1. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-, et al.
(author)
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Configurations of school-choosing parents in informational material from Swedish municipalities
- 2024
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Marketization of the Swedish educational system has included implementations of school choice since1992. Currently Swedish municipalities design and organize school choice systems locally, and since such authorities have extensive autonomy in Sweden the organization of school choice varies between municipalities.In this presentation, we examine variations in how parents of children are instructed to use municipalsystems for public school choice from pre-school to first grade. Our aim is to describe the different waysin which parents are ‘configured as users’ (Woolgar 1991) by school choice systems in manuals andinformational material digitally provided by municipalities.We draw on theoretical insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS) on how technical systemsshape their own (future) users by describing, instructing, scripting, and limiting interactions (Woolgar1991; Star 1990). We use the theoretical concept of ‘user scripts’ (Woolgar 1991) to analyse variations in how the users of school choice systems are imagined.We analyse materials from 33 municipalities through a close reading of online information provided tocitizens in their role as parents of children in pre-school who are about to start first grade. The selection- of municipalities is based on a representative sample pertaining to municipality size, location, and political majority.We find that different implementations of school choice systems create distinct configurations of parents as school choosers (nor not) pertaining to how different meanings of choice are conceptualized and scripted.Marketization signifies the performative processes under which markets are implemented, organizationsare adjusted, and identities are shaped to fit the logics of markets. Previous studies of how systems ofchoice are implemented show that the choosing citizen is enacted and configured in several ways (e.g.,Dabisch 2022; Sjögren 2023). This study sheds light on the work it takes to perform market-logics in education and the effects of such logics on ideas concerning the purpose of education.ReferencesDabisch, V. (2022). Which child to which school? How local politicians shape catchment areas, schoolchoice and diversity. European Educational Research Journal, 147490412211162.https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221116252Sjögren, H. (2023) Unruly customers? How parents’ (in)actions trouble civil servants and local schoolchoice systems, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, DOI: 10.1080/00313831.2023.2250355Star, S. L. (1990). Power, technology and the phenomenology of conventions: on being allergic toonions. The Sociological Review, 38(1_suppl), 26-56.Woolgar, S. (1990). Configuring the user: the case of usability trials. The Sociological Review, 38(1_suppl), 58-99.
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2. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-, et al.
(author)
-
Pedagogisk forskning i antropocen
- 2022
-
In: Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige. - : Linnaeus University. - 1401-6788 .- 2001-3345. ; 27:3, s. 4-11
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- I detta temanummer uppmärksammar vi begreppet antropocen och disku-terar vilken betydelse antropocen kan ha för hur vi inom pedagogisk forsk-ning tänker och bör tänka kring pedagogik, skola och utbildning. Vi menar att det är hög tid att sätta den geologiska epoken antropocen i relation till fråge-ställningar om skola och utbildning inom en svensk kontext. Inom den inter-nationella utbildningsforskningen har flera temanummer om antropocen publicerats under de senaste åren och turen har nu kommit till den svenska utbildningsvetenskapliga forskningen.
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3. |
- Cakici, Baki, et al.
(author)
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Risken är att att 500 miljoner kronor kastas bort på ny en folkräkning
- 2023
-
In: Sydsvenskan. ; :2023-04-12
-
Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Mot bakgrund av kunskapsläget är vi förvånade över att regeringen och Sverigedemokraterna avser att driva igenom att Sverige ska genomföra en folkräkning utifrån nya metoder, skriver Baki Cakici, lektor vid IT-universitetet i Köpenhamn, och Hanna Sjögren biträdande lektor i pedagogik vid Malmö universitet.
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4. |
- Harling, Martin, 1972, et al.
(author)
-
Parents’ school-market-anxiety as a manifestation of ideology: A post-Marxist vocabulary for parenting in a late capitalist educational landscape
- 2023
-
In: NERA 2023 Conference program. - Oslo.
