This study presents how five five-year-olds express different ways of experiencing the multifaceted phenomenon of shadow, when reading and listening to picturebooks about shadow in a Swedish preschool. This is studied with attention to children's perspectives on shadow as it appears in conversations about the picturebooks. The purpose of this…

Young children's voices have been nearly absent in the study of belonging during the early years. In this article, we propose a more inclusive understanding about "how" to study belonging, as well as "what else" must be studied in early childhood education. The importance of conducting research "with" young children…

This piece is a collective exploration by seven doctoral researchers in Child Studies, who discuss notions of listening to children and young people in a Swedish context. We approach different aspects of listening in research and in practices such as education, psychiatry, and social work. The discussions in this collective writing are an…

The child perspective, i.e. an adult understanding and viewing of a child, is frequently being discussed. However, it is open to individual interpretation as the concept is only vaguely defined. This paper focuses on factors characterising the child perspective held by adults in an organisation which treats and supports adults and children who…

The aim of this article is to examine patterns in Swedish children's existential questions and worldviews in 2020 in relation to patterns from 1970 and 1987, but also to point towards a further discussion of importance, about possible RE responses to these findings. The material, children's texts, comes both from studies conducted by Sven Hartman…

The study aims to contribute to knowledge of children's views on their space to fend for themselves at a time in their lives when they face change and decreased institutional care, i.e. in the transition from organized to unorganized after-school activities. The study builds on interviews with 22 children who are about to leave or change…

Physically inactive children in rural areas are overlooked in research because of the dominance of urban perspectives focusing on physical activity rather than inactivity. The aim of this article is to examine an emerging collective story of how physically inactive children (aged 9-11 years) in two rural areas experience their relationships with…

The study presented in this article shows some aspects of how children between the ages of three and five and their educators perceive and describe the educational environment in early childhood education in Sweden. The data is generated using "pedagogical walk-throughs" with the educators and "camera tours" together with the…

The aims of this study were to identify children's reactions towards speech sound disorders (SSD) in other children and whether these reactions can be related to specific speech characteristics. Six audio samples, each containing minute-long resumes of short animated film by five children with SSDs and one child with typical speech (TS), aged 5-9…

The governing document of the Swedish SAEC has shifted to become more focused on teaching and learning. The updated curriculum (SNAE, 2011) added new requirements of the educational programme through stating that activities should be 'based on the pupils' needs, interests and initiative' (SNAE, 2011, p. 23). The aim of this study is to explore how…

School-age educare centres in Sweden have previously not engaged in teaching guided by objectives, but since 2016 there has been a legal requirement to do so as part of an assignment to complement the knowledge requirements in school. Through focus group discussions with children and school-age educare teachers this study explores "how"…

The article addresses children's perspectives of belonging in early childhood education settings in five European countries. Children's belonging is understood to be dynamic processes that are formed through multiple relations. Twenty children aged 4-8 with diverse backgrounds participated in the study: two boys and two girls from each country.…

Formal ethical issues for conducting research are highlighted in national and international guidelines. Even if such strategies are grounded in democratic and rights-based values, their implementation may produce challenges. This article foregrounds dilemmas that were derived from fieldwork conducted in preschool settings with children aged one to…

This article is based on a meta-approach to the results of two separate studies and concerns the areas of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) in early childhood education. One of the studies focuses on how preschool teachers understand STEM and how it is taught in the…

This article explores the education experiences of Syrian and Iraqi refugee children, specifically girls, enrolled in high schools in Australia, Lebanon and Sweden. Symbolic interactionism frames the analysis of in-depth interviews, demonstrating the adolescent girls' ability to take perspectives on their home environment, school, community and…