This issue presents ten studies from Swedish education exploring participation, agency, interaction and inclusion across preschool, school-age educare, teacher education and compulsory school. Together, the contributions advance discussions about more dialogic, democratic and equitable educational systems. Topics include children’s influence in sustainability education; preschool teacher students’ changing priorities and professional identities; structural conditions for participation; literacy as social practice in educare; and tensions surrounding the visual arts subject as both an aesthetic refuge and knowledge-bearing subject. Other articles examine blackout poetry in English language learning, literary engagement with gender equality in teacher education, interactional scaffolding in adapted compulsory school, and intercultural encounters between educators and guardians. Across the issue, questions of voice, communication, multimodality and institutional conditions shape participation, belonging and learning.
This article examines everyday encounters between preschool educators and guardians with migrant backgrounds in Swedish preschools, focusing on how resistance, adaptation, and emergent practices are articulated in the in-between space where they meet. The study is informed by Bhabha’s theory of the “third space” and perspectives from linguistic ethnography. It is based on semi-structured interviews with eight preschool educators and eight guardians at three preschools in multicultural areas in Sweden. The analysis shows that educators often expect guardians to adapt to Swedish cultural norms, preschool routines, and implicit institutional rules. When such adaptation does not occur, guardians risk being positioned as “the Other” and understood through a deficit perspective. Guardians, in turn, both resist and adapt to preschool expectations: they may question practices such as outdoor play in bad weather, written information and the use of interpreters, while also emphasising the importance of learning Swedish and understanding how to live in Sweden. Transformative possibilities emerge when educators adopt a welcoming and flexible approach, invest in relationships, draw on multilingual and multimodal resources, and when multilingual staff act as linguistic and cultural brokers. The findings highlight how everyday encounters may either reproduce or challenge processes of othering and point to the need for reflexive and intercultural practices in preschool, teacher education, and policy.
This special issue on Linguistic Diversity in Teacher Education: Examples from the Nordic context brings together research from Denmark, Finland, and Sweden to examine how teacher education responds to super-diverse classrooms and changing linguistic landscapes. The contributing articles investigate how future teachers are prepared to work with students’ varied linguistic repertoires, including national minority, indigenous, and migrant languages, in systems still shaped by strong monolingual norms. Drawing on critical perspectives on multilingualism, language policy, and teacher identity, this special issue highlights both affordances and obstacles for more equitable, linguistically responsive education in the Nordic region. By placing local practices within the context of global debates on mobility, inequality and linguistic rights, this offers valuable insights for scholars, policymakers and teacher educators. It encourages them to move beyond tokenistic diversity talk and instead prioritise students’ full linguistic resources in teaching learning and fostering social justice within contemporary schools.
Linguistic diversity is a defining feature of Swedish schools, where a substantial proportion of pupils have a migration background, underscoring the need for teachers who can support pupils with diverse linguistic experiences. Teacher education programmes have nevertheless been criticized for insufficiently preparing student teachers for multilingual classrooms. This study examines how teacher educators in primary school teacher education programmes at three Swedish universities conceptualise language and multilingualism within their disciplines and how they express critical multilingual awareness (CMLA) in their teaching. The study is grounded in a critical and dynamic understanding of language(s), in which CMLA highlights the social, political, and economic conditions shaping linguistic diversity. The empirical material consists of individual interviews with 21 teacher educators. The findings show that although teacher educators generally acknowledge the importance of linguistic diversity and often view multilingualism as a resource, their critical awareness of the wider conditions influencing it remains limited. Multilingualism is frequently framed as a challenge linked to subject-specific linguistic demands, while broader social and political dimensions of language are less visible. Overall, the findings indicate a need to strengthen critical perspectives on language in teacher education to better support linguistic diversity in schools.
