This article reports how teachers in Swedish school-age educare (SAEC) evaluate their practice. The study was conducted within a research- and development programme and is based on 47 teachers’ written reflections about performing evaluations. The reflections have been analysed using various neo-institutional logics. The results indicate that the teachers’ focus, regarding both the children and the practice, is directed differently when they are guided by different logics. When guided by the market logic, teachers focus on customer preferences and customer satisfaction. Guided by the professional logic, teachers focus the collective as well as the activities and the organisation around them. Guided by the bureaucratic and state logics, the teachers focus on the formal teaching, the individual child, and the school-age educare goal fulfilment. The results also show issues and contradictions concerning how to evaluate, what to evaluate, and when to evaluate. One possible claim is that the learning processes at the school-age educare are broad and complex, and thus difficult to “mould” to fit into evaluation schemes. 

Politiska initiativ har tagits under senare år för att minska trycket mot lärarna, ”så att lärare kan vara lärare” och ”fokusera på sitt kärnuppdrag” – exempelvis genom att införa lärarassistenter. I artikeln studeras hur lärarprofessionens territorium (om-) förhandlas när avlastande tjänster införs. Resultaten visar att gränserna runt lärarprofessionens territorium förflyttas då lärarassistenterna tar över delar av territoriet och blir resurser till lärarprofessionen då de kompletterar på andra platser än i klassrummet. Lärarna positionerar sig på nytt inom sitt professionella territorium men resultaten visar även att gränsdispyter mellan lärarassistenter och lärarprofessionen kan förekomma. Resultaten visar att lärarassistenters arbete kan innebära att lärarprofessionens territorium kan renodlas och förtätats samtidigt som skolans territorium riskerar att utökas då nya arbetsområden tillförs skolan via lärarassistenterna.

This study aims to create knowledge about relational aspects in teachers’ descriptions of school-ageeducare teaching. With the support of the concept of pedagogical pace, the interpersonal aspectsthat emerge in the descriptions of the pedagogical meeting and the interaction between teachersand pupils are made visible. The empirical material consists of individually written reflectionswhere the teachers describe their teaching based on the didactic questions when, where, how andwhat. Based on a qualitative content analysis, three themes emerge that illustrate teachers’ pedagogicalpace in the school-age educare teaching; To lead the teaching, To follow and capture the teachingand To take joint responsibility of the teaching. The study shows that pedagogical pace is situational and immediate, and it creates different teaching situations. The descriptions illustrate how theteacher can choose to stop and respond to the pupil or ignore what happens in the joint meeting.When the pedagogical gaze is forward-looking and open towards the pupils, the school age educareteaching is described as a well-directed dance where teachers and pupils alternately lead and followand where a shared responsibility is taken through the openness and trust of those involved.

This chapter takes a historical lens to ways in which transition to school has been conceptualised over the last 80 years in Sweden. Drawing on an extensive policy analysis, we analyse changing representations of the six-year-old child starting school, depending on how society has handled issues of the image of the child, school maturity, compulsory schooling, and the transition from home or preschool to school. The key idea is that every education system is about creating the person through education. The vision of the educated child is at the core of educational reforms. Historical discursive claims about the characteristics of the child, or the pupil, mirror the educational subject at a certain time and convey meanings of school maturity and transition to school. With this in mind, we analyse how policy documents describe the nature of the child and what the child should become in the educational institution.

The preschool class has been subject to several policy reforms, which principals and local education authorities are responsible. for implementing and evaluating. The aim of this study is to contribute with knowledge about how principals and local education authorities make meaning of the position and organization of the preschool class in relation to these policy reforms and to the existing practices. The method used in the study is interviews with principals and local education authorities and shows how they reason about and relate to various regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive elements of governance. The analysis shows that the principals have arguments for three basic positions for the preschool class: a bridge between preschool and primary school, a knowledgeoriented position, and a socially oriented position. A key argument put forward by the principals is that the preschool class should be integrated into a continuous primary school organisation. The local education authorities, on their part, interpret the new policy as an ongoing qualification and homogenization process, which affects the preschool class’s position in the education system.

