The purpose of this article is to illustrate how potential learning is related to hegemonic speech genres. This we do through examples from two religious education (RE) classrooms, one Norwegian and one Swedish. By presenting important dimensions of speech genres used in RE classrooms, the article also contributes to developing theory. The theoretical perspectives in use are drawn from sociocultural theory. The Bakhtinian concept of speech genre is the central one, but positions, positioning and discursive practice and its institutional framing are highlighted too. Methodologically the article starts with the theoretical perspectives and uses data from a case study to illustrate the importance of these perspectives in understanding constructions of potential learning in RE classrooms. Besides demonstrating the importance of these theoretical perspectives, the article shows how the potential learning of the RE classroom is related to the teachers' positioning along a pupil-content axis and to the character of the speech genres where two dimensions seem of special importance: how religion is valued (respectfully -mockingly) and how the borders of religions and beliefs are to be understood (fixed -open).
IntroductionThe main purpose of this article is to illustrate by using examples from two religious education (RE) classrooms how pupils' potential learning is related to hegemonic speech genres of a classroom. We thereby try to demonstrate the importance of paying attention to hegemonic speech genres when studying learning in RE. Our theoretical perspectives are directly related to discussions concerning RE classrooms, and by pointing at important dimensions of speech genres used in these classrooms, the article contributes to developing theory on this special field.
The aim of this article is to present varieties of ethical competence that are highlighted in ethics and moral education research articles, and to discuss them in the light of competences stressed in the Swedish curriculum, understood as an example of ethics education in compulsory school. The material consists of 1,940 educational research articles published between 2000 and 2015, and the method of analysis is inductive, focusing on ethical competence. One finding is the similarity between the study's tentative formulation of identified ethical competences in four categories, and Rest's understanding of acting morally, captured in the four components: sensitivity, judgement, motivation and implementation. Based on the analysis of the articles, broader understandings of these focuses are developed, and later discussed in relation to Swedish ethics education, characterised as both a conservative and liberal values education. The analyses and comparison show the importance of the components of moral sensitivity and moral implementation and their relative absence in the Swedish curriculum, but also how moral judgement must include a competence to evaluate moral motivations, where empirically testable reasons are also central. Moreover, the risk of neglecting contextual, situational and knowledge-related aspects of ethical competence is highlighted.
This article discusses children as contributors to sustainable ecological development. The aim of the article is to develop a framework for researching two questions: What are the prerequisites for children to become responsible environmentalists? What actual and potential influence do children have on their family’s consumption? Three theoretical perspectives are elaborated in relation to relevant empirical research: children as cosmopolitan actors and world citizens, children as ‘subjects of responsibilization’ in relation to the discourse on sustainable development and children as actors influencing family negotiations about consumption. The article concludes by suggesting methodological implications that follow from this framework.
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