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- It is widely recognized that the Swedish educational landscape has undergone major changes in the past three decades. In fact, Sweden is now commonly referred to as having the most de-regulated school system in the world. The change of the educational landscape has taken place together with a general transformation of the entire welfare system in Sweden, guided by neoliberal ideology in which decentralization and marketization were core features. This restructuring was launched in the early nineties with competition, privatization, accountability, and school choice as steering mechanisms aiming for quality improvement and efficiency. In this paper, we grapple with our personal experiences of this development by investigating how this educational capitalism have permeated our minds, focusing on the feeling of school-market-anxiety, which we both have experienced in our role as parents. We aim to share, critically analyze, and put into context some of the experiences we have had of being approached as consumers of education for our own children and the affective dimensions of these experiences. When writing this paper, we both merged and compared our different experiences in a style inspired by the feminist premise that the personal is political, and that awareness-rising of ideological oppression can emerge from sharing and discussing personal experiences. We do this by critically compare notes of urban parenting in late capitalist educational landscape in the Swedish cities Gothenburg and Malmö, inspired by an autoethnographical methodology (Reed-Danahay, 2009). The purpose here is to understand and make sense of our feelings of anxiety as inherently shaped by a neutralization of capitalist ideology (see e.g., Bauman, 1999). We specifically lean on the work of Mark Fischer (2009), Slavoj Žižek (2008), Jason Glyson (2021), and Matthew Clarke (2020) to critically examine the seemingly neutral state of unconscious parental anxiety in late capitalism. To put our work in a critical (post-)Marxist terminology we are particularly interested in understanding how we, as parents of school children, are ‘interpellated’ (Althusser, 1971) by the ideology supporting the current reality of late capitalist education. Our question throughout this paper is: How can school-market-anxiety, from the perspective of parents’ experiences, be conceptualized as a manifestation of ideology, what consequences can be discerned and what can we do about it? We argue for the need of critical concepts from a psychoanalytical (post-)Marxist tradition that can help us understand – and resist – the increasingly strong grip that a that a capitalist ideology has on contemporary Swedish education and its different actors, and increasingly, throughout all Nordic countries. Both of us have an academic background in critical education studies, and we have previously published on the marketization of education. However, in our previous attempts to understand marketization we have neglected parents’ school-market-anxiety, and our own role as prospective consumers of education within the late modern educational capitalism of Sweden.
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5. |
- Ideland, Malin, 1970-, et al.
(author)
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”En hemlig skola röjer det orimliga"
- 2020
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In: Svenska Dagbladet. - Stockholm : Svenska Dagbladet. - 1101-2412. ; :2020-08-30
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Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Det är affärslogiken som styr när statistik om skolor och betyg nu ska sekretessbeläggas. Samtidigt visar detta hemlighetsmakeri tydligt att friskolan blivit norm och att andra värden felaktigt får stå tillbaka, skriver forskare.
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6. |
- Linda, Palla, et al.
(author)
-
Simply Quality? : State Governance of Swedish Preschools’ Work with Children in Need of Special Support
- 2022
-
In: Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0031-3831 .- 1470-1170. ; 66:6, s. 1093-1107
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The purpose of this critical study is to generate knowledge about decisions by education authorities that serve an advisory and normative function for Swedish preschool education at the operational level, with a focus on work with children in need of special support. This has been achieved by scrutinising documents generated in conjunction with a quality audit within the framework of the Swedish Schools Inspectorate’s three-year focus on preschools from 2015 to 2017. The analysis shows that the documents can be understood as discursive expressions within and for a regime of truth, wherein the effects of power contribute to certain norms and values gaining precedence in the operationalisation of what constitutes qualitative special support. The analysis further shows that the state quality audit focuses on instrumental and measurable understandings of quality and highlights sameness rather than difference by downplaying the ethical and pedagogical aspects of the special support.
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7. |
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8. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
-
A review of research on the Anthropocene in early childhood education
- 2023
-
In: Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. - : Sage Publications. - 1463-9491. ; 24:1, s. 46-56
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This literature review describes and analyses 19 peer-reviewed scholarly articles published between 2015 and 2020 that focus on the notion of the Anthropocene in early childhood education. The review is guided by two pairs of analytical concepts stemming from environmental history and the sociology of childhood. The results of the analyses are presented under the themes ‘entangled children of the Anthropocene’ and ‘extraordinary children of the Anthropocene’. These two categories of children recur in the reviewed articles, and a discussion follows about how these children pose different challenges to the purpose of education in the Anthropocene. The review concludes by noting research gaps in the current literature that would benefit from further analysis in future studies in the early childhood education field.
