Mid Sweden University

National, current investigations emphasize the importance of equality in the Swedish School Age Educare Centers (SAEC) (cf. SOU 2020:34; 2020:46; SOU 2022:61), but research is conspicuous by its absence. Safe, constructive and inspiring learning environments are crucial for students’ well-being and sense of psychological ownership (Grewell, 2025). Equity in Swedish SAEC is the focus of the present study, where the creation of accessible learning environments and knowledge about ways of improving teaching and learning in SAEC are studied to enable equity in and between different SAECs. The research project is organized as a multiple case study including four different SAECs in a municipality where two city schools, one in a rural setting and one in a socio-economically disadvantaged area on the city’s outskirts, are included. The development work is carried as action research involving the personnel and their own questions to enhance equity and accessible learning environments in their respective practices. As researchers, we are guided by questions about how personnel can improve learning conditions and learning environments. In addition, research questions include how the efforts of the personnel best may be supported and how the personnel can learn from each other’s work. The personnel carried out short observations using their own practices. The personnel’s documentation from their observations is the foundation for joint reflection, discussion decisions, and planning of actions. Actions lead to sessions of joint reflections on the outcomes of actions and planning of the following actions in cyclical order, with joint sessions for each work team and the researchers once a month, where the researchers record the discussions and provide theoretical input. In addition, the principals have joint sessions to exchange experiences and ideas in the development work. During this presentation, the results from initial group interviews (N= 20) in the work teams are presented to show how they view equity in their own practice, their perceptions of education, and how learning environments may be improved throughout the day in the different practices. These interviews will be repeated at the end of the project to analyze differences connected to the development work. Tentative results are that different conditions for learning will be highlighted, and challenges and possibilities for development of the different learning environments will appear as foundation for further discussions. In addition, the principals and head teachers’ perceptions of equity in their respective schools will contribute with their perspectives on the practices, their learning environments and the on-going development work

The present study focuses joint school and university development work in preschool-projects try to increase educational quality. The aim of this study was to explore perceived conditions and perceptions of projects among participants in development projects in eleven preschools. In addition, we were interested in the perceived outcomes of the projects. All projects were aimed at strengthening the preschool principal’s and staff’s competence regarding children’s language and emergent literacy development. The studied projects lasted up to three years. The results are based on phenomenographical analyses of thirteen focus group interviews with principals and staff, including eighty-eight participants, during the project period. Follow-up interviews were conducted with twenty-four representatives from the participating preschools one year after the closure of the projects. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed. Field notes from visits in the preschools contributed to the empirical material. Our findings indicate that the perceptions of a project, contributed to the understanding of a project as loaded with expectations that the development project is limited in time and that it will add extra-curricular work demanding extra resources, which led to the perception that when the project is over, development work is over. The word project, thus, per se functioned as a limiting factor, if on-going development work, was aimed for. Lack of anchoring the development work in the local context was perceived as problematic, with effects for the participants’ experience of agency. Furthermore, difficulties in managing large staff turnover during the project was perceived to cause the development work to come to a stand-still. Active leadership, and shared responsibility were perceived as favorable factors for the progress of the development work. Our conclusions encompass participants’ perceptions of adjustment to the local context, shared responsibility and seeing development work as exceeding time limits as vital components of successful development work. 

Municipal Adult Education in Sweden has recently undergone changes, from on-site education to outsourced courses by external course providers with large, standardized courses distributed on-line. This educational context has proven difficult to manage for target group of this study, students with neuropsychiatric disorders and mental health issues, with large number of dropouts as a result. The present study aimed to explore how support adapted to the target group was perceived by students included in a project, Right to Support, where teachers on-site functioned as intermediary between the external course providers and target group. Eight students were in-depth interviewed, and their narratives were analyzed with reflexive thematic analysis. The narratives indicated five themes including prerequisites for learning, adapted physical environment, firsthand assistance, personal relationships and effects for self-esteem. We conclude that these factors enabled academic success, personal growth and potential for societal inclusion. 

The present study targets students' perceptions of study strategies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic's transition to full distance education at a small Swedish university, with the purpose to study how students perceive and form their study strategies. Our inquiries targeted study strategies including various learning strategies such as surface-learning, deep-learning and long-term goal-oriented strategies. Theories of study strategies and self-regulated learning guided our analyses of 15 in-depth interviews with students from different programs, including students with varied experiences of academia. To analyze the dimensions of the phenomenon study strategies, phenomenography was used to explore students' perceptions of their study strategies and conceptualizations of themselves as learners. Students' perceptions of study strategies fell into different categories including also self-perception and goal orientation. We conclude that the pandemic amplified differences between students with deep-learning strategies and satisfactory results and students without distinct study strategies, mainly surface-learning strategies. Students who already before the pandemic applied self-regulated learning, developed their study strategies further during the pandemic experiencing more control, whereas struggling students experienced increased helplessness during full distance education. We call for teachers' increased attention to study strategies in planning and conducting courses, to equalize conditions for groups of diverse students.

