This article explores the social stratification of the Swedish Community School of Music and Arts, which offers voluntary extra-curricular arts education to children in Sweden, and children's experiences of attending the school. A survey was executed where sixth-graders in Sweden were asked about their experiences of the school and about…

Women's underrepresentation in mathematics-related careers continues to concern policymakers, economists, and educators. This study addressed the issue by examining data from two international databases, namely IEA's "Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 2015," and the World Economic Forum's "Global Gender Gap…

This research seeks to increase the knowledge about the role of language in the teaching of human rights. The specific interest is to examine how language use extends and specifies the human rights learning situation. Drawing on John Dewey's arguments for two main constituents of an educative language use--the extension of vocabulary and rendering…

The aim of the study was to examine Swedish school pupils' perspectives on why some pupils engage in bullying, support bullying or avoid standing up for the one(s) being bullied, despite a shared understanding that bullying is wrong. Through the use of focus group interviews combined with two bullying vignettes, a total of 74 pupils from grades 5…

This study examined cognitive precursors of hierarchical mathematical development. Six-year-old children (n = 258) were assessed on number skills, cognitive skills, and arithmetic 1 year prior to school entry. Skills in advanced arithmetic and advanced mathematics were assessed in Grades 3 and 6, respectively. Path analyses were computed and…

Questions about freedom of religion versus secular values have increased as a controversial topic in European public debate during the last decades. The aim of this article is to shed light on these issues by focusing on the definition of "freedom of religion as a human right" among teachers working with younger pupils in the Swedish…

At an international level, teachers' work is increasingly circumscribed and regulated. Notions of accountability have shifted from primarily inputs to primary outcomes, and investment in strengthening teacher performance evaluation has expanded. At the same time, investment in enhancing the quality of teacher education programs is contested in…

This article focuses on how pupils' everyday transitions constitute a condition for pupils' activities and relationships, and how pupils understand and give meaning to their everyday transitions between different school settings (school and Leisure Time Centre). To examine this, we made participant observations in three different educational…

In Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries children are offered a curricular based combination of care and teaching before and after compulsory school hours. These leisure time centers, so-called "fritidshem," are offered to children aged between 6 and 12 whose parents' study or work, as well as to children that require special…

Tablets can be used to facilitate systematic testing of academic skills. Yet, when using validated paper tests on tablet, comparability between the mediums must be established. Comparability between a tablet and a paper version of a basic math skills test (HRT: Heidelberger Rechen Test 1-4) was investigated. Five samples with second and third…

Aim/Purpose: The goal of this paper is to examine digital applications used in Swedish schools and whether they fulfill their potential as support for learners. This is done by examining the kinds of feedback they provide and discussing if this feedback supports learning or not. Background: The paper targets one aspect regarding which educational…

Creativity is a broad and complex construct, difficult to define and to quantify, assumed to introduce new impulses into science education (STEM), and leading to better acceptance of science by adolescents. Therefore, increasing efforts are being undertaken to integrate traditional creativity (Arts), in modifying STEM to STEAM. Consequently, a…

Principals (policy makers) have debated the progress in U.S. student performance for a half century or more. Informing these conversations, survey agents have administered seven million psychometrically linked tests in math and reading in 160 waves to national probability samples of selected cohorts born between 1954 and 2007. This study is the…

In Swedish compulsory school, individual development plans (IDPs) are mandatory for all students up to 6th grade. The purpose is to summarize and facilitate pupils' learning and tune instruction to national standards. In this study, 233 IDPs drawn up for 5th grade pupils were analyzed with focus on qualities that have been found to impact…

This article investigates Sámi elementary education in early twentieth-century Finland, Norway, and Sweden. The main focus lies on cultural contexts that frame and limit language use. The key analytical concepts are "useful citizen" and "useful citizenship". Through these concepts the article probes the ways in which…