Abstrakt

Då det salutogena synsättet och Antonovskys KASAM (känsla av sammanhang) blivit mer uppmärksammad att använda sig av i arbete med människor, har det i samband med detta medfört att det även förekommer hinder som försvårar arbetet. Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka salutogena strategier som framträder på ett boende med ensamkommande flyktingbarn samt på vilket sätt dessa utspelar sig i praktisk handledning. Kopplat till detta är syftet även att belysa hinder som kan förekomma i det praktiska arbetet gentemot denna målgrupp. Genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer och en kvalitativ innehållsanlys som metod har syftet undersökts. Intervjuerna genomfördes på fyra informanter som alla arbetar i samma verksamhet. Resultatet visar att känsla av sammanhang gör sig påmind genom delaktighet, stöd, information och motiverande samtal. Samtidigt visar även resultatet att det finns hinder, så som avsaknad av samsyn samt för lite resurser, för att tillvägagångssättet ska kunna verka fullt ut. Trots detta finns det goda förutsättningar för att metoden ska kunna fungera i liknade verksamheter.

Syftet med produktarbetet var att skapa ett didaktiskt lärandematerial bestående av en bilderbok med tillhörande lärarhandledning med inriktning på vattnets kretslopp, för en hållbar utveckling. Det didaktiska lärandematerialet utformades för att stödja och inspirera förskolepersonalen i sin dagliga undervisning tillsammans med barnen i förskolan. Utformningen av det didaktiska lärandematerialet bygger på det som kom fram i besvarandet kring vår frågeställning: Hur kan ett didaktiskt lärandematerial utformas för att hjälpa förskolepersonalen att ge barn i förskolan tidiga erfarenheter om vattnets kretslopp? Frågeställningen besvarades i relation till den tidigare forskningen som gjorts inom samma ämnesområde. En bakgrund inom redan befintlig barnlitteratur och/eller lärandematerial samt våra didaktiska övervägande kring utformning av barnböcker har också bidraget till produktarbetets resultat. Allt material har samlats in via olika infallsvinklar såsom databassökningar och studiebesök. Materialets insamling har dokumenterats med hjälp av minnesanteckningar, fotografering och ljudupptagningar. I produktarbetets resultatavsnitt presenteras vårt didaktiska lärandematerial som kommer i form av en faktabilderbok med tillhörande lärarhandledning. Utifrån den befintliga barnlitteraturen och lärandematerialen saknas det sen tidigare motsvarande didaktiska lärandematerial, därför blir vår slutsats att vår produkt kan fylla en funktion som inget annat material gör just nu.    

Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur fritidshemmet och skolans elevhälsoteam arbetar utifrån ett hälsofrämjande perspektiv. Det för att synliggöra om ett behov av samverkan mellan fritidshemspersonal och elevhälsoteamet fanns och hur det gemensamma uppdraget kan verka stärkande för det hälsofrämjande uppdraget. Studiens frågeställningar löd:  Hur beskrivs samverkan mellan fritidshemmets personal och skolans elevhälsoteam? På vilket sätt kan samverkan mellan fritidshem och elevhälsoteamet bidra till ett gemensamt hälsofrämjande arbete och verksamhet? Studien baserades på en online-enkätundersökning bestående av kvalitativ forskningsmetod med endast öppna frågor av kvalitativ art. Online-enkäten publicerades och distribuerades till 18 personer som var verksamma inom fritidshem samt elevhälsoteam. Av de 13 respondenter som deltog i studien var fem fritidslärare, tre skolkuratorer och fem skolsköterskor. De som deltog i studien arbetar på olika grundskolor i tre medelstora kommuner.  Studiens empiri analyserades genom Aaron Antonovskys salutogena perspektiv och känsla av sammanhang (KASAM). Genom tematiserade kategoriseringar utifrån ett nulägesperspektiv och ett framåtsyftande perspektiv, presenterades resultatet. Resultatet synliggjorde brister inom samverkansuppdraget mellan fritidshemmet och elevhälsan samt att det hälsofrämjande arbetet fortfarande är åsidosatt gentemot det tidigare åtgärdsbaserade arbetet. Resultatet visade också en önskan och tes från professionerna om att samverkan mellan dessa parter kan stärka det gemensamma hälsofrämjande arbetet. Slutsatsen visar på att studiens resultat överensstämmer med vad litteratur och forskning framhåller angående om att en samsyn ska finnas för att ett samverkansarbete ska kunna etableras.

