Elin Sæther - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Elin Sæther

Acta Didactica Norge

Environmental and sustainability education is briefly delineated as a research field internationa... more Environmental and sustainability education is briefly delineated as a research field internationally and within a Norwegian context, followed by a presentation of the particular contributions to this special issue.

Teacher educators must question whether we are sufficiently preparing student teachers to educate... more Teacher educators must question whether we are sufficiently preparing student teachers to educate children and young people who will have to cope with climate and environmental crises. This article reports on the introduction of environmental and sustainability education (ESE) in a large Norwegian teacher education institution and is framed by the institution's existing formal structures, practices, and local resources. We explore what opportunities, tensions, and obstacles emerged during a one-week intervention to reorient teacher education toward sustainability, drawing on several data sources, such as group interviews, surveys, and video recordings of student teacher group work. Our analyses emphasize the voices of student teachers in the analyses of this intervention. The participating student teachers had to recognize and negotiate complexity along both institutional and thematic dimensions. This complexity was related to both interdisciplinarity and sustainability. Authenticity also surfaced as an important concern because some of the student teachers questioned whether ESE in schools would contain similar interdisciplinary processes. The study indicates that structural transformations are needed in order for teacher education programs to accommodate both sustainability and interdisciplinarity as the student teachers are introduced to tools and resources that support their inquiries into complexity. If student teachers become familiar with interdisciplinary approaches, they will be better equipped to meet the complexity of sustainability, which involves ontological, normative and political concerns. Our attempt to introduce ESE to our institution's teacher education programs has not led to large-scale change, and ESE remains a limited perspective in these programs. However, given the challenges of global warming and the loss of biodiversity, we contend that more significant interventions are urgently needed.

Childhood, Apr 17, 2024

This article explores the methodological impact of sharpening researchers' listening skil... more This article explores the methodological impact of sharpening researchers' listening skills as part of the development of more context-and participant-sensitive approaches to research. The starting point is an analysis of structured app interviews with young people at a multicultural festival. Through the research process, we became increasingly aware of forms of communication we were prone to overlook, such as the here-and-now engagement of the participants, their carnivalesque expressions and associative and fragmented narration. Listening more openly required a reflexive extension of the data analysis and gave us unexpected glimpses into the life world and identity formation of young people.

Denne tillater tredjepart å kopiere, distribuere og spre verket i hvilket som helst medium eller ... more Denne tillater tredjepart å kopiere, distribuere og spre verket i hvilket som helst medium eller format, og å remixe, endre, og bygge videre på materialet til et hvilket som helst formål, inkludert kommersielle, under betingelse av at korrekt kreditering og en lenke til lisensen er oppgitt, og at man indikerer om endringer er blitt gjort. Tredjepart kan gjøre dette på enhver rimelig måte, men uten at det kan forstås slik at lisensgiver bifaller tredjepart eller tredjeparts bruk av verket. Boken er utgitt med støtte fra Institutt for sosiologi og samfunnsgeografi, Universitetet i Oslo.

Denne ideen bygde på forskerne Karen O'Brien og Linda Sygnas prosjekt cCHALLENGE, der deltakere i... more Denne ideen bygde på forskerne Karen O'Brien og Linda Sygnas prosjekt cCHALLENGE, der deltakere inviteres til å gjøre endringer og dele erfaringer med hverandre gjennom blogger.

Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, 2008

The simple opposition between free and restricted media is insufficient for understanding the dyn... more The simple opposition between free and restricted media is insufficient for understanding the dynamics within the Chinese media field. The media has diversified greatly during the last two decades, and social problems have become part of public discourse. Critical journalists in China have formulated a new professional identity. The hegemonic role of the Chinese media holds that journalists are propaganda workers, and that their main assignment is to forward the party line. Critical journalists oppose this definition of their role and seek to articulate a position that enables them to report more freely about social problems. Critical journalists are contributing to carving out a new political role for the Chinese media. The paper discusses how this role is a product of journalists' attempts to increase their autonomy. On the other hand, the increase in critical journalism also reflects the party-state's wish to utilize new media discourses, since limited exposure of local problems can portray the central party-state in a favourable light, as a responsive and responsible central state. The result is that the media acquires a conditional autonomy where the party-state retains the controlling power over a media that seeks to expand the range of topics that can be discussed in the public sphere.

