This paper examines the concept of Quality driven teacher work and its usefulness. The concept is discussed from four different perspectives: 1) the teachers’ and school leaders' views; 2) the dominating quality discourse; 3) teachers' discretionary work; 4) by using results from sub‐studies in an ongoing research project. The concept helps focusing on teachers’ discretionary work and highlights new time‐consuming tasks that threaten the quality of teaching. This is consistent with new research that shows that professional work is changing. Professionalism is more conceptually framed as a matter of technical proficiency. Teachers must be able to follow guidelines from predefined cases in detail. Being skilled becomes a question of being update on laws, rules, guidelines, and obligation to do documentary work in different quality systems. Skill then is less a question on being competent within a knowledge field from where they analyzed and make discretionary judgments. The concept of Quality driven teacher work highlights teachers day to day work to improve quality in their lessons. In conclusion the concept helps visualizing daily work of teachers’ attempts in transforming plans, policies and strategies into good teaching practices. Furthermore it helps to highlight the competition from other work task some of them connected with the new technical proficiency professionalism.

Rapporten visar att de undersökta lärarna uppger att de har många arbetsdagar där de inte alls hinner ägna sig åt arbete som är kvalitetsdrivande för den närliggande undervisningen, trots att de bedömer att det behövs. Lärarna rapporterar 46 % av de undersökta dagarna som dagar då de inte gjort något kvalitetsdrivande arbete. Några få lärare rapporterar att de medvetet försöker samla sådant till några få tillfällen i veckan.

Rapporten visar att viktigt, ibland helt avgörande arbete, inte endast handlar om pedagogiska överväganden, utan att även arbete som att beställa, plocka fram och hantera olika typer av material kan vara avgörande. Lärare har identifierat kvalitetsdrivande arbete som utöver pedagogiska överväganden, handlar om olika former av administrativt arbete, teknik hantering och elevsocialt arbete. En del av detta är arbete som skolorganisationen relativt enkelt kan bistå lärare med att säkra att de utförs annat är av olika skäl knutet till person och måste utföras av specifik lärare. Studien visar också att viss typ av arbete ibland kan ha direkt betydelse för undervisningen, ibland inte. Det gäller till exempel arbete med individuella utvecklingsplaner, där något precis ska kommuniceras föräldrar och elev och därför viktigt för kommande undervisning. Medan arbete med utvecklingsplaner ibland snarare hindrar det kvalitetsdrivande arbetet för närliggande undervisning, därför att de tar tid och inte har betydelse för den närliggande undervisningen.

In many countries, practice-oriented programmes have been recast as university programmes, fuelling debate on the purpose of higher education. We highlight two ways of talking about the challenges for higher education we think are already familiar to readers. We label them ?political-worry discourse? and ?academic-worry discourse?. We argue for a third position that gives due recognition to the turn in governance. Professional work today is performed in a new landscape where maintaining the conditions for autonomy and discretionary work is more important than ever. This has implications for the pedagogic focus of higher education institutions. The proposed ?dual learning? concept addresses this challenge through educating students about governance and allowing students to position themselves in relation to the governance of their professions. By discussing governance, we contribute to a previously neglected field and support the position that higher education may indeed be the best place to provide professional education.

Detta är en rapport från en pågående studie av den verksamhetsförlagda utbildningens organisation och organiseringsprocesser. Det som undersöks är hur Högskolan Kristianstads vision att utbilda Sveriges mest anställningsbara studenter genom Kristianstadmodellen för verksamhetsförlagd utbildning blir till som praktik ute i utbildningsprogrammen.

Rapporten är i första hand avsedd för det interna kvalitetsarbetet och ska belysa hur den lokala organisationen tar form under det som medarbetare uppfattar som villkor för arbetet samt ge några verktyg för dem som arbetar med VFU till att analysera villkor och möjligheter. Rapporten är skriven utifrån perspektivet ”Strategy as practice” som vi avser skall ligga till grund för fortsatta studier av hur Högskolan Kristianstads strategi för Verksamhetsförlagd Utbildning omsätts. Eftersom denna rapport i första hand är avsedd för det interna arbetet har emellertid detta perspektiv tonats ned.