Denna studie handlar om att undersöka det språkfrämjande materialet Babblarna. Syftet med studien är att öka kunskapen om vad förskollärare har för erfarenheter av att använda materialet Babblarna med barn i förskolan och om förskollärarna gör det utifrån materialets beskrivning och ändamål. Inom denna studie har sju förskollärare intervjuats för att undersöka förskollärares erfarenheter och uppfattning av det språkfrämjande materialet Babblarna. Resultatet av denna studie är att förskollärarna finner materialet Babblarna som lustfyllt, kreativt, språkfrämjande och deras erfarenheter är att barn tycker om Babblarna. Därför används materialet i en mängd olika aktiviteter som baseras på barns intresse. Detta visar att Babblarna används på ett vidare sätt i språkutvecklingssyfte med barn och inte bara för att främja barnens fonologiska medvetenhet. Resultatet visar även att Babblarna används utifrån dess beskrivning och ändamål då materialet handlar om att väcka intresse.

Studien syftar till att undersöka hur förskollärare arbetar i rutinsituationer samt vilka möjligheter till lärande som skapas. För att undersöka detta genomfördes fem observationer av tre förskollärare, vid påklädning i förskolans hall. Med hjälp av kvalitativ metod tematiserades resultatet och två huvudkategorier skapades utifrån det insamlade materialet. Dessa är Lärarstyrd kommunikation och Ömsesidig kommunikation. Under Lärarstyrd kommunikation skapades två underrubriker. Dessa är Uppmanade instruktioner och Lärarstyrda frågor. Tre underrubriker skapades för Ömsesidig kommunikation. Dessa är Öppna frågor, Uppmuntrande samtal och Aktivt deltagande. Resultatet relateras till Säljös (2014) beskrivning av det sociokulturella perspektivet. Med stöd av teorin analyseras förskollärarnas olika arbetssätt utifrån den närmsta utvecklingszonen, handlingar i samspel och samtal mellan människor. Studiens resultat påvisar olika kommunikativa arbetssätt som ett arbetslag använder sig av under påklädningen i förskolans hall, samt hur detta inverkar på barnens delaktighet och därmed även på deras lärandemöjligheter. Studiens slutsats synliggör att förskollärarnas arbetssätt vid påklädning i förskolans hall kan påverka vilka möjligheter barnen får till lärande och utveckling. I ett och samma arbetslag kan flera kommunikativa arbetssätt användas vid påklädning i förskolans hall. Förskollärarens pedagogiska medvetenhet kring dessa olika arbetssätt kan påverka rutinsituationens utformning.

This study aims to examine leisure teachers’ understandings and experiencesworking with equality in youth recreation centers in Sweden. An online survey wasadministered among leisure teachers working in youth recreational centers. Theresult of the study shows that a vast majority of the teachers have a positiveapproach to working with equality; however, a large number of teachers noted thatmore support is needed to successfully work with the equality in youth recreationalcenters. There is a difference in how the teachers perceive the term gender andequality, where most teachers are more agreed on what equality means than whatgender means. The teachers are positive that they are making a difference in theirdaily work, even though they do not discuss questions about equality in the workteams.

Detta arbete har som huvudsyfte att analysera några erfarna lärares olika metoder och val av material i sin matematikundervisning, och hur de motiverar sina val för att genomföra en likvärdig undervisning för alla elever - med fokus på elever med svenska som andraspråk. I detta arbete har jag valt att intervjua fyra lärare från två olika skolor. Då syftet med detta arbete var att analysera lärares val av metoder vid matematikundervisningen utgick jag från lärarnas egna perspektiv. Med inspiration från grounded theory har en kvalitativ dataanalys genomförts från intervjuerna. Både intervjuerna och litteraturgenomgången visar att det inte finns något rätt eller fel vid val av undervisningsmetod, men att vissa metoder ibland fungerar bättre än andra. Det gäller att hitta det sätt som fungerar i den grupp man jobbar i för tillfället. De egenskaper som verkar lysa igenom som några av de viktigare egenskaperna hos en lärare är att vara flexibel.

