Sofie AreljungUmeå University | UMU · Department of Applied Educational Science
Sofie Areljung
Doctor of Philosophy
About
21
Publications
2,733
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162
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
My research interests lie within the interface of science education, early childhood education, and the arts. In that interface, I find that epistemology becomes critical (what are valid ways of knowing, according to teachers?). This in turn casts light on how time, matter and power matter to science education in the early years. I am particularly interested in developing science education through collaboration with teachers in preschool and school.
Additional affiliations
December 2018 - present
August 2018 - November 2018
August 2017 - July 2018
Publications
Publications (21)
This article seeks to provide a framework for recognizing and realizing the pedagogical potential of arts–science integration in early childhood. Herein, I present five ways of positioning arts vis-à-vis science and associate them with different learning opportunities. I have analyzed if and how these positionings come into play in teachers’ docume...
This article seeks to contribute to an early childhood specific conceptualisation of physics education. The article is a collaboration between a researcher in science education and two preschool teachers and revolves around the teachers’ work with 2–4 year old children. Grounded in a posthumanist understanding of the world, we focus on physics lear...
This study aims to contribute knowledge about obstacles and opportunities for pedagogical continuity in science across early childhood education. We use activity theory to analyse individual interviews and group meetings with teachers from preschool (age 1–5), preschool class (age 6) and grade 1–3 (age 7–9) in three Swedish school units. The teache...
This classroom-based study aims to contribute knowledge about children’s opportunities to make use of drawing to make meaning in science. Employing a social semiotic approach to drawing, we examine what ways of representing science content that are (1) made available by the teacher and (2) adopted in children’s drawings. We analysed observation dat...
STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education is currently gaining ground in many parts of the world, particularly in higher stages of the educational system. Foreseeing a development of STEAM policy and research also in the early years, this colloquium seeks to bring questions of gendering processes to the table. The aut...
Researchers have provided many arguments for why drawing may contribute to science learning. However, little is known about how teachers in early childhood education (ECE) make use of drawing for science learning purposes. This article examines how teachers’ views and framing of drawing activities influence the science learning opportunities afford...
This article provides a conceptual discussion of ‘ownership’ in various forms of participatory research. The discussion is grounded in our experiences from three research projects in science education. We seek to understand how and why ownership may be distributed between teachers and researchers at different stages in the research process. Looking...
This chapter sets out to make a practical contribution to the discussion on power relations involved in documentation in early childhood education [ECE]. We suggest ‘professional risk’ as a key concept to understand why and how teachers materialise some of children’s actions and comments in various forms of documentation. The chapter builds on stor...
This chapter examines how STEAM education may transform education in the STEM subjects towards education for a sustainable future. Particularly, it examines the potential of combining science and arts in preschool practice (children aged 1–5 years) for the sake of fostering sustainable knowing and being in the world. Here, it pursues the idea that...
In this article, we exemplify and discuss how preschool science education may contribute to Education for Sustainability (EfS). We draw on data from science activities in fourteen Swedish preschools, in which we have previously identified examples of ‘multidimensional science teaching’, hence, teaching that intertwines children’s science learning w...
This chapter examines science practices in Swedish preschools (school form for children aged 1–5 years) in relation to three central themes in Karen Barad’s agential realism: “non-human bodies as active agents”, “intra-action” and “phenomena before things”. Drawing on empirical material from my work with four preschools and one pedagogical developm...
This article discusses how preschool teachers, who include a scientific content in their practice, describe their practice and their view of science in preschool. The study is based on 20 interviews in 9 Swedish preschools. The theoretical and analytical framework combine "communities of practice"(Lave & Wenger) and "positioning theory" (Harré & La...
This article seeks to contribute new perspectives to the ontology and epistemology of preschool science education by exploring the idea of using everyday verbs, rather than nouns, to discern possibilities for science learning in preschool. Herein, the author merges empirical examples from preschools with findings from research on children’s noun an...
In this study, Activity Theory (AT) is used to analyse general patterns for how cultural and historical factors interact with the shaping of science activities in preschools. Data was produced from field notes, video observations, video stimulated recall group discussions and individual interviews with preschool teachers at fourteen preschool units...
How can preschool teachers form science teaching in a landscape of increasing focus on academically-oriented learning outcomes, without losing the unique character of preschool pedagogies? Seeking to contribute to the discussion of what preschool science can be, we have analysed data from activities in fourteen Swedish preschools (for children aged...
Numerous initiatives are carried out across the world to support science teaching in early childhood education. However, professional development research shows that in order for teaching interventions to bring about successful changes in practice, it is key that teacher’s beliefs, confidence and knowledge change. As a complement to studies showing...
This article discusses how preschool teachers, who include a scientific content in their practice, describe their practice and their view of science in preschool. The study is based on 20 interviews in 9 Swedish preschools. The theoretical and analytical framework combine "communities of practice"(Lave & Wenger) and "positioning theory" (Harré & La...
This study explores if and how teachers combine practices of science and of preschool (children 1–5 years old) into preschool science practice. Views of knowing may differ between science practices, traditionally associated with masculinity and rationality, and preschool practices, traditionally associated with femininity and caring. Recognising th...
This paper communicates the pedagogical idea of approaching scientific phenomena through verbs. The idea has sprung from a collaboration between preschool practitioners and a researcher, addressing science education in preschool (children aged 1-5 years). Drawing on a joint problem inventory, the project group aimed to create a teaching model that...
‘Working theories’ encompass children’s theorising about the social and material worlds. This article looks explicitly at power relations involved in pedagogy around children’s working theories by focusing on the teacher’s control of what and whose working theories get unpacked and extended. From an analysis of four cases from early childhood educa...
The aim of this study is to explore how cultural factors interact with preschool teachers’ shaping of activities with science content, and also how Activity Theory (AT) as a theoretical framework can be useful for examining interrelations within preschool systems. Qualitative data was collected from three preschools in the form of guided group disc...
Questions
Question (1)
I am looking for desciptions of the first phases in design-based studies, describing the shared problem inventory and goal formulation of both researchers and practitioners, and also how the research questions evolved during the design process.
I find it hard to write about design-based reseach in a "traditional" article form, since the project does not start with a clear question formulated by the researcher, as in "traditional" research.
Very grateful for suggestions on publications that address this issue. Prefereably in educational science.
Projects
Projects (4)
This project, funded by the Swedish Research Council (2022-03330), concerns STEAM education, that is, STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) combined with Arts (dance, drama, music, visual arts). The aim of the project is to generate knowledge about how STEAM teaching in ECE can traverse gender norms connected to Arts and STEM. The project uses a practice based methodology, informed by a sociomaterial stance. The project period last from 2023-2026.
https://www.su.se/forskning/forskningsprojekt/steam-undervisning-i-f%C3%B6rskolan
Our aim is to generate knowledge about how and why drawing can contribute to science teaching and learning in school year 1-3. Further, we aim to contribute examples of new ways of visually representing science concepts, beyond science education conventions.
In this project, I collaborate with 10 preschool teachers and a pedagogical development centre to examine the pedagogical potential of integrating science and arts in practice.
