Mid Sweden University

This paper examines Swedish secondary students’ interest in science and technology from a gender perspectivein a comparative research design using quantitative data collected 2003 and 2020. National datahas been collected from 610 15-year-old students in 2020 as part of a large-scale comparative researchproject, the Relevance of Science Education - Second (ROSES) and compared with data from the Relevanceof Science Education (ROSE) study from 2003. The results empirically update the research field and showa reoccurring interest pattern with minor changes. Content related to space and unexplained phenomenaare still ranked as interesting to learn about. Girls are interested in health issues and the human body,space, dreams and the human soul. Boys favour items about space, inventions and discoveries togetherwith ABC weapons. Minor developments are that interest in learning about diets and exercise as wellas technology has declined. The least interesting things to learn are almost the same as in 2003, with several topics connected to the national science curriculum. The character of students’ interest in S&T isframed and discussed using the theoretical approach of science identity. The stable character with minorchanges is discussed as reoccurring science identities interpreted by the differentiation hypothesis of the“person-object theory of interest”. Gender differences are interpreted as collective identities shown to be‘domain specific’ not ‘subject specific’ and the content level of analysis provide specificity to ‘interest patterns’which has not been well described earlier in the research literature. Research consequences of thisconceptualization and implications for school practice is critically discussed. A research implication fromthis conceptualization is the importance for future studies to investigate varieties of collective identities.

Historically students’ interest in science and technology (S&T) has been researched mostly from a gender and age perspective and on a subject level of analysis. The work presented in this study make use of Swedish quantitative data from a large scale international and comparative research project called “The Relevance of Science Education Second (ROSES) study” to investigate secondary students’ interest in S&T on a content level of analysis. National data were collected by a questionnaire in 2020. By making use of the theoretical development pointed out in the literature the “person-object theory of interest” is used to frame and interpret the results. In this perspective interest is expected to differentiate as interest patterns. Seven such patterns were identified by an explorative factor analysis which points out a direction for future work to investigate students’ interest in S&T with a deepened understanding of how learning S&T is influenced by identity formation. 

The research field of students’ interest in science and technology (S&T) has a belonging to the Nordic countries by for example the international large scale comparative relevance of science education (ROSE) study realized in the beginning of the 21st century. ROSE has been developed to the relevance of science education second (ROSES) study. This paper report ongoing ROSES work in Sweden. National data from secondary students were collected in 2020 by a questionnaire. In this paper results from the “What I want to learn about” category is presented. There is a message in the literature to connect the research field more strongly to identity which is done in this paper by factor analysis with a varimax rotation. Identified factors are related to the concept of collective identities. Seven factors,which explain 50% of the variance in the material, are presented with belonging content items and names. The results are also compared with earlier studies. The result shows for example that environment and sustainability has become more important and technology less. This alteration is pointed out and discussed connected to the theoretical development of collective identities to understand internal and external dimensions of identity which influence students’ willingness to engage in S&T education. 

This chapter describes the Train-the-Trainers (TTT) process along with the implemen‐tation of the HAND in HAND: Empowering Teacher Across Europe to Deal with Social,Emotional and Diversity Awareness Career Challenges (“HAND:ET”) programme infive different countries from the perspective of trainers. Before HAND:ET was imple‐mented in the field trials, all trainers participated in TTT preparations consisting of a full 6 days of training and an 8-week online course in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (“MBSR”). The field trial consisted of 6 days with teachers and other school staff on-site and 5 online meetings. Throughout the implementation, the trainers were given supervision as a way of supporting them in the process. The TTT process followed the methodology of mindfulness-based intervention teaching assessment criteria (“MBI:TAC”). To follow the progress and stay informed about difficulties in the field, the trainers completed a trainer questionnaire after each session. The results show that they were prepared, flexible and had succeeded in creating a supportive and adaptable training environment that addresses teachers’ unique needs and challenges. Despite some challenges and varying opportunities for teachers in the different coun‐tries to participate, nearly all of the sessions worked well or very well according to the trainers. The work atmosphere was reported to be good or very good at almost every session. It is concluded that the trainers in the HAND:ET project were well prepared both theoretically and practically, with this constituting an important reason for the implementation’s success.

The Relevance of Science Education - Second (ROSES) is an international comparative research projectgathering empirical evidence on factors with importance for learning science and technology from astudent point of view. (Jidesjö, Oskarsson, & Westman, 2020; Oskarsson, Westman, & Jidesjö, 2019).ROSES uses a common questionnaire to students containing categories such as S&T content in andoutside school, future job, environmental challenges, social media, and informal S&T experiences.We will present comparisons between students opinion and willingness to engage in Science from awide range of countries. We will further present results from Sweden where a group of studentsbelieves it is important to learn about sustainability and that they can influence what happens. This alsoindicate some agency where students are willing to act as well as willing to sacrifice. Group of studentsin our material shows sign of Science Capital, a feeling of science being for them, (Archer et al 2015).