The paper highlights four tendencies in the media reporting of teachers and education: (a) recurring patterns of defining education in crisis, (b) mantling responsibility as exterior spokespersons for education and teachers, (c) excluding teachers’ and educational researchers’ knowledge and experiences in the media and (d) simplifying the notion of a good and bad teacher through stereotypes and dualistic frameworks that overlook task and relational complexity. In this paper, I explore how the simplifications of teachers and education that are often presented in the media can be interpreted as structural violence. In the light of these tendencies, research on structural violence helps to remind us that: (a) teachers are unwillingly forced into a paradoxical (in)visibility, (b) they are squeezed in-between two pressuring external demands, namely the complexities in their professional assignment that are politically steered and stereotypes of the good and bad teacher produced by, in this case, the media, (c) they risk wasting time and energy on addressing prejudices that have nothing to do with the specific work they are expected to do and (d) the logic of binary stereotypes is a power issue that brands teachers into a position of permanent failure.

The paper highlights four tendencies in the media reporting of teachers and education: a) recurring patterns of defining education in crisis, b) mantling responsibility as exterior spokespersons for education and teachers, c) excluding teachers’ and educational researchers’ knowledge and experiences in the media, and d) simplifying the notion of a good and bad teacher through stereotypes and dualistic frameworks that overlook task- and relational complexity. In this paper I explore how the simplifications of teachers and education that are often presented in the media can be interpreted as structural violence. In the light of these tendencies, research on structural violence helps to remind us that: a) teachers are unwillingly forced into a paradoxical (in)visibility, b) they are squeezed in-between two pressuring external demands, namely the complexities in their professional assignment that are politically steered and stereotypes of the good and bad teacher produced by, in this case, the media, c)  they risk wasting time and energy on addressing prejudices that have nothing to do with the specific work they are expected to do, and d) the logic of binary stereotypes is a power issue that brands teachers into a position of permanent failure.

Läraruppdraget idag är komplext. Lärare förväntas jonglera såväl kunskapsförmedling som frågor kring socialisation och likabehandling. För att hantera detta komplexa arbete behöver läraren kunna förstå och värdera sina val i relation till olika syften. I boken berörs bland annat följande frågor: - Vilka dilemman brottas lärare med i sitt arbete med likabehandling? - Hur kan dessa dilemman förstås med utgångspunkt i forskning om våld? - Med avseende på våldets komplexitet – vilka handlingsstrategier finns att tillgå? Boken riktar sig främst till blivande och yrkesverksamma lärare. Den ger en repertoar av användbara begrepp och presenterar olika perspektiv som kan vara till stöd i det praktiska arbetet i skolan.

In the light of current tendencies where the fear of foreigners is increasing in seemingly stably democratic societies and educational debates tend to emphasize large scale investigations to solve various educational issues the relationship between plurality and ethics becomes important to revive. The purpose of this contribution is to theoretically explore and empirically exemplify how an ethic that take into consideration research about oppression (social) and an awareness about peoples intrical differrence (individual) might contribute to education. Through the concept of ethics of dissensus she brings a fresh dimension into the discussion about ethics in education by providing an understanding that strives not to overlook the complicated presence of difference between the past-present-future, between two subjects and between the inner and the outer life.  Accordingly, Ziarek’s reasoning suggests the need to leave the simplified playing field of ’either-or’ and engage in the communicative negotiation that constitutes the fragile middle-ground between two extreme poles in history education.  

In the light of current tendencies where the fear of foreigners is increasing in seemingly stably democratic societies. This paper aims to revive the presence of the body as a central condition and experience for human interaction. The body as an inevitable source for conscious/unconscious responses to others helps to understand how various forms of violence such as xenophobia and hate crimes come into expression. The purpose of this contribution is to theoretically explore and empirically exemplify the relationship between historical consciousness and moral consciousness as an educational concern by turning to the writings of Ewa Ziarek and her notion of ethics of dissensus. Through the concept of ethics of dissensus she brings a fresh dimension into the discussion of how the relationship between historical and moral consciousness can be understood. She does this by providing concepts and understandings of how (history) education can be approached without overlooking the complicated presence of difference between the past-presentfuture, between two subjects and between the inner and the outer life. Accordingly, Ziarek’s reasoning suggests the need to leave the simplified playing field of ’either-or’ and engage in the communicative negotiation that constitutes the fragile middle-ground between two extreme poles in history education.

