Hanne Riese

Environmental Concern in a Local Context The Significance of Place Attachment

To improve the understanding of environmental concern, considering the context within which individuals develop environmental concerns may be important. One salient contextual variable related to local environmental issues is place attachment, which deals with human bonding to a specific physical environment. In a study in a rural community in Norway, the local attitudes toward a proposal of a major hydropower development, which will cause major environmental impacts, were examined in relation to sociodemographic variables and place attachment. The results from a postal survey show that place attachment explained more of the variances in attitudes than the sociodemographic variables all together.

NATIONAL PARK PLANNING AND LOCAL PARTICIPATION: SOME REFLECTIONS FROM A MOUNTAIN REGION IN SOUTHERN NORWAY

The extent of protected areas is increasing worldwide. Traditionally, a great deal of the protected lands have been sit- uated in ecologically and economically marginal regions, such as mountains, often on state-owned land. In recent years, however, new designations have increasingly been applied to areas with more private land, more people, greater economic activity, and thus have resulted in a higher degree of conflict. Due to several forces, public involvement in natural resource planning is developing rapidly. This development is largely driven by environmental management institutions as a means to improve efficiency and equity in planning processes. Although well intended, these efforts often meet with problems caused by a lack of understanding of the community perspectives on resource conflicts. In this study we discuss our experiences from following the process of expansion of a national park in southern Norway. We argue that it is essential to understand the complex relationships and meanings local peo- ple develop with their surroundings in order to facilitate negotiation over contested issues. This has important implications for the way managers apply different types of knowledge, develop strategies, and communicate with local interests.

Peer relations in peer learning

Over the last decades, much research on peer learning practices has been conducted. Quantitative, experimental designs focusing on problems of cause and effect dominate. Consequently, effects on achievement are well documented, as is the influence of different conditions on the effect rate. In spite of the general acknowledgment of the importance of peer learning and a large amount of research on collective learning practices, questions regarding the quality of peer interaction, and how peer relations influence learning, are not well elaborated. This paper complements the discussion on effect focusing on the processes of interaction between peers, and relates these to theoretical perspectives on learning as fundamentally social. Inspired by meta-ethnography an integrative analysis across seven qualitative studies was accomplished. The approach enabled an investigation of peer interactions in different educational settings. The analysis elaborates on how instructional designs and students’ relational knowledge mediate interaction in peer learning. The paper further discusses the potential of approaches synthesising qualitative studies as a tool in qualitative research.

The production of meaning in outdoor recreation: A study of Norwegian practice

Outdoor recreation policy and management have largely been occupied by questions related to use patterns: who participates in which activities, where and when? However, it is commonly held that ideas and practices mutually influence each other. In outdoor recreation, it could be expected that the observable use patterns are influenced by the meaning recreationists ascribe to their activities. In this study 14 narratives of outdoor recreation practices are analyzed, in order to broaden the traditional understanding of the meaning of outdoor recreation.

Action research in pre-service teacher education – a never-ending story promoting professional development

This article presents a case study aiming at deepening the understanding of action research as a tool in professional development in pre-service teacher education. The case is the practice of action research in a teacher education programme for secondary school teachers in Norway. While there has been limited research on consequences of inquiry, this article asks how student-teachers experience the process and outcome of doing action research and what we as their teacher-educators can learn from these experiences about facilitating the student-teachers’ processes. For most student-teachers the process started with numerous challenges, but in the end the majority experienced a positive outcome. We found that an important condition to ensure that action research functions as a tool for professional development is enough time and space to make it possible to reflect in depth. Familiarising students with research and linking theory and practice seem to need specific attention even after a completed action research project. Reflecting on actions seems to help student-teachers to develop their practical and theoretical understanding in a way that gives their experiences transfer value.

