
Ylva Backman
Associate Professor
Research subject: Education
Division: Education and Languages
Department of Health, Education and Technology
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Luleå, C333
Research
Below I describe a sample of the research projects that I have been involved in.
Dialogic education and philosophical dialogues in different settings
One of my long-term interests lies in philosophical dialogues in different settings for different target groups.
During 2023–2025 some colleagues and I conduct a research project (funded by Luleå municipality and Luleå University of Technology) together with two compulsory schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities where we study communication, argumentation, social and emotional development during interventions based on philosophical dialogues. The project involves both qualitative and quantitative data collected through, for instance, semistructured interviews with pupils and school staff processed through thematic analysis, and so-called "blind" structured observations using the Argumentation Rating Tool and checking for interrater reliability. The research both incorporates a design where researchers have led interventions during two semesters and a design involving close collaboration with teachers through a professional development effort where school staff together with the research group adapt a P4/wC based intervention to the target group in order to increase ecological validity and longterm standing in the involved schools.
A research project that I was involved in during 2019–2021 is When words fail: advanced communication through digital innovation for persons with aphasia, funded by Vinnova (Sweden's innovation agency). The research project combines Education, Special needs education, Pervasive and Mobile Computing, and Philosophy.
During 2019, I conducted research (funded by the Swedish National Agency for Education) about effects of dialogic interventions for socioeconomically disadvantaged elementary school students, where the structured observational protocol Argumentation Rating Tool (developed by researchers at the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children, Montclair State University) was used in order to study the participating groups' reasoning development.
A previous project (2013–2018) was Education for participation - Philosophizing back a ‘new’ life after acquired brain injury, which was funded by the Swedish Research Council. The multidisciplinary research group studied the effects from philosophical dialogue interventions on social and cognitive (e.g. critical thinking) skills that are relevant for persons with acquired brain injury to increase their participation in society.
During the period August 2017–December 2018, I was also involved in a development program for junior promising researchers at Luleå University of Technology, which combined research amd academic leadership education.
Health and well-being
During 2023–2026 I am involved in the project BRIDGE: Building Resilient compulsory schools through an IntegrateD and EmpowerinG approach to wEll-being External link.(Erasmus+) where researchers from Luleå University of Technology (Education and Physioterapy) work in close collaboration with resaerchers in Granada University, the network SERN, and teachers in Latvia, Spain, Italy and Sweden to develop a whole-school approach to well-being in the schools.
Since several years, I am to a small part involved in research led by researchers in physiotherapy about active school transportation, funded by Vinnova and LTU.
My doctoral thesis, published in 2016, was named Students’ Reasoning about Learning and Well-Being in School, which used written letters and interviews for data and concluded upon the complex relationships between learning and health (as defined by the WHO in terms of physical, mental and social well-being).
Twice exceptionality
In a team of four researchers at LTU, we have conducted exploratory research in the field of twice exceptionality (2e), a research area that is in a very early stage in Sweden. Our research is, as well, in an early phase, where we have used case study methodology exploring the educational situation of a pupil that was both classified as gifted and as having a neurodevelopmental disorder. We used data from repeated semistructured interviews with the pupils and both of her guardians. The results were disseminated in a journal article and during international conference presentations and are used as input for our further research in the area.
Argumentation theory and informal logic in education
One of my longterm interests has been in argumentation analysis and informal logic, a subject in which I taught at LTU for many years. When it comes to resarch, I have, together with researchers at Montclair State University, Ohio University and LTU, worked with further developing a Nordic argumentation analysis model (by us called the Rational Force Model, RFM) for application in an education context. This research has been published in a journal article, during international conferences and at the National Science Foundation (US) on a NSF argumentation workshop to which we were invited speakers.
Educational roles
Teaching and supervision
Most of my teaching is done in the special needs teacher education programme where I am one of mainly two teachers responsible for the final year of the programme and where I am yearly part of the wonderful crew of colleagues in special needs education as a supervisor to our students in their final semester. I really enjoy following the students from early on in the programme to the very end, which supports our opportunities to evaluate and revise in accordance with the observed needs in the students' final phase of their studies.
I am currently involved as examiner and teacher in some doctoral courses (Philosophy of science, Research ethics, and The field of special needs education research from an interdisciplinary perspective). One of my doctoral students graduated 2024 and I am currently supervising two other doctoral students in the areas of philosophical dialogues in compulsory schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities and school belonging.
During many years I have also been the course leader of one of the courses in different teacher education programmes (inluding the preschool teacher education programme) at LTU that are preparatory for the final essay in the programme. Other courses that I have been involved in are several philosophy courses (such as Ethics and Critical thinking) and in free standing courses such as Philosophical dialogue with children and Gifted Children. My educational background, which lies in the intersection between education (teachers degree) and philosophy (B.A. in Philosophy at Luleå University of Technology and advanced level in Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University), shows in my interests in the application of philosophical subjects, such as ethics, critical thinking and philosophy of science, to education and special education.
Programme and course development
My colleagues and I have developed the special needs teacher education programme at LTU from the start of it in 2016 and we work consistently to mainatain and develop the quality in the programme. I have had several programme and course development responsibilities in the teacher education programmes over the years. Together with several colleagues, I have also been part of developing free standing courses in special needs education, dialogic education and analytic philosophy.
Dissemination
To write international scientific articles is part of my everyday work, and I have had the pleasure to collaborate with many researchers both locally, nationally and internationally during such dissemination. To support my students in their learning endeavours, I have together with colleagues published also course literature, and to support pupils in compulsory school, I have collaborated with colleagues and external organisations to produce teaching materials that can be used concretely in schools for dialogic teaching. In different constellations of research teams, I work consistently with dissemination of research results in both scientific and popular scientific arenas.
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