Historical Encounters: A Journal of Historical Consciousness, Historical Cultures, and History Education, 2017
This special issue is the result of the workshop, Towards an integrated theory of historical and ... more This special issue is the result of the workshop, Towards an integrated theory of historical and moral consciousness , supported by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences) and Suomen kasvatuksen ja koulutuksen historian seura (The Finnish Society for the History of Education) and held at the University of Helsinki, in 2015. History teaching and social studies education are increasingly expected to develop, among other things, students’ historical consciousness. This goal is highly relevant for students’ ability to deal constructively with controversial issues of history which is an important civic competence in the situation where in many societies’ political arguments concerning, for example, citizenship rights, ethnic and cultural diversity, and democracy are only too often fuelled by simplistic narratives of historical change and continuity. However, there is a blank spot in the existing research on historical consciousness in that in...
Historical consciousness is regarded as an important means to stimulate moral citizens through hi... more Historical consciousness is regarded as an important means to stimulate moral citizens through history education. This article conceptually examines the moral dimension associated with historical consciousness by revisiting the paradigm wars between natural science based on positivism and human and social sciences during the 1960s–1990s as expressed through the voice of Gadamer. More specifically, the article explores: (1) the moral arguments that Gadamer put forward for introducing historical consciousness and (2) the epistemological and ontological building blocks for approaching morality in history education that his arguments brought to the fore. In general, moral consciousness in relation to historical consciousness draws attention to: (a) people’s life conditions, (b) that moral reasoning and practice are influenced by feelings and reason, (c) that reflections on past events can help to interpret our ways of being towards others in the present and future, (d) that a plurality ...
Research topic/Aim: Ever since the end of World War II teachers in Sweden and in other Nordic cou... more Research topic/Aim: Ever since the end of World War II teachers in Sweden and in other Nordic countries have been assigned a stated mission to anchor and to develop democratic values in school and ...
Utbildning & Demokrati – tidskrift för didaktik och utbildningspolitk, 2020
The purpose of this text is to highlight and discuss some of the aspects of uncertainty that exis... more The purpose of this text is to highlight and discuss some of the aspects of uncertainty that exist in all forms of teaching and the importance of allowing for some degree of uncertainty for ethical reasons. More specifically, the text focuses on the ethical dimension of democracy, which politically provides a space for dealing with the relations, dynamic practices and human differences that exist regardless of ideological governing. The article answers the following questions: a) How can the political space in teaching be understood in relation to uncertainty? b) What do the relational dimensions in education mean for teaching and teachers? c) How can human difference be understood, and what does its presence in teaching and teachers’ work entail? and d) How can the teaching profession be understood in the tension between the certain and the uncertain?
Drawing on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the article highlights various conceptions ... more Drawing on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the article highlights various conceptions of violence at a Swedish boarding school and is based on a critical discourse analysis of different educational and media documents. The investigation indicates that ambitions to protect children from violence need to overcome the dichotomy of private and public in order to protect children affected by violence in the borderland between the private and public spheres.
Um aspecto no currículo nacional de Formação de Professores na Suécia é a base democrática que de... more Um aspecto no currículo nacional de Formação de Professores na Suécia é a base democrática que determina os pilares para organizações e condições humanos. Neste currículo se dá, indiretamente, um papel central à pluralidade e, como consequência, à importância de contestar várias formas de violência, como discriminação ou outras violações. Baseando-se em ambições de contestar violência na educação, o artigo questiona a noção de que professores em formação só precisam se apoiar em métodos teóricos de bases empíricas em sua futura profissão. Este questionamento se dá através da análise e comparação de teorias de pluralidade como descritas em três livros didáticos utilizados em matérias em um curso de Formação de Professores na Suécia. Os livros didáticos expressam três discursos teóricos diferentes sobre os desafios sociais relativos a violência, pluralidade na educação e expectativas de professores. Portanto, já que a violência existe em formas variadas, a lógica da pesquisa empírica ...
ABSTRACT Abstract: The paper highlights four tendencies in the media reporting of teachers and ed... more ABSTRACT Abstract: The paper highlights four tendencies in the media reporting of teachers and education: a) recurring patterns of defining education in crisis, b) mantling responsibility as exterior spokespersons for education and teachers, c) excluding teachers’ and educational researchers’ knowledge and experiences in the media, and d) simplifying the notion of a good and bad teacher through stereotypes and dualistic frameworks that overlook task- and relational complexity. In this paper I explore how the simplifications of teachers and education that are often presented in the media can be interpreted as structural violence. In the light of these tendencies, research on structural violence helps to remind us that: a) teachers are unwillingly forced into a paradoxical (in), b) they are squeezed in-between two pressuring external demands, namely the complexities in their professional assignment that are politically steered and stereotypes of the good and bad teacher produced by, in this case, the media, c) they risk wasting time and energy on addressing prejudices that have nothing to do with the specific work they are expected to do, and d) the logic of binary stereotypes is a power issue that brands teachers into a position of permanent failure.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 13540602 2013 770234, Aug 1, 2013
The purpose of this paper is to theoretically discuss a specific aspect of teachers' respons... more The purpose of this paper is to theoretically discuss a specific aspect of teachers' responsibilities: their responsibility for pupils' or children's well-being. We ask two interrelated questions: firstly, how might (Swedish) teachers' sense of responsibilities for ...