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9. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
-
Archived childhood memories of nature
- 2021
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This paper reports on an archival study on childhood memories of nature in Sweden. The archival material in focus consists of themed questionnaires (directives), an archival material collected by the Folklife Archives in Sweden on different topics. Since the 1910s a writers’ panel answer themed questionnaires on a regular basis with a focus on personal experience of different themes.The themed questionnaire in focus for the present study is “Nature for me”, a questionnaire collected by the Folklife Archives in 2010. In the study, I analyze a total of 64 people’s answers on their relation to nature, including the question about their first memory of nature. The aim of the present study is to understand in what ways childhood memories can be considered for thinking about the relationship between children and nature in new and productive ways, with an increased focus on the existential dimension of living in the Anthropocene. Archived childhood memories offers a potential to refuse adults’ projections on the next generation, stemming from a history of ideas of the connection between nature of childhood. This study seeks a less child-centered entry point into the relationship between childhood and nature. The archival research provides a way to consider what childhood means in relation to a damaged planet. The question of how childhood memories of nature and the planet form attachments to place, land and Earth during the Anthropocene is of particular interest, as well as how practices of archiving produce lives, selves, worlds, social identities.
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10. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
-
Barndomar i antropocen : Idéer om goda barndomar undermänniskans epok
- 2023
-
Book (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Barn lever med större risker än vuxna att drabbas av klimatförändringaroch andra miljörelaterade fenomen. Exempelvisär dödligheten större hos barn som drabbats av malariaoch denguefeber, två sjukdomar vars spridning ökar till följdav klimatförändringarna. I denna bok analyseras olika idéerom vad som utgör den goda barndomen under den tidsperiodsom föreslagits få namnet antropocen: människans epok.Med utgångspunkt i en kritisk tradition och utifrån ett fokuspå hur vuxenvärlden skapar önskvärda barndomar ställer författarenfrågan om vilka ideala barndomar som framträderoch vilka barn som ges plats i antropocen. Genom kritiskaanalyser identieras och problematiseras idéer om barndomari antropocen som oskyldiga, speciella och ansvarsfulla.I boken studeras vad som utspelar sig i skärningspunktenmellan idéer om barndomar och tillståndet antropocen inomtre olika arenor: politisk klimataktivism, utbildningsforskningriktad mot yngre barn samt litteratur för barn i åldrarna 6–12år med miljö- och klimattema. Författaren argumenterar förvikten av vuxenvärldens roll och ansvar i den antropocenaepoken och att barns liv och tillvaro bör få utgöra startpunktenför beslutsfattande och politik för klimat och miljö.Boken vänder sig till forskare inom fälten barndomssociologi,grön humanvetenskap och pedagogik, samt till studenter i pedagogik, miljövetenskap och barn- ochungdomsvetenskap.
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11. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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Bortom mitt barn och andras ungar : Omsorgsetisk grammatik för skolväljande föräldrar
- 2020
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In: Utbildning och Demokrati. - : Örebro universitet. - 1102-6472 .- 2001-7316. ; 29:3, s. 51-68
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- To choose a school for one’s child is part and parcel of urbanparenting in the contemporary Swedish educational system. Whileprevious studies have investigated the consequences of the schoolchoice empirically through both qualitative and quantitative methods,there are no previous studies investigating the issue of school choice asan ethical concern. Through the author’s situated experience of being aschool choosing parent in Sweden’s third largest city, Malmö, the authoruses educational philosopher Nel Nodding’s work on ethics of care andapplies it to the question of what situated, responsible parenting in Malmöcould mean today. The author introduces the metaphor of a grammar ofethics of care where the relationship between “our kid” and “our kids”is seen as relational, with an opening for caring for children outside theimmediate family.
