This article concerns the impact of educational reforms on young people in Bolivian society as they transition into adulthood, against the backdrop of globalisation and far-reaching structural changes. Ethnicity and cultural capital are linked in complex ways with social stratification in Bolivia. In a pluricultural society, the language of instruction and curricular content are among the most fundamental conditions that determine which social or linguistic groups will be excluded or disadvantaged during formal education. Language and content are particularly significant in identity formation and in the shaping of cultural capital. Each contributes to the formation of specific intercultural skills and opportunities for communication within national or international communities. Additionally, each of these components helps determine which educational paths are open for young people, and which activities they can engage with later in life. In Bolivia, various education reforms have attempted to reshape these parameters. Intercultural Bilingual Education and other key aspects of the reforms will be described along with the historical context in which they emerged. Some conclusions are put forward related to their implementation.

Ecosystem services as a perspective on ecological processes is highlighted in the new  curriculum for Biology in years 4-9 in Sweden. The ecosystem service-approach implies  an anthropocentric perspective in education and  an unidirectional view on the purpose and value of other organisms than humans. This study is part of a larger project exploring an educational situation in which 27 seven to eight year-olds participate in creating mini-projects in a forest garden in order to strengthen ecosystem services such as pollination. A forest garden is an edible polyculture landscape with different layers of vegetation. The forest garden is designed to maximise the yield of useful plants while minimizing the input of energy and resources, human labor included (Crawford, 2009). While planning for and establishing a forest garden there is a need to adapt to specific local conditions. The ground must be prepared  in a way that makes best use of the solar energy and waterflow through the area and the plants should be placed so that they promote each another.  This demands reflection and knowledge about relationships between different kinds of plants but also about relationships between plants and animals. The aim of this substudy is to describe how the children perceive their own relationships to other organisms, as well as how they perceive the relationships between different other organisms. This is investigated in focus group interviews  with seven to eight year-olds. Also field notes, video recordings and photos from the children's visits in the forest garden have been collected. The videos and photos have been used for stimulated re-call (Stough, 2001) in a second focus group interview. The data will be analyzed qualitatively (Patton, 2002). In addition to providing insights about the children's perceptions, the project will give examples of  how a Nordic forest garden can be used in an educational context. Preliminary findings show cognitive/emotional/moral/ themes describing how children perceive relationships between organisms.

The paper presents the synthesis of a series of studies on support measures for pupils with additional languages in Sweden, with a particular focus on the consequences of language support measures for teaching and learning school mathematics. The analysis identifies several critical aspects in mathematics teaching when the pupils transition from one school system to another, and particularly when they do not yet have a shared language to communicate among each other or with their teachers. Three aspects with relevance to language support will be discussed and illustrated with examples from the studies: the notion of mathematics as a formal language; the notion of levels and absolute progression in mathematics; the notion that learning mathematics means understanding "concepts".

In Sweden, tutoring in the mother tongue is a special support measure primarily intended for newly arrived students to facilitate their transition into the Swedish school system. Tutoring is premised on the collaboration between the class teacher, responsible for subject-related expertise, and the tutor, who contributes with knowledge of the student’s mother tongue and previous context of studies. In this case study of class teachers’ and mother tongue tutors’ conditions for collaboration at a multi-ethnic primary school, six mother tongue tutors and six class teachers were asked about the purpose of their work, how it was organised, and what could be done to improve working conditions. Interviews with head teachers, and data on work organisation from observations, document study, and participation in meetings for a period of one and a half years supplemented the teacher interviews. The analysis focuses on whether tutors and teachers belong to the same or different Communities of Practice, based on shared concerns and opportunities for collaboration, as well as looking at the relative positioning of languages and teaching roles. Findings suggest that the degree of collaboration between tutors and teachers was not sufficient to allow tutoring to function in the way it is envisaged by national steering documents. Tutoring was instead based on the tutors’ own knowledge of the subjects they taught. Recruitment of suitable tutors was difficult. However, conditions for collaboration and more effective tutoring in the schools could be improved with relatively simple support structures at the level of the municipality.

Artikeln redogör för en intervjustudie som gjordes med 15 internationella studenter på ett mastersprogram med inriktning mot hållbar utveckling, där undervisningen ägt rum på engelska. Studenterna frågades i individuella intervjuer på engelska hur de ansåg att stora översvämningar kunde förebyggas. En intentional-expressiv dialogstruktur anpassades till att innefatta frågor om hur nyckeluttryck i deras svar kunde uttryckas på studenternas modersmål. Studenterna fick sedan jämföra och kontrastera uttryckssätten och betydelserna som de använt i sina förklaringar, på engelska och på modersmålet. Deras skiftande språkliga och ämnesmässiga bakgrund speglades generellt genom en bred variation i uppfattningarna av frågeställningen, och i studenternas reaktioner till intervjusituationen. Resultaten visar att dialogstrukturen dessutom fick många av studenterna att inkludera andra aspekter i sina förklaringar, när frågan om uttryck och innebörder på modersmålet infördes, än när de först förklarat enbart på engelska.