This paper presents how Swedish secondary student’s science capital is coupled with science identity. The data is part of a large international research study called The Relevance of Science Education Second (ROSES) which aims to explore students’ interest in, and motivation to learn, science and technology. The result identifies five science identities having different correlations with five factors of science capital. The study if framed by the theoretical development of an extended bourdieusian notion of capital together with science identity. 

This study focuses on how students can argue and make decisions about socio-scientific issues that are relevant to their culture or region. The goal of this study is to present these dilemmas at the conference and propose incorporating decision-making about socio-scientific issues into the science education curriculum. The study explores students' skills in SSI argumentation and aims to clarify the relationship between values, knowledge and experiences in their SSI decision-making. Although all the students had access to the same information and agreed on the factual aspects of the issue, they came to different decisions, the difference depending on their background knowledge, values, and experiences. The result of the study found that students weighed the same information differently based on their core values and experiences. The results showed that the use of SSI in science classrooms can promote students' decision-making skills, critical thinking and awareness of different factors that influence SSI issues.

Today’s society is characterized by diversity among students. In school students with different backgrounds, from different cultures and with different ambitions meet each other. Through increased awareness of diversity, we believe that teachers can choose more consciously how to meet and promote student’s diversity in the classroom. Diversity awareness is much about understanding oneself, what prejudices I have, and where this prejudice comes from. To understand and meet other people, you must first understand and meet yourself, your values and your preconceived notions. Further, it is also essential to talk about diversity, norms and privilege in schools and societies. This is one of the reasons to work on increasing curiosity about others. Being curious about others is one of the cornerstones for gaining an increased understanding of other people, their values and actions. We believe that being empathetically curious about yourself and others and willing to work to develop this curiosity is crucial for the program. The HAND IN HAND: Empowering teachers program should be understood as a tool for teachers, when reflecting on their teaching from the perspective of diversity awareness. The concept of empathic curiosity, within the program, is used as a tool to better understand others, in the society and in the classroom. Programs aimed at embracing diversity benefit by working closely with perspective taking and empathic concern of others (Miklokowska, 2018). Empathic curiosity can be directed towards ourselves, towards people in our vicinity or unknown people we meet. Further, empathic curiosity defined by Mattson(2020) means identifying with the needs of other people by trying to understand or perceiving them. Empathic curiosity can be described as a combination of empathic dialogue and empathic listening (Gøtzsche et al., 2022). The HAND IN HAND: Empowering teachers program contains several elements where empathic curiosity is practised. Examples of such elements are empathic dialogue exercises where empathic listening and empathic questioning are practiced. Through exercises designed to practice empathic listening in order to understand another person, teachers in the program practice their ability to listen empathetically, which is part of empathic curiosity. Result from focus group discussions with 120 teachers in Sweden will be presented at the symposium. The topic of the focus group discussions concerned how teachers perceive that empathic curiosity can serve as a tool to embrace diversity in today's classrooms.References 

Gøtzsche, K, Berg Nielsen, H, Dahlström, H, Norberg, M, Eliasson, E, Oskarsson, M, Wiklund Lind, G (2023). Draft. Hand:et: – A training programme to develop SEDA competences in teachers and other school staff Mattsson, C. (2019). Empatisk nyfikenhet – att bemöta intolerans, hat och extremism i klassrummet. Dembra. (2), 24-33. (In Swedish) downloaded 2019-11-18 from https://gup.ub.gu.se/publication/279238 Miklikowska M. Empathy trumps prejudice: The longitudinal relation between empathy and anti-immigrant attitudes in adolescence. Dev Psychol. 2018 Apr;54(4):703-717. doi: 10.1037/dev0000474. Epub 2017 Dec 14. PMID: 29239638.

Aggressive behaviour has negative consequences for students who are exposed to it and those who are aggressive. In addition to a number of negative consequences at the individual level aggression negatively impacts processes within the school. Successful methods of preventing and reducing aggressive behaviour at school often include activities related to empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and feel the emotional state of another person. It includes cognitive and emotional components and is associated with positive effects on relationships and behaviours; the lack of empathy is associated with negative effects, including aggressive behaviour. We analysed the relationships among empathy dimensions and general aggression, including the subtypes of aggression. We used the AG-UD aggression scale and the IRI questionnaire for the measurement of empathy on a sample of Slovene (N = 125), Croatian (N = 95) and Swedish (N = 84) adolescents aged between 13 and 14. The findings across samples revealed several significant associations on the level of general aggression and high congruence across countries and on the level of types of aggression. This data indicates the need to include dimension-level prevention and intervention based on the prevalence of specific types of aggression. 

Science Identity among Swedish secondary students Short Abstract – Paper 5 This paper presents Swedish data from a larger project, Relevance of Science Education – Second (ROSES). It is an international project which aims to explore students’ interest in, and motivation to learn, science and technology. The factor analyses show a group of students that believe it is important to learn about sustainability and that they can influence what happens. This also indicate some agency where students are willing to act as well as willing to sacrifice. Group of students show signs of science capital, a feeling of science being for them (Archer et al., 2010, 2015). The results will be further investigated and connected with theoretical developments. Especially variations between schools have been identified as an aspect of science capital which will be deepened in continued work.