Over the past few years, demands for evidence-based teaching have increased, resulting notably in a decrease in the use of theories in teaching elsewhere in Sweden, while research on violence has shown the need for teachers to interact in their school practice with the support of a theoretical framework. This article analyses different approaches to the use of theories in teacher training in relation to their potential to address bullying. For this purpose, some beliefs against which critical research on violence has been struggling are revealed and are directly related to evidence-based positivist research. A theoretical analysis of educational practice is necessary to avoid the existence of pedagogical strategies against violence where the use of dichotomies and essentialist claims dominate, highlighting the controversies that teachers face on a day-to-day in their daily practice. © 2019 Grupo de Investigacion FORCE. All rights reserved.

The purpose of the paper is to contribute to international research on the media’s role when it comes to naming and framing the debate about teacher education, by using Sweden as a case. Four major newspapers in 2016-2017 have been analyzed in relation to: a) the challenges/strengths of current teacher education, b) solutions for changes/improvements in current teacher education and c) who the actors for promoting these changes/improvements might be. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, the study shows that the media mainly emphasizes the negative aspects of teacher education, specifically a scepticism towards the scientific basis. An outside-inprofessionalism is emphasized. The desired changes are mainly concerned with altering postmodern perspectives to cognitive ones, followed by organizational changes and the development of teachers’ professional skills. Finally, the debate is fuelled by a few people outside the field of educational research who argue that researchers in psychology and neuroscience should have the power to define the content of education. The results corresponds well with international research, but at the same time provide information about current challenges and solutions that advocators in media highlights in relation to Swedish teacher education. They bring to fore the need for more nuanced debates about teacher education.

The in-betweens of education. The in-betweens of education highlight the relational and spatial dimensions of education, which have been the focus of most of my research. Recognizing the relational nature of both educational and research undertakings, I begin by developing a stance in the field of Didaktik, also known as curriculum studies. Having initially studied teachers’ relational professionality, my present research interest is educational environments. These have been analyzed using aspects of physical, conceived and social space, and from the perspective of schools as dynamic and open ecosystems. Here, a selection of contributions to the growing research field of learning environments is introduced, including theoretical and empirically grounded concepts. In the final section, I outline some of the emerging tendencies in the field and give examples of ongoing collaborations and research.

One aspect within the National core curriculum at Teacher Educations in Sweden is the foundation of democracy that sets the frames for organizations and human conditions. Within this core curriculum plurality is indirectly given a central role and in relation to this the importance to contest various forms of violence such as discrimination and other forms of violation. Drawing on ambitions to contest violence in education the paper challenges ideas that teacher students only need to rely on evidence-based theoretical methods in their future profession. This is accomplished by analyzing and comparing theories of plurality as described in three text-books used in courses at one Teacher Education in Sweden. The textbooks express three different theoretical discourses of approaching social challenges regarding violence, plurality in education, and teacher expectations. Hence, since violence is played out in a variety of ways the logic of evidence based research is insufficient as comes to handle plurality

A pedagogy of vision and seeing has a long history. Teachers’ professional vision, seeing and noticing are today regarded as important factors that affect the quality of their teaching and are considered important to develop. The article argues that there is a need to gain a deeper understanding of teachers’ professional vision, seeing and noticing and how they can be developed by creating bridges between various research traditions. Drawing on hermeneutic conversation as a method, the study addresses how two different researchers, John Hattie and Donald Schön, describe a) the purpose of teachers’ vision, seeing and noticing, b) what kind of development regarding teachers’ vision, seeing and noticing they suggest and c) where plausible similarities and/or differences between their reasoning can be found. The article’s major contribution is that it provides a metacognitive roadmap for professionals and educational researchers that both shows where Schön and Hattie intersect and where their views of teachers’ professional vision, seeing and noticing differ.

