SMED - Studies of Meaning-making in Educational Discourses

The research environment was established in 2003 as a collaboration between researchers based at Örebro University and Uppsala University. SMED Örebro includes researchers and postgraduate students related to the subjects Education and Sports Science. Contact persons for the environment in Örebro are Professor Johan Öhman (Education) and Professor Mikael Quennerstedt (Sports Science). The environment is closely linked to Örebro University’s teacher education. The research is conducted within two research groups: ESERGO (Environmental and Sustainability Education Research Group Örebro) with a focus on environmental and sustainability education and Didactics of physical education and health with a focus mainly on health pedagogies, embodied learning and the school subject physical education and health.

In research on education, teaching and learning, the environment is based on the German and Nordic didaktik tradition. This means that education is seen as an open process where teachers, through their choices of teaching methods and educational content, create conditions for students’ meaning-making. Meaning-making refers to both learning of knowledge and socialization of norms and values ​​as well as personality development. The environment places a critical perspective on the content of education with a special focus on values and the democratic potential of education.

The didactic perspective entails that the research interest is directed towards the practice of education and the problems and issues that arise in educational practice. The purpose of the research is to create theories, models and concepts that can strengthen teachers’ professionalism and form a scientific basis for their reflections and choices in teaching.