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12. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
-
Childhood in the Anthropocene : On the Education of Children in the New Geological Epoch
- 2022
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In late 2021, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund reported that “almost every child on earth is exposed to at least one climate and environmental hazard, shock or stress such as heatwaves, cyclones, air pollution, flooding and water scarcity” (Unicef 2021: 4). The present situation calls for new ethical and political understandings of the very meaning of childhood, and relatedly one of its central institutions: education. This study analyses representations of what an educated child is and ought to be in the Anthropocene, a geological epoch caused by the activities of the human species on the Earth's geology and ecosystems including but not limited to anthropogenic climate change. As such, the study zooms in on three practices of the Anthropocene childhood with pedagogical implications: climate fiction for children aged 6-12 years old, academic knowledge production in the field of early childhood education, and the Friday for Future-movement. Specifically, I focus on how the value-laden relation between children, nature, and education is (re)configured in the Anthropocene. Childhood and nature are intimately and culturally linked, and the meaning and values associated with nature and culture have ethical and political consequences that need to be address within education. I argue that the intersection of the temporalities of childhood and the Anthropocene presents new pedagogical implications which reconfigures both the very meaning of childhood and education. References Unicef (2021): “The Climate Crisis Is a Child Rights Crisis: Introducing the Children’s Climate Risk Index,” New York: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
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13. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
-
Den okroppsliga kunskapssynens politik : Om varför hållbarutveckling tycks svårhanterligt i utbildning
- 2017
-
In: Tidskrift för Genusvetenskap. - : Ämnesföreningen för genusvetenskap. - 1654-5443 .- 2001-1377. ; 38:4, s. 67-85
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article explores the relation between politics and epistemologyin Swedish higher education by focusing on the notion of ”sustainabledevelopment”. As a concept that relates to environmentalchange, sustainable development addresses the link between thepersonal and the global level. The article discusses why universityteachers regard sustainable development as a problematic notion inhigher education practices. The aim of the article is to conduct afeminist analysis of the contemporary relation between epistemologyand politics in Swedish higher education. Two epistemologicalnotions rooted in feminist epistemological theory are used throughoutthe analysis: “situated knowledges” (Haraway 2008) and“transcorporeality” (Alaimo 2010). Empirically, the article draws onexamples from focus group discussions with teachers at eightSwedish universities.Two balancing acts are identified in the discussions: one is aboutthe role of the teaching body at the border between the private andthe public, and the other is about the reach of education at theborder between a request for change and status quo. I argue thatenvironmental issues become problematic to handle in educationalpractices because 1) they transgress the boundaries between theprivate and public sphere and 2) they challenge understandings ofwhat legitimate knowledge is. Furthermore, these problems relateto contemporary understandings of environmental problems as“post-political” (Mouffe 2008).In conclusion, I suggest that it is only by “staying with the trouble”(Haraway 2008), and by formulating positions that are situated andtranscorporeal, that we can attend to a more inclusive understandingof knowledge in higher education.
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14. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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Den politisk-etiska potentialen hos djur-människorelationer i lärarutbildares samtal om hållbar utveckling
- 2014
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In: Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige. - 1401-6788 .- 2001-3345. ; 19:2-3, s. 90-109
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- För att förstå vilka gränser som utmanas och/eller förstärks i utbildning för hållbar utveckling krävs att pedagogisk teori och praktik skapar utrymme för att undersöka potentialen i relationer som inkluderar det icke-mänskliga. Utifrån fokusgruppintervjuer med lärarutbildare vid åtta svenska lärosäten lyfter jag fram exempel på relationer där det mänskliga kan förstås som en del av och i relation till det icke-mänskliga. Utifrån dessa relationer diskuterar jag politisk-etiska frågeställningar som uppkommer genom att relationerna avgränsas som de gör. Exemplen visar hur relationer mellan det mänskliga och det icke-mänskliga kan utgöra en betydelsefull utgångspunkt för att förstå vilka gränser som utmanas och/eller etableras genom utbildning för ett mer hållbart samhälle. Utifrån analyser av materialet diskuterar jag kritiskt hur de olika relationerna skapar olika verkligheter, där gränser för vad som blir betydelsefullt förhandlas. Jag visar på individualitetens och den närvarande referentens betydelse, vilken kunskap dessa relationer möjliggör samt vem eller vad som inkluderas i utbildningens arbete för att skapa en hållbar utveckling.
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15. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
-
Det obehagliga med idéburna friskolor är vuxnas önskan om att undslippa det gemensamma
- 2021
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In: Skola och samhälle. - Malmö. - 2001-6727. ; :2021-05-31
-
Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Idéburna friskolor gör det möjligt för vårdnadshavare, lärare och rektorer att lyfta ut och särskilja vissa barn, utifrån logiken att utvalda friskolebarn är värda något mycket bättre än det som de kommunala skolornas elever får. Bakom finns en uppgivenhet eller ovilja att värna om ett gott samhälle och en god utbildning för alla. Detta är djupt beklagligt, inte minst ur demokratisk synvinkel, skriver Hanna Sjögren (red.).
