Normativa aspekter av individers begreppsbildning. Hur gymnasieelever och studenter skapar och förhåller sig till idéer om genus och nation

Publicerad:2014-11-14

Uppdaterad:2015-02-16

Med sin avhandling vill Jonas von Reybekiel Trostek bidra till en ökad förståelse för individers begreppsbildning:
– Då jag arbetade som gymnasielärare blev det uppenbart för mig att elever kan vara allt annat än likgiltiga. Detta har också påtalats i psykologisk forskning som exempelvis visar att elevers intresse för ett undervisningsstoff påverkar i vilken utsträckning de lär sig något. I den forskningen tänker man sig dock att sådana intressen föregår och förklarar lärandet. Jag har istället velat undersöka vilka normer som kommer till uttryck i själva lärprocessen i sig, säger Jonas von Reybekiel Trostek.

Författare

Jonas von Reybekiel Trostek

Handledare

Ola Halldén, Max Scheja, Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik, Stockholms universitet

Opponent

Ulla Riis, professor emerita, Institutionen för pedagogik, didaktik och utbildningsstudier, Uppsala universitet

Disputerat vid

Stockholms universitet

Disputationsdag

2014-11-26

Titel (se)

Normativa aspekter av individers begreppsbildning. Hur gymnasieelever och studenter skapar och förhåller sig till idéer om genus och nation

Institution

Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik

Abstract in English

The cognitive models that research on conceptual change has generated have been the subject of criticism, suggesting that these reflect an unrealistic view of learning as an overly “cold” and isolated process. Accordingly, representatives of this criticism suggest that research on conceptual change should investigate to what extent the cold cognition relates to “warm” affective constructs. In the present thesis, the warmth is not considered as prior to conceptual change, but is inferred from the very process of conceptual change itself. The aim is to investigate and describe how this warmth – in terms of normativity – is expressed in conceptual change and how individuals, in these processes, emerge as subjects in their interchange with the environment. This is done by exploring what students do when they make meaning of gender and nation in interviews and exam papers. The results show that the students mainly relate to two different norm-systems, including six normative aspects of conceptual change. The first system includes the goal to challenge or emancipate, the means to problematize, and engagement in the interviews or exams. Furthermore, it includes critical theory as an ideal, social structures and power as values, and me as a social being and actions as part of a tradition as what to make meaning of. The second system includes the goal to preserve, the means to claim how it “is”, and engagement in the interviews or exams. Furthermore, it includes psychological/biological reductionism as an ideal, essences and a natural order as values, and me as an individual and actions as an outcome of intentions as what to make meaning of.

By understanding what the students do as interfering with these normative aspects, it becomes possible to understand them as negotiating norms that are brought to the fore. With this, “coldness” appears to be a misleading epithet of conceptual change.