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Publications (10 of 11) Show all publications
Raivio, M., Skaremyr, E. & Kuusisto, A. (2023). A place for religion and worldviews in Swedish preschool teacher education?: In search for policy-related incentives for supporting students' development of a socially sustainable professionalism. In: : . Paper presented at The 17th annual Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) conference; Transformation of knowledge in and on teacher education: policy and practice in times of change. Karlstad University, Sweden, 8th – 10th May 2023. (pp. 48). Karlstads universitet
Open this publication in new window or tab >>A place for religion and worldviews in Swedish preschool teacher education?: In search for policy-related incentives for supporting students' development of a socially sustainable professionalism
2023 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Social sustainability – including equity and non-discrimination related to religion and worldviews – is central to all higher education. Regarding preschool teacher education (PTE), the Higher Education Ordinance highlights the ability to promote social sustainability in preschool. Therefore, students need opportunities and support to develop socially sustainable professionalism. We argue that this includes the competence to provide age-appropriate worldview education and an ethic of care in preschool, including openness and sensitivity to children's expressions of existential life issues and worldviews. In Sweden, there are no previous studies investigating the content or discourse of PTEs from the perspectives of religion and worldviews. Research does show challenges related to problematic discourses on diversity and interculturality in teacher programs. Furthermore, previous findings illustrate that for students to become aware of their personal worldviews and values, PTE needs to provide them with the competence to teach accurate knowledge content regarding religion and worldviews and to create safe spaces for students’ self-reflection. Our ongoing pilot study of Swedish PTEs is based on program plans and websites of all 20 programs. The analysis focuses on the content and discursive norms, regarding religion and worldviews on a national policy level, and the methods used, are discourse analysis and content analysis. The result shows that only one program plan mentions religion and worldviews explicitly, which means a lack of policy incentive for teachers in the programs to highlight it in their teaching. However, this single example needs to be studied more closely via other materials, as are the PTEs that do not address religion or worldviews in their program plans. The pilot study, along with a theoretical and analytical tool created for this purpose, is going to serve as the starting point for a larger, in-depth national research project where this will be done.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Karlstads universitet, 2023
Keywords
preschool teacher education, policy, religion, worldviews
National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
Educational Work; Religious Studies and Theology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-96687 (URN)
Conference
The 17th annual Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) conference; Transformation of knowledge in and on teacher education: policy and practice in times of change. Karlstad University, Sweden, 8th – 10th May 2023.
Available from: 2023-09-12 Created: 2023-09-12 Last updated: 2023-09-19Bibliographically approved
Raivio, M., Skaremyr, E. & Kuusisto, A. (2023). Caring for the whole child in preschool education: Attentiveness and curiosity for children’s different worldviews in sustainable educational professionalism. In: : . Paper presented at 31st EECERA Conference, Children’s Curiosity, Agency and Participation: Challenges for Professional Action and Development, 30th August - 2nd September 2023 Lisbon, Portugal.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Caring for the whole child in preschool education: Attentiveness and curiosity for children’s different worldviews in sustainable educational professionalism
2023 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

This presentation focuses on the foundation for a socially sustainable preschool. Based on a literary review, we argue for the necessity of preschool teachers’ care for children’s worldviews and suggest an analytical tool for creating a socially sustainable Early childhood education and care (ECEC). Previous research emphasizes caring for the child’s worldview as vital for the child’s resilience(Eizenberg & Jabareen, 2017), contributing to learning and well-being, both in preschool and in a longer perspective. Postcolonial, feminist care ethics (hooks, 2003; Noddings, 2013; Yuval-Davis, 2011), is used to argue for the importance of teachers’ awareness of power structures that create exclusion and a need for curiosity and sensitivity toward the child’s worldview with its religious orexistential elements. Based on postcolonial- and feminist late modernity-perspectives, a thematic literary review was conducted of 55 research articles found through the database ERIC, concerning educational challenges regarding cultural diversity in ECEC. The sources used were published articles. When reciting other authors' work, a research ethics stance has been used throughout the study. An effort was made to represent social diversity in the material. An analytical tool for sustainable educational professionalism in ECEC was developed, focusing on six dimensions of care: International (policy, discourse), Societal (national policy), Community(local preschool), Situations (routines, activities), Events (joint attention), and Acts of Care (individual). We wish that the tool provides a model for preschool teachers to assess and or plan for a holistic educational approach in ECEC where caring for the whole child includes also its worldview.