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16. |
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17. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
-
Emmas Leijnses bok om skolan visar att medelklassen måste våga välja annorlunda
- 2022
-
In: Skola och samhälle. - : Föreningen skola och samhälle. - 2001-6727. ; :2022-02-03
-
Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- I mitten av januari gavs journalisten Emmas Leijnse reportagebok I en annan klass ut. Den skildrar de skillnader som finns i den svenska skolan idag. Skillnader som borde få vem som helst att vråla av ilska, tycker Hanna Sjögren som har läst boken och drar slutsatsen att den svenska medelklassen måste våga välja annorlunda. (red)
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18. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
-
Faktaförespråkarnas tvärsäkerhet kan vara kunskapsskolans största fiende
- 2024
-
In: Skola och samhälle. - Malmö : Skola och samhälle. - 2001-6727. ; :2024-03-14
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Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Samma debattörer som efterlyser ett större kunskapsfokus och mer fakta i skolan, bygger själva sin argumentation på alltför svaga kunskaper om kunskapsbegreppet, skolans uppdrag och dess historia, menar Hanna Sjögren, och efterlyser en mer påläst debatt.
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19. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
-
Framtidens lärarutbildningar bör inte utredas av en ensam liberal
- 2023
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In: Skola och samhälle. - Malmö. - 2001-6727. ; :2023-08-21
-
Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Reformering av lärarutbildning och skola behöver baseras på breda politiska överenskommelser snarare än ideologisk färgade enmansutredningar, skriver Hanna Sjögren, och uppmanar regeringen att återgå till dens svenska traditionen av breda parlamentariska utredningar (red.).
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20. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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Gretas Thunberg är ingen utpräglad systemkritiker : ”Gretas berättelse döljer mycket”
- 2020
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In: Svenska dagbladet. - Stockholm : Hb Svenska dagbladets AB & Co. - 1101-2412. ; :2020-11-16
-
Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- KULTURDEBATT Greta Thunbergs berättelse om hur världen hänger ihop döljer mycket. Inte minst den klassmässiga konflikten mellan de som har och de som inte har. Det skriver forskaren Hanna Sjögren, och efterlyser kritiska perspektiv i klimatdebatten.
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21. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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Identity formations in archived childhood memories of nature in Sweden
- 2023
-
In: Childhood. - : Sage Publications. - 0907-5682 .- 1461-7013. ; 30:1, s. 40-54
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper analyzes how the relation between childhood and nature contributes to the formation of identities though childhood memories written for archival purposes. Archival research lets us consider how written childhood memories of nature are formed, producing social identities through practices of archiving. The archived memories of 50 people in Sweden are analyzed, concentrating on how they described their childhood memories of nature. Understanding memories as performances of identity can give important answers as to how the idealized relationship between nature and childhood is constructed in the specific context of archivation.
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22. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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Longing for the Past: : An Analysis of Discursive Formations in the Greta Thunberg Message
- 2020
-
In: Culture Unbound. - : Linköping University Electronic Press. - 2000-1525. ; 12:3
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article studies discursive formations of climate change in texts by thecontemporary climate activist movement’s most famous character, Greta Thunberg.This study critically analyses the Greta Thunberg message and discusses the kindof worlds her message evokes. In doing so, the author discusses what is beingincluded in and omitted from contemporary public understandings of climatechange. Three themes are identified and analysed in the Greta Thunberg message:science as truth; for the sake of the human child; and the apocalyptic futures andthe evocation of the past. It is argued that the Greta Thunberg message makessense because of how it resonates with a worldview related to the promises ofmodernity. Furthermore, one way of understanding the popularity of Thunberg’smessage is that it evokes dreams of a world that once was. It is suggested that theGreta Thunberg message evokes longing for the past, rather than the possibility ofexisting in an already changing climate.
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23. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
-
Låt mig inte välja skola till mitt barn!
- 2020
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In: Skola och samhälle. - Malmö : Föreningen skola och samhälle. - 2001-6727. ; :020-05-07
-
Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Utredningen En mer likvärdig skola föreslår att skolvalet ska bli obligatoriskt. Hanna Sjögren, pedagogikforskare och skolväljande förälder, menar att ansvaret för att motverka segregationen då läggs på vårdnadshavarna som tvingas välja mellan bättre och sämre skolor. Istället för obligatorisk valfrihet menar hon att målet måste vara att alla skolor är bra.