Studien utgår ifrån frågor om hur medarbetare skapar mening och agerar för att hantera det som de urskiljer som villkor för att införa och bedriva verksamhetsförlagd utbildning och vilken typ av organiseringsprocesser som sätten att uppfatta villkoren leder till. Det är med andra ord aspekter av ett praktiskt strategiarbete som studeras. Vi är särskilt intresserade av i vilken mening VFU-satsningen leder till anpassningsinriktat arbete som byråkratiska implementeringsprocesser kännetecknas av och i vilken mening det leder till utvecklingsinriktat arbete så som professionella implementeringsprocesser kännetecknas av.

Plattformen är ett led i Högskolan Kristianstads satsning på anställningsbarhet. Detta är en rapport från plattformens fjärde år med en sammanställning av de fyra årens sammanlagda verksamhet i bilagor.

Plattformen hade i slutet av 2012 19 pågående projekt med 23 deltagare. 14 seminarier har hållits i seminarieserien, som samlar en bred representation från olika programområden och discipliner. I snitt har seminarierna haft 19 deltagare. Plattformen har under 2012 dragit in 3 miljoner i externa medel. Ingen refereegranskad artikel har publicerats under året. Fyra artiklar är emellertid accepterade för publicering under 2013. Vidare har fyra artiklar som inte är refereegranskade publicerats. Härutöver har 23 externa presentationer gjorts genom t.ex. konferensbidrag, bokkapitel, icke refereegranskade artiklar och debattartiklar. Totalt har forskningen kommunicerats 56 gånger under året.

How do teachers think quality? This question is important since the teaching profession seems to be characterized by constant work intensification (Sarfatti-Larson, 1980). Repeated research show a steady increase in the number of tasks teachers are expected to perform (Apple 1989, Faber 1991, Hargreaves 1994, Day 2000, Grundy & Bonser 2000, Sutton 2007, Day & Gu 2007, Aili & Brante 2007, Chang 2009, Steen-Olsen & Eikseth, 2010). Teachers must therefore constantly prioritize between competing tasks and (to the extent they are pursuing quality of teaching) the question that arises is - how do they construct  realtions between tasks that are performed before the lesson and the teaching quality.

In this paper we present an explorative study of how teacher formulate themselves about their daily work tasks in relation to the quality of their teaching. 60 teachers were invited to answer a semi structured web-questionnaire about work tasks they had perform during the day, once a day during two weeks. They were asked to choose two tasks that, from their perspective, had impact on the quality of their teaching in the nearest future. In addition to this they were asked to give each task a name, describe its content and under which circumstances it had been performed, and to specify in which way the task had impact on the teaching nearby. The material includes total 325 respectively 12 received questionnaires.

The analysis focus is on teachers’ meaning-making of what quality is, and the relation between the work before teaching and the outcome of the teaching. A grounded content analysis was performed. The seven tasks identified by the teacher teams in the second questionnaire were analyzed in conjunction with a random sample of answers from the individual questionnaire regarding the same tasks. These tasks are labeled by the teachers name for the work task: Work with individual development plans, Planning of next day’s teaching, Planning of thematic work, Planning a school cinema visit, Production of material and Pupils’ choice.

Some categories for the type of quality impact the teachers report have been construed such as for example “Absolute conditions” for links to a work task to the teaching such as the necessity to have ordered the groceries  before a lesson in cooking or ordered a bus for the transport to a school cinema visit. Another example is “Quality in a presentation” for links between high concentration works such as putting pedagogical considerations into a specific content. The way the teachers construe the reasons for tasks being important to quality are discussed in relation to earlier research about teachers’ professional language, characterization of teacher work, and teacher thinking.

Aili, C. & Brante, G,. (2007). Qualifying Teacher Work: Everyday Work as Basis For the Autonomy of the Teaching Profession. Teachers & Teaching, 13 (3), pp. 287-306.

Apple, M., (1989). Teachers and texts. New York: Routledge & Keegan.

Chang, M-L., (2009). An Appraisal Perspective of Teacher Burnout: Examining the Emotional Work of Teachers. Educational Psychology Review 21 (3), pp. 193-218.

