Swedish educational policy underlines the importance of independence. In this paper we use socio-cultural theory and Foucault to explain how pupils’ independency is transformed into something else in their work. Our results derive from analyses of filmed sessions and entries in the pupils’ logbooks. Our findings demonstrate that the pupils’ definitions of independence differ from those of the course plan in several aspects: i) the use of certain resources is not considered to show lack of independence, ii) doing things yourself is considered being most independent and iii) to follow instructions, even if this means violating your unique personal thought, is considered a prerequisite for passing/getting good grades and as such a necessary adaption to the school context, sooner than a sign of dependency. Consequently we argue that pupil independency should be regarded as a phenomenon chiseled out within a community of practice rather than a personal capacity.
Swedish educational policy underlines the importance of independence. In this paper we use socio-cultural theory and Foucault to explain how pupils´ independency is transformed into something else in their work. Our results derive from analyses of filmed sessions and entries in the pupils´ logbooks. Our findings demonstrate that the pupils´ definitions of independence differ from those of the course plan in several aspects: i) the use of certain resources is not considered to show lack of independence, ii) doing things yourself is considered being most independent and iii) to follow instructions, even if this means violating your unique personal thought, is considered a prerequisite for passing/getting good grades and as such a necessary adaption to the school context, sooner than a sign of dependency. Consequently we argue that pupil independency should be regarded as a phenomenon chiseled out within a community of practice rather than a personal capacity.
Studien syftar till att undersöka hur elever hanterar kriteriet om vetenskapligt arbetssätt i projektarbeten av teoretisk karaktär. Detta ger en fingervisning av på vilka aspekter av vetenskaplighet som gymnasieelevers arbetssätt uppvisar styrkor respektive svagheter. Projektredovisningarna utgörs av texter på mellan 15 och 25 sidor som är skrivna av gymnasieelever som läser det tredje och sista året i svensk gymnasieskola. I undersökningen har analyser gjorts av fyra elevtexter enligt en egenkomponerad analysmodell genom vilken tre aspekter av elevernas texter fokuseras. Aspekterna är kritiskt tänkande, slutledningsförmåga och referenshantering. Resultatet visar över lag att eleverna har god slutledningsförmåga, men att deras kritiska tänkande och deras sätt att hantera referenser är bristande.