This article explores the conditions required for preschool managers to support change through research aimed at developing educational practice. It examines factors that enable and constrain support of change and the arrangements that can be identified in relation to these factors. The results suggest that arrangements that support a more technical and accountable form of practice constrain managers’ capacity to support research aiming to change practice. However, the findings also show thatmanagers do have possibilities to support such research. One key factor is whether the research is in line with their goals and efforts. Another is whether they have trust in the researchers and the educators implementing the change. The results also indicate that one way for leaders to enable change is by creating meaningful spaces for sharing experiences and developing practices. This involves the reframing of leadership practices into a more democratic and collaborative approach, and implies that cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements are needed to support such approach. Hence, for research projects aimed at changing educational practice, it is necessary to identify the specific arrangements connected to that practice. This is especially important in times when practice-based research is promoted as a way to attain educational goals. 

In the Nordic countries, there is a culturally rooted understanding of nature as a ‘good’ place for children. The aim of the article is to deconstruct this understanding by exploring how different mobile preschools – buses that bring children to different places on a daily basis – relate to nature spaces and children’s learning and well-being in them. Based on critical theorization of place and the nature/culture divide, we argue that, while there exists an idealization of nature within the mobile preschool tradition, the ways that nature is viewed as ‘good’ for children differ depending on the children’s ethnic background and residential area. The results show that compensatory ideas are especially vivid when it comes to migrant children who live in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods. Education in nature, aiming at freedom and agency, brought forward in the preschool curriculum in the Nordic countries, seems more reserved for children who already have the right kind of cultural background and language. The ‘other’ children, however, are more likely to receive an education aiming to compensate for something perceived as missing – that is, the ‘right’ kind of capital regarding ‘nature’.

The article examines how migrant children in Sweden are fostered to become ‘Swedish’ in a preschool setting aiming to integrate them and their families into the Swedish society. The analysis, where Bernstein’s (1971, 2000) concepts of classification, framing, and reconceptualization are used, shows how the children are fostered against a background of everyday nationalism, produced in preschool curriculum, recontextualized in the talk of the educators and reproduced in everyday routines in the preschool setting. The analysis also shows how the image of the rich and competent child, emphasized in Swedish policy documents and the national child centred pedagogy, does not apply to children constructed as the ‘other’. Instead, a controlled pedagogy aiming to compensate for something perceived as lacking in the children is legitimized.

The article aims to highlight the means of rhythmicity to social life from within a study of children’s daily travelling with a mobile preschool in Sweden. The point of departure is the neglected mobility practices of young children in research and the difficult relation between children’s everyday movements and persistent representations of childhood time and place. Based on sensuous ethnographic fieldwork travelling with the preschool, the analysis deconstructs to visualize mobility modes at work in the enactment of the daily route, and explores to highlight the preschooler’s collective rhythms of practices while travelling. The rhythmanalysis shows how regular mobilities enable shared experiences and the (re)making of a rhythmicity grounded in an ongoing perceiving and managing of inside and outside rhythms. The result confirms young children’s interdependent mobilities from within an entanglement of different rhythms, and contributes with readings of how they ‘carry on’ in practice.

This paper explores language practice in early childhood education for children new to the majority language, discussing how language practice can be transformed through actions such as reflexive dialogues with educators. In a Swedish action-research project, educators and researchers collaborated in reflexive dialogues to develop language practice in a preschool with large linguistic diversity. Various activities forming the basis of the dialogues were implemented, including photography by children enabling them to share their experiences. The results indicate that the educators positioned themselves between two common approaches to language practice for migrant children, i.e. multilingualism and monolingualism, a positioning evident in their language practice. Although striving for a multilingual approach, the educators' daily activity structure and talk about the children recalled monolingual norms, assuming that people with access to several languages must master one before learning another. Through implementing actions including children's perspectives and introducing 'translanguaging', language practice developed towards multilingualism, focusing increasingly on language as a process for expression and meaning-making rather than a tool for mastering the majority language. This approach turned educators away from deficit assumptions, instead emphasising children's skills and agency.

In Sweden, the reception and education of migrant children is seen as a challenge for the school system, and the opinions concerning how to educate and socialize young migrant children differ. The educational system in Sweden, and elsewhere, has historically been given a double function. On the one hand, it is viewed as a mediator of dominant culture, language, and imagined nationality, and on the other hand, in an increasingly globalized world, it is seen as a promoter of values like multiculturalism and tolerance (Hjerm 2001; Lappalainen 2006; Tobin 2013; Mavroudi and Holt 2015; Allemann-Ghionda 2015). As Mavroudi and Holt (2015) point out, schools and preschools are often at the forefront in teaching children to be more accepting and tolerant of differences, as part of a democratic mission. However, at the same time they also remain key sites where national belonging and identity are taught. Both these aspects are at play in the Swedish preschool curriculum and practice. On the one hand, ideals of child-centeredness related to aspects such as tolerance, equality, egalitarianism, democracy and cooperative social relationships are emphasized (Einarsdottir et al. 2014). On the other hand, monolinguistic as well as a monocultural norms prevail in settings aimed for education of the future citizens, and previous research has shown that these norms concern specially immigrant children (Johansson and Pramling Samuelsson 2006; Johansson 2012; Lunneblad 2013). The paper explores how the tension between these different ideas is embedded in the preschool curriculum and how the ideas are interpreted and operationalized. This is made through the lense of everyday nationhood, and therefore specifically at how issues concerning language and culture are expressed in relation to the pedagogy formed around the migrant child. We consider preschool policy documents, educators’ talk as they try to reinterpret the ideas, and everyday routines formed around migrant children. Questions asked are: What are the explicit and implicit purposes of the preschool education for migrant children? Who is the migrant child to be educated and to what ends?

