Uppgifter som medierande artefakter inom yrkeslärarutbildningen

Vocational teacher students accomplish a number of different assignments, which are meaningful for their learning and future work as vocational teachers. In Sweden, this education is relatively short (90 ECTS), partly conducted as distance education. The students enter the education with previous vocational knowledge and experiences. The aim of this study was to explore and describe assignments the students face during their vocational teacher education. The study questions focused on what is a form of assignment as mediating artefact and what kind of vocational knowledge is required? Conceptual background involved the concepts of mediation, artefact, vocational knowledge and knowledge culture. The data consisted of 13 course overviews. The results suggested dominance of individual written assignments. Even though some assignments were identified as ‘doings’ like teaching. The assignments were complex involving several vocational knowledge dimensions and the students needed to navigate between different knowledge domains. Furthermore, the students were asked to integrate their previous vocational knowledge with pedagogical knowledge. The assignments as mediating artefacts were connected to different knowledge cultures.