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24. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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More of the same : A critical analysis of the formations of teacher students through education for sustainable development
- 2019
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In: Environmental Education Research. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1350-4622 .- 1469-5871. ; 25:11, s. 1620-1634
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Despite the good intentions in policies promoting education for sustainable development (ESD), this paper shows that, as university scholars and teachers, we need to critically engage with how student subjectivities are formed when global initiatives materialise in local educational practices. The analysis in this paper is based on focus groups with teacher instructors in Sweden, where the participants discuss how they work with education for sustainable development. The analysis focuses on how the teacher instructors discuss their students. The analysis shows that the preferred teacher student has an active lifestyle, participates in public debates, is happy, and consumes eco-friendly goods, often in line with the teacher instructors themselves. In conclusion, the author argues that those engaging with education for sustainable development should seek to widen its scope by critically engaging with how those under education are formed through taken for granted norms of good intentions and education for sustainable development in the present.
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25. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-, et al.
(author)
-
School-market-anxiety as a manifestation of ideology : an autoethnography of parental feelings in relation to school choice
- 2023
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Main points: With this paper we aim to investigate how the relationship between education and emotion can be ethnographically traced through an autoethnography of our parental experience in relation to school marketization. Both authors of this paper have academic backgrounds in critical education studies, and we have previously published on the marketization of education, particularly in Sweden. We have a previous theoretical interest in understanding how ideologies are reinforced and challenged in education, but so far, we have failed to theorize how our experiences as parents of school children might partake in the operation of capitalist ideology in and through education. Thus far, in our previous attempts to understand marketization we have neglected parents’ school-market-anxiety, and our own role as prospective consumers of education within the late modern educational capitalism. We aim to share, critically analyze, and put into context some of the experiences we have had of being approached as consumers of education for our own children and the affective dimensions of these experiences.Fieldwork methods: We investigate our different experiences and emotions of being addressed as parents on a school market by comparing memories, information from the local school authorities, and advertisements for private schools owned by a venture capital company that we have received in the form of postcards, catalogues, and via digital mails in our roles as parents of school children. Analytical methods: We argue for the need of critical concepts from a psychoanalytical (post-)Marxist tradition that can help us understand – and resist – the increasingly strong grip that a that a capitalist ideology has on contemporary Swedish education and its different actors. Our turn to a post-Marxist vocabulary enables us to connect the hyper-abstract impersonal structure of capitalism with our deeply personal experiences of how we come to embody this structure in our role as parents. We do this by critically compare notes of urban parenting in late capitalist educational landscape in the Swedish cities Gothenburg and Malmö, inspired by an autoethnographical methodology (Reed-Danahay, 2009).Conclusions: The purpose here is to understand and make sense of our feelings of anxiety as inherently shaped by a neutralization of capitalist ideology (see e.g., Bauman, 1999), which we want to resist and move beyond. We specifically lean on the work of Mark Fischer (2009), Slavoj Žižek (2008), Jason Glyson (2021), and Matthew Clarke (2020) to critically examine the seemingly neutral state of (un)conscious parental anxiety in late capitalism.ReferencesBauman Z (1999) In Search of Politics. Cambridge: Polity.Clarke M (2020) Eyes wide shut: the fantasies and disavowals of education policy. Journal of Education Policy 35(2). Routledge: 151–167. DOI: 10.1080/02680939.2018.1544665.Fisher M (2009) Capitalist Realism : Is There No Alternative? Winchester: O Books.Glynos J (2021) Critical fantasy studies. Journal of Language and Politics 20(1). John Benjamins: 95–111. DOI: 10.1075/jlp.20052.gly.Reed-Danahay, D (2009) Anthropologists, Education, and Autoethnography, Reviews in Anthropology, 38:1, 28-47, DOI: 10.1080/00938150802672931Žižek S (2008) The Sublime Object of Ideology. London ; Verso.
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26. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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Skolan som kollektivt ansvar
- 2022
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In: Malmös skolresa. - Malmö : Malmö arbetarekommun. - 9789152701058 ; , s. 11-14
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Book chapter (pop. science, debate, etc.)