In this paper, we theorize on local school governance through a multi-method case study of a large-sized Swedish municipality by drawing on neo-institutional theory. In light of a changing governing landscape in Sweden in terms of a ‘re-centralization’, new conditions between the state, the local education authorities (LEA) and the schools have emerged. The aim of this study is to examine what policy actions the LEA employ for governing the school and in what ways that principals respond and handle these policy actions. The results point to the fact that the LEA uses a bench-marking strategy through its quality assurance system and intervene if results are poor. Principals seek support from the LEA, but are anxious that their autonomy will be diminished and therefore function as ‘gate-. The system for quality assurance is appreciated by principals, but standards aimed at framing discursive communication on quality are criticized. Principals turn to managers below the superintendent, which creates a tension between managers. The study shows that different levels and actors must be taken into account in order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the multi-layered field of local policy enactment.

From a new institutional theoretical perspective, this article explores school actors’ sense making linked to data-based decision making (DBDM) policy in general and processes of data analysis in particular. The study revealed how actors’ interpretation of and response to DBDM requirements pointed to strong and weak couplings between and within the local school system’s different organizational levels. While teachers primarily emphasized informal, daily analyses, the LEA and principals placed importance on formal, district and school-based analyses. In the same way teachers to a greater extent think that too much resources is spent on collecting and analyzing data rather than on innovation and school improvement.

Inom ramen för det svenska decentraliserade skolsystemet har ansvaret för att bygga upp, utveckla och bedriva ett systematiskt kvalitetsarbete i första hand varit en fråga för huvudmän och skolor att hantera. I ljuset av en ökad re-centralisering av skolan har uppbyggandet av olika kvalitetssystem för uppföljning och kontroll av skolornas resultat också kommit att utgöra ett viktigt sätt för huvudmannen att styra skolan på. I studien benämns detta i termer av kvalitetsstyrning. I och med Samverkan för bästa skola har dessa gränsdragningar mellan det lokala och det nationella kommit att utmanas. Studien bygger på intervjudata inhämtad på fyra skolor som deltar i Samverkan för bästa skola, från skolförvaltningen i samma kommun samt genom intervju med en representant från Skolverket. Utifrån begreppen löst kopplade system och organisatoriska rutiner studeras vad som karaktäriserar den nationella respektive den kommunala kvalitetsstyrningen samt vad som sker i mötet dem emellan på skolor som genomgår insatser inom ramen för Samverkan för bästa skola, samt med vilka konsekvenser. Resultatet av studien visar bland annat på att idéer och metoder om databaserad skolutveckling utgör viktiga legitimitetsgrunder för såväl den kommunala som den nationella kvalitetsstyrningen. Den nationella kvalitetsstyrningen via Samverkan för bästa skola är dock betydligt mer intensifierad och når längre in i skolornas organisation.  

Most research investigating Swedish for Immigrants (SFI) is qualitative, focusing primarily on classroominteraction and on teacher feedback. Given that SFI has been criticised for not providing enough opportunities todevelop language abilities required outside the classroom, the lack of studies examining the language developmentin SFI is surprising. It has been suggested that work placement may enhance SFI students’ language development,but no studies have tested that claim quantitatively. The present study addresses these research gaps.The participants were 38 students registered on the two last SFI courses. All of them were enrolled in a job-sector-focused SFI program, and twelve of them also attended a work placement two days per week. To investigatethe participants’ language development and the effect of work placement, written texts were collected from them onNORDAND | ÅRGANG 19 | 1-202439two occasions separated by three months. The texts were assessed holistically by five experienced second-languageteachers, using the method of comparative judgement. A mixed-effects regression model was built to test whethercourse, time point and work placement could predict the texts’ quality scores.The results revealed that the students’ writing ability developed over time, shown both longitudinally, i.e., bycomparing time points, and cross-sectionally, i.e., by comparing the two courses. However, there was no significanteffect of work placement and no significant interaction between placement and time point, suggesting that thestudents with placement did not develop their writing ability more rapidly than other students.

