Participation and agency in Swedish education: Contributions to a Nordic conversation

Abstract

This issue presents ten studies from Swedish education exploring participation, agency, interaction and inclusion across preschool, school-age educare, teacher education and compulsory school. Together, the contributions advance discussions about more dialogic, democratic and equitable educational systems. Topics include children’s influence in sustainability education; preschool teacher students’ changing priorities and professional identities; structural conditions for participation; literacy as social practice in educare; and tensions surrounding the visual arts subject as both an aesthetic refuge and knowledge-bearing subject. Other articles examine blackout poetry in English language learning, literary engagement with gender equality in teacher education, interactional scaffolding in adapted compulsory school, and intercultural encounters between educators and guardians. Across the issue, questions of voice, communication, multimodality and institutional conditions shape participation, belonging and learning.