Interdisciplinary interaction between the areas of language acquisition and language policy can be considered as a process and analysed from the methodological meta-perspective of how it interrelates with institutional practices. Mother tongue tutoring in Sweden is used to illustrate impacts when concepts travel across disciplinary and institutional contexts.

The tensions between tendencies to support and reject that can be observed in reception measures for newly-arrived students in Sweden are a consequence both of the general climate of hostility towards immigration in Europe, and features particular to Sweden. The paper summarises the historical background to the present situation, from the 1960s onwards, and points to some of the impacts for teachers and for civil society. The analysis will above all focus on three diverging but parallell trends and which overlap: dynamics of integration, dynamics of competition and social segregation; dynamics of 'securitisation'. These dynamics evolve within different conceptualisations of education, but also relate to social developments and conflicting visions for society as a whole.

The seminal work of Engestrom (1987) has given rise to a vast body of literature looking at how tensions and dilemmas can generate creativity and ultimately lead to so-called expansive learning. Expansive learning can typically take place when different value systems come in contact, since members of the concerned communities of practice are then exposed to conflicting norms by which to evaluate and direct their work. This type of situation is common in cases of collaboration within or across professional groups. In her theorisation of intercultural school development, Lahdenperä (2008) further argues that it is productive to creat a climate of trust where differences can be explicitly discussed rather than avoided.   

Nevertheless, in practice the benefits of conflicting input on work processes are not always obvious in the context of educational collaboration. The paper will present a reflection on the elements that may obstruct or facilitate expansive learning in collaboration, based on two case studies of intercultural educational work: a study of a library network and a study of study support for newly arrived students. It will be argued that alongside power relationships, specifics in the configuration of the collaborative arrangement can determine the outcome.

The European Community has a clear policy in favour of multilingualism and diversity. For instance, Figel (2006), responsible for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, has stressed that:

"Respect for diversity is a key element of creativity and innovation, and is central for solidarity and mutual understanding."

In the Commission’s consultation on multilingualism 57 different languages were included. Ten per cent of the respondents declared their mother tongue to be other than one of the 23 official languages of the EU (European Commission 2007, p. 6). With changing and volatile global conditions, this diversity steadily increases, posing practical problems in terms of how to organise multilingual and inclusive education. Also, despite formal policies at the European level, in practice native-like competence in the language of instruction is assumed to function as a basis to develop knowledge and competencies at school. While some localities may comprise a small number of languages, others are highly diverse, posing a particular challenge in terms of providing mother tongue support as well as for accommodating cultural diversity.

 The situation in European urban environments can today be compared to traditionally highly diverse countries, such as Bolivia. In Bolivia, where bilingual intercultural education has been practiced for many years, EIB programmes appeared successful in rural localities with relatively homogenous  populations, while they encountered less success among the mixed populations of urban conglomerations (Arrueta & Avery, 2012). High diversity thus poses a different type of educational challenge than environments that comprise a limited number of linguistic minorities.  Identifying promising approaches to inclusive intercultural forms of education that are well adapted to highly diverse communities is therefore an urgent issue.

In a recent literature review by Pihl (2012), it appeared that the role of the library in intercultural education has been very little researched to date. Libraries further occupy a priviliged position allowing them to bridge formal and informal learning contexts. Finally, they are not bound by the constraints of school curricula, and can therefore to a higher extent base their activities on the learner’s own interests and intrinsic motivation (Fink & Samuels, 2008), which also are important factors in developing creativity (Hennessey, 2004).

The present study investigates the practices of the school library network of a multiethnic neighbourhood in the outskirts of Lund, Sweden. The network was awarded for best librarians in 2009 and received the national prize as the best school library in 2011, motivated by the exemplary practices in integrating library and school activites. The library in question is an integrated network of school libraries and public library, working in very close collaboration with the local schools, special needs resource centres, activity centres and various NGOs. The study proposes to look closer at which aspects in the library’s practices may be particularly significant for its success.  

Method

The study is a case study based on semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted 2012 with librarians and staff at activity centres. Interviews focused on their short and long term aims, relationships with local residents and organisations, as well as striving to obtain a detailed description of both organisation and practices. Steering documents and locally formulated action plans were analysed. The analysis aims to capture how library practices and collaboration impacted the collective dynamics in the neighbourhood, rather than focusing correlations between isolated practices and individual library users. The present situation has also been interpreted against the background of how the neighbourhood and its institutions have evolved over the past decades. The neighbourhood has a very diverse population, and nineteen main languages are spoken, as well as a number of less common languages. Inhabitants include recent refugees, a large proportion of first and second generation immigrants, foreign students and university staff, as well as several Roma groups. Educational backgrounds are highly diverse, and social and cultural cohesion therefore pose an additional challenge. The lower secondary school in the neighbourhood has a cultural profile and works with an inquiry-based and collaborative approach inspired by Vygotskyian pedagogics. The pre-schools largely work with Freirian pedagogics.