Day, C., (2000). Stories of change and professional development: The costs of commitment, In C. Day, A. Fernandez, T. Hauge & J. Møller (Eds). The life and work of teachers. International perspectives in changing times. London: Falmer Press.

Day, C. & Gu, Q., (2010). The New Lives of Teachers, London: Routledge.

Farber, B., (1991). Crisis in Education: Stress and Burnout in The American Teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Grundy, S. & Bronser, S., (2000). The New Work Order and Australian Schools, In: C. Day, A. Fernandez, T. Hauge & J. Møller (Eds). The life and work of teachers. International perspectives in changing times. London: Falmer Press.

Hargreaves, A., (1994). Changing teachers, changing times. Teachers’ work and culture in postmodern age. London: Cassell.

Sarfatti-Larson, M,. (1980) The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis},University of California Press.

Steen-Olsen, T. & Eikseth, A., (2010). The Power of Time: Teachers' Working Day--Negotiating Autonomy and Control. European Educational Research Journal, 9(2), pp. 284-295.

Sutton, R., (2007). Teachers’ Anger, Frustration, and Self-regulation. In P. Schutz & R. Pekrun. (Eds), Emotions in Education. pp. 259-274. San Diego: Elsevier.

We examine pre-service teachers’ theoretical learning during one five-week training module, and their educators’ learning about better lecture design to foster student learning. The study is iterative: interventions (one per group) were implemented sequentially in student groups A–C, the results of the previous intervention serving as the baseline for the design developed for the next. These learning study participants, 79 students from year three of a teacher training programme, studied the variation theory (VT) of learning. Three lesson cycles were completed, each comprising four steps: (1) a pre-test, (2) a 15-min intervention discussing VT, (3) a post-test and (4) a delayed post-test conducted eight weeks later. The results indicated learning differences between groups; qualitative analysis identified three categories of student answers, i.e. emergent, premature and unaware, regarding their theoretical understanding. Group C had more students with emergent knowledge (36%) than did groups A (20%) or B (17%) at post-testing.

By combining different aspects of auditing and by focusing on the individual auditor and observing auditors at work, this dissertation explores the auditing concept. It focuses on activities carried out by auditors in local settings and how the macro-level phenomenon of “auditing” is realised in micro-level, day-to-day audit work. In doing this, the following research question is addressed: What does the auditor do? The dissertation includes and discusses certain aspects of auditing. The aspects chosen provide certain opportunities and limitations and are as follows: the audit profession, audit quality, auditing standards, structure versus judgment, the production of comfort, expert systems and trust versus scepticism. The empirical material consists of observations and interviews. The findings suggest that from an auditor perspective auditing includes not only a professional side but also a more commercial side. It appears that auditors combine more traditional tasks such as quality assuring the client’s information and reporting with tasks more directed towards assuring that the client firms’ management is satisfied. The findings also suggests that from an auditor perspective audit quality is about comfort and that making structured judgments seems to be an important action towards reaching a sufficient level of comfort and, hence, to perform high-quality audits. Finally, the findings of this dissertation suggest that much of the “professionalism” in the audit profession lies with the audit firms. Substantial knowledge is “built in” to the audit firm system; an important auditor skill is to be able to operate the system whilst appearance, behaviour and conduct is about adhering to such effort and auditors are influenced by audit firm expectations on how audit work should be done. The consequences of such “audit firmalization”, a concept identified in this dissertation, on the audit profession seem to be an important focus for future research.

This paper describes an exploratory study of whether and in what way ‘double-edged learning’ can develop from understanding the relationship between structure and judgment and thus capture students’ experience of the audit profession. The study is based on a focus group/individual interviews conducted with students performing their work-integrated learning assignments where they interact with auditors. Identifying two themes defined as Perceiving the profession and auditing and Entering into and forming in the audit profession derived from the data, it appears that when positioned within a work-integrated learning context, students develop awareness of the use of standards and checklists on one hand as well as the importance of discretional judgment on the other. Based on these results, we theorise as to how double-edged learning manifests itself in students’ experiences and understanding of the relationship between structure and judgment.

