitalist state. This article is written from the perspective of pupils in an upper secondary school, illuminating and problematizing the sense in which the entrepreneurship in school can be said to be progressive in the spirit of John Dewey. The result shows that the entrepreneurship in school contains many similarities with the ideas of progressive education, especially in the way that pupils work and take part in activities. However, the lack of pupils who talk about learning to improve future society or to develop democracy is obvious. Thus, even if working methods seem to be equal, the overall educational goals are different. The goal of entrepreneurship in school is to educate young people to become independent, innovative individuals but in that education mission, there is a risk that democratic values are neglected.</p>

Swedish religion education: Objective but Marinated in Lutheran Protestantism?

In this article, I use the experience of a Czech doctoral student to discuss why religion education in Sweden can be understood as both deeply Lutheran and at the same time neutral and objective. In doing this, I look at the present syllabus in religion education, point to some of the changes that have been made in relation to the previous syllabus, and highlight some of the controversies that arose when it was written in 2010. I also put Swedish religion education and Swedish educational system in a historical context, pointing to its relation to liberal theology and cultural Protestantism. In addition, I present how teacher education is organized for religion education teachers and how the academic Study of Religions has been an important part of this during recent decades. At the end of the article I reflect upon the protestant taste of Sweden’s ‘non-denominational and neutral’ religion education.