Keywords
Early Childhood Education and Care, worldviews, care ethics, social sustainability, teacher professionalism
National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
Educational Work; Religious Studies and Theology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-96688 (URN)
Conference
31st EECERA Conference, Children’s Curiosity, Agency and Participation: Challenges for Professional Action and Development, 30th August - 2nd September 2023 Lisbon, Portugal
Available from: 2023-09-12 Created: 2023-09-12 Last updated: 2023-09-19Bibliographically approved
Raivio, M., Skaremyr, E. & Kuusisto, A. (2023). Discursive Norms and Incentives for Equipping Students with Religion and Worldview Literacy in Swedish Preschool Teacher Education Policy. Religions, 14(9), Article ID 1194.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Discursive Norms and Incentives for Equipping Students with Religion and Worldview Literacy in Swedish Preschool Teacher Education Policy
2023 (English)In: Religions, E-ISSN 2077-1444, Vol. 14, no 9, article id 1194Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The increasing societal diversity of religions and worldviews (R&W) in Swedish preschools affects what competencies today’s preschool teachers need and what needs to be taught in Swedish Preschool Teacher Education (PTE). The study aims to investigate the content and discursive norms regarding religion and worldviews in Swedish PTEs on a national policy level and contribute to knowledge in the research field of Religious Studies and Higher Education. The PTE curricula of all the twenty Higher Education institutions offering PTE in Sweden in 2022 are investigated using text-centred discourse analysis, together with a theoretical and analytical tool for analyzing different dimensions of the PTEs and the potential for them to function as socially sustainable communities of care. The results show that even though there might be implicit incentives for teaching about R&W, all but one of the educational curricula of the twenty PTEs in Sweden lack explicit mention of ‘religion’. Based on the results, we can see that at a national policy level, the content of the educational curricula reproduces liberal secular and humanist worldviews as norms for the PTEs. There is also a lack of explicit policy-related incentives for the PTEs to promote social sustainability regarding equipping students with proper knowledge and skills for developing care-centered and norm-critical R&W literacy.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
MDPI, 2023
Keywords
higher education, preschool teacher education, religion, worldviews, religion and worldview literacy, social sustainability, policy
National Category
Educational Sciences
Research subject
Educational Work; Religious Studies and Theology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-96766 (URN)10.3390/rel14091194 (DOI)001077970200001 ()2-s2.0-85172191642 (Scopus ID)
Note

This article belongs to the Special Issue International Perspectives and Practices for Religious Education in Early Childhood

Available from: 2023-09-19 Created: 2023-09-19 Last updated: 2024-07-04Bibliographically approved
Raivio, M. & Skaremyr, E. (2022). Understandings of religion as culture: Re-negotiating troublesome concepts in Swedish ECEC policy. In: Arniika Kuusisto (Ed.), The Routledge International Handbook of the Place of Religion in Early Childhood Education and Care.: . Routledge
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Understandings of religion as culture: Re-negotiating troublesome concepts in Swedish ECEC policy
2022 (English)In: The Routledge International Handbook of the Place of Religion in Early Childhood Education and Care. / [ed] Arniika Kuusisto, Routledge, 2022Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Preschools in Sweden, in which the groups of children are increasingly culturally diverse, are obligated to provide every child the opportunity to develop their own cultural identity, knowledge about and interest in different cultures. At the same time, teaching should be non-confessional and pass on a cultural heritage from one generation to the next. There are, according to previous research, several didactic dilemmas linked to preschool teachers interpretations of what is regarded as religion, culture and a cultural heritage. These dilemmas partly derive from how the concepts are used in the policy documents that regulate Swedish preschool. There is thus a need for further illumination of both the didactic dilemmas and the ambivalences expressed by the policy documents. Our contribution is a policy analysis in which the curriculum is studied in relation to the Convention on the Rights of the Child which becomes Swedish law in 2020. The results show that there are several possible interpretations in terms of the concepts of culture and cultural heritage in relation to the concept of religion in the policy documents. This article discusses these different possibilities for interpretation and possible didactic consequences for pedagogical work in preschool.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2022
Series
Routledge International Handbooks of Education
Keywords
Early Childhood Education and Care, Religion, Culture, Policy, International & Comparative Education, Multicultural Education, Förskola, religion, kultur, policy, internationell & jämförande utbildning, mångkulturell utbildning
National Category
Religious Studies Educational Sciences
Research subject
Educational Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-94604 (URN)9781003017783 (ISBN)9780367862251 (ISBN)
Available from: 2023-05-11 Created: 2023-05-11 Last updated: 2023-05-29Bibliographically approved
Skaremyr, E. (2021). Newly arrived children’s encounters with the cultural community of preschool. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 29(3), 397-409
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Newly arrived children’s encounters with the cultural community of preschool
2021 (English)In: European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, ISSN 1350-293X, E-ISSN 1752-1807, Vol. 29, no 3, p. 397-409Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The Swedish preschools have evolved to be more diverse in terms of language and culture amongst the attending children. Previous research on newly arrived children in the Swedish preschools focusses on, amongst other things, how to provide for the best reception or education, but less is known about the newly arrived children’s own communicative ways when they start preschool. The aim of this paper is to explore how children entering a new linguistic environment are able to participate by using communicative tools in speech events at preschool. The analysis shows how the children participate by combining different communicative tools when they shadow, code-switch, invent language and make use of expressive body language. The study contributes with knowledge about preschool children’s various ways of approaching a new language and adjusting to a new cultural context and children’s social and informal learning practices in preschool.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2021
Keywords
Communication, interaction, linguistic environment, newly arrived children, peer learning, second language
National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
Education
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-85343 (URN)10.1080/1350293X.2021.1928722 (DOI)2-s2.0-85106209077 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2021-07-02 Created: 2021-07-02 Last updated: 2022-05-30Bibliographically approved
Raivio, M. & Skaremyr, E. (2020). Understanding Religion as Culture: An Intercultural Reading Strategy for Renegotiating Troublesome Concepts in Swedish ECEC Policy. In: : . Paper presented at Values, Worldviews and Religions: Changing realities in the city, European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction(EARLI) SIG 19, Stockholms universitet, 9 – 13 november, 2020.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Understanding Religion as Culture: An Intercultural Reading Strategy for Renegotiating Troublesome Concepts in Swedish ECEC Policy
2020 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Preschools in Sweden are increasingly culturally diverse and obligated to provide every child theopportunity to develop their own cultural identity, as well as knowledge about and interest indifferent cultures. At the same time, teaching should be non-denominational and pass on a culturalheritage from one generation to the next. According to previous research, several pedagogical dilemmas partly derive from how the concepts religion and culture are used in the policy documents that regulate Swedish preschool. This paper aim to make visible what constructions of religion that are made possible when analysing the concepts religion and culture in the Swedish ECEC curriculum (Lpfö 18) in relation to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The method used was a policy analysis guided by an intercultural interpretation. The results show a lackof an explicit definition of the concept religion in the Swedish Lpfö 18. However, co-reading Lpfö18 with the CRC, using an intercultural interpretation, exposes a number of semantic overlappingof the concepts religion and culture, wherein religion can be understood as constructed as a cultural phenomenon. Hence, where the Lpfö 18 uses the concepts culture and cultural heritage, it is suggested to be understood as including religion as both identity, practice, worldview and artistic practice. A further discussion regarding the proposed intercultural strategy for reading the policy documents, and its possible pedagogical implications will be addressed.