This study explores how auditors’ attitudes toward marketing and their views on the importance of marketing affect how they balance their time spent on marketing and auditing activities. The purpose is to understand how changes in the business environment for auditors affect the relationship between the auditing profession and marketing. The study is based on a survey of 711 auditors in Sweden. The findings suggest that auditors with a positive attitude toward marketing spend significantly more time on marketing activities compared to those with a less positive attitude. Furthermore, auditors who view marketing activities as important spend significantly more time on marketing activities. The study controlled for the number of years as approved or authorized auditor, age of the auditor, and firm affiliation. The results indicate that the theoretical distance between the auditing profession and marketing does not exist in practice to the same degree as it used to. The findings of the study have implications for international auditing theory and practice in illuminating the relationship of marketing and auditing in a wider business context.

Purpose:

The purpose of this paper is to explain how professional and organisational identities influence auditors’ perception of commercialisation in audit firms.

Design/methodology/approach:

The paper is based on a survey distributed to 3588 members of FAR, the professional institute for authorized public accountants, approved public accountants and other highly qualified professionals in the accountancy sector in Sweden, and answered by 374 of the professionals surveyed.

Findings:

Findings of the study indicate that commercialisation in audit firms is a three- dimensional construct consisting of market-, customer- and firm process orientations. The results of the study show that the stronger the auditors’ organisational identity, the more influence it has on auditors’ perception of all three dimensions of the increasing commercialisation of their firm. The increasing strength of that professional identity is shown to be reflected in the perception of their firm to be firm process oriented, while no effect is shown on the other two dimensions of commercialisation (market and customer orientations orientations).

Originality/value:

The paper presents a new conceptualisation and set of measures of audit firms’ commercialisation and shows how professional and organisational identities influence perception.

Education and research within the interdisciplinary subject food and meal science can be mediated through science, craft and creativity and cooking is a central activity. This paper aims at elucidating some aspects of cooking through the perspectives “Culture and Communication” “Food Science” and “Nutrition and Health”. This was done through a survey among students and teachers. The results stress the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to understand the different aspects of cooking and the prominent view on cooking as a cultural and communicative activity.

Globalisation includes international product markets and capital, but also involves internationalisation of corporate governance mechanisms. We propose that internationalisation of governance mechanisms is related to improved performance of the corporation. For example, listing at several stock markets implies pressure to improve information flow and stronger adherence to international standards, which will reduce possibility for slack. Recruiting top managers and board members from an international arena will, among other things, enlarge the market for managerial labour and the market for board members, presumably putting more pressure on present managers and board members, and increase the probability of finding an adequate new manager or new board members. An integrated EU would support the internationalisation of the mechanisms through reducing the transaction costs of Europeanization. An initial test on a sample of listed Swedish corporations indicates that the proposition could be rejected. Two main reasons can be found as an interpretation of the results 1.) that mechanisms with governance functions, such as capital structure and the board have several functions, and that the governance function is not always the most important one, and 2.) that governance mechanisms cannot be analysed in isolation, since they are included in a coherent corporate governance strategy.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how internationalisation of corporate governance mechanisms influences firm performance.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on the data collected from annual reports of the year 2004, from all 239 Swedish corporations listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, on which a quantitative analysis was performed.

Findings – The findings suggest that internationalisation of corporate governance does not have a straightforward influence on firm performance, which can be due to: the fact that mechanisms with governance functions have several functions, of which governance is but one; and the fact that governance mechanisms cannot be analyzed in isolation, since they are included in a coherent corporate governance strategy.

Originality/value – The paper is the first to investigate the corporate governance mechanisms' internationalisation issue.

This study presents an approach to student interaction in self-regulated project work. By combining frame analysis and socio-cultural risk theory, the authors explore the importance of students' framing activities as a basis for their understanding of tasks. The increase in self-regulated work in Swedish schools can be seen as being in line with developments in Europe towards more individualisation. The authors argue that their data provide examples of how the global discourse imposes itself on local discourses. This mode of work, as it appears in the material presented in this article, exemplifies how complex assessment ideas have penetrated the school context. The authors emphasise the concepts of uncertainty, risk and complexity in analysing the framing process, and claim that the focus on these concepts is essential in analysing self-regulated work, contributing to better understanding of self-regulated learning processes.

