Photo of Per Gyberg

Per Gyberg

Senior Associate Professor

Knowledge is essential in many of our society’s greatest challenges. Dr Per Gyberg’s research focuses on how the structures of knowledge are shaped and maintained in different contexts and why certain skills are legitimate, while others are not. 

To teach and learn about controversial areas of knowledge

How knowledge is shaped and conveyed in school and in other social contexts is the focus of Dr. Per Gyberg’s work as a researcher and teacher. Energy, environment, distribution of resources, and climate change are all areas of knowledge which permeate some of our society’s most central issues. They are also interconnected with technology and technical development. It is important to understand what a diverse and conflict-ridden area of knowledge looks like and how it is defined, not least in order to clarify the mechanisms of how our society deals with its own consequences.

Dr. Per Gyberg’s research interests focus primarily on how understanding and knowledge are shaped in different practices. Per Gyberg is interested in the processes of how knowledge is included and excluded. He tries to answer what it is that makes some skills, ways of looking at and relate to the world, become legitimate in certain contexts but not in others. Dr. Per Gyberg’s research focuses therefore largely on understanding the mechanisms of how these knowledge structures are shaped and maintained in different contexts and how various actions make certain knowledge possible and other impossible, or at least highly improbable.

Per Gyberg is especially interested in areas of knowledge that seem problematic, controversial or in other way cause problems. His interests mainly concern issues related to contemporary environmental challenges, such as energy, non-renewable resources, climate and sustainable development, and how these challenges are presented and handled, particularly in school education.

The role of technology as a tool for people to process the world around is central to Per Gyberg’s research and he is also interested in how technology creates opportunities and constraints for our actions.

Publications

2023

Johan Boström, Magnus Hultén, Per Gyberg (2023) Who counts?: Legitimate solutions in construction activities in preschool International journal of technology and design education, Vol. 33, p. 1309-1344 Continue to DOI
Per Gyberg, Thomas Kaiserfeld, Harald Rohracher, Anna Sparrman (2023) Jakten på kortsiktiga resultat är hämmande för forskningen

2022

Per Gyberg, Anna Storm, Anna Sparrman (2022) Verklighets­frånvänd mål­styrningsmodell Universitetsläraren
Karin Skill, Cecilia Axell, Per Gyberg (2022) Facts, Values and Perspectives on Sustainable Development in Free Teaching Materials in Sweden Sustainability, Vol. 14, Article 12290 Continue to DOI
Johan Boström, Magnus Hultén, Per Gyberg (2022) Rethinking construction in preschool: discerning didactic strategies in Swedish preschool activities International journal of technology and design education, Vol. 32, p. 2039-2061 Continue to DOI

News

CV

Academic Degree

  • 2013
    Lecturer, Department of Thematic Studies - Environmental Change Linköping University. 
  • 2011
    Lecturer, Department of Thematic Studies - Technology and Social Change, Linköping University 
  • 2010
    Senior Lecturer, Department of Thematic Studies – Environmental Studies, Linköping University. 
  • 2008
    Senior Lecturer, Department of Thematic Studies – Environmental Studies, Linköping University. 
  • 2004
    Assistant Professor, Department of Thematic Studies – Environmental Studies, Linköping University. 
  • 1997
    PhD student Department of Thematic Studies – Environmental Studies, Linköping University.


Positions

  • 2013 
    Lecturer, Department of Thematic Studies - Environmental Change Linköping University. 
  • 2011 
    Lecturer, Department of Thematic Studies - Technology and Social Change, Linköping University 
  • 2010 
  • Senior Lecturer, Department of Thematic Studies – Environmental Studies, Linköping University.
  • 2008 
    Senior Lecturer, Department of Thematic Studies – Environmental Studies, Linköping University. 
  • 2004 
    Assistant Professor, Department of Thematic Studies – Environmental Studies, Linköping University. 
  • 1997 
    PhD student Department of Thematic Studies – Environmental Studies, Linköping University.

Assignments

  • 2016
    Head of Department of Thematic Studies – Linköping University.
  • 2014
    Deputy director, Department of Thematic Studies – Environmental Studies, Linköping University.
  • 2011
    Docent in Technology and Social Change, Linköping University
  • 2003
    PhD in Technology and Social Change, Linköping University
  • 1998
    MA in Communication Studie, Linköping University
  • 1997
    BA in Sociology, Linköping University

Researchers in the same area

About the Department