Expected Outcomes

Preliminary results indicate a number of factors that contribute to successful practices. Multiple complementary approaches mutually support each other in developing creative competences: - The library actively supports mother tongue literacy irrespective of whether the language is large or small. - Multi-modal literacy is supported, as well as multiple forms of cultural expression. - Active participation is encouraged, learning to produce culture rather than only consume. - There is close collaboration between school library and activity centres for extra-curricular activities. - Librarians work both with specific individual interests and peer-group dynamics. - An exploring attitude is encouraged and initiatives are welcomed, rather than focusing on steering, evaluating or assessing academic achievement. - Multiple opportunities are provided to express ideas concretely in the local community – becoming visible and assuming an active role in the public space. The study hopes to describe practices and interaction with sufficient detail to be of use for professionals working with both school and public libraries, as well as administrators and decision-makers, particularly in the fields of educational planning and coordination at neighbourhood and local community levels. It additionally presents a contribution to research on intercultural education, with respect to strategies that support plurilingual literacy and develop creative competences in highly diverse environments.

References

Arrueta, J. A. & Avery, H. (2012) Education Reform in Bolivia: transitions towards which future?, Research in Comparative and International Education, 7(4), 419-433. Ball, J. (2011). Enhancing learning of children from diverse language backgrounds: mother tongue-based bilingual or multilingual education in the early years. Analytical review commissioned by the Unesco Education sector. Cheesman, E. & De Pry, R. (2010) A Critical review of culturally responsive literacy instruction. Journal of Praxis in Multicultural Education. 5 (1), 83-99. Cohen, L, Manion, L & Morrison, K. (2000). Research Methods in Education. London and New York: Routledge. European Commission (2007). Outcomes of the European Commission’s public consultation on multilingualism 14 September – 15 November 2007. Figel, J. (2006). Multilingualism: a key component of the European Union’s strategy. Speech given at Bridge Forum Dialogue, Luxemburg, June 15. Fink, R. & Samuels, S. J. (2008) Inspiring reading success: Interest and motivation in an age of high-stakes teaching. International Reading Association. Florida, R & Tinagli, I. (2004). Europe in the Creative Age. London : Demos. Garcia, O. & Fishman J.A. (2012). Power sharing and cultural autonomy: some sociolinguistic principles. International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 213, 143-147. Hennessey, B.A. (2004). The Social Psychology of Creativity: The Beginnings of a Multi-Cultural Perspective. In S. Lau (Ed.), Creativity: When East Meets West (pp. 201-226). Hong Kong: World Scientific Publishing. Parlement européen (2010) Résolution du Parlement européen du 18 mai 2010 sur les compétences clés dans un monde en mutation. Pihl, J. (2012) Can library use enhance intercultural education? Issues in Educational Research. 22, 1, 79-90. Street, B.V. (2001). The New Literacy Studies. In E. Cushman, E.R. Kintgen, B.M. Kroll, & M. Rose (Eds.), Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook. Boston: Bedford St Martin’s. Yin, R. K. (1984). Case study research: Design and methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

The system of welcoming newly arrived students in Sweden has experienced numerous modifications since its inception. Additionally, because the interpretation of education laws us left to the municipalities and head teachers, the various policies have resulted in a multitude of local practices. Over the years, a very wide range of models for organising newcomer reception have therefore been tried out in Sweden. This makes it possible to draw some conclusions regarding didactic implications, and to identify the most critical aspects. Across the various experiences, it is noteworthy that the reception system remains placed at the margins of the education system as a whole, which leads to inadequacies in teacher training as well as obstacles to the collaboration required across teams, professional groups and institutions. The pedagogy is based on a general perception ofthe incapacity of the student, while the many "specialmeasures" that aim to compensate for perceived deficits do not result in teaching approaches that facilitate the transition between education systems or take into account expectations of the students and their families.

Numerous vulnerabilities have been noted in the current structures of the Gulf economies, including dependency on hydrocarbon exports, the need for fiscal reforms and alternative sources of state revenue, as well as limited incentives in the status-quo for initiative and productive activities. However, diversification, business development and transition away from hydrocarbon dependency require the capacity to make informed and strategic long-term choices, based on not only on existing strengths and competitive advantages within the current global landscape, but taking into account foreseeable needs and future developments. These include both regional or domestic developments and the likelihood of major shocks in global economic landscapes. It has been observed that major restructuring of economies was made possible historically through state intervention (Wade, 2004). States clearly have a privileged position for enabling change, since they can provide necessary infrastructure and create a stable climate that supports investment, allowing businesses to operate with a minimum of risk. Clear and credible visions for the future are a vital condition for long term investments in the domestic economies, while excessive regulations, clientelism and the fear of political upheavals can act as deterrents. In the case of the Gulf states, the question is thus how to develop wise policies and mechanisms, by identifying critical points of leverage rather than using blanket measures.To avoid defensive reactions or flight of capital and capacity, visions for domestic development need to generate confidence and trust, giving sufficient attention to mechanisms of enabling change that simultaneously permit a smooth phasing out of dysfunctional structures. Major challenges observed today include the demographic profile of the countries, expectations as well as the mismatch between existing skills of the labour force and the capacity needed for restructuring the economies. Maintaining a social contract will therefore continue to depend on measures of distribution and ensuring employment for young people in the region, while at the same time orienting the economy towards new types of production.The paper will consider possible pathways towards economic sustainability in the Gulf states drawing on systems and transition theory (Geels, 2005; Twomey & Gaziulusoy, 2014). In the context of the Gulf, it has been argued that conventional distinctions between private and public sectors can be misleading, to the extent that public actors can be stakeholders in the economy. In the analysis, emphasis will therefore be on implications of policy choices for the real economy and future capacity, rather than on public versus private ownership. The analysis will further outline the heterogeneity of the economic fabric and discuss both synergies and conflicts of interest between different sectors and industries.