Jag var inte nervös när jag höll lektionen men nu är jag lite nervös, eftersom jag aldrig har ansvarat för ett trepartssamtal, det har alltid läraren från högskolan gjort. Jag har i varje fall skrivit en agenda och jag vill gärna börja med att prata om både planeringen och undervisningen. Därefter vill jag diskutera utifrån kursens lärandemål och min professionella roll. Jag har tagit med mig planeringsmatrisen och VFU-omdömet. Jag kommer att prata om vad jag har lärt mig och vilka nyvunna insikter som jag fått under denna sista VFU-period. Ja, mina nyvunna insikter har faktiskt förändrats under resans gång. Jag tänker mer på eleverna och deras lärande i stället för min egen ledarroll. Idag känner jag mig betydelsefull som lärare.

Denna artikel handlar om bedömning av lärarstudenters yrkesskicklighet underden verksamhetsförlagda delen av utbildningen, VFU. Enligt Hegender (2007) ärbedömningskriterier ett ”mischmasch” av teori och praktik. Om så är fallet finns det anledningatt fundera över, vilka aspekter av yrkesskicklighet man kan få syn på och vilka stödstrukturersom kan användas vid bedömning. Ovanstående citat är ett exempel på hur lärarstudenter islutfasen av utbildningen kan inleda ett trepartssamtal. Trepartssamtal är en av fyrastödstrukturer, som vi har utformat och prövat. Vår bedömningsmatris (figur 3) består avstödstrukturer som är avgränsade och beskrivna bedömningskriterier. Artikeln avser att svarapå frågan: Vad bedömningsmatrisen ifråga kan bidra med vid pedagogisk bedömning avstudenters yrkesskicklighet. Tre utvecklingsprojekt genomfördes under år 2009-2012 isamarbete med handledare och lärarutbildare från högskolan samt blivande förskolelärare,fritidspedagoger, grund- och gymnasielärare. De blivande lärarna/pedagogerna var i slutfasenav utbildningen, där det allmänna utbildningsområdet, AU3, behandlas. Utvecklingsprojektenhar delvis finansierats av LärandeResursCentrum, LRC, Högskolan Kristianstad.

I rapporten analyseras styrdokument för sjuksköterskeprogrammet vid Högskolan Kristianstad som har gällt sedan 1977. Därtill analyseras styrdokument för utbildningar mot Lean Production, som startade sedan 2006. Rapporten baseras på kvalitativ textanalys och har som syfte att belysa hur synen på utbildningarna i allmänhet och arbetsintegrerat lärande i synnerhet har förändrats genom åren. I rapporten används begreppet arbetsintegrerat lärande (AIL) som ett samlingsbegrepp för ”VFU” och ”praktik”. När sjuksköterskeutbildningen integrerades i högskoleväsendet 1977 bestod 60 procent av utbildningen av AIL. Andelen AIL inom sjuksköterskeutbildningen minskade under 1980-talet för att nå sin lägsta nivå (38 procent) i och med 1993 års utbildnings- och högskolereform. Utbildningens längd och struktur har sedan Sveriges inträde i EU påverkats av internationella strömningar i allmänhet och EU-direktiv och lagar i synnerhet. Till följd av harmoniseringar av europeiska utbildningar består dagens utbildning av drygt 50 procent AIL. Gemensamt för samtliga utbildningsprogram mot Lean Production är att AIL är en integrerad del av utbildningen men att AIL inte anges som ett separat moment, med tydligt avgränsade förväntade läranderesultat och detaljerade beskrivningar av AIL:s omfattning i kursplanerna (t.ex. i form av antalet högskolepoäng). Däremot sker integrationen av AIL å ena sidan och utbildningens andra delar å andra sidan genom projektarbeten. Kursplanerna betecknar oftast inte projektarbeten som explicita AIL-delar, emellertid finns i utbildningsplanerna antydningar att projektarbeten är en form av AIL.

Today the number of Swedish students attending schools for students in the need of special educational support, due to their difficulties to reach intended learning outcomes, has increased. The article describes some challenges teachers working with children with high functioning autism face. The study is based on interviews with six-form colleges teachers working in a Swedish school for students with high functioning autism. Questions that are raised in this study are: How do teachers interpret students’ needs and experiences? Which educational considerations dominate teachers’ reflections about educational practices? In which ways their school contributes to the implementation of ‘education for all’? The analysis shows that teachers advocate personalised teaching solutions, extra resources and methodological clarity. Teachers are expected to be highly adaptable and their work centres on students’ social skills, behavioural training and socialization of youth, rather than only helping students to achieve learning outcomes. Educational policies of inclusion are partly based on exclusionary processes.