Enacting entrepreneurship education: The interaction of personal and professional interests in mini-enterprises

This article argues that participative approaches, such as those found in enterprise or entrepreneurship education, allow several factors to influence learning activity. The ‘Mini-enterprise’ (Young Enterprise) approach is one where students set up and run their own business during a school year. This article is based on the analysis of interactional processes in four mini-enterprises in post-16 education. Given the emphasis on progressive ideas in entrepreneurship education in general, it is important to understand how students themselves form the learning activity. The analysis shows how ideas about friendship, school and business all contribute to students’ interaction and to forming the learning process. In order to explore how students’ agency is informed by different sets of ideas, the article applies Joas’ theory of creative action. This allows a discussion of how students’ personal and professional interests interact in productive and less productive ways in the learning activity.

High Stakes: An Interview Study of Researchers’ Motivations for and Experiences of being Interviewed by Journalists

Abstract Researchers are key sources of an increasing amount of research news in the media. Hitherto, the meagre empirical literature on researchers’ media performances has been divided in two strands: one indicating that researchers are generally motivated to report their research in the media, and the other paradoxically reporting negative experiences of and conflict with journalists. The aim of the present study was to explore Norwegian researchers’ motivations for participating in and experiences of journalistic interviews. We find that researchers’ main reason for seeking media coverage is that they want their findings to be of use to society. This makes it essential to avoid errors or misleading framing of the news report. Despite strong motivations to do so, the researchers experience that communicating through the media is stressful and that their motivations for seeking media attention are in conflict with the motives of some research journalists. The study reveals a link between researchers´ motivation for seeking media coverage and their experiences of conflict with journalists.

Mini-enterprise projects: friendship, business and learning

This article discusses how the mini-enterprise (ME) approach (Young Enterprise) can be understood as a tool for helping to achieve policy goals set for entrepreneurship. Analysis of 12 semi-structured interviews with 17-year-old students shows how social capital from friendship relations constitutes norms for interaction in MEs. To some extent, these norms appear to be at odds with business norms, and tension is created that may interfere with business productivity. The analysis of students’ description of interaction provides explanations regarding documented outcomes from the ME approach. Furthermore, the article discusses the connection made between progressive pedagogical ideals and entrepreneurship education. Interviews were conducted during a field study of two classes in business economics in post-16 education in Norway.

Narrow identity resources for future students: the 21st century skills movement encounters the Norwegian education policy context

ABSTRACT 21st century skills is a global network of corporate and governmental influences that promotes competences suited to fit the future knowledge economy. Through a discourse analysis of an influential Official Norwegian Report, ‘The School of the Future. Renewal of Subjects and Competences’ (NOU 2015:8), this paper explores how ideas of 21st century skills are translated into the Norwegian education policy context. Firstly, the paper analyses the context-specific reasons for receptiveness by investigating discursive warrants. Secondly, the paper identifies how the policy document constructs a set of preferred subject positions that constitute an image of an ideal student. Thirdly, the paper investigates the discursive framing of these subject positions. We find that the policy document constructs an image of an ideal student who is creative, responsible, cooperative, engaged, self-regulated and in complete control of herself, her learning and her future. This image draws on more pronounced neo-liberal discourses, but also well-established discourses in the Norwegian context, such as social democratic progressivism. This intertwining of discourses shows how traits of homogeneity related to global ideas, as well as heterogeneity related to the Norwegian policy context, are both visible in the Norwegian translation of 21st century skills.

Action research – connecting practice and theory

Abstract Teacher education is often criticised for not being relevant and for there being a lack of continuity between practice teaching and the university coursework. In the literature, action research is presented as a way to bridge the gap and connect the two. The present article explores, through a qualitative study, how research-based knowledge communicated at the university and experiences from practice teaching interact in student teachers’ action research projects. The study also explores the outcome, for the student teachers, of conducting research in their practicum. The findings show that student teachers use theory and research in many different ways, and they are both consumers and producers of research. They especially emphasise the outcome of theory interacting with real situations encountered in the teaching practice. Contributing to a positive impact on their outcome were the opportunity they are offered to reflect on their own practice, the possibility they have to focus on something they find important, and the chance to make their own experiences with a particular tool for professional development.