The paper presents a case study of an integrated public and school library network in a highly diverse multiethnic urban neighbourhood, where intercultural practices and long-term competence building strategies have successfully been developed. These practices are outlined, and some of the conditions needed to develop a strongly integrated library network of this kind are considered.

The library’s collaborative networks are discussed as Communities of practice (Lave & Wenger1991; Wenger, 1998), and the case methodology draws on Stake (1995). The study is based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with librarians and staff at activity centres conducted in 2012.

The school libraries in the network are managed and partly staffed by a core team of public librarians. Librarians and teachers have developed effective forms of collaboration (cf Pihl 2009, 2011, 2012) and the librarians are an integrated part of the teaching teams.The public library also works in close cooperation with activity centres, the local community and associations. The pedagogical approaches of the public library draw on the Scandinavian popular education tradition (Klasson, 1997). Multimodal literacies in all languages spoken in the neighbourhood are supported. This engages the student as a member of society, not limited to the role of learner at school. The approach is empowering, and conducive to engagement in local or global sustainability projects. Pooling resources in the network has provided the means for establishing continuous professional and interprofessional development processes, as well as mechanisms for disseminating know-how, where the librarians function as knowledge brokers.

The network has worked through long-term processes (cf Lundholm, 2011) with boundary-crossing intercultural pedagogies (Pihl 2012) based on critical reflection (Fabos, 2008; Vare & Scott, 2007), cooperation and active participation. Embracing diversity and opening spaces where people of multiple cultures meet contributes to justice oriented citizenship (Westheimer & Kahne 2004) and action competence (Almers, 2009; Mogensen & Schnack, 2010).

Exchanging experiences of such practice based models for school / library collaboration is particularly interesting since the Nordic countries share fundamental aims of inclusive education (Egeland, Haug & Persson, 2006) with similar popular education traditions, while the institutional and legal basis for collaboration differs.

The article presents results of a study made in the context of introducing bilingual instruction in Swedish and Arabic. Classroom interaction was videotaped in grades one to four at two urban schools. Based on the video material, an inventory was made of how Arabic was used by the bilingual teachers, and how it related to the corresponding Swedish content. Simplified language use, code-switching and relations between use of Arabic and Swedish were analysed with respect to potential impact on learning affordances. Results indicate that, despite the introduction of bilingual instruction, Swedish still appeared as the dominant school language. Subject matter was frequently introduced in Swedish and then translated into Arabic. Considering that the schoolchildren were bilingual, many of the translations became repetitive rather than explanatory. Arabic syntax in teacher presentations was simplified. Frequent code-switching within utterances further contributed to simplifying both syntax and content. In other instances, however, open questions and relating written forms to their own expressions developed the pupils’ skills in Arabic. Involving the pupils’ personal experience increased engagement and motivation.

This thesis is a case study of a primary school in a highly diverse urban neighbourhood in Sweden. Basic pre-conditions for intercultural school development are studied by examining the overall organisation of teaching, learning and opportunities for collaboration in the investigated case. The study focuses on the targeted support measures to enhance learning for students with an immigrant background: Mother tongue instruction, Swedish as a Second Language, and tutoring in the mother tongue, as well as looking at pedagogical support provided by the school library. The latter has a mission to promote learning and inclusion, where non-native speakers of Swedish are a prioritised group.

Communities of practice linked to the work organisation at a meso-level are investigated, and the collaborative relationships between professional groups at the school involved in the various support measures. Teacher relationships and categorisations implied by support measures impact the learning spaces that are shaped for students and the teaching spaces within which teachers work. Collaborative opportunities and convergence of concerns in the teaching spaces combine to shape the overall space for intercultural development.

The raw data for the case study consists of interviews, national policy documents and additional information on local work organisation gained through documents and observations. Four articles resulted from the case study, each focusing a specific support measure. An overarching analysis is then made of findings from these articles and the other dimensions of the investigation. The analysis describes the organisation in terms of monocultural or intercultural school cultures, pointing to significant characteristics of the landscapes of practice, with respect to their overall implications for the spaces of school development. In the discussion, findings are considered in relation to research on professional development in education, collaboration, democracy and inclusive schooling.