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27. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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Skolvalet sliter isär Sverige
- 2021
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In: Dagens ETC. - Stockholm. ; :2021-02-15
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Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Föräldrarnas rätt att välja skola bygger på att det finns bättre och sämre alternativ. Det är en princip som urholkar själva grunden för skolan som jämlikhetsskapare och ett perspektiv som saknas i debatten som marknadsskolan, skriver Hanna Sjögren, forskare i pedagogik.
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28. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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Snälla, vita föräldrar i USA – och i Sverige
- 2021
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In: Skola och samhälle. - Malmö : Föreningen skola och samhälle. - 2001-6727. ; :2021-02-01
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Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Skolvalet ställer privilegierade föräldrar inför valet att stå upp för större värden, som integration, eller satsa på sitt barn. De väljer sällan det förra. Resultatet har blivit ett allt mer segregerat skolsystem, i USA såväl som i Sverige. Skolvalet måste offras, för demokratins skull, menar Hanna Sjögren.
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29. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-, et al.
(author)
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The organization of local school choice markets and the shaping of parent customers
- 2022
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Education in democratic societies has always had to deal with the tension between individual freedom and a need for public good. Based on arguments about increasing individual freedom, free school choice was introduced in Sweden in the 1990s. Local authorities in Sweden have ever since been commissioned to organize local school choice markets. Since local authorities have extensive autonomy in Sweden, the organization of school choice varies between municipalities today. Local authorities can be regarded market organizers, and parents/guardians need to be addressed and shaped as local customers to fit these markets.The aim of this paper presentation is to describe and analyze two different ways in which school choice markets are organized in Swedish municipalities, in order to discuss how the conflict between private and public good shapes parents/guardians as customers. We analyze motives and justifications for school choice organization through pilot interviews with five politicians and administrative officials in two municipalities with different political majority (one conversative and one liberal-left). The two municipalities have organized their local school choice market differently, with different interpretations and ranking of various selection criteria for the local school choice markets. We specifically focus and critically discuss how the municipalities actively work with addressing and shaping parents/guardians from particularly socio-economically weak groups to make informed choices for the sake of their children’s education. We use the notion of ”customerification processes” (Karlsson 2020) to analyze and discuss what kind of customers the different school choice systems enable, and we relate this discussion to the role of education in democratic societies.
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30. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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The role of civil servants in Swedish local school choice systems
- 2023
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Who decides where a child should go to school? The answer to this question has changed over the past 30 years in Sweden, a country who has faced extensive neoliberal educational reforms during the past decades (Arreman och Holm 2011; Lundahl m.fl. 2013). Based on arguments about increasing individual freedom, free school choice was introduced in Sweden in the 1990s. Ever since, local authorities in Sweden have been commissioned to organize local school choice markets (Dahlstedt m.fl. 2019). Education in democratic societies has always had to deal with the tension between individual freedom and a need for public good (Labaree 1997; Börjesson 2016; Levin 1987). The organization of school choice systems varies around Sweden, and there is not yet a single model in place for how to design school choice systems. This paper contributes with knowledge about how civil servants work to organize school choice in dialogue with local politicians, as well as how they balance between different goals in practice (e.g. goal conflicts can arise between freedom of choice and integration, since a high degree of freedom in relation to school choice generally leads to increased segregation (Trumberg och Urban 2020)). Knowledge about what happens in the organization and design of local school choice systems is necessary to understand which values that are prioritized in practice. This paper provides knowledge about what municipalities' organization of school choice means for the Swedish school and the students within these schools. The purpose of this paper is to identify and problematize the dilemmas and goal conflicts that emerge as civil servants work with the organization on school choice in Swedish municipalities. The paper suggests that the tension between individual freedom and the school as a collective good tends to end up with the officials. This means that questions about conflicting goals concerning school's role in relation to freedom, justice, and equality – questions, that may be considered political by nature – often are handed over to civil servants within the municipal bureaucracy. How civil servants interpret their role and function within municipal democracy, as well as the values they express, is important for the link between education and the public's trust in representative democracy. I use the theoretical notion