National Category
Pedagogical Work Religious Studies
Research subject
Educational Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-82933 (URN)
Conference
Values, Worldviews and Religions: Changing realities in the city, European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction(EARLI) SIG 19, Stockholms universitet, 9 – 13 november, 2020
Available from: 2021-02-18 Created: 2021-02-18 Last updated: 2021-03-09Bibliographically approved
Skaremyr, E. (2019). Engagement of Children of Finnish Descent in Bilingual Communicative Events in Swedish Preschool Contexts. In: Valerie Margrain, Annica Löfdahl Hultman (Ed.), Challenging Democracy in Early Childhood Education: Engagement in Changing Global Contexts (pp. 91-106). Springer
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Engagement of Children of Finnish Descent in Bilingual Communicative Events in Swedish Preschool Contexts
2019 (English)In: Challenging Democracy in Early Childhood Education: Engagement in Changing Global Contexts / [ed] Valerie Margrain, Annica Löfdahl Hultman, Springer , 2019, p. 91-106Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

This study explores Finnish language activities (FLA) and the engagement of children of Finnish descent in bilingual practices in the Swedish preschool context. Data were collected through observations and field notes, which were transcribed and analysed using the theoretical concept communicative event. The analysis shows that the FLAs are controlled by conditions, such as the timeframe for the FLA and by the fixed routines, meetings and excursions in preschools. Despite bilingual practitioners’ ability to use Finnish in different situations, children’s engagement in and the implementation of FLAs seem vulnerable to the prevailing conditions in preschools, and therefore the preschools’ democratic foundation will be discussed. I argue that the timeframe for the FLA is the dominating controlling condition influencing children’s engagement, and I call for clearer local policies. All preschool personnel need increased pedagogical knowledge in bilingualism if the statutory and democratic rights for children are to have real meaning.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2019
Series
International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development, ISSN 2468-8746 ; Vol. 28
Keywords
Language Socialization, Nursery Schools, Conversation Analysis
National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
Educational Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-78227 (URN)10.1007/978-981-13-7771-6_7 (DOI)2-s2.0-85084128953 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2020-06-12 Created: 2020-06-12 Last updated: 2020-09-24Bibliographically approved
Skaremyr, E. (2019). Språkliga gemenskaper och minoritetsspråkiga barn i svensk förskola. (Doctoral dissertation). Karlstad: Karlstads universitet
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Språkliga gemenskaper och minoritetsspråkiga barn i svensk förskola
2019 (Swedish)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Alternative title[en]
Encountering speech communities : Minority language children in the Swedish preschool context
Abstract [en]

The aim of this dissertation is to contribute with knowledge about how speech communities are formed and maintained in Swedish preschools when minority language children participate. The dissertation is based on two empirical studies that are linked together by an ethnographical communication model. Case study I explores how newly arrived children communicate when they are newcomers in a Swedish preschool context. The empirical material consists of video recordings from observations of newly arrived children´s interactions with peers in preschool. Case study II studies a Finnish language revitalization program in Swedish preschools for children of Finnish minority descent. The empirical material consists of field notes from observations of the language revitalization program, transcripts from interviews with preschool teachers and bilingual practitioners, as well as documents with relation to the revitalization program.

