Återkoppling i lågstadieklassrum

Assessment is part of the everyday classroom life and also part of teachers’ assessment practice. The aim of the thesis is to explore and conceptualise assessment communicated from teacher to student in the everyday classroom life in the earlier years of primary school. Pragmatism, symbolic interactionism and the new sociology of childhood served as theoretical perspectives. Constructivist grounded theory was used throughout the studies; a method characterised by an iterative process were analysis and data collection were done in parallel. Data was collected through observations in four classrooms, interviews with 13 teachers, focus groups with 23 students and informal conversations. In the findings a categorisation of teachers’ feedback to students is presented. A systematic conceptualisation of teachers’ feedback rationales highlights the considerations that affect how teachers give feedback. The students interpreted teachers’ feedback as being about musts. Also, teachers and students shared the concern of constructing clarity in the feedback, which was made based on trustworthiness and understanding. Together the studies give an image of feedback as relational and complex. Fairness is described as desirable but difficult. The thesis contributes with descriptions of the feedback that is communicated in primary school classrooms, and concepts to discuss and understand it.