Aktuella disputationer

The nurses’ scope of practice defines their roles and functions, addressing the fundamental physical, relational, and psychosocial needs of individuals requiring care. This understanding is conceptually linked to what nursing is and serves as an expression of professional identity.

While the fundamentals of care are central to nursing, the scope of practice for addressing older people’s fundamental care needs in long-term care is sparsely described in the literature and often viewed in isolation rather than within the systems and contexts in which it occurs. This thesis explores nursing practice in long-term care, employing a contextual lens to examine how environmental factors influence the professional working environment, nurses’ scope of practice, and their activities related to the fundamentals of care.

Insights are based on a pragmatic, fixed sequential mixed-methods design, employing diverse approaches to explore the core concepts underpinning this work. The findings are applicable to nurses, leaders, managers, educators, and policymakers, offering insights to improve the professional working environment, enhance the scope of practice, and elevate the quality of fundamentals of care in long-term care settings.

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The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly affected children’s everyday experiences, highlighting the importance of infectious diseases in science education. As future outbreaks are inevitable, it is essential to understand how teaching and learning about diseases was shaped by the pandemic, in order to develop biology education to meet the needs for future epidemic-prone diseases. This thesis explores how knowledge about infectious diseases is transformed from external sources into content taught and understood in Swedish middle school. The central research question is: How is the portrayal of knowledge about infectious diseases reflected in textbooks, teachers’ practices, and pupils’ understanding in the aftermath of COVID-19? 

The thesis includes 4 empirical studies examining different stages of this transformation. A comparative textbook analysis (Paper I) shows that representations of infectious diseases remained largely unchanged post-pandemic. Teaching (Paper II) was shaped by pupil-driven discussions rather than curriculum expansion. Studies of pupils’ understanding (Papers III–IV) reveal limited conceptual grasp, with informal sources outweighing formal instruction. Interpreted through the lens of contagion literacy and powerful knowledge, the thesis argues for integrating the contagion literacy framework including immune response into science education.

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Trots rektors centrala roll i skolorganisationen är kunskapen om rektorers professionella lärande begränsad. I studier som fokuserat på rektorers professionella lärande framträder återkommande att kompetensutvecklingsinsatser sällan leder till förändring i rektorers dagliga yrkespraktik. 

Avhandlingen utmanar traditionella synsätt på lärande som individuell kognitiv utveckling och fördjupar förståelsen för rektorers professionella lärande som praktikförändring. Studien tar utgångspunkt i en aktionsforskning där rektorer förändrar sina ledningspraktiker vad gäller att leda digitalisering i förskolan. Avhandlingens resultat lyfter fram tre centrala aspekter som särskilt betydelsefulla för förändringsprocessen och därmed betydelsefulla för rektorers professionella lärande:

• Hur lärande kan organiseras för att möjliggöra praktikförändring.
• Hur en processorienterad förstÃ¥else av tid bidrar till historisk medvetenhet om teknologi och sociala praktiker.
• Hur känslor fungerar som drivkraft i reflektion, utvärdering och kritisk granskning av det egna ledarskapet.

Avhandlingen bidrar med kunskap om hur rektorers lärande kan förstås som förändring i och för praktik – med implikationer för styrning, ledning, kollegialitet och professionell autonomi.

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