The relative positioning of languages and cultures is given particular attention, to ascertain if the school culture is monocultural or intercultural in the sense given by Lahdenperä (2008), and to what extent it could enable intercultural development. Such positioning plays a role interms of affordances for identity, participation and engagement discussed by Wenger (1998).

This case study should be understood against the wider background of recent social developments in Europe linked to globalisation and technological changes. It is argued that looking at the concrete specifics which facilitate or obstruct school development, and simultaneously reflecting on how the different forms of teaching interrelate in the overall organisation and in policy may provide a useful vantage point from which structural changes can be contemplated.The discussion underlines the importance of the physical localisation of activities, continuity in personal contacts and time available for joint pedagogical reflection, as basic conditions for effective intercultural dialogue in the organisation. Finally, the impact of policy is considered, looking at connections between levels of policy, expressed in official steering documents, and conditions for teaching and learning at the level of an individual school.

The paper presents a new analysis of interview material from an earlier study of international Masters students’ language use and expression of understanding of complex phenomena in the area of environmental studies. The intentional-expressive dialogue format was used, and the question of preventing major flooding served as a starting point for the discussions. While the earlier study focused students’ responses to the different questions in the dialogue format, here micro-process analysis is used to investigate processes of change in the way the phenomenon was approached that took place in the course of the dialogues. The processes of change are related to how the students expressed their understanding of how flooding can be prevented in English, compared to how they would express it in their mother tongue. Three main categories were found: No change; Some change; No translation possible. Results suggest that when tensions and inconsistencies appeared in how the question was treated in the different languages, students were stimulated to reflect further and find expanded or alternative ways of understanding the phenomenon.

Mother Tongue Studies is an optional school subject offered in Swedish schools to students who speak additional languages at home. For reasons linked to organisational issues, school cultures and the curriculum, the subject receives a position that is both inside and outside regular teaching provisions.

The special status of the subject affects positioning of students and teachers, but also both limits and shapes opportunities for exchange and communication with other teacher groups. Through the voices of three school principals and twelve teachers, a picture of mother tongue teacher itineraries emerges. The diverse paths shape diverse perspectives on students and content, as well as modulating understandings of other teachers. Positions are additionally represented and exchanges mediated through employment forms, scheduling practices, attribution of rooms or facilities and through student assessments.

The presentation outlines some of the multiple learning and teaching spaces mother tongue teachers move between in their daily work, the continuities and ruptures in exchanges that are formed, and perceptions of these nomadic practices

L’article discute des pratiques d’engagement et de développement de littératies menées par un réseau debibliothèques scolaires et publique intégrées, dans un quartier urbain multiethnique en Suède. La discussion traite enparticulier les modalités de collaboration avec l’école, les familles, les associations, les centres de loisirs et autres acteursdu quartier, ainsi que les stratégies mises en place pour prévenir le désengagement scolaire. Le réseau de bibliothèquescombine la connexion digitale et la collaboration par communautés de pratique virtuelles, avec un caractère de fortenracinement local, exprimé par son participation dans de nombreuses activités du quartier. La continuité dans lesperspectives a permis d’affiner des compétences adaptées au contexte local spécifique et incite à investir dans le long terme,alors que la continuité de personnes a permis d’approfondir les relations collaboratives. La pédagogie inclusive, avec desracines dans l’éducation populaire, focalise la collaboration et l’émancipation, tant individuelle que collective. Plusieurs desactivités de la bibliothèque, comme les cercles de lecture, visent l’expression, le travail sur les émotions et la diversitéculturelle. Finalement, il ressort que le soutien accordé à toutes les langues du quartier, ainsi que l’utilisation de lamultimodalité, favorisent particulièrement l’engagement scolaire des élèves issus de familles migrantes.

The beach is the main accessible public space for the inhabitants of Gaza, and plays a central role for leisure time and recreation. However, the water is contaminated and dangerous for bathing, which reflects the major issues Gaza faces with wastewater treatment and adequate infrastructure.

The paper reports on teacher and pupil interviews from a case study of a primary school in a highly diverse Swedish urban neighbourhood. It discusses some of the consequences of dividing the school subject Swedish into two separate syllabi (Swedish and Swedish as a Second Language, respectively), both with respect to inclusion and language development opportunities. Implications for teacher training programmes are considered.

The study examines how primary school teachers teaching Swedish as a Second Language (SSL) and/or Swedish differentiate between these subjects. It looks at how they express their understanding of differences or similarities between aims, methods and teaching approaches, with respect to the needs of their pupils. Tensions and paradoxes are considered, between the ambition to provide equally valid instruction to all pupils, on the one hand, and the segregating mechanisms of distinct subject tracks, on the other. The discussion is placed in the wider theoretical framework of inclusive education (Persson, 2012), and intercultural school development (Lahdenperä, 1998, 2008), as well as drawing on research on Swedish language teaching for immigrants (Fridlund, 2011; Torpsten, 2008; Stroud, 2004).