In the theatre performance Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016), Harry Potter's magical world is revisited from the perspective of an adult Harry, who has grown out of his rebellious youth and become a controlling and sometimes abusive parent. Many fans were outraged by Harry's treatment of his son Albus, a Slytherin, whose only friend is Draco Malfoy's son, Scorpius. I utilize cognitive script and schema theory to analyze the play manuscript's ideologies connected to age. I argue that the reactions against the non-sympathetic adult Harry can be conceptualized as a schema disruption of "the Harry Potter literary schema."

Since the publication of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games in 2008, there has been a boom in literature about dystopias with authoritarian regimes, featuring adults who oppress children and adolescents. Dystopian literature for young adults asks important questions about the consequences of the adult generation’s inability to deal with challenges such as discrimination and dictatorial tendencies. It also illustrates how young people can be oppressed by adults in non-fictional societies by exaggerating the power inequalities between children, adolescents and adults.

Mothers and Murderers explores power relationships between adults and the young, using a corpus of around one hundred Anglophone and Swedish dystopian novels for young adult (YA) readers. It highlights the power relationships that come into play when dystopian regimes force young characters to become killers. It also illuminates the relationship of power between children, adolescents and adults by analysing the motif of the adolescent mother. In this dystopian literature, adolescent mothers must be prepared to do whatever it takes to protect their child, even while being oppressed by adults. This book analyses how the power category of age relates to other categories such as gender, race, (dis)ability and class.

The genre’s problematisation of adult oppression of the young incorporates an educational potential that can be harnessed in the classroom. By exaggerating actual age-related power inequalities, it can support students and teachers in questioning assumptions about what the young generation needs and what elements of society it needs protecting from.

Combining text analyses of the motifs in the corpus, case studies with in-depth analyses of these motifs, and suggestions for teaching plans, this book is aimed at readers who want to explore dystopian literature for young adults, as well as teachers and trainee teachers who want to actualise the educational potential of this genre in the classroom.

Introduction: Conceptions of Girlhood Now and Then: “Girls’ Literature” and Beyond

This paper presents the outcomes of a short intercultural exchangeproject involving pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher trainingestablishments in Sweden and Israel. The project comprised three online meetingsrecorded in Zoom in which student teachers gave feedback on each other’s projectassignments involving lesson planning and the use of spoken English in theclassroom. The sessions were moderated by a highly experienced teacher trainerwith contributions from other teacher trainers in the institutions involved. Withrestrictions imposed on physical meetings and student mobility by the Covid-19pandemic, the exchange helped to shed light on a number of perennial issues inEnglish language teaching methodology and offers a feasible model for futuresustainable virtual exchanges in EFL teacher training.

Rapporten syftar till att ge en översiktlig bild av socialpedagogers uppdrag och roll i skolan. Detta görs mot bakgrund av den aktuella diskussionen om behovet av att avlasta lärare arbetsuppgifter så att de kan fokusera på kärnuppdraget, dvs undervisning. Rapporten bygger på två empiriska delar: delstudie I är en textanalys av annonser för lediga tjänster som socialpedagog respektive lärarassistent och i delstudie II har fyra fokusgruppsintervjuer genomförts med socialpedagoger som arbetar i skolan. Resultatet av delstudie I visar att skolor i större utsträckning söker efter lärarassistenter än socialpedagoger. I studien gjordes en fördjupad analys av annonserna som socialpedagog. Denna visade att socialpedagogernas arbetsuppgifter kunde kategoriseras under sju områden: specialistkompetens, samordning och samarbete, individinriktat arbete, förebyggande arbete, trygghet och tillgänglighet samt kartläggning och administration. Sammantaget beskrevs arbetsuppgifterna som att de i huvudsak handlade om arbete med den sociala situationen kring elever i skolan.