The current teacher shortage is a global phenomenon, and it has spurred research from various perspectives. However, there is limited research on student teachers’ perceptions, in particular in the Nordic countries. This study, therefore, is based on 75 student teachers’ perceptions of the teacher shortage and its consequences for their future profession, their students, and society at large. Empirical data was analysed with reflexive thematic analysis and following Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. The answers show great concern from all three perspectives. The conclusions are that the teacher shortage must be understood and addressed on a broad front that includes student teachers. 

This study aims to describe and analyze the literacy events that occur in school-age educare practice. Literacy in this article is seen as the social practice where people use reading, writing, meaning-making and communicative expressions in interaction with others, in particular in the informal context of everyday life. With the after-school activities as a context, many opportunities are provided for conversation and functional language use, thus creating good conditions for multilingual students’ language development. Observations were made of school-age educare teacher students in 68 after-school centres, and their reflections were collected. The article authors carried out the analysis of observation protocols and reflection protocols through thematic analysis. The results show a significant variation between the different school-age educare practices concerning literacy activities and access to books, in particular few books in languages other than Swedish. Furthermore, it turned out that both educators and children had a schooled view of reading and writing activities. We conclude that school-age educare centres have the potential as a literacy arena that can be utilized much more than this study has shown, especially to arouse students’ desire to read.

Syftet med denna studie är att beskriva och analysera de literacyaktiviteter som förekommer i fritidshemmets praktik. Literacy ses i denna artikel som den sociala praktik där människor använder läsning, skrivande, meningsskapande och kommunikativa uttryck i samspel med andra, särskilt i vardagens informella sammanhang. Med fritidshemmets aktiviteter som kontext ges många möjligheter för samtal, funktionell språkanvändning och sålunda även goda förutsättningar för flerspråkiga elevers språkutveckling. Observationer gjordes av fritidshemslärarstudenter i 68 fritidshem och deras reflektioner samlades in. Analys av observationsprotokoll och reflektionsprotokoll genomfördes av artikelförfattarna genom tematisk analys, där de öppna svaren intog en viktig roll. Resultatet visar på en stor variation mellan de olika fritidshemmen avseende förekomst av literacyaktiviteter och tillgång till böcker, främst gällande böcker på andra språk än svenska. Vidare framgår att både pedagoger och barn hade en skolifierad syn på läs- och skrivaktiviteter. Vår slutsats är att fritidshemmet har en potential som literacyarena som kan utnyttjas i långt högre grad än vad denna studie visat, framför allt för att väcka elevers läslust.

This study aims to examine preschool literacy practices during observations in Swedish preschools with a focus on environment, read-alouds and emergent writing. The study reported on in this article is based on empirical data from 433 observations in preschools in 80 Swedish municipalities that has been analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. Descriptive analyses have been performed on the quantitative data, and observation notes have been coded and thematically analysed. Five themes were created in the thematic analysis of the qualitative data: differences in accessibility to books, few books in different languages, differences regarding existing reading events, read aloud to calm children, and few existing writing events. The study constitutes an essential basis for knowledge, as well as a prerequisite for future intervention studies and the development of relevant in-service education for preschool teachers. Our conclusion is that there is a considerable lack of equity regarding literacy environments in Swedish preschools.

The present study focuses on students and teachers in Swedish Municipal Adult Education, in a project aimed at helping students with diagnoses within the neuropsychiatric spectrum. The project aimed to support students to complete their studies for further higher education. As this is an overlooked group of students research results provide insights into students’ views on the project and conclusions regarding the sustainability of school development. In this qualitative study, five teachers and four teachers were observed and in-depth interviewed. Data were analyzed through inductive content analysis. Authentic relations between students and teachers, signified by mutual trust, proved important. As the teachers themselves had originated the ideas guiding the project, the development work had good prior conditions for further sustainable development. We conclude that autonomous teachers, who set up joint goals and provide individualized support for these students, enable academic success when flexibility, relations, and self-esteem characterize the work.

The pandemic has affected students’ studying methods. The purpose of the article is to gain insight into the waysstudents’ study strategies have changed after transitioning from on-campus to full-distance education. An in-depth understanding is important for designing learning activities and teaching regarding distance educationand flexible learning. The study is based on a survey administered to 347 students via strategical sampling, andthe empirical material is analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistics. The results show that many studentsdisplayed difficulties in addressing and explaining both their former and present study strategies, something thatcan be linked to the lower degree of concentration and attention they described during the pandemic. This resultindicates that the framework of the courses provided should pay more attention to study strategies. Havingawareness of one’s learning strategies can also be linked to the ability to set goals and plan for the studies, self-regulated learning, which is altogether an important component for studying success. Based on these results, wealso discuss the ways to develop students’ study strategies that favor academic success. Furthermore, we drawconclusions about how students can conduct their studies in the best way to improve their own conditions andcreate a basis for meta-learning that assists them in lifelong learning.