The article explores ethical conceptualisations of time that take the existence of the embodied Other in education into consideration. Kristeva's time/memory paradox is discussed with regard to teachers' everyday judgements in relation to student learning. In conclusion, learning as an unruptured endeavour is impossible when the time of the embodied Other is taken into account. In this sense, teachers need to be aware of: 1) the time gap between people, 2) the time gap between the conscious and subconscious (time/timelessness), 3) the fact that teachers' and students' meaning-making is always tainted by past memory, 4) the ways in which the timelessness of the subconscious crashes into conscious meaning-making in the present and creates ruptures that affect the content of learning and the life conditions of Others, 5) how frozen time (shadow of time) can be used as a way of learning from ruptures, and 6) that processing time(s) is just as important as 'progressing in it'.

Du funderar kanske på att bli lärare, har redan börjat på lärarutbildning, är allmänt intresserad av lärande och utbildning, eller är en (erfaren) lärare som är nyfiken på vad en introduktionsbok för yrket i dag kan innehålla. Oavsett varför du intresserar dig för undervisningsfrågor, är du varmt välkommen att ta del av boken som handlar om ett av de viktigaste, mest stimulerande och äldsta yrkena i världen.

Syftet med boken är att ge dig som vill eller precis ska läsa till lärare en mycket kort överblick över vad det innebär att bli lärare i dag, och hur du på bästa sätt kan börja förbereda dina studier och ditt förhållningssätt till kursinnehåll, kursmål och verksamhetsförlagd utbildning (VFU).

Världens bästa yrke?! är utöver introduktionskapitlet indelad i sju korta kapitel: ”Alla vet hur en bra lärare ska vara …”, Läraryrket i historisk belysning, Styrdokument för utbildning, Pedagogik och didaktik, Lärarprofession och undervisningsskicklighet, Vetenskaplighet och beprövad erfarenhet och ”Snart dags att söka jobb”.

Världens bästa yrke?! erbjuder en förenklad karta och ett analys­verktyg som stöd för främst lärarstudenter men även för lärare ute på fältet, och alla övriga som intresserar sig för utbildningsfrågor för att bättre förstå yrket i dag.

Drawing on ambitions to contest violence in education the paper challenges ideas that teacher students only need to rely on evidence-based theory in their future profession. This is accomplished by analyzing and comparing theories of plurality as described in three text-books used in courses at one Teacher Education in Sweden. The textbooks express three different theoretical discourses of approaching social challenges regarding violence, plurality in education, and teacher expectations. Hence, since violence is played out in a variety of ways the logic of evidence based research is insufficient as comes to handle plurality.

The desire to protect children from violence is clearly formulated in the Children’s Right Convention (CRV). For example, the right of children to be protected from:” /…/all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child is clearly stated in Article 19 of the CRC, which was ratified by Sweden in 1989 (United Nations, 1989). The right of children not to be subjected to various forms of violence is also emphasized in other international treaties signed and/or ratified by the Swedish state (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2010, the Treaty of Lisbon). In order to assure this right, the Swedish legal framework (Prop., 2009/10:232) stipulates that the subjection of children to violence should be avoided at all cost. Italy assures the right of a childhood free from violence thanks to its legal framework as well. Italy’s legal framework is made up of the international documents previously cited, the CRC (ratified in 1991 with the LEGGE 27 maggio 1991, n. 176. Italy’s legal framework is also made up of national laws, in particular by the founding one: the Constitution. Art. 3. This article is used as a base for the creation of national policy to prevent the subjection of children to violence.

In this study, the word violence is used in a broad sense to cover the numerous situations in which people are at risk of being physically and psychologically damaged (Hamby and Grych, 2013), such as in cases of discrimination, bullying, violation, or harassment (cf. Greeff and Grobler, 2008; Parkes, 2007). The ambition to oppose and counteract violence through juridification in schools has increased in Sweden through the introduction of the Discrimination Act (SFS, 2008:567) and the paragraph regarding the treatment of others in the Education Act (SFS, 2010:800, paragraph 6). For what concerns the treatment of others and discrimination, Italy refers to the National Plan for educating to the respect of others (Rispetta le differenze. Piano nazionale per l’educazione al rispetto). This plan aims at promoting the values stated in the 3rd article of the Constitution by educating and training students, teachers and families.