This study investigates how cultural and linguistic diversity is discursively construed in mathematics teacher education for Grades 4–6 in Sweden at policy level. Discourse analysis was used to examine 55 mathematics course syllabi and 20 educational curricula from various Swedish universities. The analysis uncovered how cultural and linguistic diversity is framed in policy, and what assumptions and values underpin these framings. The analysis identified two dominant Discourses: the cultural and linguistic homogeneity Discourse, which emphasises a monolingual norm, and the cultural and linguistic plurality Discourse, which acknowledges and values students’ diverse backgrounds. Further, it revealed that cultural and linguistic diversity is largely marginalized in the policy documents. Tensions and inconsistencies in how diversity is addressed were identified, suggesting incoherence in the guidance provided to pre-service teachers. These insights aim to encourage policymakers and teacher educators to critically reflect on how diversity is framed and addressed in teacher education, thereby preparing pre-service teachers for the realities of culturally and linguistically diverse mathematics classrooms.
In the Danish Folkeskole (primary and lower secondary school) and teacher education, increasingly plurilingual student populations call for responsive plurilingual pedagogies in teacher education. This paper explores second-order didactics in plurilingual teaching combined with task-based and playful approaches in the English and French teacher education at University College Copenhagen. It investigates: (1) connections between the plurilingual learning arenas created in teacher education and those that student teachers subsequently create for primary school pupils; and (2) how these connections can be understood through concepts of explicit and implicit modelling and specific and general transfer. The study involves 42 student teachers (divided into 8 groups) and two teacher educators. It draws on a range of qualitative data from both teacher education and the school arena. An empirical analysis of two workshops shows that engagement in plurilingual, task-based and playful activities, supported by explicit modelling (type B) and structured reflection, can foster student teachers’ development of coherent plurilingual learning spaces and support general transfer of didactic principles. At the same time, the study identifies fragmentary or limited transfer where modelling remains implicit, or where plurilingual and playful dimensions are only partially realised. The paper discusses implications for teacher education design that systematically supports second-order didactics in Denmark.
This issue brings together ten research articles and one position paper that address some of today’s most pressing questions in education. The topics addressed span a wide spectrum, including reading promotion, the evolving roles of paraprofessionals, adult learning, and the development of second-language writing. Contributions also examine strategies for preparing teachers to navigate sensitive classroom discussions. Further areas of focus include sustainability through food education, equitable outcomes in the labour market, inclusive guidance for migrants, and the paradoxes of conditional flexibility within digitalised adult education. The position paper invites dialogue on children’s existential meaning-making in interactions with educational robots. These articles challenge us to reconsider what constitutes core educational work in an era of social change and technological transformation.
As technological advances become increasingly integrated into children’s learning environments, this paper aims to initiate a dialogue about the place and meaning of educational robots in children’s lives. We reviewed the existing literature on robots in education and the field of philosophy for children. While the existing studies undoubtedly enrich our understanding of learners’ experiences with educational robots, they stop short of explicitly dealing with existential questions. Therefore, we recommend two avenues to study children’s existential meaning-making of educational robots: educational robots as cultural tools and educational robots as part of children’s play.
The Swedish municipal adult education curriculum emphasizes that there should be flexibility in education and accommodation to meet the adults’ diverse needs. However, it appears unclear what the concept of flexibility means in practice especially in the context of adult distance education. This study explores how the distance teacher role is constructed, how flexibility is enacted, and its implications for didactic practice. Drawing on focus groups with 46 teachers and principals and a mapping of seven municipal adult education activities, the findings reveal a paradox of conditional flexibility: while teachers are expected to be highly adaptable, organizational and economic constraints, standardized structures, and policy-driven efficiency goals limit real flexibility. Teachers navigate tensions between pedagogical ideals, administrative demands, and students’ expectations of autonomy, often at the cost of didactic quality. Assessment requirements further restrict flexibility, reinforcing rigid practices in a system that markets itself as flexible. The study argues for strategic organizational support and a redefinition of flexibility that prioritizes pedagogical and didactic dimensions.