Den här antologin har till syfte att uppmärksamma barns och ungas livsvillkor i Malmö. Vissa av bidragen fokuserar på barn och unga indirekt via praktiker, medan andra berör deras erfarenheter mer direkt. Antologibidragen ger därmed inblick i hur barns och ungas vardag påverkas och begränsas av de materiella och sociala villkoren som finns i staden men också hur de själva erfar, använder och skapar sina och andras livsvillkor i den. Genom att betona såväl strukturella och institutionella aspekters påverkan som barn och unga som subjekt med potential, synliggörs inte bara dessa materiella och sociala villkor utan också hur de kan förändras och omskapas.

Vissa av bidragen i antologin är lösnings- och potentialorienterade, medan andra kritiskt nagelfar förhållanden så som de gestaltas i staden för barn och unga. Text och bildinslagen från utställningen Malmö, vad drömmer du om, producerade av elever från språkintroduktionen och de estetiska programmen vid Malmö Latin- skola, förstärker och befäster ytterligare vårt syfte med antologin.

European Commission underlines the import ance of early childhood education for education attainment, and to reduce social inequalities. The Proposal on early childhood education has now been adopted (EC, 2018). But early childhood education also plays a role in achieving Agenda 2030 sustainability goals and honouring European commitments for the environment. Research suggests that early childhood experiences of nature shape emotional relations to the natural environment, supporting agency and environmental awareness (Hammarsten et al, 2018). Outdoor education thus lays a foundation for future engagement and education for sustainability. The present study concerns an outdoor education project at a Swedish urban pre-school for 3-5 year olds that receives a large proportion of newly arrived children, with a focus on a section with about 20 children between three and five years who do not speak any or very little Swedish. It is part of a larger study financed by the Swedish School Research Institute concerning the conditions for learning and teaching in a world characterised by diversity and migration. The researchers support and follow staff, management, parents and children in jointly developing educational environments where different languages, identities, pedagogical relations and organisation work together to support children's learning and development. Outdoor education in this context involves three main dimensions: (1) Children's relation to place and their immediate environment. (2) The curriculum's goals for natural science in preschool. (3) Pedagogical didactic strategies. In Sweden, preschool is an integrated part of the education system, and the preschool curriculum currently stresses a mission of teaching. Policy ambitions in this respect are rising, and from July 2019, the preschool has the task of striving for every child ... "... to develop their ability to distinguish, explore, document, ask questions and discuss natural science ..." The Swedish preschool education curriculum thereby creates challenges for preschool teachers, especially in pre-schools that have not previously focused on nature or science phenomena. The increased demands entail a risk that sustainability will become something that is placed on top of existing activities, and which is difficult to integrate. There are not necessarily relevant given activities or traditional forms of teaching to fall back on, when preschool teachers are to interpret the curriculum's intentions in their practice. Should the children develop a relationship with the place they live in, or should focus rather lie on learning limited abstract elements about different phenomena? Is the subject-specific language important, or the phenomenon itself? Is the child assumed capable of thinking independently, and find his or her own explanations, or is it instead important to teach the difference between facts and imagination? In practice, there is not much room to go into depth about such issues in planning. There is therefore a risk of working with fragmented and decontexualised activities that are easy to implement in practice. The study consequently examines reflection-in-action processes of the preschool staff, in connection with the group of staff, management and children in their collaborative work to improve the preschool playground. Focus lies on the one hand on the preschool teachers’ thoughts on how different changes can offer opportunities for learning, and on the other, on the children’s participation and children's own thoughts in these processes. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The research approach draws on Participatory Action Research ( PAR) focusing learning through action and with reflection in focus. The approach used in the study aims to change practitioners' understanding of their practice and under what conditions they practice. PAR is understood as a practice-changing practice with the aim of developing the practice by creating a critical approach to what one does, how to think and how to relate to the contexts in which it operates (Kemmis 2009). The analysis tool consists of the concept of Practice Architecture (PA), which helps us explore and understand what enables and limits teaching practices and learning opportunities.The starting point for the PA is that people meet in intersubjective spaces that are arranged in specific ways. These spaces mediate the conditions for practitioners: Cultural-discursive arrangements (1); Material-economic arrangements (2); Social policy arrangements (3) (Kemmis 2009; Kemmis et al 2014; Rönnerman, 2017). Changing the PA involves changing the overall framework for what is said, done and how to relate to each other and to what you do - thereby opening new spaces for their teaching, development and learning practice. In the period 2017-2018 the children have taken pictures of their environment and talked about it; conversations with children; a children’s council has been formed. The outdoor group meetings take place regularly, involving children and staff. Conversations took place in groups with staff or with staff together with managers, as well as individual interviews with parents. Pre-school teachers (n = 5) were interviewed, examining their and the children's perspectives on what are important activities in science/environmental and sustainability education. The study also involved informal participant observation and conversations with children. Cooperation between the three sections of the preschool has been initiated through a "child council" (n = 4 children) and teacher´s "outdoor group" (n= 6: staff + researcher), focusing ways to change the preschool’s playground, and create an outdoor environment offering rich opportunities for play and learning. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes o r Findings Initial findings involve spatial perspectives of ch ildren's places: (1) Adults organise spaces for children at preschool.The physical space and design, including vegetation, water and surfaces affect how the space creates - or does not create - opportunities for action and interactions for the children. (2) The children take their place in these spaces, create their own places and invest them their own meanings. Children attribute meaning and emotions in ways that may differ from adult practices and intentions for the same places. Material-economic arrangements: Physical time-space enables and sets limits to how we can do things in the (outdoor) c lassroom, shapes and gives content to the "doing" of practice: (1). Educational Development Limitations: (1.1) fragmentation of the educational content; (1.2) family's living conditions; (1.3) the way activities are organised in time and space; (1.4) the allocation of human resources and staff schedule. (2). Opening up the physical space (changing the action): (2.1) Create spaces for shared reflection between and within the different organisational levels, and between children, educators and researchers. (2.2) The researchers actively participate in the development of the learning space. The role of the preschool teachers and educators is multifaceted and complex: to provide care, security, learning, entry into society, and entail transparency in difficult living conditions. What the staff express is in line with findings from the report by Zetterqvist, Nelson and Hagström (2017) on newly arrived children in Sweden. It appeared that administrative and other factors placed considerable constraints on the staff’s and children’s agency in creating a greener outdoor environment, which would greater opportunities for activities and experience. Nevertheless, the processes encouraged action, reflection and collaboration. Engagement in the process of changing their immediate environment appeared particularly important for the newly arrived children, as a way of making their own place in Sweden.