In a European perspective, improving education provisions for students with a migrant background is a central concern, aiming to support integration and ensure social cohesion (OECD, 2010; Sirius Literature Review). Migrants are far from being a homogenous group, however. Immigrant communities comprise second or third generation immigrants as well as newly arrived families and refugees, with a very wide range of socio-economic backgrounds and educational needs.

Several European studies stress that language support is a strategic aspect which impacts migrants’ access to education and the effects of language proficiency on school performance are often underlined. Sweden has been mentioned as a positive example with respect to language support, for providing SSL classes (Sirius Literature Review). Other language-oriented support measures in Sweden include mother tongue instruction and study guidance in the mother tongue (OECD, 2009; Bunar, 2010).

SSL is taught to newly arrived immigrant students, but also offered as a school subject in mainstream school. The intention of placing newly arrived students in mainstream classes at a relatively early stage is to allow them to benefit from contact with native speakers of Swedish. At same time it is thought that Swedish classes adapted for second language learners will better support their language development.

In practice, there are numerous problems connected to SSL teaching in mainstream classes (Fridlund, 2011; Skolverket, 2008; Torpsten, 2008). Parents and students are reluctant to choose this option, since it is perceived to provide inferior teaching and is felt to not be equally valuable as a qualification. Officially, the two subjects are supposed to be equivalent, and there are only minimal differences the learning objectives and assessment criteria for exams.

Not just new arrivals, but all students with some form of migrant background and/or all ’multilingual’ students (speaking other home languages besides Swedish) are categorised as non-native speakers of Swedish. Consequently, such students are often directed to SSL. The final decision of whether a student takes Swedish or SSL rests with the school, not the parents.

Since December 2013, year 1-6 teachers teachers are required to have at least some qualification in Swedish or Swedish as a Second Language in order to teach SSL (www.andrasprak.su.se). Nevertheless, these requirements are minimal (half a term’s training for years 1-3 and one term for years 3-6) and hardly provide an adequate base, considering the challenges involved.

Higher education in Sweden has experienced increasing competitive pressure, while adopting paradigms borrowed from market philosophies (Beach, 2013). As in other European ountries, macro steering, incitaments and criteria for endorsing specific programmes operate through aggregated quality indicators, and tend to be more concerned with international ranking (Hazelkorn, 2008) than with meeting domestic needs. Additionally, deep-running tensions exist between what is seen as academic ’excellence’ and vocational relevance (Slantcheva-Durst, 2010). Despite a supposed increase in autonomy, forward looking strategic planning at university level is narrowly constrained (Bleiklie & Michelsen, 2013). While the nation-wide lack of qualified teachers has been amply documented, no concerted efforts are made to remedy the situation. Recruitment difficulties are exasperated by poor working conditions (cf. the situation in Norway, Valenta, 2009). Assuming comprehensive training in the more than 130 languages taught as mother tongue in Sweden would be daunting to manage alone for any single institution. On the other hand, the administrative burden of initiating cooperation across institutions is prohibitive, as well as the cost of managing coordination between a large number of partner institutions – within and outside Sweden. Competition between universities further reduces chances for effective cooperation. The ambition of equivalent standards and symmetrical structures in terms of credit requirements, progression or definition of levels ignores the substantial differences in actual conditions pertaining to different languages, student groups or locations. Finally, in a markets-driven higher education landscape, costly specialisations become dependent on direct targeted external financing. Without private or public sponsorship, the ratio between the number of highly specialised teacher trainers needed to establish credible programmes and the potential number of students per course is not financially viable for the course provider, particularly concerning smaller languages. Sweden has formerly held a vantaged position with respect to life-long learning (Boström, Boudard & Siminou, 2001), allowing continuous and flexible refinement of competences for active professionals. Today, the combined forces of marketisation and the Bologna process appear instead to have created relatively rigid structures that tend to favour a broad massified mid-section of the educational market, but make it difficult to maintain more specialised or rapidly changing disciplines.

To promote attainment and inclusion, Sweden offers tuition in migrant pupils’ mother tongues as a regular school subject. However, the formulation of learning aims is problematic, and resources allocated to the subject do not correspond to ambitions expressed in steering documents. This case study presents an analysis of the organization of Mother Tongue Studies at a highly diverse urban primary school, based on interviews with teachers and head teachers. The practical organization of Mother Tongue Tuition affects how mother tongue teachers and pupils are perceived, but also potentially provides opportunities for empowerment and educational development. Results indicate that in the investigated case, such opportunities are not exploited, placing mother tongue teachers in a state of continuous structural stress, while limiting the forms their teaching relationships can take. Additionally, scheduling the school subject Mother Tongue Studies at the ‘edgelands' of the school day contributed to further marginalizing languages taught as mother tongue and minimized interaction with class teachers.                  

