Transforming physical materials into artefacts – learning in the school’s practice of Sloyd

Abstract

This article describes learning and interaction in the practice of Sloyd [Craft and Design, sw. Slöjd] when pupils in the school’s practice of sloyd work on and transform material into a sloyd object in the Swedish comprehensive school. As an aid in depicting how cultural socialisation and learning in the practice of sloyd in school can be formulated, we make use of video-recorded empirical data from sloyd lessons in comprehensive school. Based on the empirical data collected, it is particularly important to analyse how communication during sloyd work takes place in the form of not only talk but also non-verbal interaction (body language, gestures, mimicry, etc.) and other tool-mediated activities. Also of interest is the environment where learning takes place, for example, how the classroom for sloyd is furnished, accessibility, selection of tools and materials. Since only parts of the practice of sloyd have been scientifically described, all the conditions that affect interaction and learning in sloyd classrooms are of importance (Lindström, Borg, Johansson & Lindberg, 2003).