There are several studies conducted in Italy and Sweden about how this particular right is approached in policy (Francia and Edling, 2016, Edling and Francia, 2017, Biffi, 2017). Although, children’s right not to be subjected to violence is given attention in many countries today it is still a question of negotiation as concerns how these rights are materialized in each country’s educational policy as well as why they are described as important to consider. Whereas Sweden is described as a highly secular (previously protestant) and individualistic country, Italy is pictured as a non-secular, catholic country premiering the collective (see Meyer, 2014; Integrationsverket, 2005).  

Against this background, it becomes of interest to compare how two different countries like Sweden and Italy approach children’s right not to be subjected to various forms of violence by analysing educational policy that presents motifs and directives for teachers in different stages. In Italy, the plan for the 2016-2019 teacher training in chapter 4.6 (Piano per la formazione dei docenti 2016-2019) declares that teachers have to be trained in order to teach them how to promote respect for others in their classrooms in order to prevent violence.

Method

The following questions are asked: 1. How do the different policy documents in Sweden and Italy describe and explain teachers’ responsibilities to oppose violence in school? 2. Are there any similarities and/or differences between the countries as regards the question above? If so what kind of similarities and/or differences? To conduct a comparative study, both linkages and differences need to be taken into account. Linkages are created by posing similar questions to the material analysed and differences imply awareness that all comparisons always contain cultural and contextual differences and contestations that need to be addressed (e.g. No´voa & Yariv-Mashal, 2003). As regards linkages, Kazamias (2001) points to the need to use theoretical concepts as lenses to make more 200 coherent comparisons (p. 446) – in this case theoretical understandings of violence. This paper is based on a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of educational policy highlighting teachers’ responsibilities to promote children’s right not to be subjected to violence. Based on Fairclough (1992, 2000, 2001), we argue that CDA facilitates an understanding of the dialectical relation between discourse and social practice. Following Fairclough (2000), the interpretation of the data encompasses three dimensions: (a) text analysis (description), (b) processing analysis (interpretation), and (c) social analysis (explanation). In our study, these dimensions correspond to our research questions.

Expected outcomes

The study aims to distinguish how teachers’ responsibilities to oppose violence towards children is expressed and motivated by the various policy documents. The comparison makes it possible to discuss plausible similarities and differences between the countries as well as discuss cultural and political explanations for the findings that can help combat child violence. 

References

Biffi, Elisabetta. (2017). Protecting minors against violence: from strategy to practice. Education Sciences & Society. 1, 47-64. Fairclough, Norman. (1989). Language and power. London: Longman. London: Longman. Fairclough, Norman. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press. Francia, Guadalupe, & Edling, Silvia. (2016). Children's rights and violence: A case analysis at a Swedish boarding school. Childhood, in process. Greeff, P., & Grobler, A. (2008). Bullying during the intermediate school phase. Childhood 15(1), 127-144. Hamby, Sherry , & Grych, John (2013). The Web of Violence Exploring Connections Among Different Forms of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse. New York, London: Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg. Kazamias, Andreas M. . (2001). ‘Re-inventing the Historical in Comparative Education: Reflection on a Protean Episteme by a Contemporary Player’. Comparative Education, 37(4), 439-450. LEGGE 27 maggio 1991, n. 176 Ratifica ed esecuzione della convenzione sui diritti del fanciullo, fatta a New York il 20 novembre 1989. (GU n.135 del 11-6-1991 - Suppl. Ordinario n. 35-), The Universal Declaration of Human Rights; The European Convention of Human Rights; The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2010, and the Treaty of Lisbon. Linee Guida Nazionali -art. 1 comma 16 L. 107/2015- Educare al rispetto: per la parità tra i sessi, la prevenzione della violenza di genere e di tutte le forme di discriminazione Linee di orientamento per la prevenzione e il contrasto del cyberbullismo nelle scuole -art. 4 L. 71/2017- Meyer, Erin. (2014). The cultrure map. Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business. NY: PublicAffairs US. Nóvoa, Antonio , & Yariv-Mashal, Tali (2003). Comparative Research in Education: A Mode of Governance or a Historical Journey? Comparative Education, 39(4), 423-438. Parkes, Jenny. (2007). The multiple meanings of violence. Children's talk about life in a South African neighbourhood. Childhood 14(4), 401-414. Prop. (2009/10:232). Strategi för att stärka barnets rättigheter i Sverige. Stockholm. SFS. (2008:567). Diskrimineringslag. SFS. (2010:800). Skollag.

