Collaboration and assistance without teachers' knowledge

My research explores how secondary school pupils as well as students in higher education view learning and school, and how knowledge of their regard on schoolwork can contribute to improving the school experience for pupils, teachers, and society at large. This is also the core of all my lectures. They are based on my educational research and experiences on how today's students, who have grown up with smartphones and a culture of sharing pictures with their peers on social media daily, relate to formal educational requirements. Moreover, the lectures highlight how the learners’ focus on measurable results and good grades lead to compex social strategies where they assist each other without the teachers’ awareness.

Examples of lectures and workshops

Lectures on compulsory school:

• Pupils’ backstage. How we can support student learning in an era of digitised information exchange. The lecture highlights various 'backstage' areas where pupils can access information to get higher grades with little effort, such as from their peers, parents, siblings and ChatGPT.

• The clash between the school curriculum and today's pupils, who have grown up with social media and a pronounced digital sharing culture.

• Educating future citizens. What kind of citizens are educated in a school with a strong focus on the individual and measurable results?

• Help or cheat? Lower secondary school pupils’ views on the difference between helping and cheating, and how we can relate to them. The lecture also addresses teachers' views on students' work 'backstage'.

Lecture on and for higher education:

• Students’ use of ChatGPT without their teachers’ knowledge; the limitations of text-matching programmes; and suggestions for validating students’ knowledge levels in an era of widespread generative AI such as for example chatGPT. The focus is on validating who has done what and how assignments have been completed.

Lecture on HR Departments, and recruitment and staffing companies:

• Many students in higher education use assistance from friends and generative AI, such as chatGPT, without the teachers’ awareness. This lecture raises problems and consequences of unpermitted assistance; some job seekers lack the competence their university degree/diploma should safeguard, if/when they have not done much of their studies themselves – and these are difficult to distinguish from those who have conducted their studies on their own. The lecture highlight suggestions for minimising the risk for wrong recruitments.

Examples of workshops for primary, secondary, and higher education and HR:

• Information or knowledge? How can students' knowledge development and their willingness to learn be strengthened in a society where information is just a click or a prompt away.

• What can teachers and educational establishments do to enhance the validation of student’s graded assignments in an era of generative AI?

• New Public Management in education. How can we counteract the influence of neoliberal education reforms on formal education?

• How can HR and recruitment departments improve their ability to distinguish between job seekers who have the competence matching their diploma from those who do not?
  

Contact me for more information and to book.

I lecture on how compulsory school pupils and higher education students use assistance 'backstage' — that is, without their teachers' knowledge. I discuss the pros and cons of this kind of assistance and how teachers can respond to it. The lectures for compulsory school and upper secondary school are based on my research findings from a municipal middle school. These findings showed that: a) pupils log into their classmates' Google Classroom accounts inside and outside the classroom to write original texts and make revisions to their classmates' texts without the teachers' knowledge, b) higher-performing pupils receive text requests from classmates asking them to share images of completed assignments which their classmates then rephrase 'in their own words' and submit as their own work, and c) leaked national tests are shared on the class Snapchat group, to which everyone in the class has access before the due test day. These examples of the pupils’ “Backstage Pedagogy” demonstrate pupils' loyalty to their peers and how digital technology enables certain students to avoid doing the schoolwork that forms the basis for assessment and grades on a large scale.

My latest presentations at international conferences

For the 6th time, I have presented my research at the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA), which this year was held in Aarhus (Denmark). This was my 21st international conference.

At the conference at the University of Aarhus (Denmark) I held a workshop in the network of General Didactics with the title: How may we enhance assessment validity in times of generative AI? - The issue of students’ Backstage Pedagogy. Moreover, I held a presentation within the network Education, measurement & Assessment with the title: Students’ Backstage Pedagogy: the use of chatGPT in Higher Education without the teachers’ awareness.

In 2025 I presented my research at three international conferences.

The first one was at the Nordic educational conference Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA) conference, which was held at the University of Helsinki in March. The lecture was held in the School Development Network and was titled What is Backstage Pedagogy?. How can we deal with the undesirable consequences of pupils' backstage pedagogy? Examples from a Swedish municipal lower secondary school.

At the conference, I also led a workshop: How can we oppose the impact of Neoliberal educational reforms on formal education and social life?

For the 5th time, I presented my research for the fifth time at the European Conference on Ethics and Integrity in Academia (ECEIA), which was held at Uppsala University in June. The title of this year's presentation was: How do pupils distinguish between helping and cheating? An ethnographic study from a Swedish municipal lower secondary school.

In September, I presented my research for the 4th time at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), which was held in Belgrade, Serbia. My presentation was part of the Curriculum Network and was entitled How can teachers support individual learning in a digitalised sharing culture? Teachers' Views on Pupils' 'Backstage Pedagogy.