The preschool education in Sweden can be perceived as having a double role. On the one hand it is seen as a mediator of dominant culture, language and imagined nationality, and on the other hand , as a promoter of values like multiculturalism and acceptance of difference. In the paper, we explore how this tension is embedded in the curriculum and in everyday routines in preschool, regarding language and culture. The results show that, while a multicultural approach is highlighted in the curriculum and by pedagogues, dominant cultural traditions and the Swedish language are given an emphasized role.

The aim is to study children’s politics by exploring how children relate to and rework positions and identities offered to them and others in a residential narrative of ‘Swedes’ and ‘immigrants’. Children’s politics is defined as children practising politics when negotiating and challenging positions and defending identities. The results are based on a reanalysis of two studies. The results show that participating children use the narrative, and to it connected stories about neighbourhoods, to position themselves and to negotiate exclusion, inclusion, identity and belonging. In relation to this they deal with political issues connected to national and global discourses that blame the category of ‘immigrants’ for being the cause of local and national problems. They also reflect on the positions and identities offered in the narrative and use tactics to manage the positions and their consequences. From this point of view, the children practise politics in their everyday lives.

Forskningsprojektet (SFI): Opening up new spaces for preschool education in a diverse and migrating world.

Från juli 2019 har förskolan uppdraget att sträva efter att varje barn..."...utvecklar sin förmåga att urskilja, utforska, dokumentera, ställa frågor om och samtala om naturvetenskap...". Förskoleläroplanen skapar utmaningar för förskollärare, särskilt i förskolor som inte sedan tidigare haft fokus på natur eller naturvetenskapliga fenomen. De ökade kraven medför en risk att naturvetenskap blir något som läggs ovanpå befintlig verksamhet, och som är svårt att integrera. Wanda Sass (2018) betonar istället motivationens betydelse för ”viljan-att-handla". Det finns inte nödvändigtvis relevanta givna aktiviteter eller traditionella former för undervisning att falla tillbaka på, när förskollärare skall tolka läroplanens intentioner i sina praktiker. Skall fokus ligga på att barnen utvecklar en relation till platsen de bor på, eller snarare på att lära sig avgränsade abstrakta moment om skilda fenomen. Är det fackspecifika språket betydelsefullt, eller fenomenet i sig? Kan barnet fundera självständigt, och hitta sina egna förklaringar, eller är det viktiga att förstå skillnad på fakta och fantasi? Det finns inte mycket utrymme att gå på djupet omkring sådana frågor i planeringen. Snarare än att följa didaktiska argument, uppstår därför risken att man arbetar med lösryckta aktiviteter som är lätta att genomföra praktiskt. Presentationen redogör för en studie om ett utepedagogikprojekt på en förskolaför 3-5-åringarsom tar emot en stor andel nyanlända barn. Mellan tre avdelningar har samarbete initierats genom ett "barnråd" (n=4 barn) respektive en "gårdsgrupp"(n=6 personal + forskare) och gårdsmiljöns förändringsmöjligheter fokuseras. Förskollärare (n=5–10) intervjuas varvid deras och barnens perspektiv på vad som är viktiga aktiviteter i natur-/miljö-och hållbarhetsundervisning undersöks genom ett participatoriskt och aktionsforskningsinspirerat arbetssätt. Studien syftar till att ta fram lämplig verktygslåda för att stärka det pedagogiska utvecklingsarbetet i förskolan och utgör ett delmoment i en större studie finansierat av Skolforskningsinstitutet om förutsättningar för lärande och undervisning i en värld som kännetecknas av diversitet och migration.