This chapter provides with in-depth profiles of teachers from unique sociocultural contexts that can raise thoughts of patterns and connections that can help enhance teacher judgment and professional development all over the world. Research shows that teachers’ competences hold a key position to increase students’ achievements. Approaching the teacher profession as a simplistic division between excellent and non-excellent teachers in a dual sense is common not the least in media coverages about education. This tendency to simplify and divide complex phenomenon gives the impression that there is such a thing as a perfect teacher meaning that every shortcoming is a signal about teacher failure. Central in all of the teacher narratives and perhaps also as a consequence of the narrative methodology as such is an awareness that various units in education are interconnected and influence outcomes. This can also be described in terms of a relational dimension in education. 

In the Convention of the right of the Child (CRC) it is stated that all children should be protected from all kinds of violence. However war, social conflicts and climatic catastrophes have placed immigrant children at risk to object for violence. The purpose of this paper is to study how Sweden politically advice actors within the educational field to approach newly arrived pupils in education by placing it in relation to research about violence. What is particularly payed attention to in the policy document is need to oppose the following risks: b)being in risk of exclusion, c) facing perceptions of assimilation, and f) a lack of clear responsibilities amongst the actors assisting the immigrant children. A fuzziness of responsibilities is at time created with concepts such as “the school should”.

Education for the Other is the most dominant strategy emphasizing that the newly arrived child’s needs in education should be recognized as well as the importance to distribute what is lacking to promote the pupil’s development. The advices do not say anything about the content of knowledge required amongst various actors in order to do analysis of processes.

Research question/objective

Starting from a social justice perspective within the field of leadership (Shields 2007, 2010) this paper aims to contribute in understanding various conceptions of leadership in relation to violent cases at a Swedish boarding school.  More specifically the paper asks the following question: How do leaders in various positions describe their responsibilities as leaders in relation to violent cases that took place at a Swedish boarding school?

Methodological framework:

The paper is based on a Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) (1992, 2000, 2001) of different educational and media documents concerning cases of violence at a boarding Swedish schools. This analysis involves following three dimensions: (a) text analysis (description), (b) processing anal- sis (interpretation), and (c) social analysis (explanation). In our study, these dimensions correspond to our research questions.

The expected conclusions/results

This study shows that school violence is perceived both as a public or a private matter. When school violence is conceived as a private matter, the leaders point out the necessity of protecting and honoring the privacy of the school. In these cases pupils’ education is considered as a private good and therefore the competency to deal with violent acts is considered as a “family” outside the governance of the public
Based on the libertarian conception of childhood. On the contrary when the school violence is described as a public matter, the leaders claims for government intervention to protect the rights of children as stipulated in Swedish national steering documents and in national and international legislation on children’s rights.

This result of the study indicates that systemic violence at the boarding school in question can be interpreted as a part of a socialization culture of privileged classes aiming to educate leaders that can maintain and reproduce power positions and privileges in the Swedish society. Four different discourses of child violence emerged in the analysis, namely: (1) violence is created because some few people break the rule, (2) the victims of violence don’t behave properly, (3) boy scams happen but are harmless, and (4) because quarrels are part of family (the private) life. The study provides with examples of a hidden curriculum that endorses leadership models that are not compatible with the development of democracy and diversity in the Swedish society. Taken account that a considerable percentage of boarding school students will have power positions in different areas of the Swedish society in the future, it is important to reflect on the possibilities for democratic, and hence non-violent, socialization the models of leadership presented in this study promote. 

The report is a summary of a study commissioned by a Swedish municipality with the aim of gaining a better understanding of why a relatively large number of girls in middle school in the particular municipality feel more vulnerable than boys. The study is based on research that shows that there are no strong biological explanations for any differences between the sexes, which points to the importance of visualizing the impact of culture on, so called, gender patterns. There is a considerable amount of research today indicating that bullying takes shape and is perpetuated in a socio-ecological environment where micro-, meso- and macro levels interact. Building on this perspective, 44 persons in three schools, differing in background characteristics, were interviewed using semi-structured interview techniques and categorized using case-study and thematic content analysis. The interviews generated nearly 800 pages of transcribed material and reveal a nuanced picture of how pupils, teachers, school leaders, health- and administrative staff understand and describe their actions in how they approach the school values and school safety, with a particular focus on gender. There is a great deal of competence and relatively deep understanding of issues related to vulnerability and bullying in the group if interviewees - a competence that is largely in line with current research. What a study like this can contribute is a systematic basis and support for professional judgement. The results reveal: a) a wide variety of ways of understanding certain girls' vulnerability; b) strategies/measures used at the three schools; and c) various obstacles to stimulating school safety within a socio-ecological environment.  

