The overarching aim of the present study is to investigate such an invisible object; namely, schoolbags and how their contents function in the lives of pupils between the privacy of the home and the societal world of schools. A sociomaterial approach is used to understand schoolbags as objects that enable certain actions and norms. The uniqueness of the study calls for a more basic approach on the analytical level, carefully investigating and describing the content of the schoolbags as well as their context seeing them as frozen moments of processes. The data material consists of photographs depicting contents of 16 German satchels, which were analysed alongside a description of exterior appearances of schoolbags and the material context of the classroom. The findings show that the function of the schoolbags exceeds their obvious transportation purposes, and that they are complex, entangled objects in the construction of "schooling" and "the pupil".

his paper reports on a two-year project focusing on health com-municators working with refugees in Sweden. By employing parti-cipatory action research and the theory of practice architectures, the study examines a health information practice for newly arrived refugees and highlights its potentials and constraints. The joint meetings that occurred between the participating researcher and the health communicators during the project were the primary source for collaboration, development, and data collection. The findings show that perceptions of limitations due to existing power structures initially hindered the group from experimenting with new activities for the groups of refugees. However, as the communicators gained experience, the conversations in the joint meeting practice changed, which facilitated the action research process. By challenging common working methods, which were initially perceived as causes for concern, the communicators recog-nised that the concretisation of the health information they wanted to convey could also function as a useful pedagogical tool. The analysis shows that, despite constraints during the working process, the participatory action research practice created a democratic work process which empowered all participants. Collective talks in the communicative space nurtured an architecture that generated new ideas and made it possible to leave the classroom-based teaching situation for new ways of learning about health and physical activity. The findings also show that participatory action research made the communicators aware of their capacity to imple-ment change by offering various movement-based activities that benefited the participating refugees and increased their agency and empowermentT

The Education Inc. research project uncovered the use of lobbying by private entities in the Swedish school system, which was unexpected and raised concerns. While lobbying in the EU is well-researched and regulated, the study of lobbying in education in Sweden and other countries remains uncertain. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of lobbying in education on an international level, including how it is defined and utilized. This knowledge will inform a forthcoming larger qualitative study. This study includes a literature review using scoping review as a method and a content analysis of 52 articles related to lobbying within education. The main findings show that research in this field is primarily focused on the Global North, and there is a significant lack of research from other regions. Additionally, there is no prominent figure or strong research group within the field. The selected articles primarily address the efforts of interest groups to empower vulnerable groups, with topics such as social justice, civil rights, activism, minority groups, literacy, and reading skills frequently explored. The most significant result of this study is however the lack of systematic and fundamental research on lobbying in education. This is concerning because private actors have a significant influence on education through lobbying, informing policy directions and decisions, despite the potential impact on fragile democratic procedures and core institutions in society.

As the privatisation of the public sector has grown rapidly in Sweden in the last decade, private companies have become an imperative part of education. Private companies sell and deliver consultancy, hardware, software, services, etc. to schools and municipalities. This study examines a growing rate of activities from companies and businesses working within public sectors. It also examines consequences of cooperation between private and public actors. Findings show that multiple actors meet in different forms and with different functions, in multiple ways and with diverse agendas. What can be discerned is strong Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), where actors and networks are linked together, directly or indirectly, in fluid and flexible relations and partnerships. Private actors on educational markets not only becomes edupreneurs but policyneurs, a new concept introduced. As private actors engage in the policy making and the public sphere, a complex and disorganised landscape with new formations of strong actors emerge, entailing a number of consequences. One implication is the establishment of lobbyism in the Swedish educational landscape, with potentially negative consequences for democracy. One conclusion is that new formations of power dissolve the roles and functions of private and public actors within education, with implications on decision-making, transparency, and democracy. 

There are objects that are so strongly attached with a situation that they become hard to distinguish from the situation itself. They “become invisible”, although crucial for the emergence and the actual becoming of the situation.

The overarching aim is to investigate such an invisible object, i.e., schoolbags and how their contents function in the lives of pupils. Of special interest is the connection between the privacy of the home and the public, societal world of school and classroom. Whilst earlier studies have focused on ergonomics this study aims at contributing to an understanding of the complex functions of schoolbags, providing new perspectives on their pedagogical and social role.

Socio-materialist theory is used as an ontological stance understanding schoolbags as objects that establish and maintain actions and norms in a given social context. The uniqueness of the study calls for a more basic approach on the analytical level, carefully investigating and describing the content of the schoolbags as well as their context, i.e., the German school system. The study’s original point of departure has been a genuine curiosity for and interest in the school bag’s (educational) place particularly in the German context.

The study is thus deeply rooted in the data material which consists of photographs of the contents of 16 German satchels provided by middle-school pupils. The contents were unpacked, carefully arranged and photographed by helpers at the school. The resulting photographs are carefully analysed alongside a description of exterior appearances of schoolbags as well as the material context of the classroom based on results from earlier research, both by the involved researchers and others.

Findings show that the function of the schoolbags exceeds their obvious transportation purposes, and that they are a complex, entangled object in the construction of “schooling” and “the pupil”. At the same time they contain anchors to the private family lives of the pupils, and such time that are intimate and deeply personal. The findings call for more research on invisible items within education and the role they play when transporting not only pens and paper but norms and values.

This paper explores educational trade fairs as part of the contemporary networked governance of public sector education. The focus is on the forms and functions of network governance in educational trade fairs and how different powers of private and public networking actors and ideas are played out, including the wider implications for education. Based on an event ethnographic case study of a Nordic educational technology fair, the study identifies three significant forms of how network governance powers are constituted: through consensual culture, blurred public-private actor roles, and market individualised addresses. Together this network governance has de-politicising effects that mask power imbalances and evoke democratic challenges for public sector education. The paper discusses how diffused market networking powers shape a national public education sector, and the forms of resistance and responsibilities within such governance. The merits of in-depth process-based event ethnography, which includes social media data, are raised and problematised.

This chapter gives an intimate account on the research process when participating in and gathering data at a four-day school development trip to London, England, arranged by a large private educational technology company from Sweden. Using a sociomaterial perspective and the war paint metaphor the chapter reflects on ethics, alcohol, clothes and identity discussing camouflage, appearance and disappearance. The chapter shows how researchers and participants appearances are multiple and contingent, always relational and never completely in their own hands. It also shows that these processes are linked to policy processes. Moreover, the chapter displays a new layer in policy networking within education whose informal characteristics are different from traditional policy networking used to be studied in earlier research.

In this paper we re-turn(Barad, 2014) parts of the diffractive analyses conducted in a research project on science and gender in preschool (Günther-Hanssen, 2018, 2020; Günther-Hanssen, Danielsson, & Andersson, 2020). In our first re-turning, we explore how a swing and scientific phenomenain the data co-created the knowledge construction in entanglements with the researcher. To do this, we engage with how embodiment and re-actualized experiences of swinging came to matter. We then re-turn how certain events in the data are alwayspart of other events,both in time and space. For this task, we elaborate with writing different situations from the data through one another. As we continue re-turning the analysis, new diffraction patterns emergewith each turn. By the end of the paper, our diffractive writings and readings have been re-turned into explanations of how pendulums can be usedtothink-withand approach gendering in preschool.