The ai m of the presentation is to discuss the possibilities of action research to make profound and long-lived educational changes. We discuss this in relation to an ongoing action research project carried out with pedagogues in a preschool section in southern Sweden. The section is in a phase when they need to review the organisation in relation to inner and outer structure and pedagogy. One challenge that has been identified during the research process is that the section is perceived as being 'isolated' and 'invisible'. This perception relates to the surrounding organisational, juridical and economic structures, which, according to the pedagogues, make it difficult to work with the organisational and pedagogical changes they feel are needed. Based on these results, we want to address the possibilities of change-making in an action research project in relation to power relations between different organisational levels of power (pedagogues, preschool management, municipality management, researchers). We draw on the concept of practice 'architectures' (Kemmis and Smith 2008; Kemmis 2009) to explore how scope for change at the section is shaped and formed by mediating preconditions for practice, that is, how cultural –discursive, material –economic and social –political preconditions shape and give content to the ‘thinking, ́doing ́ and ́relating’ that orient and justify the practices.

The presentation takes stance in a study exploring how preschool is performed within the geography of a bus. Focusing the daily routine of debus, we analyse how the practice of 20 preschool children getting of a bus is performed. How are bodies and things organised? Which values are enacted? From previous research, we know that everyday practices of mobile preschools to a high extent concern security issues and geographical order (Gustafsson & van der Burgt 2015). To further understand mobile preschool practices we go deep into one daily activity and ask about how social rhythms are performed. The theoretical framework is childhood geography with a specific interest for social rhythms of early childhood practices. We make use of theories of peer cultures and interpretive reproduction (Corsaro, 2015), as well as a critical theory of social practices (Mol, 2010). The methodological approach is ethnographic and the logic of analysis abductive, trying to encircle the geographical and social performances and values of debus. Data consist mainly of video recordings, field notes and interviews. Consent from parents and pedagogues were collected. To ensure that children participated voluntarily, we explained the study in terms they would understand, and looked for non-verbal indications of withdrawal of consent, or unanticipated ethical problems. Mobile preschools demand bodily smoothness as well as relational adaptability. The values enacted are about mutuality, attentiveness and collective rhythms of socialising. The practices of debus encircle care as a way of doing preschool practices, comprising early childhood relations, interpreted and reproduced Values.

The presentation deals with the assumption that student-centred learning enhances students’ sense of involvement and facilitates a recontextualization of their experiences into valid knowledge in an academic context. Bernstein’s (1971, 2000) concepts of classification and framing of knowledge and his distinctions between horizontal and vertical knowledge codes are used to explore these assumptions, focusing on the regulation of educational knowledge in one case of student-centred learning. Based on the results, we problematize the assumption that student-centred learning enhances students’ sense of involvement and gives them power and control over the knowledge production. We also problematize the assumption that student-centred learning in higher education facilitates a recontextualization of students’ former experiences, for example connected to work practice. The horizontal and vertical knowledge codes ultimately did not meet in the project; instead, the two different discourses formed competing and colliding frameworks.

The city of Malmö inhabits about 330,000 people. Half of them are under 35 years and one fifth is under 18 years old. In Space & Place two research groups present how children and adolescents experience some of the urban spaces in Malmö. The exhibition highlights different methods in the research process. These research projects are examples of how Malmö University contributes to a socially sustainable Malmö.