The dissertation gives a wider perspective on how speech communities are formed and maintained in Swedish preschools when minority language children participate. The speech communities are formed and maintained through routine speech situations which are dictated by monolingual Swedish language norms for how to communicate. In specific speech events, however, participants perform multilingual speech acts. Multilingualism is not seen as an incorporated part of the preschool's speech community, because multilingualism requires language-proficient preschool teachers, a specific kind of organization as well as preschool teachers who actively promote the languages. The result also shows that minority language children’s possibilities to develop language depends on which language they speak in the preschools’ speech communities. Children’s right to an equivalent education in preschool is discussed. The dissertation shows how language support can be made possible by means of focused, attentive language collaboration.

Abstract [sv]

Avhandlingen behandlar hur språkliga gemenskaper tar form och upprätthålls i svensk förskola när minoritetsspråkiga barn deltar. Avhandlingen bygger på två delstudier som sammanlänkas med en etnografisk kommunikationsmodell. Delstudie I handlar om hur nyanlända barn kommunicerar när de är nya i svenskspråkig förskola. Delstudie II behandlar en språkrevitaliserande verksamhet för barn med finsk minoritetstillhörighet.

Avhandlingen visar att de språkliga gemenskaperna, som de minoritetsspråkiga barnen deltar i, är komplexa. Gemenskaperna i förskolorna tar form och upprätthålls genom rutinsituationer med enspråkiga normer för hur kommunikation går till. Deltagarna däremot gör flerspråkiga handlingar, men flerspråkighet ses inte som en inkorporerad del av förskolors språkliga gemenskaper. Resultatet visar också att minoritetsspråkiga barn ges olika möjligheter att utveckla språk beroende på vilket språk de talar. I avhandlingen diskuteras och problematiseras Läroplan för förskolans, Lpfö 18, intention om en likvärdig utbildning för alla barn i förskolan. Avhandlingen visar att en gemensam uppmärksamhetsfokus och ett tillvaratagande av barns intressen kan möjliggöra språklärande.

Avhandlingens bidrag är att öka kunskapen om hur förskolan bättre kan stödja minoritetsspråk i sin verksamhet.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Karlstad: Karlstads universitet, 2019. p. 139
Series
Karlstad University Studies, ISSN 1403-8099 ; 2019:13
Keywords
Preschool, speech community, cultural community, minority language, newly arrived, national minority language, multilingualism, language support, language development work, Förskola, språklig gemenskap, kulturell gemenskap, minoritetsspråk, nyanlända, nationellt minoritetsspråk, flerspråkighet, språkstöd, språkutvecklande arbete
National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
Educational Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-71798 (URN)978-91-7867-014-7 (ISBN)978-91-7867-019-2 (ISBN)
Public defence
2019-06-05, 9C 203, Nyqvistsalen, Karlstad, 10:00 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2019-05-13 Created: 2019-04-10 Last updated: 2019-05-13Bibliographically approved
Skaremyr, E. (2018). Ett utmanande uppdrag:: Att revitalisera finska språket i förskolan. In: : . Paper presented at Modersmål, minoritet och mångfald - Flerspråkiga identiteter i en nordisk utbildningskontext, Falun, 2018-11-12/13.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Ett utmanande uppdrag:: Att revitalisera finska språket i förskolan
2018 (Swedish)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Refereed)
National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
Educational Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-70205 (URN)
Conference
Modersmål, minoritet och mångfald - Flerspråkiga identiteter i en nordisk utbildningskontext, Falun, 2018-11-12/13
Available from: 2018-11-21 Created: 2018-11-21 Last updated: 2019-04-11Bibliographically approved
Skaremyr, E. (2018). Språkrevitalisering i förskolan. In: : . Paper presented at Forskningsfestival, Karlstad, 2018-11-08.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Språkrevitalisering i förskolan
2018 (Swedish)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Other academic)
National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
Educational Work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-70203 (URN)
Conference
Forskningsfestival, Karlstad, 2018-11-08
Available from: 2018-11-21 Created: 2018-11-21 Last updated: 2019-05-23Bibliographically approved
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0002-9836-1909

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