This landmark special issue proudly marks twenty years of Educare. It unites the journal’s founding story, as told by its first editor‑in‑chief, with a twentieth‑anniversary editorial from the current editor‑in‑chief, charting a remarkable journey from a local experiment in Malmö to a recognised Nordic education journal. From fragile beginnings in a context without an established publication culture, these reflections show how a small, determined editorial team built an article‑based, peer‑reviewed platform that now makes a substantive contribution to educational research in Sweden and beyond. They spotlight bold, creative responses to challenges of identity, peer review, and financing, and the deliberate shaping of a multilingual, open‑access profile that positions Educare at the intersection of local practice and global debate. This issue is both a celebration of what has been achieved and an invitation to what comes next.
This article explores how career guidance counsellors (CGCs) in Sweden perceive and enact conditions for the social inclusion of newly arrived students (NAS) within their professional practice. Drawing on professionalization theory (autonomy/discretion, expertise, and jurisdiction) the study examines the scope of CGCs’ professional agency in fostering inclusion. The analysis is based on qualitative interviews with CGCs working in municipalities with high numbers of newly arrived migrants. Findings reveal that inclusive career guidance involves three interrelated steps: (1) introducing NAS to the education system, (2) establishing pathways from education to the labour market, and (3) making these pathways manageable. While CGCs exercise significant discretion, particularly in adapting their expertise and pedagogical approaches to meet NAS needs, their jurisdiction is constrained by other institutional actors, notably the Swedish Employment Office (Arbetsförmedlingen). These findings highlight the tension between professional autonomy and institutional structures in shaping inclusive practices.
Food education is essential for promoting consumer awareness and sustainable food choices, and for supporting health equity. Yet it remains largely absent in Swedish primary schools (ages 6–11), revealing a noteworthy knowledge and practice gap. This study explores key elements in a co-design process for developing subject-integrated food education in collaboration with early primary school teachers. The research question guiding the study was: What elements are considered significant in the co-design process when using food as a pedagogical tool in primary school? A co-design case study approach was adopted, involving collaboration between primary school teachers and researchers to develop subject-integrated food education. Data were collected through interviews, questionnaires, observations, and field notes. Five significant elements emerged: (1) “creating space for food education”, (2) “igniting inspiration and fostering collective creativity”, (3) “engaging in collaborative thinking to strengthen and motivate”, (4) “addressing food-related questions”, and (5) “navigating the practical boundaries between creativity and collaboration.” The findings highlight that successful implementation of subject-integrated food education in early primary education depends on teachers’ knowledge and skills in food education, their recognition of the value of collaborative engagement, and the support of a food education facilitator. This study contributes to understanding how co-design can advance sustainable and health-oriented education in early primary education.
This study examines experiences, attitudes and expectations in relation to teaching and learning to speak Spanish in schools. Interviews were conducted with teachers and students at five lower secondary schools to investigate what aspects are emphasised when discussing speaking in the school subject Spanish as a modern language. In addition to questions about general and personal perceptions, a retrospective method was applied where teachers and students were asked about spoken activities observed by the researcher. The interview data were analysed using qualitative content analysis and sorted under the didactic questions: who? what? and how? From the analysis, four didactic dilemmas were identified, representing challenges when it comes to teaching speaking: ‘Speaking as authentic or adapted practice’, ‘Accommodating each individual student or the whole group’, ‘Planning and conducting spoken activities in whole class or small group settings’, and ‘Speaking Swedish or speaking Spanish’. These dilemmas are discussed within the context of previous research and the teachers’ and students’ voices.
From a professional perspective, sexuality is often regarded as a sensitive and challenging issue, particularly when it comes to young children. The aim of this article is to analyse how online resources for professionals in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and child healthcare, discursively problematize young children, sexuality and professional approaches. To do this, we have used an analytical method for policy analysis that focuses on governance and discursive problematizations (WPR). The analysis reveals differences between policy for ECEC and policy for child healthcare in how they describe and address sexuality, as well as in what they consider to be valid sources of knowledge. The material targeted at ECEC constructs children as innocent and in need of protection from harmful adult sexuality. In contrast, the material directed at child healthcare present children as sexual subjects. We interpret the more cautious approach to children's own sexuality in ECEC as stemming from its more ambiguous professional role, compared to the clearer role defined within child healthcare.