In Sweden of today and Europe, there is a lively debate about the reception and education of migrating children, young people and adults (Nilsson & Bunar 2015; Nilsson Folke 2015). The educational challenges have often been conceptualized and explained as a problem of difference in culture, ethnicity and language of the migrant children (León-Rosales 2010; Lunneblad 2013; Nilsson & Bunar 2015). Bouakaz, (2009), for instance, shows that in meeting the newly arrived families, it is the differences that are conceptualized as problematic. The position of the child’s mother tongue is a basic factor affecting access to education and school success (Ball 2011). Intercultural school development is a fundamental condition for democratic societies, and a priority in European policy today (Council of Europe 2007, 2015, 2016). The project at hand aims to address the demands of a changing educational landscape and broaden the picture of the situation of children and families with an immigrant background from a civic perspective. The project focuses newly arrived children’s first encounter with the Swedish educational system in the context of preschool. There are few studies on newly arrived children in the Swedish preschool. According to Tallberg Broman et al. (2015) focus on diversity, migration and ethnicity is also limited in relation to preschool. The forms of early childhood education and care vary greatly across Europe (European Commission, 2015). In Sweden, preschool is part of the overall education system. It has its own national curriculum, as well as formal university level training requirements for preschool teachers. Since the 1970s, preschool has played an important part of Swedish integration policy (Lunneblad 2013), and today an intercultural approach is emphasized (Skolverket 2010). In 2011, one in five preschool children had a different first language than Swedish and this number is increasing. Only in 2015, more than 16,000 children between one and six with the right to attend preschool and preschool class arrived in Sweden (Skolverket 2016; Migrationsverket 2016). In this process preschool as an organisational and educational setting has an important role to play. As Persson (2012) has pointed out, in an increasingly segregated society, and in the case of creating intercultural and multilingual education, the preschool can provide solutions and make a difference. This is why the project’s objective is to develop ways of organising spaces in preschool for successful learning and teaching through a participatory approach. The preschool teachers and other actors, as well as the children and their families take part in and collaborate in the research project from their perspectives and in a manner where their experiences and knowledge are seen as assets. The aims of the project in this respect correspond to the principles set forward by the Working group of the European Commission, which stress that quality depends on ”relationships between ECEC providers and children’s families; relationships and interactions between staff and children, and among children; (...) the involvement of parents in the work of the ECEC setting and the day-to-day pedagogic practice of staff within an ECEC context;” (European Commission, 2014, p. 6) ”A professional role is one which is regulated and requires individuals to develop and reflect on their own practice and with parents and children, create a learning environment which is constantly renewed and improved.” (European Commission p. 70) The participatory research design, in which different actors co-operate to organize preschool as a setting and civic instrument will also constitute a knowledge contribution in itself. Besides the participant’s knowledge development, the objective is to strengthen the scientific base and proven experience as support to professional knowledge. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The project is carried out in a preschool in southern Sweden, where one of the sections is an introduction class for children 3-5 year who do not speak any Swedish at all or very little. In the section there are 20 children and the activities focus on strengthening the children's identity and language, both the Swedish and the first language. The project is carried out mainly at the introduction section, but the study will also include the preschool as a whole, because the children after about a year's stay in the introduction section, move to another department at the present preschool or to a preschool closer to their home. A participatory approach is used, involving head teachers, teachers and other preschool staff members, the children and their families. We lean on the action research tradition (McNiff 2002; Norton 2009; Kemmis 2009). The approach implies that teachers, teams and institutions, together with researchers, are encouraged to systematically explore their work to develop the pedagogical knowledge and teaching. Much of the implemented research within educational action research has the teachers in focus, although educational action research implies a process in which all involved should be included, also the students (McNiff 2002). In the project, we will involve researchers and teachers, as well as the children and their families (Gallacher & Gallagher 2008; Clark 2010). The staff at the participating preschool have accepted to work in a participatory way, where researchers together with staff, children, care takers, and preschool management investigate strengths and challenges regarding how the preschool can reinforce language development. The model for the implementation of the project follows the typical participatory action research cycle, which includes planning, action, observation and reflection (McNiff 2002). The function of PAR is here taken as Braye and McDonell (2013, 269) argue, to “get the people affected by a problem together, figure out what is going on as a group, and then do something about it”. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings During the spring of 2017, the project will have run its first phase. In this phase of the project, the families, the prechool teachers, the children, preschool leaders and members of the municipal administration will have had the opportunity to formulate their concerns and discuss them in groups. For adults, focus groups with participants from each category will be carried out, that is, one with staff, another with management and a third with families. To get an insight to the children’s perspectives, we will use suitable methods adapted to the specific group of children. This presupposes a child-centred approach that fits within the children’s play and daily activities. The approach of using groups will give the participants in each category the opportunity to share and formulate problems, which in turn will give the project perspectives and experiences from the various groups of participants. An anticipated challenge is that the families live in different neighbourhoods, which limits opportunities for informal contacts between them. The staff and management of the preschool have identified some challenges and problems, but also strengths that the section and the preschool face in relation to the children’s learning and development. They see that although multilingualism can be considered an asset, the multilingualism in itself doesn’t create the dynamics in which learning opportunities and development can take place, something that also Kultti (2014) has observed in her research on how to deal with newly arrived children with a first language differing from the majority language.

The aim of the paper is to discuss and problematize the relation between knowledge generated within the framework of preschool practice, and academic knowledge about the same practice. Two cases where students produced under- and post graduate theses were analyzed. In both cases the students were expected to re-contextualize their professional experiences and knowledge into valid academic knowledge. Bernstein’s (1971, 2000) concepts of classification and framing of knowledge and his distinctions between horizontal and vertical knowledge were used in order to analyze the regulation of educational knowledge. The result shows that horizontal and vertical knowledge ultimately did not meet in the analyzed cases; instead, the two different discourses formed competing and colliding frameworks.

