Seminars & Activities

1. The CCD international seminars of relevance for communication, culture and diversity (always in English)
2. The CCD working papers seminars (in English or Swedish)
3. Humanities Forum seminars (Humanistiskt forum - in Swedish)
4. The DoIT seminars (DoIT - Delaktighet och Inkludering Tankesmedja [the Participation and Inclusion Think Tank], most often in Swedish)

The Development of Schoolscapes as a Focus within Linguistic Landscape Research

Roswita Dressler is an educational linguistic who examines pre-service and in-service teachers’ understandings of second language teaching and learning. Since many second language teachers in Canada entered teacher education not initially intending to be second language teachers, how they come to understand their role and the pedagogy involved draws on their linguistic identity, the ways in which second language teachers are educated and how second languages are seen in the Canadian context. This has international implications as Canada is often turned to as a leader in second language education based on the history of the world-renowned French Immersion program. Dr. Dressler is an Associate Professor in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary.

This talk examines the development of schoolscapes as a focus within linguistic landscape research. Drawing upon her own work (e.g., Dressler, 2015; Dressler & Hult, 2024; Liu & Dressler, forthcoming) as well as the work of others (e.g., Biró, 2017; Brown, 2012; Szabó, 2015), Dr. Dressler provides an overview of schoolscapes research and two turns: one pedagogical; one exterior. The focus on pedagogical interventions has received considerable attention (Gorter & Cenoz, 2024), whereas the exteriors of schoolscapes are underrepresented (see Cormier, 2020; Symes, 2020). However, the latter holds promise for highlighting how schoolscapes live within and are sometimes in contrast to, the linguistic landscapes around them. Drawing upon nexus analysis (Scollon & Scollon, 2014), Dr. Dressler highlights how schoolscapes are environments populated by specific individuals, functioning according to specific routines, and home to unique discourses. Their unique positioning within neighbourhoods sheds light on their contributions to the ecology of languages in neighbourhoods.

Teaching Histories of Colonialism & Futures of Democracy

Dr. Abigail Branford, a researcher and lecturer at the University of Oxford, is visiting the School of Education and Communication as a guest lecturer, supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. She holds an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Education and lectures in the African Studies Centre. Her work focuses on post-conflict and post-colonial history education as well as the political attitudes of young people. In this talk, she will draw together her previous research on how students in England understand the British Empire, the new questions which emerged from this work and her latest project exploring the way in which some young people have become disillusioned not only with political leaders, but the very idea of democracy itself. She argues that classroom narratives of development, authoritarianism and colonialism can illuminate aspects of the weakening support for democracy among young people. This urges us to take a critical look at what ideas about democracy are being imparted in our classrooms.

Programme

9.00-10.30 Presentation of guests, CCD members and research

10.30-12.00 Ongoing or upcoming research applications

18 October, 01:00-02:20 pm

CCD international seminar
Zoom: https://ju-se.zoom.us/j/67843537479

Disability - a category for historical learning and thinking?

Prof. Sebastian Barsch, a History Education professor at the University of Cologne in Germany, will address the challenge of promoting historical thinking beyond conventional master narratives in the wake of global inequalities and increasingly global crises. It is increasingly important to critically question majority views and to make the diversity that actually exists in society fruitful for historical learning. Using disability history as an example, history teaching is faced with the challenge of arguing with categories of social order in order to question the validity of these social orders. In other words, a history lesson that deals with the exclusion and integration of individual groups engages in othering even as it seeks to overcome it. The talk will explore these tensions and also consider the extent to which disability can be the subject of historical learning, and the extent to which the presence of disabled students has an impact on the design of history teaching.

Using a whole-school approach to teacher professional development and support for highly able students

Laura-Elena Runceanu has a PhD in Psychology and is affiliated with CCD. In this seminar, she will engage the participants in a discussion about how to implement a whole-school approach to teacher professional development and address the academic/educational and social-emotional needs of highly able students, including those who are twice- or multi-exceptional. Examples from educational practices will be also included. Currently, there is a growing interest in Sweden in the education of highly able students, although there are no agreed upon terminology, definitions, or models for identification and support recommended in the Swedish educational policies. The International Baccalaureate (IB) is mentioned in the specialist literature (e.g. VanTassel-Baska, 2023; Brody, 2023; Poelzer & Feldhusen, 1997) as an example of a program that meets the academic or educational needs of highly able students. However, there is a need to systematically support all highly able students, including those who are twice- or multi-exceptional, by offering in-service, evidence-informed professional learning development to teachers and support staff on how to address these unique needs, while consulting with the students and their families along the way.

Supporting students to use generative AI tools ethically and effectively in academic writing

Ursula Wingate, a Professor of Language Education at King's College London, will discuss supporting students in using generative AI tools ethically and effectively in academic writing. Drawing on the concept of translanguaging, she will first explore the role of a non-generative tool, machine translation, in assisting multilingual students with text composition.

She will then present the design, delivery and outcomes of a pedagogical intervention funded by the King’s College Teaching Fund. The intervention aimed to equalise opportunities for writers from diverse linguistic backgrounds and to enable digitally less experienced students to use the most effective tools for the enhancement of their texts.

Four student collaborators were recruited to assist in the implementation and evaluation of workshops on the use of AI tools. The workshops were informed by focus group discussions with students from both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The findings show a mismatch between evolving university policies and students’ perceptions and use of AI tools. Frequent changes in regulations also posed challenges to our development of the AI workshops. The talk will conclude with a discussion of AI policies and regulations and their impact on levelling the linguistic playing field for non-native speakers of English.

27 November, 01.00-03.00 p.m.

Half-time seminar with Johan Bäcklund, PhD student in education

On the whats, whys, wheres, whens and hows of teaching, learning and communicating in the 21st century

This dissertation, initiated in 2018 and framed by the TAL-21 project in 2022, focuses on the impact of digitalization on teaching, learning, and communication within educational institutions. It examines how digitalization shapes these areas across K-12 schools and higher education, highlighting the importance of understanding changes in teaching and learning in the 21st century. The individual studies in the dissertation address the following kinds of key questions: how digitalization shapes educational practices, who makes decisions about digitalization, how research in this area is conducted, and what digitalization entails in an educational context. Such explorations are crucial for comprehending the evolving nature of education in a digitally-driven era.

Zoom: https://ju-se.zoom.us/j/6269502044?pwd=L1pHOEdLTldmQmRkOXh3c1l6YUowQT09&omn=69621810904

Passcode: 1234

All participants are requested to read the draft before the seminar. To receive a copy, please email johan.backlund@ju.se.

CCD-medlemmar seminariebehandlar sina forskningsansökningar.

Alla deltagare förväntas läsa ansökningarna i förväg. Vänligen kontakta Radu Dinu för att få texterna.

All participants are requested to read the draft before the seminar. To receive a copy, please email asia.dellarosa@ju.se.