I delstudie II intervjuades 11 socialpedagoger som arbetar i skolan och som har tagit en examen från utbildningsprogrammet Socialpedagogik med inriktning mot ungdoms- och missbruksvård vid Linnéuniversitetet i Växjö. De intervjuade socialpedagogerna hade olika yrkestitlar, och beroende på anställning delvis olika arbetsuppgifter. Flera av dem hade själva varit med och utformat sin befattningsbeskrivning, medan andra saknade en sådan. Det är bara en av intervjupersonerna som har en yrkestitel som socialpedagog. Vidare visade analysen att socialpedagoger i skolan har ett komplext och otydligt uppdrag och att det finns gränsdragningsproblematik i relation till andra yrkeskategorier i skolan. De intervjuade personerna ser som sitt huvuduppdrag att skapa relationer med eleverna och få dem att må bra så att de i förlängningen kan klara av skolan. Socialpedagogerna uttrycker vidare att de vill vara tillgängliga för alla elever och skapa trygghet i skolan samt arbeta förebyggande. De drar en skarp gräns mot att undervisa i skolämnen men flera av dem arbetar i klasserna med områden som de uppfattar ligger nära deras kompetens, som t.ex. värdegrundsarbete eller olika gruppaktiviteter.

En annan viktig del av socialpedagogernas arbetsuppgifter innebär samarbete med olika personer och instanser, både i skolan och utanför. De anser att de med sin utbildningsbakgrund har en lämplig kompetens för att arbeta i skolan, men flera uppger att de önskat mer kunskap om skolans uppdrag och kontext i utbildningen. En slutsats som kan dras är att när nya yrkeskategorier införs i skolan krävs ett engagemang och en tydlighet från skolledningen. Det är viktigt att det finns tydliga befattningsbeskrivningar om tjänsternas innehåll och att detta är kommunicerat med övrig personal. Mot bakgrund av lärares ökande arbetsbelastning och behovet av att stödja elever som har social problematik eller andra svårigheter i skolan tycks det finnas ett behov av kompletterande yrkesgrupper i skolan. En sådan kompletterande yrkesgrupp kan vara högskoleutbildade socialpedagoger, vilket är mer förekommande i andra europeiska länder i jämförelse med Sverige. 

Visual information can be integrated in prominence perception, but most available evidence stems from controlled experimental settings, often involving synthetic stimuli. The present study provides evidence from spontaneously produced head gestures that occurred in Swedish television news readings. Sixteen short clips (containing 218 words in total) were rated for word prominence by 85 adult volunteers in a between-subjects design (44 in an audio-visual vs. 41 in an audio-only condition) using a web-based rating task. As an initial test of overall rating behavior, average prominence across all 218 words was compared between the two conditions, revealing no significant difference. In a second step, we compared normalized prominence ratings between the two conditions for all 218 words individually. These results displayed significant (or near significant, p<.08) differences for 28 out of 218 words, with higher ratings in either the audiovisual (13 words) or the audio-only-condition (15 words). A detailed examination revealed that the presence of head movements (previously annotated) can boost prominence ratings in the audiovisual condition, while words with low prominence tend to be rated slightly higher in the audio-only condition. The study suggests that visual prominence signals are integrated in speech processing even in a relatively uncontrolled, naturalistic setting.

Previous research has shown that visual information can be integrated in the perception of prominence, but the available evidence stems mostly from controlled experimental settings, often making use of synthetic stimuli. The present study provides evidence from spontaneously produced head gestures that occurred in Swedish television news readings. Materials were rated for word prominence by 85 adult volunteers in a between-subjects design (audio-visual vs. audio-only ratings) using a crowd-sourcing approach. Accented words accompanied by a head movement were perceived as more prominent than accented words lacking a head movement. Crucially, the difference in perceived prominence level between words with and without a head gesture was found to be larger in an audio-visual rating condition compared to an audio-only condition. The results suggest that visual prominence signals are integrated in speech processing even in a relatively uncontrolled, naturalistic setting, such as watching the news. 

This study investigates the multimodal implementation of prosodic-phonological categories, asking whether the accentual fall and the following rise in the Swedish word accents (Accent 1, Accent 2) are varied as a function of accompanying head and eyebrow gestures. Our purpose is to evaluate the hypothesis that prominence production displays a cumulative relation between acoustic and kinematic dimensions of spoken language, especially focusing on the clustering of gestures (head, eyebrows), at the same time asking if lexical-prosodic features would interfere with this cumulative relation. Our materials comprise 12 minutes of speech from Swedish television news presentations. The results reveal a significant trend for larger fo rises when a head movement accompanies the accented word, and even larger when an additional eyebrow movement is present. This trend is observed for accentual rises that encode phrase-level prominence, but not for accentual falls that are primarily related to lexical prosody. Moreover, the trend is manifested differently in different lexical-prosodic categories (Accent 1 versus Accent 2 with one versus two lexical stresses). The study provides novel support for a cumulative-cue hypothesis and the assumption that prominence production is essentially multimodal, well in line with the idea of speech and gesture as an integrated system.