Drawing on extensive fieldwork in a multicultural urban environment, the paper address the question of belonging among immigrant youth. In an earlier part of the study, a narrative of the categories "Us" (Swedes) and "Them" (Immigrants) revealed negative moral judgments and strong differentiation processes towards the category of "them". It also revealed that minority communities were, by themselves and others, positioned differently in relation to the category “Them”. The conference paper will focus this last issue by investigating how and why certain boundaries/borders are maintained/upheld toward others within the group of immigrants. The focus will be on immigrant youth. Narratives of cultural values, religion and ethnicity are addressed as well as power relationships pertaining to "whiteness" as a theoretical foundation.

During the last years, an increasing number of newly arrived children and youth have arrived in Sweden from other continents. This migration constitutes, for the Swedish society, a new form of mobility, and challenges some of the established child protection systems constructed for acting within the geographical framework of the nation state. The taken for granted assumptions made by these institutions concerning their protective task and role, are questioned by the existence of children and youth, who assume an independent role and use mobility in their effort to improve their life project. In the project, we are studying how unaccompanied minors and young people describe their encounters with the protection systems in Sweden, and the institutionalized responses of these systems. We are especially interested of how the educational system deals with these challenges, and will therefore especially look at how child mobility is perceived and incorporated in the daily schoolwork and how children use mobility in their daily school lives.

The paper is based on a study that aims to investigate children and young people’s perceptions and experiences of inclusion and segregation in everyday life. It is a study conducted in Malmö, a city in south of Sweden which in recent years has experienced drastic demographic changes. It has therefore been in focus for discussions and debates about increasing residential segregation due to schools, neighborhoods, population health, and socio economic development (The Malmö commission 2014, Save the Children 2015). In the study, we focus children and young people’s perspectives because their voices are seldom heard regarding research on and debates of segregation and inclusion in cities. The study has been conducted in two phases. In the first phase, children and young people with different socio-economic and ethnic background, living in different neighborhoods, has been interviewed. The results show that inclusion and segregation, from their point of view, is related to everyday areas such as school, neighborhood, leisure time and the media. The definition of segregation involves themes such as ‘living in different worlds’, ‘not recognizing oneself in the other’ and ‘having different living conditions’. The definition of inclusion includes such as, ‘striving towards the same goal’, ‘having common interests and experiences’, ‘mixing with others’, ‘joining together and talking to each other’, ‘recognition’, ‘loyalty’, and ‘to be listen to by adults who they trust’. The results from the interviews has led to a number of hypotheses that in January-Mars 2016 will be explored with a larger group of children and young people, by a questionnaire.

The paper explores children’s role as reproducers and transformers of residential power positions in the city, by investigating how children relate to, use and rework positions and identities offered to them and others. The paper argues that children are engaged in various kinds of politics in which they have their own positions and roles. Politics is understood as children practicing politics in their seemingly apolitical everyday environments (Kallio and Häkli, 2011), and the politics is located to their efforts to negotiate structures, relations and identifications through spatial practices, contestation, critical perceptions and judgements about inequality and difference (Elwood and Mitchell, 2012). The results are based on two studies, one mapping children’s understanding of social relations through their experiences and perceptions of places in the city, and another based on interviews with parents and children. Both studies are part of a larger study aimed to explore social relations in a city, which during the past decade has undergone major demographic changes. Based on the results, it is argued that children play a key role in the reproduction of difference, and therefore in the reproduction of uneven power positions in the residential figuration in the city. It is also argued that there is a need to recognize, as Valentine (2003) points out, that childhoods are bound up with wider geographies and structures such as class, race, gender, and sexuality. Structures that children use for differentiation and positioning.

The aim is to investigate the function and outcomes of a residential narrative of “us and “them” connected to the categories “Swedes” and “immigrants”. Norbert Elias’s figurational sociology is used for analysing the establishment and maintenance of power relations through the narrative, in a city in south of Sweden. The results indicate that by controlling the narrative, the more established residents can strengthen their position in a residential figuration by blaming newcomers for any and all problems. This is possible through a strong social cohesion, based on shared common memories of the past, including denial of previous antagonism, and the concepts of “almost Swedes” and “having done your bit”. The results also indicate that residents in different categories are active in the reproduction of the narrative and its power relations. Crucial to the maintenance is the distancing process engendered between newcomers.