The overall results show that interviewees, in general, are aware of boys and girls as being unique individuals and that not only some girls, but also some boys do feel bad and do need to be identified and supported. At the same time, the results reveal patterns in how girls feel, behave and are treated that are important to highlight. The descriptions of girls' and boys' differences are generally about the fact that they are perceived and experience themselves as occupying two different arenas where gender-stereotypical roles have been developed, based on stereotypes of an outgoing and aggressive boy and an oppressed and silent girl prepared to take the blame, who sometimes blames herself, and who, in addition, may bully others in the form of, for example, dismissive staring, slander and ostracism. The negative use of social media appears to be particularly damaging to girls' well-being and sense of vulnerability. Girls are also vulnerable in unowned places in school where adults are not present and competition occurs. In cases where girls are outgoing and loud, some feel they are not treated in the same way as boys. There are also recurring stories that girls and boys generally play different games and do not mix during breaks, which reinforces the separation of the two arenas. 

At the same time, a great deal of commitment and a broad repertoire of measures emerge from the stakeholders' interviews, based on an awareness of how micro, macro and meso levels need to work together. In particular, pupils highlight the importance of teachers seeing them, creating organised forms of activities during breaks and being consistent in dealing with different forms of vulnerability. When it comes to obstacles, they mention a) the gender norms that exist in society, including the impact of social media; b) negative consequences of an increased burden of documentation; c) relational and existential conditions; d) increase in neuropsychological diagnoses; e) lack of time, f) difficulties in knowing what they are expected to observe and make visible school-safety questionnaires and practice; g) inconsistent behavior among staff; h) shortcomings in communication between different actors; i) difficulties in reaching consensus and difficulties in recruiting Swedish-speaking substitutes; j) evolving long-term leadership strategies; and k) an increase in coarse and offensive language that weaves itself into everyday speech.

This paper explores the crossroads between state interference, social justice and leadership at a Swedish elite boarding school. The data consist of interviews published in newspapers and tabloids, reports, and court texts written in response to four serious cases of violence reported at one Swedish boarding school in 2011, 2013 and 2017. The analysis uses a systemic violence perspective, Schöns’ frame reflection theory and Shields’ transformative leadership conception as theoretical starting points. Accordingly, there is a clash between the naming/framing of the Swedish Schools Inspectorate and that of the leaders at the boarding school. The majority of the leaders maintain that the collective is always right, that violence is always the act of one or a few individual actor(s), and that it only matters if there was an intention to cause harm. On the other hand, the Swedish Schools Inspectorate stresses that violent acts need to be dealt with holistically

In this chapter, the issue of social justice in teacher education (TE) is addressed from a Swedish perspective. The chapter begins by briefly describing the Swedish educational context in schools and TE, with a specific emphasis on the task of educators and teacher educators to promote social justice and as a consequence to this counteract various forms of social violence: such as violation, including bullying, harassment and discrimination. The second section introduces evidence on fruitful strategies for counteracting social violence in school, based on a national research study that takes into account international research. Following this, we exemplify how these findings are interlaced the pedagogies of TE in Sweden. The chapter ends with thoughts on such pedagogies in an international context, and a brief conclusion.

Drawing on the ethics of alterity and the ethics of dissensus, this study addresses how teacher professionality can be understood in relation to the notion of sensing. Both these ethics indicate a desire to oppose various forms of violence in society. The author challenges the assumption that all that is needed to oppose violence is the moulding of a proper moral character. According to Lévinas’ and Ziarek’s writings on sensing the Other, education alone will not overcome power dynamics and the unconscious distancing between people. Instead, these aspects need to be continuously addressed by teachers. Rather than trying to find the best ethical theory, we contend that theories cannot replace the critical judgement of teachers, which necessarily presumes a more widened view and more thoughtful choices in their ever-changing practices.