China Information, Jul 25, 2018

Scholarship on Chinese civil society has produced rich empirical studies, but there have been few... more Scholarship on Chinese civil society has produced rich empirical studies, but there have been few attempts to theorize the empirical knowledge acquired. Moreover, the question of how to conceptualize the political agency of civil society in a non-democratic context has received limited systematic attention. In this conceptual article, we draw on a discursive approach to politics to analyse the political agency of Chinese civil society. Our analysis is based on synthesizing insights gained through three separate research projects. We propose a conceptual framework which focuses on how civil society actors position themselves within a structured political space, how they represent social groups and issues through advocacy, how they care for these groups, and how they engage in processes of identity formation. Taken together, these four modalities constitute a framework for analysing the different political dimensions of civil society agency.

Acta didactica Norge, Apr 20, 2016

Spadestikk i samfunnsfagdidaktikken er et ferskt og velkomment bidrag til samfunnsfagdidaktisk li... more Spadestikk i samfunnsfagdidaktikken er et ferskt og velkomment bidrag til samfunnsfagdidaktisk litteratur på norsk. Boka er et resultat av samarbeid mellom ulike vestlandske laererutdanninger, og forfatterne representerer ulike samfunnsvitenskapelige fag. Mange av temaene boka tar opp har relevans både for geografi, samfunnskunnskap og historie. Boka retter seg mot laererstudenter og laerere, og baksideteksten presiserer at dette ikke er ei innføringsbok, men ei bok som "studerer utvalde fordjupingstema i det samfunnsfagdidaktiske feltet." Eksempler på slike tema er kart, demokratiforståelse og bruken av drøfting i samfunnsfag. Innledningskapitlet er skrevet av redaktørene Børhaug, Hunnes og Samnøy. De tar utgangpunkt i at samfunnsfaget har fagdidaktiske mangler og argumenterer for at dette skyldes at faget ikke har vaert satset på i skolen fordi nytteperspektivet har gått foran danningsperspektivet. Andre utfordringer redaktørene nevner er demokratiutdanningen i faget, forståelsen av forholdet mellom det globale og det nasjonale og manglende kunnskap om hvordan samfunnsfagundervisning praktiseres og oppleves av elever. Dette er områder de ulike kapitlene i boka søker å bidra med kunnskap om.

Acta didactica Norge, Aug 29, 2019

Acta didactica Norden, Dec 15, 2021

In the same period, the internet has revolutionized information access, and has contributed to th... more In the same period, the internet has revolutionized information access, and has contributed to the fierce competition within the Chinese media market. Combined with a decentralized control structure, this has made more problem-oriented, critical journalism possible within Chinese media. When in the 1980s the party-state reduced subsidies and allowed the media to retain its own profits, this raised observers' expectations of a potential transition. Political liber-RESEARCH QUESTIONS The dissertation is structured around two research questions. The first addresses how critical journalism adds new dimensions to the political roles of the media, and the second addresses the relationship between party-state authorities and critical journalists. To explore the political implications of critical journalism in China, the first question asks: What are the political roles of the Chinese media? The understanding of the term political that is applied in this dissertation goes beyond practices that are limited to formal, political institutions. Within discourse theory, politics are connected to the way people organize and control meaning. They are means of producing identities and antagonisms. Through mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion they make some social acts and strategies more likely than others (Howarth, Norval and Stavrakakis 2000, Laclau and Mouffe 2001). In a discursive understanding, the political denotes conflicts of interests, and the strategies of power, domination and resistance that are inherent aspects of every social system. Politics, on the other hand, are strategies designed to reduce or deny conflict (Mouffe 2005). Hence, the political role of the Chinese media is not limited to what it is assigned by the party-state authorities, How is the media's conditional autonomy being restricted, and how do critical journalists attempt to increase their autonomy? The conditional autonomy of the media is a concept that is designed to capture the combination of increased freedom and the continuation of con-By asking what critical journalists do to increase their autonomy, I address how the social and discursive strategies of journalists are conducted within a particular context. Critical journalists' social strategies involve choices about issues, locations and investigative methods. Their strategies are designed to avoid crossing boundaries while retaining their ability to communicate about social problems and critical issues in the media. Discursive strategies are important in achieving this end because conscious and careful choices of narrative techniques, framing and vocabulary make it possible to discuss issues that would otherwise be judged to be too critical and not suitable for publication. ORGANIZATION OF THE DISSERTATION Chapter two, Media, power and spaces of representation, is divided in two parts. Part one addresses theoretical perspectives on the conditional autonomy of the media. Media scholars are among the main contributors to this debate, and a central question under discussion is whether or not state-independent ownership is a precondition for the media's ability to serve as a democratizing force in society. This argument is criticized by critical media scholars who argue that in many cases state-owned media have served the public interest precisely because they are not subjected to the same economic interests as privately owned media. The ownership and organization of media institutions are not sufficient to determine what role the media plays in state-society relations. To answer this, it is necessary to take the media's social and discursive practices into account. In particular, the media has a central role to play in shaping public discourse, and this is a crucial aspect of the political agency of critical journalists in an authoritarian context. Chapter two-part two is entitled Containing resistance: hegemony and domination. The perspectives under discussion here all relate to the concept of power. Power is a nodal point for social science, it is contested and is inscribed with different meaning depending on its theoretical context. In the scholarly debate in the 1950s, power denoted the ability of a social actor to decide the outcome of a conflict. Subsequent Foucauldian perspectives have suggested that power is about the structuring of meaning, and have described it as a capillary and productive force. To analyse Nevertheless, critical journalism in China has developed because journalists have found ways to work within and around the limits and boundaries imposed by the party-state. They apply investigative methods, are skilful in utilizing their own networks and seek to approach issues and problems in the ways that are least likely to invoke negative sanctions. The result has been the emergence of new spaces of representation within the Chinese media that allow voices other than those of the authorities to be heard in the public sphere. at "Workshop on media politics and investigative journalism in China".