The aim of the paper is to explore verbal interactions during group tutoring of undergraduate’s thesis in teacher education program. The point of departure is that the public authority that oversees higher education institutions, The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education (2006), has questioned the quality of the theses at undergraduate and master level at the teacher education programs in Sweden. The main critic aimed at the theses concerns lack of academic qualities, such as failing theoretic awareness, weak analysis, normativity and lack of critical thinking. The teacher education program in Sweden is defined as a professional training program which means that students to a large extent are focused on practical aspects of the profession. In the paper, the intersections between students’ and the supervisor’s perceptions of and purpose of the thesis are explored. Two differing discourses were identified in the transcribed extracts of verbal interaction; academic code used mainly by the tutor and praxis code used by the students. The analysis focuses the meeting between these codes in relation to supervision and is inspired of the code theory of Basil Bernstein, where “codes” are used to describe regulative principles, realized through different possibilities of selection and combination (Atkinson, 1985). Language is also used as a means to understand social relationships, structures and processes. Noticeable is that within these codes the same expressions were used to great extent, but with different meanings and in different contexts.

Presentationen handlar om språkligt samspel i handledning av examensarbeten i grupp. Utgångspunkten är den kritik som riktats mot examensarbeten vid landets lärarutbildningar (Skolverket 2006). Huvudkritiken går bland annat ut på att många examensarbeten ger uttryck för normativitet i kombination med brist på kritiskt tänkande. Samma sorts kritik framkommer vid en extern och intern granskning av examensarbeten på Malmö högskola producerade 2007 vid Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle (Berglund 2013). Granskningen visar bland annat på svag medvetenhet om teori och brister i analys samt att studenterna inte skiljer mellan styrdokument och forskning. Vår utgångspunkt är att den kritik som riktas mot examensarbeten kan ses som ett pedagogiskt problem där det talade och skrivna språket står i fokus. Undervisning i högre utbildning handlar i stor utsträckning om användning av talat och skrivet språk där handledningssituationer utgör samtal om språk i form av text. Syftet med studien som presenteras är att undersöka språkliga samspel under handledningssituationer i grupp. Fokus ligger på skärningspunkter mellan studenters och handledares föreställningar om och syfte med examensarbetet. Som Englund (2011) påpekar, kan lärarutbildning ses som en arena där praxiskultur möter akademisk kultur med språkanvändningen som kritisk brytpunkt. Praxisdiskurser möts då mot akademisk diskurs i handledningsmöten. En intressant fråga är då vad som sker i mötet mellan dessa diskurser i förhållande till handledning och det slutgiltiga (skrivna) examensarbetet. Det empiriska materialet som ligger till grund för konferensbidraget kommer ursprungligen från ett forskningsprojekt där studenter på lärarutbildningen med inriktning mot förskola, fritidshem och årskurs 1-3 handleddes i grupp i samband med examensarbetet. Målet med det ursprungliga projektet var att stödja, och samtidigt studera kollaborativa lärsituationer i högre utbildning. Seminarierna spelades in och transkriberades. Analysen i föreliggande bidrag är gjord på detta material och är inspirerad av Basil Bernsteins kodteori.

This study investigates power relations in a small city in southern Sweden. It is a city where there have been radical social changes in the population structure due to a major inflow of immigrants. The social situation can best be described as filled with tension between different groups. In relation to the tension there is a strong and dominant narrative about “us” and “them”, relating to the categories “Swedes” and “immigrants”. The study aims to explore how children actively use and reformulate the narrative and the power relations within it. The point of departure is the assumption that human beings are embedded in figurations (families, social class, ethnic groups, nations etc.) containing different power ratios that are transferred from one generation to another (Elias 2009). Socialization is thus central in the transmission of power ratios, as children acquire adult standards of behavior and social norms. However, children are from, childhood sociology’s point of view, also active agents involved in creating and influencing their own and others’ lives, which implies that socialization is not equal to adaptation and internalization, but also to children’s negotiation, sharing and creation of culture (Allison, Jenks and Prout 1998, Corsaro 2005). In the study the children’s contribution to reproduction and reformulation, in relation to the narrative of “us” and “them”, is in line with William Corsaro’s (2005) concept of interpretative reproduction. The term interpretative captures children’s participation in their own unique peer cultures by creatively taking information from the adult world to address their own peer concerns, while the term reproduction captures the idea that children not only internalize society and culture, but actively contribute to cultural production and change.

The paper explores how children use different types of knowledge of place to make sense of social relations in town. The point of departure is childhood geography, in which the focus is on the construction of childhood through different spaces, places and spatial discourses (Philo 2000, Holloway and Valentine 2000a, Christensen and O’Brien 2003). The concept of emplaced and spatial knowledge is central (2003). The research was carried out with children aged eleven to twelve and the methodology used was place mapping with group interviews. The children were asked to place dots for places they like and avoid/dislike on a map of the town, while asked questions about why they like or dislike them. A significant outcome is that participating children connect emplaced and spatial knowledge in their efforts to understand themselves and others. Their emplaced experiences form their knowledge of the two most disliked and avoided places on the map. Their understanding of the entire neighbourhood where these places are situated and its inhabitants is, however, also influenced by existing place-images. This spatial knowledge affects the children’s interpretation of events they see and are involved in when moving around in the neighbourhood. However, the participating children’s emplaced knowledge sometimes contradicts existing place-images. The results thus shows that children’s perspectives differ, which in turn indicate that childhoods can be experienced, thought of, and lived in many different ways.