This study aims to scrutinize the role of segmental duration as acorrelate of the two Swedish word accents, asking whether it is a robust correlate, independent of tonal complexity and phrase-level prosodic factors. To this end, we examined segmental durations of Accent 1 and Accent 2 words in two regional dialects, controllingfor focus and phrase finality. Recordings from 24 speakers were analysed. Theresults showed that thevowel in the stressed syllable and the post-vocalic consonant wereproduced longer with Accent 2 than with Accent 1, irrespective ofthe speakers¶ dialect,focus condition and positionin the utterance.

Ämnesspråk och historiska begrepp betonas i både historiedidaktisk forskning och i styrdokument/läroplaner för historieämnet i flera länder. Frågorna om eleverna kan använda begreppen, hur de använder dem och om de förstår begreppen behöver svar. Artikeln handlar om dessa frågor och de illustreras av autentiska elevsvar. Avslutningsvis diskuteras tankar om hur lärare och elever kan utveckla förmågan att använda historiska begrepp.

Second language (L2) learners experience challenges when word meanings differ across L1 and L2, and often display crosslinguistic influence (CLI) in speech production. In contrast, studies of online comprehension show more mixed results. Therefore, this study explored how L2 learners process fine-grained L2 verb semantics in the domain of caused motion (placement) and specifically the impact of having similar vs. non-similar semantics in the L1 and L2. Specifically, we examined English (20) and German (21) L2 learners of Swedish and native Swedish speakers (16) and their online neurophysiological processing and offline appropriateness ratings of three Swedish placement verbs obligatory for placement supported from below: satta "set," stalla "stand," and lagga "lay." The learners' L1s differed from Swedish in that their placement verbs either shared or did not share semantic characteristics with the target language. English has a general placement verb put, whereas German has specific verbs similar but not identical to Swedish, stellen "set/stand" and legen "lay." Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants watched still frames (images) of objects being placed on a table and listened to sentences describing the event with verbs that either matched the image or not. Participants also performed an offline appropriateness rating task. Both tasks suggested CLI. English learners' appropriateness ratings of atypical verb use differed from those of both native Swedish speakers' and German learners, with no difference in the latter pair. Similarly, German learners' ERP effects were more similar to those of the native Swedish speakers (increased lateral negativity to atypical verb use) than to those of the English learners (increased positivity to atypical verb use). The results of this explorative study thus suggest CLI both offline and online with similarity between L1 and L2 indicating more similar processing and judgments, in line with previous production findings, but in contrast to previous ERP work on semantic L2 processing.

About a fifth of all children in Sweden learn the societal language Swedish outside of the home, i.e., they have Swedish as a second language (L2). Many of these children have lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds, which predicts lower language proficiency. The aim of the present study is twofold: to contribute to a greater understanding of L2- Swedish proficiency in preschoolers with lower SES backgrounds, and to find out how proficiency tests should be adapted for bilingual children such that the tests are valid, i.e., unbiased to the language status (L1 or L2). We investigate test performance on a Swedish receptive language proficiency test (the Comprehension scale of The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales, NRDLS) which has a monolingual norming sample. The participants are 51 bilingual children (3-5-years of age) with Arabic as their L1, and who attend preschools in Swedish neighborhoods with lower SES. Results indicate that in contrast to the norming sample, bilingual children’s raw scores for subsections of the test are not progressively more difficult. Thus, we need to be aware that bilingual children’s high proficiency in a particular aspect of the language does not necessarily imply that they are proficient in aspects that would be considered easier from a monolingual perspective. In addition, there are indications that unfamiliarity with L2 lexical items, that are typically acquired early in L1, causes bilingual children to fail on tasks aimed at assessing syntactic skills, even though they appear to understand the syntactic pattern. We conclude with suggestions for special considerations and adaptations to assess individual L2- comprehension in preschoolers more accurately, such that practitioners in turn can support the children’s language development.