The Scandinavian countries have a strong tradition of popular education, aiming to empower individuals and communities, rather than merely implementing a State agenda. In Sweden, popular education is notably connected to ideas of participatory democracy. It also brings with it a re-evaluation of which skills and which kinds of knowledge are relevant, emphasising young people’s own lifeworld, holistic development and creativity. Swedish leisure-time pedagogy and the after-school activity centres draw on the tradition of popular education in terms of basic values, while being publicly funded as an institution, and therefore subject to changing education policies (Haglund & Klerfelt, 2013). Education and training of leisure-time pedagogues is formalised, and takes place alongside other teacher training programmes in schools of education. The current debates and shifts in Sweden educational policy have increasingly run in the direction of reducing the autonomy of leisure-time pedagogy, and instead framing the activity centres as an instrument to support school achievement. Recently, the suggestion has even been put forward to use the centres for homework and remedial after-school tutoring. The presentation will outline some of the important characteristics of Swedish leisure-time pedagogy, and summarise recent threats to its autonomy, as well as movements of resistance.

Libraries are critical learning spaces and may play a significant role in intercultural education initiatives, particularly in Sweden where the national curriculum ascribes central functions to libraries for learning activities. Unfortunately, the ways in which teachers and librarians may collaborate to leverage mutual resources is not fully understood. This article uses Pirjo Lahdenperä’s model of intercultural education development to consider the case of a small school library in a highly diverse urban neighbourhood. Although public libraries in Scandinavia can support intercultural educational values by addressing individual needs and complementing curriculum-based teaching, the development of new teaching practices requires additional guidance as well as institutional support.

Refugee education: 2015 witnessed a rapid surge in the number of Middle Eastern refugees coming to neighbouring countries and to Europe. This presentation summarises some of the main challenges of refugee education, from the perspective of national policies, local classrooms and the refugees themselves. Based on experiences in raising teacher competences in both countries, situations in Lebanon and Sweden are compared, pointing to pitfalls as well as best practices observed. Finally, possible directions for reforming curricula and pedagogical strategies are envisaged, to prepare young people to make positive contributions to host countries, as well as building foundations for reconstruction and return.

The initiative at the Burj El Barajneh camp is run by a network of local associations and aims at improving living conditions, services, infrastructure and livelihoods for the inhabitants. Burj El Barajneh has a large number of active associations and many highly educated professionals. However, in this complex hyperdense context, any kind of change needs to be carefully considered; there are no simple recipes, and existing professional expertise does not necessarily match the specific conditions of the locality. By working with collective design and collaboration between the camp's inhabitants, it becomes possible to envisage larger coordinated efforts and to solve issues that remain blocked at an individual level. 

This paper aims to make a contribution to recentering practice- and practitioner-oriented issues in Roma education studies. Gaps can be observed today between conditions of educational work in practice and the ways education is understood in mainstream academic discussions, compounded by the fact that educational workers in the field have limited access to academic environments. Also, as a subject dealing with minorities, education for Roma and Roma communities tends to occupy a marginal position in academic departments of Education. Inversely, in Roma studies, focus often lies on culture or history, and education is mainly considered through the lens of identity. This means that many important experiences in Roma educational work remain silent, and significant aspects of practices are not sufficiently shared across contexts. In this paper, experiences from education projects in Albania and Sweden are presented and considered against the background of Roma education policies in these countries generally. An analysis is made of the ways these projects directly or indirectly connect to local academic structures. Finally, suggestions are made of potential strategies for developing practice- and practitioner-driven research in this area, to make relevant experiences more accessible across linguistic and national borders.

Les systèmes éducatifs contemporains s’ouvrent à un nombre croissant de professionnels qui, souvent en périphérie des établissements scolaires, sont amenés à effectuer des interventions éducatives déterminantes pour l’avenir des enfants et des jeunes concernés.

Dans le paysage éducatif et scolaire, les enseignants sont en première ligne. Souvent appelés à travailler en équipe constitués d’enseignants (ordinaires ou spécialisés), et peut-être peu préparés à la collaboration avec des professionnels extérieurs à l’école, le développement et le maintien d’alliances éducatives semble difficile. Par exemple, dans le domaine de la lutte contre le décrochage scolaire, alors qu’un décloisonnement et un partenariat avec des acteurs provenant de l’aide à la jeunesse, de la justice, de la santé, des entreprises, des secteurs de l’aide sociale, etc. permettrait d’améliorer l’efficience du système scolaire, le danger de cloisonnement des prises en charge scolaires et extrascolaires est réel.

Face à cette diversité croissante des acteurs du champ éducatif, les parents manquent de repères pour agir au mieux des intérêts de leurs enfants. Dans un contexte où les associations de parents oeuvrent avec difficulté à l’instauration de partenariats « école-familles », de nouveaux défis apparaissent, liés à la mise en place d’échanges constructifs avec les professionnels du champ éducatif en dehors des établissements scolaires.

Par ailleurs, la diversité des acteurs amène ces derniers à se mobiliser au sein de groupes, de réseaux ou de communautés. Des alliances éducatives peuvent ainsi se mettre en place à différents niveaux : micro, en partenariat "jeune – famille – école" ; méso, en inclusion avec d'autres acteurs des sphères sociale, judiciaire ou du monde de la santé ; et enfin, macro, en englobant les niveaux micro et méso, où des dispositifs communautaires peuvent mettre en œuvre de larges alliances au sein de régions ou d'états.