Lexington Books, 2013

This edited volume brings together scholars positioned in and outside of China, including former ... more This edited volume brings together scholars positioned in and outside of China, including former Chinese journalists, in a comprehensive and in-depth study of Chinese investigative journalists' dreams, work practices, and strategies. It is the first book that systematically addresses the roles and values of Chinese investigative journalists in different types of media, in the process addressing topics such as journalism education, different generations and sub-groups among investigative journalists, and gendered roles within investigative journalism. The book discusses journalists' relations with the state and issues of political control and censorship but seeks to unpack the state by looking at different administrative levels, institutions and geographical locations. Furthermore, the authors acknowledge and analyze how investigative journalism today is shaped, constrained and negotiated through contacts with other actors than the state, including companies, civil society, and the audience. The book sheds light on the possibilities and restrictions for more critical journalism in an authoritarian regime. (Less)

of the critical press in China

Journal of Peace Education, 2021

Barn og unge vokser i dag opp til et liv med klimakrise og miljøkrise. Dette må skolen forholde s... more Barn og unge vokser i dag opp til et liv med klimakrise og miljøkrise. Dette må skolen forholde seg til, og lærerutdannere må reflektere over hvorvidt vi forbereder våre studenter godt nok til denne oppgaven. Denne artikkelen er en studie av innføringen av bærekraftdidaktikk i en større lærerutdanningsinstitusjon i Norge. Intervensjonen varte én uke og ble gjennomført innenfor rammene av eksisterende strukturer, prosesser og lokale ressurser. Vi utforsker hvilke muligheter, spenninger og hindringer som viser seg i intervensjonen med henblikk på å videreutvikle lærerutdanningen i møte med bærekraftutfordringene. Analysene er særlig orientert mot å få fram studentstemmer, med et empirisk materiale som består av gruppeintervjuer, spørreundersøkelser og videopptak av gruppearbeid. Lærerstudentene som deltok måtte forholde seg til kompleksitet med hensyn til både tverrfaglighet og bærekraft. Autentisitet var også et anliggende som trådte fram. Noen av studentene stilte spørsmål ved hvor...

This project aimed to understand how critical expressions can contribute to political representat... more This project aimed to understand how critical expressions can contribute to political representation in the context of the Chinese one party state. The primary objective was to explore the discursive strategies employed by journalists and activists in order to create new spaces of representation. The data collection was conducted through interviews with investigative journalists and activists located in different regions in China. Most of the activists worked with either environmental questions of were engaged in HIV/AIDS organizations. These are areas where the party-state has sought cooperation with civil society actors, but they are also issues that remain politically sensitive and offer a vantage point for studying the boundaries limiting critical expressions in the public sphere. For further information about "Critical Journalism in China: Journalists, Activists and New Spaces of Representation, 2010", please contact the principal investigator.

Rom og sted: Religionsfaglige og interdisiplinære bidrag, 2020

In this article, we explore how children and youth participating in a multicultural festival in N... more In this article, we explore how children and youth participating in a multicultural festival in Norway construct space and place. Such events respond to the call to action for reducing prejudice and stereotypes, and they aim to promote inclusion, participation and community. Nonetheless, researchers have criticized such events for instead promoting categorical understandings of cultural identities; as such, some researchers regard multicultural festivals as counterproductive to the aim of promoting inclusion. However, previous research has directed scarce attention to the participants’ perspective, in particular viewpoints of children and youth. Inspired by perspectives on spatial justice (Soja, 1996, 2010), we interpret young people’s experiences and meaning making while attending a multicultural festival. We collected data through an app, which allowed us to conduct structured interviews with children and youths on site. The findings bring out the significance of space and place w...