With current trends in population migration, international mobility, and connectedness, an understanding of the factors that lead to optimal second language acquisition is increasingly important. Based on Helen Neville’s work, this chapter discusses some of the neurocognitive research on second language processing with a focus on studies utilizing event-related potentials (ERP). The chapter is structured around phonology, semantics, and syntax. For each of these subsystems of language, there is a focus on three factors important for second language processing: age of acquisition (AoA), proficiency, and cross-linguistic influence. We argue for a shift in ERP research from a focus on AoA as a sole factor for describing differences in processing languages to a more comprehensive approach, including proficiency and cross-linguistic influence.

In the summer of 2020, the Swedish Ministry of Education presented a proposal for changes in upper secondary school sport education. In the proposal, it is highlighted that the number of sports schools and the number of student-athletes, has increased. It is argued that the increase has led to a decrease in quality of the student-athletes. Consequently, the Ministry of Education wants to establish one school sport system, hence reducing the number of athlete-students admitted, introduce supplementary selection criteria and exceptions to the main regulation on education free of charge. The main aim is to generate a clear, more transparent, and sustainable system for School sports in upper secondary education (Ministry of Education 2020, p. 5).

In this text, I reflect on the above-mentioned proposal and its possible implication for the selection of student-athletes. The article begins with an overview of the development of the Swedish school sports system, as well as an assessment of the proposals which highlight supplementary selection criteria and exceptions to the main regulation on free education. Further, I discuss definitions of elite level sports and investment in elite sport, the selection processes that occur in upper secondary elite sport schools and the student-athletes socio-economic backgrounds. In conclusion, it is emphasized that before the proposals become a reality, it is of importance to discuss the possible implications that they may entail.

Understandings of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs) and their use has largely been conceptualized through the lens of male hegemonic patterns, treating women’s doping as a threat to the “natural” gender order. This article focuses on an exclusive, women-only online IPED forum. It aims to describe and analyze how this new forum was met within the broader doping community, and how issues related to IPED use and gender are addressed by women when their views are not backgrounded by potential male commentators and misogynistic discourses. The results show that first-hand knowledge is disseminated by women, which contributes to the foundation of a women’s ethnopharmacological (sub)culture. Women, their bodies, and experiences become the standard and the “unspoken” norm in the discussions. The secluded space allows women to challenge patterns of hegemonic masculinity, while building and reinforcing women’s experiences, bodies, and expertise as the standard. This stresses the importance of moving beyond hegemonic conceptualizations to understand the ongoing socio-cultural changes to the gender balance of IPED use and to center women’s doping experiences, and the risks associated with use. This has implications for the formation and development of both this community and of a “sis-science” based on women’s knowledge and experience.

Through hegemonic ideas about muscles and extraordinary performances, image- and performance-enhancing drugs (IPEDs) and their use have been traditionally connected to hypersexualized masculinities. This link has resulted in spectacular ideas and fantasies about what IPEDs can do to/with men regarding their bodies and sexual performance. However, these ideas do not always manifest or correspond with daily life. Using a qualitative and case-study-based approach, this article investigates the relationship between doped and spectacular masculinities as they are presented and constructed in and through an online doping community, and users’ experiences of side effects of the doped body and its social consequences. Analytically, the article draws on Guy Debord’s work on the relationship between the spectacle and the real, and the ongoing theoretical debate on different reconfigurations and redefinitions of doped masculinities. It argues that anticipations of and effects from IPEDs can bring alternative ways of enacting doping masculinity and sexuality in the context of online communication while also blurring the lines between fantasy and lived experience.

Utilising data gathered through ethnographic fieldwork this article investigates (a) how asylum seekers portray family life in relation to their decision to flee their country of origin, and (b) how asylum seekers’ ways of doing family life intersect with the Swedish migration context. Analytically, the article leans on sociologically informed theories of family practices and a conceptual discussion on deportability. The results show how family life among the participants is reconstituted both in terms of geographical closeness and distance, and in terms of ideas about a previous family life in the country of origin and hopes for a possible future in Sweden. The insecurity and the strains placed on people and their family bonds by current migration policies, and the risk of deportation, are interpreted as a specific form of administrative violence that cuts into family practices, serving to maintain physical and emotional distance between family members and break down social bonds. 