of ‘discretion’ (Brodkin 2020), which pinpoints the extent to which micro-practices of street-level organizations take part in shaping meta-politics. The interest in discretion highlights the importance of zooming in on the practices of civil servants and their level of discretion in enabling educational policies. I analyze motives, justifications, and dilemmas related to local school choice organization through interviews with politicians and civil servants in two municipalities with different political majority (one conversative and one liberal-left). The two municipalities have organized their local school choice market differently, with different interpretations and ranking of various selection criteria for the local school choice markets, which provide two contrasting examples for the execution of discretion by civil servants in local school choice systems. Municipalities in Sweden have an important responsibility for ensuring 1) equality between schools, and 2) that guardians’ preferences of school choice are met, and 3) that all schools offer equal education, regardless of the children’s socio-economic background. There is a previous lack of knowledge about the level of discretion in how civil servants interpret their role and function within municipal democracies. This paper provides such knowledge, which is important for advancing the understanding of the link between education and the public's trust in civil servants who work with educational policies. References Arreman, Inger Erixon, och Ann‐Sofie Holm. 2011. ”Privatisation of public education? The emergence of independent upper secondary schools in Sweden”. Journal of Education Policy 26 (2): 225–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2010.502701.Brodkin, Evelyn Z. 2020. ”Discretion in the Welfare State”. I Discretion and the quest for controlled freedom, redigerad av Tony Evans och Peter Hupe, 63–77. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.Börjesson, Mikael. 2016. ”Private and Public in European Higher Education”. I Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory, redigerad av Michael A. Peters, 1–7. Singapore: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_487-1.Dahlstedt, Magnus, Martin Harling, Anders Trumberg, Susanne Urban, och Viktor Vesterberg. 2019. Fostran till valfrihet : skolvalet, jämlikheten och framtiden. Stockholm: Liber.Labaree, David F. 1997. ”Public Goods, Private Goods: The American Struggle Over Educational Goals”. American Educational Research Journal 34 (1): 39–81. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312034001039.Levin, Henry M. 1987. ”Education as a Public and Private Good”. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 6 (4): 628–41. https://doi.org/10.2307/3323518.Lundahl, Lisbeth, Inger Erixon Arreman, Ann-Sofie Holm, och Ulf Lundström. 2013. ”Educational marketization the Swedish way”. Education Inquiry 4 (3): 22620. https://doi.org/10.3402/edui.v4i3.22620.Trumberg, Anders, och Susanne Urban. 2020. ”School Choice and Its Long-Term Impact on Social Mobility in Sweden”. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 0 (0): 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2020.1739129.
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31. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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Tidöavtalet och den pessimistiska elev- och människosynen
- 2022
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In: Skola och samhälle. - : Föreningen skola och samhälle. - 2001-6727. ; :2022-10-24
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Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- I det nyligen presenterade Tidöavtalet mejslas en politik fram som inriktar sig på att reglera elevers oönskade beteenden genom repressalier och inskränkningar. På det hela taget saknas framåtsyftande och visionära förslag på skolområdet, menar Hanna Sjögren, lärare och forskare vid Malmö universitet.
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32. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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Unruly customers? : How parents’ (in)actions trouble civil servants and local school choice systems
- 2023
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In: Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. - : Routledge. - 0031-3831 .- 1470-1170. ; , s. 1-13
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Based on arguments about the need for greater individual freedom,school choice was introduced in Sweden in the 1990s. Swedishmunicipalities now set up local school choice systems, whoseorganization varies between municipalities. This study is based oninterviews with three politicians and two civil servants from twoaverage-sized municipalities with different school choice system designsand different political majorities. The aim of this study is to analyze howrepresentatives of Swedish municipalities conceptualize their role andresponsibility in relation to the role of parents in school choice systems,with a focus on school choice from pre-school tofirst grade. Theanalysis is focused on those instances in which parents fail to act as thedesign intended in the school choice system. The analysis shows thatparents trouble the local school choice systems by both being passiveand active when they are encouraged to make a choice.
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33. |
- Sjögren, Hanna, 1984-
(author)
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Är föräldrars skolval förenligt med barns rätt att möta en mångfald andra elever?
- 2022
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In: Skola och samhälle. - Malmö. - 2001-6727. ; :2022-06-02
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Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Barnkonventionen har blivit svensk lag, men i det svenska skolsystemet finns flera värdemässiga krockar inbyggda. Ett exempel är föräldrars rätt att välja skola, vilket har bidragit till skolsegregationen och minskat barnens rätt att få möta en mångfald människor som skiljer sig från deras familjer (red.).
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