Planering pågår: Läraragens och didaktisk transformering i mellanstadiets kemiundervisning

Abstract in English

This thesis explores teacher agency in the transformation of policy within middle school chemistry education. Previous research is presented in two strands: (1) Previous research on transformation of teaching content, and (2) Previous studies on teachers’ work with transformation, development of pre-service teachers participation in transformation during teacher education, and teacher agency in transformation. The ecological model of teacher agency is used as theoretical framework, which is rooted in a pragmatic understanding of teacher agency and directed towards the school environment. The ecological model emphasises agency as a temporal phenomenon that is expressed in a specific situation, and that agency is enacted through the interaction between personal capacity and the environment.

This thesis is based on four sub-studies. Study I is a literature review with data from 64 journal articles and highlights how an ecological model of teacher agency has been used in previous research, and how the model has been used in model development. Study II is an interview study with nine teachers who teach chemistry in middle school and highlights how agency is expressed in conversations about the transformation of content of chemistry teaching. Study III consists of case-studies with four teachers and highlights how teachers shape chemistry teaching using the material resource Science and Technology for All (NTA). Study IV is based on focus group discussions with nine preservice teachers, and highlights questions that emerge during collaborative lesson planning and the forms of agency achieved in the planning of chemistry teaching.

The thesis highlights how teacher agency is expressed in teachers’ and pre-service teachers’ transformation of chemistry teaching in middle school, expressed in the three dimensions the iterational dimension, the projective dimension, and the practical-evaluative dimension. Also, the results reveal a lack of context for collegial discussions about chemistry teaching, which is of importance for the achievement of agency. Additionally, the results show that the conditions for achieving agency are not necessarily limited by standardised materials. Finally, this thesis contribute to the development of a new didactic model based on Priestley et al.´s (2013; 2015b) ecological model of teacher agency. The new model highlights complex factors that are important for the development of teacher agency and can be used for the planning of teaching in teacher education aimed at supporting teacher students in planning chemistry teaching in middle school.