This paper examines how worldviews and national values are displayed in the national (Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) curricula of Sweden, Finland and Norway. The specific interest is to investigate what similarities and differences there are between these three ECEC curricula with regard to the position of religions and other…

This study revisits the seminal question of the effectiveness of education for sustainable development (ESD) by using a novel longitudinal approach. Scholarly attention in the past decade has been increasingly directed towards the concept of action competence for sustainability. However, little is still known about the effects of ESD as a teaching…

Throughout the world, the educational system is expected to deal with issues regarding sustainability and to promote pro-environmental behaviours and attitudes. This study investigates attitudes towards nature and the environment among 1,109 teachers and student teachers in Sweden and France, using the 2 factor Model of Environmental Values…

Prejudice is one of the major threats to the cohesion of multicultural societies and adolescent years play a key role in its development. How social contexts contribute to adolescent prejudice is, however, not yet well-known. This 3-wave study of Swedish majority adolescents (N = 659; M[subscript ageT1] = 13.41; M[subscript ageT3] = 17.33)…

In this study, we extend prior research in the role of school climate in civic education by exploring the relationship between immigrant students' experiences of bullying and their attitudes toward their countries of settlement. Using the 2016 IEA International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, we employ a multiple regression analysis with…

In this study, aspects of space and time in German and Swedish classrooms are observed and compared to characterize differences and similarities in classrooms and lessons in different contexts. The organization and control of individuals and their actions in relation to time and space are analysed using categories derived from "Discipline and…

Clarity of school rules and teachers' use of praise are strategies suggested to facilitate a positive classroom climate. Studies indicate difficulties for teachers to use such approaches in classrooms with higher levels of disruption. To study (1) if student-rated clarity of school rules, use of praise, and classroom climate differ between…

In Sweden and in Germany, an extensive system of extended education programmes and activities has been established within the last decades. Prototypic examples of this development are school-age educare centres in Sweden and all-day schools in Germany. In this article a bi-national comparison, aiming to find some similarities and differences by…

Independent schools are securely established in the Swedish education system. Prior research shows they generally have fewer pupils in need of support and lower proportions of special educators. Here, results are presented from a total population study of Swedish special educators (n = 4252) examined after 2001. The aim was to explore and compare…

The aim of this study was to examine the association between students' TIMSS (Trends in Mathematics and Science Study) science achievement, and students' school achievements, in terms of national tests and grades from school years 6 and 9. Further to examine the association with TIMSS science achievement and different subgroups of students based…

The idea of personalised learning is built upon a liberal tradition that values tolerance in enabling the process of human autonomy. In this article, we elaborate on this notion, its theoretical base and effects on the learning conditions of upper secondary school students. We draw upon data from three different studies of the Swedish upper…

This study examines the question of which school environment--special or mainstream school--is more favourable for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Sweden, when it comes to their well-being, and their social and academic inclusion. The aim is threefold: first to compare the well-being of adolescents who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, who are…

Research on visual local and global perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is incomplete in young children. We investigated 35 three-year-old siblings of children with ASD, either diagnosed (n = 12) or not diagnosed (n = 23) with ASD as well as 14 controls with typical development and with no family history of ASD. Data from the local tasks…

Climate change challenges governments to reduce emissions, and to gain support for such actions from their citizens. This can be in the form of taxation or legislation, or other forms of government interventions. In previous research, several instruments have been developed to capture attitudes towards the roles of markets and governments in the…

In Sweden, as in many other European countries, poor neighborhoods with ethnically diverse inhabitants and high crime rates have grown up around big cities in the last decades. We hypothesized that, compared with adolescents in advantaged neighborhoods, adolescents in disadvantaged neighborhoods would perceive their schools as relatively safe, due…