Laboratory for Teaching Practices (TePlab)

The empirical studies are mainly focused on subject didactical research as well as research on teaching practices in relation to often complex and controversial societal questions such as sustainable development, health, ‘socio-scientific issues’, etc. We also do research on facilitating learning in sustainability transitions and on co-production processes where teachers together with didactical researchers and content experts develop lesson plans and teaching materials. We pay attention to multiple dimensions of formal and non-formal education (epistemological, political, ethical, practical, aesthetic and existential) and investigate teaching practices in relation to qualification, socialisation and person formation.

TePlab researchers engage in theoretical work by drawing on diverse theoretical and philosophical contributions and connecting them to the field of didactics. We collaborate with scholars from other fields such as philosophy and sociology. The research environment has a strong, historically grown pragmatist underpinning shared by many of its members, but is also open for different theoretical perspectives such as post-structuralism, phenomenology, etc. What characterises TePlab’s work, is its efforts to develop theory, analytical models and analytical methods in view of empirical didactical research. TePlab has wide experience with creating and applying methodologies for in situ studies, e.g. analysing classroom practices.

Activities

TePlab organises regular online research seminars on Tuesday afternoons, 13.15 – 15.00. In writing seminars, we discuss papers (in progress) authored by TePlab members. The author briefly introduces the text and can raise topics for feedback. In reading seminars, we discuss a non-TePlab text. The person who proposed the text briefly introduces it and leads the discussion.

We also organise data sessions where we meet and discuss ongoing work with an empirical focus. A participant shares empirical data and preliminary analyses to be discussed by TePlab members.

Once a year, we aim to meet all members of our international collective during a ‘TePlab internat’, a multi-day meeting where we create time and space for in-depth discussions about joint research interests and ongoing or future activities.

TePlab members also collaborate on submitting proposals for joint research projects. We have successfully applied for and implemented projects funded by national and international funding agencies (see ‘Research projects’)

History

TePlab grew out of SMED (Studies of Meaning-making in Educational Discourses), an internationally established research environment in the field of didactics, led by Professor Leif Östman. The research environment was established in 2003 as a collaboration between researchers at Uppsala University and Örebro University. The members of SMED Uppsala were researchers, postgraduates and doctoral students in the discipline of didactics, although collaborations did take place with researchers in other disciplines (e.g. sociology, psychology, philosophy and political science) at Uppsala University and other universities in Sweden and abroad. SMED developed a Pragmatist didactic research, taking inspiration from mainly William James and John Dewey, but also from the work of Wittgenstein, post-structuralism and socio-cultural perspective on learning.