While the strong correlation between school achievement and future success is well-documented, there is limited research on how this relationship has evolved over time for different groups of individuals. Specifically, it remains unclear whether and how the life chances of low-achieving students have changed over the years. This study explores the consequences of low academic achievement on labor market outcomes in Sweden from 1994 to 2019, a period marked by educational reforms. Utilizing longitudinal Swedish data from a comprehensive register database, we analyze employment rates and income levels using descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The findings reveal significant income disparities between low and high achievers, with the former facing persistently lower income levels. For younger birth cohorts, these differences are more pronounced, highlighting the increased importance of schooling. Further, it has become increasingly difficult for individuals who have experienced school failure, such as not completing compulsory school, to obtain or retain employment. For 40-year-olds, employment has decreased by 10 percentage points between older (early 1970s) and younger (late 1980s) birth cohorts. Furthermore, while substantial, the income disparities between males and females, as well as among groups with different social backgrounds, have remained relatively stable across birth cohorts.
This study investigates how adult second language learners in basic adult education engage with argumentative writing, a skill often underexplored in research on writing pedagogy. Using an action research design, data were collected from classroom discussions where learners analyzed model texts with varying structural and interpersonal features, as well as from their own argumentative texts. Drawing on systemic-functional genre theory, the analysis examines how learners interpret genre-specific resources and incorporate them into their writing. Findings indicate that students view structural elements, such as clear thesis statements and logical sequencing, as essential for achieving argumentative purposes. While many texts adhere to prototypical genre structures, others display creative deviations, reflecting both individual preferences and emerging genre awareness. These results highlight the potential of genre-based pedagogy to enhance metalinguistic awareness and expand learners’ linguistic repertoires. By making explicit the range of linguistic resources available for constructing arguments, instruction can foster greater flexibility and effectiveness in adult second language writing.
In an ongoing research project, we examine reading promotion work in Sweden, where reading is framed as being in crisis, and where different actors offer solutions for this. This article centres on three prominent and influential reading promoters in Sweden. The purpose is to highlight some of the passions, values, and contradictions that characterize discourses on reading and reading promotion. The theoretical and methodological framework draws on concepts from Science and Technology Studies. We investigate the following research questions: What values are attributed to reading? What passions, threats, and contradictions emerge within the networks that these reading promoters participate in? Our findings show that the informants are driven by strong passions and values that are both deeply personal and oriented toward society. They identify the absence of reading role models, along with digitization and social media, as significant threats. The reading-promotion networks that the informants initiate and/or participate in differ significantly in terms of magnitude and complexity. They consist of both human and non-human actors, and foster a shared belief in the fundamental importance of reading, while also exposing discursive cracks and contradictions.
Tillhandahållandet av sexualundervisning i skolan, liksom utbildningen av lärare för kunskapsområdet, är av avgörande betydelse för att främja sexuell hälsa och välbefinnande. Från och med höstterminen 2021 ska nyutexaminerade lärare i Sverige kunna kommunicera och reflektera kring frågor som rör identitet, sexualitet och relationer. Utifrån kvantitativ och kvalitativ analys av enkätdata från lärarutbildare och lärarstudenter syftar denna studie till att belysa de utmaningar som lärosäten står inför i arbetet med att integrera detta mål. Studiens resultat kan användas som underlag för framtida pedagogiskt utvecklingsarbete i syfte att stärka blivande lärares kompetens och självförtroende. Resultaten visar på en generellt positiv inställning bland respondenterna, samtidigt som kritiska fritextsvar pekar på de olika utmaningar som lärarutbildningen står inför. En övergripande utmaning utgörs av att fortsatt arbeta med redan integrerade teman, samtidigt som lärarstudenterna ska förberedas för ett bredare kunskapsområde. För att underlätta detta bör lärarutbildningen säkerställa att målet även behandlas inom ämneskurserna. För att stärka studenternas tilltro till sin egen förmåga och deras kompetens är det viktigt att de får mer kunskap om undervisningsmetoder samt fler möjligheter att praktisera sina färdigheter under utbildningen. Kompetensutveckling och pedagogiskt utvecklingsarbete bland lärarutbildare är nödvändig för att möta dessa behov.