In educational and other contexts Sweden has been described as a multicultural society. The concepts of universalism and the politics of recognition have served as interpretive frameworks for the understanding of educational contexts. Based on poststructuralist perspectives this article problematizes the notion of multiculturalism and identities in school context. Discourses of education in general and teaching of history in particular are deconstructed on the basis of upper secondary school students’ views on ethnic identity issues in schools. The paper is based on interviews with 36 students from Malmo (Sweden).

Many students experience stigma, because surrounding community (including teachers) repeatedly links their identities to their parents' place of birth (i.e. outside of Sweden). They are constantly labelled as immigrants, even though they have lived in Sweden all their lives. Through racialized and essentialist interpellations their Swedish identities are misrecognised. The dichotomy "Swedes"/"immigrants" reinforces segregating tendencies in school environments. These processes are problematic because youth identities in contemporary Sweden are characterized by "hybridity".

Furthermore, many students state that the misrecognition of Swedish identity/the reiteration of “immigrantness” does not mean that regions and countries outside of so-called western European hemisphere, where many students’ parents were born, are given an attention that they allegedly deserve. Additionally, narratives about Sweden, European states and the United States are considered to be an important part of all students' cultural and collective identity and their general education. Many students declare that teaching of history is Eurocentric, that other regions and countries should be acknowledged and that students’ diverse interests and experiences should be recognised. The analysis illustrates that schools are failing in fulfilling these goals and that one should be aware how one interprets individuals’ identities and interests.

I studien belyses de sätt utbildnings- och kursplaner för sjuksköterskeutbildningar vid Högskolan Kristianstad reglerar utbildningen. Studien syftar till att beskriva socialisering- sprocesser, förändringar i kunskapssynen och de sätt styrdokumenten definierat det normerande sjuksköterskesubjektet under perioden 1977-2012. Utgångspunkten är att en viktig del i högskolepedagogisk forskning är analysen av dokumentstyrningsprocesser. Genom att sätta styrdokumenten i ett historiskt sammanhang visar jag på de sätt styrdokumenten reglerar högskoleutbildningar och de sätt olika samhällsförändringar påverkar sjuksköterskeutbildningar. Analysen visar att sjuksköterskeutbildningarnas längd, struktur och antagningskrav har varierat under den analyserade perioden. Utbildningen har sedan Sveriges inträde i EU påverkats av internationella strömningar i allmänhet och EU-direktiv och lagar i synnerhet. Forskningsanknytningen har fått en allt mer framträdande plats i utbildningen och arbetsintegrerat lärande har allt sedan 1980-talets början inbegripit inte- grering av forskning, vetenskapligt förankrat arbetssätt, utbildningens teoretiska och praktiska delar och arbetslivserfarenheter.

Det normerande sjuksköterskesubjektet har i ökad utsträckning fyllts med diskursiva krav på självreflektion, självbedömning, självutveckling, livslångt lärande, självständighet, serviceinriktat beteende, analytisk förmåga och ekonomisk resursmedvetenhet liksom kunskaper om så kallat helhetsperspektiv.

Studenter fuskar. Det bör lärare uppmärksamma och bekämpa om vi skall kunna lita på utbildningsresultaten.

Här tar Lars-Erik Nilsson vid med vad han kallar ett Försvar för det transcendentala handledningsvåldet. Han menar, med utgångspunkt från kanske främst Biesta, att det alltid förekommer ett våld i en pedagogisk lärandesituation, då utbildning går ut på att skapa individuella subjekt. Vidare framhåller han ur ett positioneringsperspektiv att vi som individer alltid befinner oss i situationer där vårt handlande sätter ramar både för oss själva, men även för andra i situationen, vilket i sin tur innebär att våldet mellan olika individer finns där även om det mer sällan är tydligt aggressivt. Den diskretion som den handledande har och måste utöva, behöver en tillit från den handledde för att få någon nämnvärd effekt, trots att handledaren inte i någon starkare mening vet något om vad som kommer att bli resultatet av handledningsverksamheten. Det finns alltså alltid ett mått av okunskap eller risktagande i den process man ingår i.

