Läxor som gränsobjekt för samverkan mellan hem och skola?

Abstract

The study analyses homework assignments in a collaboration project between home and school. Previous research into interactive homework between home and school have studied the importance of this cooperation for student achievement. Here, however, a study is made of how homework assignments that are based on parents’ experiences can contribute to cooperation, and to specific content. The data consists of interviews, classroom obser- vations and student texts collected during a development project in a multi-ethnic, multi- lingual secondary school. Students discussed the homework assignment in their class first, then at home and then together in class so that the parents’ contribution could become a resource for the entire class. The concept of boundary object (Star & Griesemer, 1989) is used to analyse what characterised the home-

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Engelske resuméer

work assignments that led to discussion at home and at school. When the content of teach- ing is central, a different kind of cooperation than that which traditionally takes place at parent-teacher meetings and parent/teacher meetings is created. Collaboration in relation to homework was characterised by discussions and conversations between young people and adults about schooling and childhood in vari- ous parts of the world and on existential issues. Results show that homework assignments that included subjects such as love, the Middle East and religion could not function as boundary objects. Results also show that parents, who in other research contexts are sometimes described as a problem in the collaboration be- tween home and school, could contribute their life experiences and values to the teaching. The study provides an indication that teachers, on their own, cannot create homework for all the students in multilingual, multiethnic classes. Success requires content related collaboration from students and parents.