Historical Encounters: A Journal of Historical Consciousness, Historical Cultures, and History Education, 2017
This special issue is the result of the workshop, Towards an integrated theory of historical and ... more This special issue is the result of the workshop, Towards an integrated theory of historical and moral consciousness , supported by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (The Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences) and Suomen kasvatuksen ja koulutuksen historian seura (The Finnish Society for the History of Education) and held at the University of Helsinki, in 2015. History teaching and social studies education are increasingly expected to develop, among other things, students’ historical consciousness. This goal is highly relevant for students’ ability to deal constructively with controversial issues of history which is an important civic competence in the situation where in many societies’ political arguments concerning, for example, citizenship rights, ethnic and cultural diversity, and democracy are only too often fuelled by simplistic narratives of historical change and continuity. However, there is a blank spot in the existing research on historical consciousness in that in...
Historical consciousness is regarded as an important means to stimulate moral citizens through hi... more Historical consciousness is regarded as an important means to stimulate moral citizens through history education. This article conceptually examines the moral dimension associated with historical consciousness by revisiting the paradigm wars between natural science based on positivism and human and social sciences during the 1960s–1990s as expressed through the voice of Gadamer. More specifically, the article explores: (1) the moral arguments that Gadamer put forward for introducing historical consciousness and (2) the epistemological and ontological building blocks for approaching morality in history education that his arguments brought to the fore. In general, moral consciousness in relation to historical consciousness draws attention to: (a) people’s life conditions, (b) that moral reasoning and practice are influenced by feelings and reason, (c) that reflections on past events can help to interpret our ways of being towards others in the present and future, (d) that a plurality ...
Research topic/Aim: Ever since the end of World War II teachers in Sweden and in other Nordic cou... more Research topic/Aim: Ever since the end of World War II teachers in Sweden and in other Nordic countries have been assigned a stated mission to anchor and to develop democratic values in school and ...
Utbildning & Demokrati – tidskrift för didaktik och utbildningspolitk, 2020
The purpose of this text is to highlight and discuss some of the aspects of uncertainty that exis... more The purpose of this text is to highlight and discuss some of the aspects of uncertainty that exist in all forms of teaching and the importance of allowing for some degree of uncertainty for ethical reasons. More specifically, the text focuses on the ethical dimension of democracy, which politically provides a space for dealing with the relations, dynamic practices and human differences that exist regardless of ideological governing. The article answers the following questions: a) How can the political space in teaching be understood in relation to uncertainty? b) What do the relational dimensions in education mean for teaching and teachers? c) How can human difference be understood, and what does its presence in teaching and teachers’ work entail? and d) How can the teaching profession be understood in the tension between the certain and the uncertain?
Drawing on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the article highlights various conceptions ... more Drawing on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the article highlights various conceptions of violence at a Swedish boarding school and is based on a critical discourse analysis of different educational and media documents. The investigation indicates that ambitions to protect children from violence need to overcome the dichotomy of private and public in order to protect children affected by violence in the borderland between the private and public spheres.
Um aspecto no currículo nacional de Formação de Professores na Suécia é a base democrática que de... more Um aspecto no currículo nacional de Formação de Professores na Suécia é a base democrática que determina os pilares para organizações e condições humanos. Neste currículo se dá, indiretamente, um papel central à pluralidade e, como consequência, à importância de contestar várias formas de violência, como discriminação ou outras violações. Baseando-se em ambições de contestar violência na educação, o artigo questiona a noção de que professores em formação só precisam se apoiar em métodos teóricos de bases empíricas em sua futura profissão. Este questionamento se dá através da análise e comparação de teorias de pluralidade como descritas em três livros didáticos utilizados em matérias em um curso de Formação de Professores na Suécia. Os livros didáticos expressam três discursos teóricos diferentes sobre os desafios sociais relativos a violência, pluralidade na educação e expectativas de professores. Portanto, já que a violência existe em formas variadas, a lógica da pesquisa empírica ...
ABSTRACT Abstract: The paper highlights four tendencies in the media reporting of teachers and ed... more ABSTRACT Abstract: The paper highlights four tendencies in the media reporting of teachers and education: a) recurring patterns of defining education in crisis, b) mantling responsibility as exterior spokespersons for education and teachers, c) excluding teachers’ and educational researchers’ knowledge and experiences in the media, and d) simplifying the notion of a good and bad teacher through stereotypes and dualistic frameworks that overlook task- and relational complexity. In this paper I explore how the simplifications of teachers and education that are often presented in the media can be interpreted as structural violence. In the light of these tendencies, research on structural violence helps to remind us that: a) teachers are unwillingly forced into a paradoxical (in), b) they are squeezed in-between two pressuring external demands, namely the complexities in their professional assignment that are politically steered and stereotypes of the good and bad teacher produced by, in this case, the media, c) they risk wasting time and energy on addressing prejudices that have nothing to do with the specific work they are expected to do, and d) the logic of binary stereotypes is a power issue that brands teachers into a position of permanent failure.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 13540602 2013 770234, Aug 1, 2013
The purpose of this paper is to theoretically discuss a specific aspect of teachers' respons... more The purpose of this paper is to theoretically discuss a specific aspect of teachers' responsibilities: their responsibility for pupils' or children's well-being. We ask two interrelated questions: firstly, how might (Swedish) teachers' sense of responsibilities for ...
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Papers by Silvia Edling