The article explores how children use different types of knowledge of place to make sense of their relations to other children. Participating are children aged 11-12 years in a small city in southern Sweden. The methodology used is place mapping with group interviews. A significant outcome is that the children connect emplaced and spatial knowledge in their efforts to understand themselves and others. Their emplaced knowledge is thus not separated from the spatial knowledge. Another significant result is that the participating children are engaged in an exchange of knowledge of place with other children and with adults.

Parental participation in preschool and school is emphasized in steering documents and new legislation. In this book (anthology) we discuss the relation between home and institution from different aspects and perspectives. With concepts like power, empowerment, gender, class, diversity the relations are problematized. Questions are raised about the impact from home-school relations on the children’s/pupil´s possibilities and equality in school and on the effects on learning.

The article presents two qualitative studies that focus children's use of and relationship with outdoor environment, from a child perspective. The studies were conducted at different times, in the mid-1990s and in 2008-2009, with children of similar ages (9-11 years), with similar methods and similar types of residential areas, but in two different Swedish cities. The aim is to examine the role of outdoor venues for children based on the questions: how do children use and reason about outdoor places in their living environment, and what similarities and differences can be found? The theoretical points are retrieved from childhood sociology and childhood geography. The joint analysis of the empirical data show great consistency between the results of the two studies as well as with previous research. The outdoor environment represents important values in children's daily lives, and their identity work regardless of the length of time elapsed between the studies.

Projektet som presenteras rör examensarbeten på lärarutbildningen. En tanke med examensarbeten är att de ska förena teori och praktik, d.v.s. att studenter genom uppfyllande av vetenskapliga kriterier ska ges möjlighet att fördjupa sig i och få kunskap om sådant som är av relevans för det framtida yrket (Högskoleverket 2006b, Kursplan LL200G, LL6110G, Malmö högskola). Det vetenskapliga betonas samtidigt som också stor vikt läggs på lärande i förhållande till ”praktiken”. I projektet är avsikten att undersöka huruvida interaktiv handledning i examensarbeten kan ge praktisk nytta i form av ökade kunskaper om verksamhetsfältet, samtidigt som vetenskapliga kriterier uppfylls. Projektet har två syften. Det första syftet är att undersöka användandet av interaktiv forskning som metod i arbetet med handledning av examensarbeten. Fokus i handledningen ligger då på en kollektiv och interaktiv process där handledarens roll i hög grad är att understödja gemensamma reflektioner. Detta ställer krav på att närma sig studenterna med öppenhet och acceptans och med förmåga till tillit och känslighet (Svensson 2002). Det andra syftet är att tillsammans med studenter nå ökad förståelse för lärarprofessionens innehåll och utmaningar genom att vara involverad i studenternas examensarbeten. Som Linnér och Lundin (2011) påpekar kan processen i examensarbetet vara dubbelriktad, d.v.s. studenternas diskussioner och frågor till sitt eget material är något som också handledaren lär av. Detta gäller ännu mera om handledaren tillsammans med studenter undersöker ”praktiken” för att skapa kunskap. Frågan som ställs är vilken typ av kunskap som genereras utifrån denna interaktiva process, i förhållande till handledning av examensarbeten, studenters lärande och kunskaper om ”praktiken”. Genom hela processen genomförs en parallell undersökning som inkluderar de moment som en forskningsprocess innebär: inläsning av tidigare forskning, insamling av empiriskt material, analysarbete och publicering av resultat. Projektet tar vetenskapsteoretiskt avstamp i interaktiv forskning som är en inriktning inom aktionsforskning, men som till viss del skiljer sig från denna. I stället för fokus på handling och förändring riktar sig interaktiv forskning mer mot gemensam kunskapsbildning (Svensson 2002). Forskningen knyter därmed an till en tradition kring lärande som handlar om att erbjuda miljöer och möjligheter som stimulerar till ett student aktivt lärande.

The focus for this article is child poverty in a Nordic welfare state context. With data from two qualitative studies from Sweden and Norway, we discuss child poverty from the children’s point of view, in the framework of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, articles 27 and 28. In article 27, food, housing and clothing are mentioned as particularly important for an adequate standard of living. In poverty studies where children’s voices are being heard there has been little focus on these necessities. We find that a few of the children living with economic hardship experience a lack of necessities such as food, housing and clothing. We also explore whether children experience limited possibilities in relation to education. Despite of the state policies recognition of equal opportunities in relation to schooling, we find differences due to economy. In some cases this leads to young people dropping out of school to work. Overall we find that children take responsibility in relation to their families’ financial situation. In the final discussion we pay attention to the powerlessness of the children’s situation between the parents and the states’ responsibilities for providing for the children’s basic needs. We argue for the need for a discussion about the children’s position between rights and protection. If poor children are loaded with more responsibilities than their peers from better-off families, it will add to the burden of worry and distress in an already complicated situation.