Förenklade föreställningar om manlighet och mäns kroppar är vanligt förekommande i såväl den offentliga debatten som i forskningssammanhang. Män beskrivs som dominerande, disciplinerande och våldsamma. 

De sägs också ha svårt att söka hjälp för psykiska och somatiska problem, att tala om känslor och att fullt ut eftersträva jämställdhet. De vill inte dela ansvar för hemmet eller vara fysiskt nära sina barn. Men stämmer dessa stereotypa bilder in på den samtida vardagsmannen?

I denna bok erbjuds en nyanserad, men också kritisk bild av manlighetens olika ansikten. Genom att analysera manlighet utifrån dels kritisk forskning om män och maskuliniteter, dels kroppsstudier, närmar sig författarna denna komplexa fråga. Boken diskuterar mäns relation till muskler, våld, faderskap, kroppslig estetisering, åldrande och sjukdom liksom en rad andra frågor.

Den perfekta mannen? utgör ett bidrag till den akademiska forskningen om män, maskulinitet och manlighetens förkroppsligande – men riktar sig också till alla som är intresserade av genus- och identitetsfrågor.

Förlagetss information:Vetenskapsteori kan ibland uppfattas som abstrakt och komplicerat. Samtidigt utgör den vetenskapsteoretiska reflektionen en grundförutsättning för akademiskt arbete. Vetenskapsteoretiska frågor aktualiseras i varje forskningsprocess, oavsett om skribenten är medveten om det eller inte. Denna bok handlar inte bara om vetenskapsteori i sig och om olika sätt att se på kunskap, utan den är snarare tänkt som ett redskap för att läsaren ska kunna omsätta en vetenskapsteoretisk reflektion i arbetet med att genomföra en studie. Ambitionen är att erbjuda konkreta exempel på diskussioner som kan uppkomma i till exempel handledningssituationer, och med hjälp av dessa visa hur det är möjligt att förstå relationen mellan vetenskapsteori och det vetenskapliga skrivandet.

Boken kan erbjuda ett stöd för såväl studenter och doktorander som för handledare. Den riktar sig främst till det samhällsvetenskapliga fältet i stort och fungerar utmärkt som en introduktion till vetenskapligt tänkande och skrivande på till exempel lärarutbildningar, socionomprogrammet, psykologutbildningen samt kurser i sociologi, socialpsykologi, kulturstudier och andra samhällsvetenskapliga ämnen.

This article presents analyses from an international empirical study of young fatherhood in Sweden and the UK to interrogate how welfare contexts and family policies shape young fathers’ views of parenthood. Our analyses demonstrate that despite differences in constructions of young fatherhood, whereby young parenthood is problematised in UK family policy, more so than in Sweden, young fathers in both countries express an encouraging commitment to contemporary cultural imperatives for engaged fatherhood. However, differences in welfare and parental leave systems have a clear influence on the extent to which the young men in the respective countries fulfil their parental commitments and act as local agents of change in the wider social project of gender equality. We argue that while policy processes and discourses in support of young parenthood and gender equality are currently treated as disparate concerns, their articulations with one another may instead be seen as complementary and symbiotic.

Reflecting the diversity of the Muslim world, this chapter addresses the fundamental views of Muslim scholars on embodiment and education. From the starting point of the Qurʾān, this chapter explores theories of embodiment inspired by the Islamic functionalism of al-Farabi, Avicenna’s Peripatetic and psychological philosophy of education, Ibn Arabi’s Sufi views on embodiment and knowledge acquisition, al-Ghāzali’s hybrid Sufi-kalāmī approach to embodiment, and embodiment in the Ibn Tufail’s Islamic didactics. Corporeal practices in Islamic education are informed by the view that body is an artefact constructed as a vessel to carry the soul. Such a view has resulted in certain corporeal practices within education based on the premise that perfecting the body upholds the soul, in an endeavour towards attaining sa‘ādah.