Collaboration and assistance without teachers' knowledge

It explores how secondary school pupils and students view learning and school, and how knowledge of their relationship with schoolwork can contribute to improving the school experience for pupils, teachers, and society at large. This is the core of all my lectures. They are based on my research into pedagogy and how today's students, who have grown up with smartphones and share pictures with their peers on social media daily, relate to formal educational requirements and the focus on measurable results for each student.

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

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

• 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?

Contact me for more information and to book.

I discuss 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 high school are based on my research findings from a municipal middle school. These findings showed that:

Firstly, pupils log into their classmates' Google Classroom accounts in and outside the classroom to write original texts and make revisions to their classmates' texts without the teachers' knowledge; Secondly, that 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. Thirdly, that 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.

Presentations at international conferences in 2025

This year, I presented my research at three international conferences.

For the fifth time, I presented my research at the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA) conference, held at the University of Helsinki in March. This year, I presented my research within the School Development Network. The presentation 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?'

This year, 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 fourth time at the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), which was held in Belgrade, Serbia this year. 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'.