Enfin, dans le contexte actuel de mondialisation où les réseaux sociaux et les technologies de l'information et de la communication offrent de nouvelles opportunités d'interactions entre individus, la question de la préparation des enseignants et des acteurs du champ éducatif à l'internationalisation du travail collaboratif paraît plus que pertinente.

Le colloque « alliances éducatives » que nous proposons dans le cadre du XVIIe congrès l'AMSE se veut une occasion de réunir des équipes de chercheurs et de praticiens impliqués dans la mise en œuvre de partenariats entre divers acteurs des mondes scolaires et extrascolaires à des niveaux nationaux ou internationaux. A travers les communications présentées lors de ce colloque nous ferons un inventaire structuré de l’existant en termes : de besoins couverts ; de modèles théoriques utilisés ; de ressources mobilisées et de pratiques validées, tout en nous interrogeant sur les valeurs en toile de fond et les variables contextuelles. A partir de cet inventaire, nous souhaitons dégager les spécificités et complémentarités des approches et identifier des axes de recherches qui restent à investiguer. Nous nous interrogerons également sur la fécondité scientifique des démarches collaboratives exposées ainsi que les liens entre recherche, formation et profession. En outre, les organisateurs du colloque favoriseront une dynamique de mise en réseau des participants en vue de faire émerger une communauté de pratiques situées en lien avec le Groupe d'intérêt spécial intitulé "Alliances éducatives".

Introduction: Theoretically, ESD is variously construed as inter- or transdiscipline. Despite divergences (Barth & Michelsen 2013; Lundholm 2011; Shallcross & Robinson 2007), a consensus exists in acknowledging fundamental complexities (Gough 2012), engagement and action-oriented learning (Sterling 2011; Wiek, Withycombe & Redman 2011).

Objectives: The study looks at teacher education, considering the ways ESD-oriented knowledge, competencies and approaches are situated within pathways and curricula. The organization of teacher education (Rauch & Steiner 2013; UNESCO 2005; Wals 2014) is crucial, since it ultimately affects the potential for transdisciplinary development in schools. It is argued that the meaning of ESD in higher education is shaped by specific institutional structures, and the vocational contexts and practices the courses are oriented towards. With respect to teacher training, the meaning of ESD is additionally shaped by policy and steering documents regulating the profession.

Methods: Policy documents and course descriptions relating to teacher education from two Swedish universities and four Danish institutions are investigated.  Aspects focused here are: sustainability awareness, democratic deliberation, transdisciplinarity, working with complexity, problem-solving, boundary-crossing cooperation, action preparedness. Attention is also given to how the teacher training environments relate institutionally to wider academic contexts, and to how ESD oriented teacher competencies are formally described in terms of learning outcomes, requirements and qualifications

Results: At a macro-level, a fairly positive picture of the position of HESD in northern Europe emerges (see ue4sd outcomes). Looking more specifically at teacher training, however, our study suggests that sustainability concerns are still marginal. Focus lies on subject-specific knowledge, and sustainability mainly appears as an isolated aspect of natural science education. Knowledge is constructed through assessment practices that tend to standardise, simplify and fragment understanding of complex interrelationships. Academic writing skills are emphasised to the detriment of transdisciplinarity and action-oriented capabilities.

Conclusion: At an institutional level, economic steering and criteria for operationalising academic excellence tend to drive towards increased compartimentalisation. Importantly, the way learning is operationalised through modularisation of teaching provisions, constructive alignment of curricula and highly formalised assessment practices appears to limit transformative potentials for greening HESD curricula.

Although the wider academic environments contain sophisticated research groups in the area of sustainability studies, there are very few institutional points of contact with teacher training programmes. Finally, the separation between academic and vocational tracks in Denmark further increases the institutional distance between teacher training and sustainability-oriented academic research.

Purpose

The paper aims to provide a conceptual map of how to mediate between sustainability theory and practice in higher education and how disciplinary divides can be bridged. It further looks at issues linked to knowledge views and drivers for institutional change that affect opportunities for whole institution development promoting action preparedness.

Design/methodology/approach

Taking its point of departure in the University Educators for Sustainable Development report UE4SD (2014, 2015), the paper discusses ways that ideas and interaction can be mediated in higher education settings, to connect sustainability research with vocational programmes. Different options are considered and compared.

Findings

Although the literature stresses both action orientation and the need for holistic transdisciplinary approaches, many institutional drivers limit opportunities for more integrating approaches.

Research limitations/implications

However, while conclusions may hold for universities at an overarching level, it is likely that certain research and teaching environments have been able to transcend such barriers.

Practical implications

Conceptually mapping the different forms that dialogue, interaction and flows of ideas take within higher education institutions has relevance for whole institution development for sustainability.

Social implications

Importantly, producing sustainability science with relevance to practice in various professions is a fundamental condition to support accelerated transitions to sustainability at societal levels.

Originality/value

The paper makes a significant contribution by focusing on concrete institutional pathways for knowledge exchange and negotiation that can support education for sustainability in higher education.