Johan Liljestrand

• University of Gävle

A current trend in educational research on innovative learning environments is to focus on student-centred learning, rather than a teacher-focused classroom. This turn to learning environments comes with theoretical and conceptual challenges concerning the dynamics of the classroom context and the interactions that take place within it. The aim of...

The paper argues that Swedish preschool teachers tend to be depicted mainly as subjects for policy implementation when it comes to their mission to teach in preschool. Taking the perspective of inside-out-professionalism, the paper aims to make visible how preschool teachers have developed professional knowledge about teaching from within the presc...

Young people with immigrant backgrounds are especially exposed in their identity formation. They may face particular difficulties if they also identify themselves as religious, such as being positioned as odd and different in negative ways by their peers. Focusing on the social conditions for developing an integrated identity, and through the theor...

There is a tension in Swedish preschool policy when it comes to a subject curriculum and a child-centred curriculum. This article examines how Swedish preschool teachers have dealt with this relationship by focusing on the purpose of the preschool and how preschool teachers become part of the enacted preschool policy. The purpose of the study is to...

This case study focuses on a large building hosting an interreligious youth project. Fryshuset as a neutral and secular building is recognized in the political dimension of Together for Sweden, where human rights, multiculturalism and adaptation to a new situation characterised by immigration, stands out. A more or less individualised way of being...

This case study highlights the interplay between different levels of smaller and larger spatial scales in an interreligious neighbourhood project in Stockholm, Sweden. The interreligious project is aiming to integrate a mosque with the current church building, operating with different materials and media in its public representations. On a small mi...

This chapter investigates interreligious discussion groups where participants in interreligious projects or activities can meet to talk face-to-face, i.e. listen to each other and address issues that directly or indirectly concern religious pluralism, religion and different life stances. Discussions are not just about talking but are strongly relat...

This chapter analyses interreligious community consultations, an activity in which people of different religious or non-religious identities are brought together to consult with each other on community issues or negotiate specific community projects. Religious thinking in the context of community consultations is often related to secular actors alt...

In this case study of an interreligious youth project social capital is understood as an individual disposition, i.e. the participants in the study rely on their former and parallel experiences of capital as a social resource. In order to maintain the project as a sustainable network, norms and sanctions that are adapted to particular situations by...

This conclusion summarises and develops seven cases studies aiming to shed light on the spatial condition for urban interreligious projects. The characteristic of cooperation may (partly) be contrasted to religious pluralism characterised by competition, conflict and violence. As physical spaces for meeting, rooted in the histories of areas and of...

The purpose of the paper is to contribute to research on the media’s role in naming and framing the debate about teacher education using Sweden as a case study. This is done by analysing how articles published in four major Swedish newspapers from 2016–2017 define: a) the challenges/strengths of current teacher education and b) the kind of teacher...

The education system is still important for establishing and maintaining democracy in society. In relation to this, it is reasonable to suggest that teachers' different interpretations of their mission to teach for democracy will influence their teaching practices. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on student teachers' task perceptions as...

This paper explores the spatial and environmental conditions for democratic education in an interreligious project. The interreligious project provides a case for applying Dewey's concepts of experience and environment. Four kinds of experiences are presented: invited places-being a guest, common meeting points-shaping an interreligious “we”, nomad...

Documentation has become an important issue for policy, practice and accountability in many national contexts. The documentation of children’s activities is a requirement in the national syllabus for the Swedish preschool. However, the documentation of children is always a social construction that focuses on certain things and excludes (possible) o...

In Sweden, religious education (RE) has successively developed into a school subject that aims to foster democratic citizenship that is characterised by social cohesion and tolerance of religious and life stance differences. This can be interpreted in different ways by teachers in the RE curriculum. The paper presents four different approaches to h...

Religion has become a prominent issue in times of pluralism and in relation to citizenship in school and in society. As religious education (RE) is assigned to be one of the main school subject where issues of what religion is are to be raised, RE teachers’ conceptualizations of religion are of vital concern to investigate. In this article, RE teac...

Sweden can be characterised as a multi-cultural and multi-religious society. One of the most prominent actors in interreligious relations is the Church of Sweden. However, such involvement is also open to criticism, both within the church and in public debate. Different expectations concerning cooperation with the Swedish Muslim community became vi...

The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore and theoretically discuss Swedish religious studies (RE) teachers’ understanding of religions as similar and different. In Sweden, RE is a mandatory subject and presents all the world’s major religions to students. Teachers of RE therefore need to relate to the various relations between the religi...

According to national and international policy, teachers' work is supposed to be guided by reliable evidence in order to be effective and achieve the set goals. The purpose of this article is to problematise evidence-based approaches for teacher education by highlighting the occurrence of dilemmas in teachers' work connected to the assignment of ed...

De internationella studierna PIRLS, PISA OCH TIMMS har fått stort genomslag i skoldebatten och det förs en diskussion om vilka effekter dessa undersökningar har. Men det finns även en mindre känd studie, ICCS 2009 (International Civic and Citizenship Education Study), som har mätt 14-åringars medborgerliga kompetens i 38 länder. Maria Olson, Silvia...

De internationella studierna PIRLS, PISA OCH TIMMS har fått stort genomslag i skoldebatten och det förs en diskussion om vilka effekter dessa undersökningar har. Men det finns även en mindre känd studie, ICCS 2009 (International Civic and Citizenship Education Study), som har mätt 14-åringars medborgerliga kompetens i 38 länder. Maria Olson, Silvia...

The purpose of this article is to analyse the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) use of discussions on social and political issues and then problematize the meaning of "discussions" – in particular, the topic of discussion – through a qualitative analysis of actual discussions in the class-room. A qualitative study of classr...

Children’s encounters with institutionalized teaching and theirimplications for democratic citizenship. The aim of this article is to study children’s early socialization to institutionalized teaching practices and its consequences for democratic citizenship. The data on which the study is based consist of recordings from a group of 5-year-olds at...