School in a digital information society is, among other things, considered to be characterized by independent work. Pupils get instructed to produce different texts that require them to master a variety of competences such as different writing skills, adaptation to genre, and ability to value and to make use of a number of institutional resources. Decisions concerning their work are described as to be handled individually.

In Sweden a political controversy has emerged concerning the quality (expressed in grades) that self regulated, individual work forms lead to. Supported by results from studies like PISA, TIMMS and PIRLS it has been argued that self regulated work forms are one cause behind a decline in pupils’ results as compared to the results in other countries.

Drawing on perspectives on instructed action, and making a distinction between the text and the work, we discuss the transparency of instructions and pupils’ understanding of genre.

The empirical material has been drawn from video recorded sessions where pupils are participating in collaborative writing. Our results suggest a need to scrutinize how pupils deal with dilemmas of doing project work if we are to understand and value the work that is carried out. They also lead us to highlight the role of the teacher and question what is actually meant by an increase in independent, self regulated work forms and how these are organised. A focus on the work reveals that pupils often work as small epistemic communities and invoke different resources such as parents, tutors, and peers to guide their grappling with instructions 

School in a digital information society is, among other things, considered to be characterized by independent work. Pupils get instructed to produce different texts that require them to master a variety of competences such as different writing skills, adaptation to genre, and ability to value and to make use of a number of institutional resources. Decisions concerning their work are described as to be handled individually.

In Sweden a political controversy has emerged concerning the quality (expressed in grades) that self regulated, individual work forms lead to. Supported by results from studies like PISA, TIMMS and PIRLS it has been argued that self regulated work forms are one cause behind a decline in pupils’ results as compared to the results in other countries.

Drawing on perspectives on instructed action, and making a distinction between the text and the work, we discuss the transparency of instructions and pupils’ understanding of genre.

The empirical material has been drawn from video recorded sessions where pupils are participating in collaborative writing. Our results suggest a need to scrutinize how pupils deal with dilemmas of doing project work if we are to understand and value the work that is carried out. They also lead us to highlight the role of the teacher and question what is actually meant by an increase in independent, self regulated work forms and how these are organised. A focus on the work reveals that pupils often work as small epistemic communities and invoke different resources such as parents, tutors, and peers to guide their grappling with instructions

Many studies show that students self-report to having bought, downloaded and ghostwritten essays, as well as to failing to attribute quoted material and other similar actions. These actions are all classified as plagiarism, and based on this classification these students are positioned as cheaters. This study shows that there is reason to critically scrutinize such positioning. Using positioning theory, drawing on data from disciplinary inquiries, we show that such actions may be constituted as acts of complaining, justifying, blaming and the like. Students justify these actions using storylines about ambiguous instructions, failing technology and difficulties distinguishing between plagiarism and autonomous authorship. We find that there are four positions such students try to make available for themselves as they attempt to reposition themselves, those of victim, learner, professional and repentant offender. Being suspected of cheating or plagiarism is a malignant position to be in; however, while students may attempt to reposition themselves in less malignant positions, such as that of victim, such attempts generally fail to lead to exoneration.

This chapter employs video data together with screen captures for presenting cases where the students try to match questions to search expressions, make decisions about whether they are allowed to visit a certain site, and examine how the students make decisions about relevance and credibility. Information always appears to be unstructured to the students and restructuring of information poses a socio-technical dilemma involving appreciation of an ideological and ethical nature.

What are the forces that influence strategic managerial decisions in the contextof economic transition? In this paper, we analyse how strategic and governanceforces influence the degree of discretion perceived by managers operating in thecontext of the transition economy of Russia. An exploratory case study providesinsights about the managerial decision-making process in a transition economythrough the exploration of context-specific factors that shape the perceived degreeof managerial discretion. The findings of the paper redefine the concept,indicating the existence of a relationship between strategic and governanceforces and their joint influence on managerial discretion. Our results provide anumber of practical and theoretical implications for the managerial decisionmakingprocess in Eastern Europe.