We are witnessing the renegotiation of cannabis substances in many parts of the world. After being classified as narcotics and subjected to a worldwide ban for several decades, cannabis has now been legalized in Uruguay and in several US states, and decriminalized in some other countries. This paper aims to study how the ongoing renegotiation of cannabis, which involves the legalization of the substance in different parts of the world, is constructed in Swedish print news journalism. This is done with the purpose of understanding how news journalism in a context of a traditionally strong drug prohibition (de)legitimizes different positions and perspectives in the ongoing renegotiation of cannabis, and to what extent journalism in such a context offers challenges to the reigning prohibitionist hegemony. Although cannabis and the media has been researched extensively, very few studies have been conducted by media and communication or journalism scholars, and contributions have been placed mainly in areas as for example drug policy, drug use and misuse, and public health. The current study, in contrast, wishes to contribute to the critical study of drug journalism. The paper draws on critical theory, understanding the ongoing renegotiation of cannabis as bringing disequilibrium to the hegemonic view of cannabis as dangerous drug that needs to be banned. Journalism is perceived as playing a key role in this context, since journalism is an arena where different discourses on cannabis struggle for prominence. Journalism can in this sense serve the strengthening of counter-hegemonic discourses on cannabis or the reinforcement of the prohibitionist hegemony. The study uses critical discourse analysis as a method to study 49 print newspaper items. The results show that the studied media invites opposed discourses regarding the health risks and the medical benefits of cannabis to be part of the news pages, which creates a somewhat pluralistic view on cannabis. The study also finds that the construction of cannabis legalization as a means to combat organized crime is given significant framing power. These results suggest that the ongoing renegotiation of cannabis in different parts of the world invites Swedish journalism to broaden the debate on the substance and to provide certain legitimacy to positive discourses on cannabis that are otherwise considered deviant in the Swedish drug debate. This serves as an example of how changes in distant political contexts affect the ways in which journalism ascribes legitimacy to specific discourses on drugs.

The text analyzes and compares the presence of the Anthropocene discourse in picture books from the northern hemisphere, both published in 2007, I skogen (In the wood) by Swedish author Eva Lindström and Winston of Churchill: One Bear’s Battle Against Global Warming by Canadian Jean Davis Okimoto. The books depict the tripartite relation between man-animal-nature as interdependent, but differently. While the Canadian book has an overt mission to enlighten the public about the effects of climate change for the artic region, in the Swedish book there is no overt message, but can be spotted and understood from an ecocritical perspective.

According to Anthropocene discourse nature is no longer a passive and static context for human actions (Crutzen 2000) and human control is an illusion (Carson 2002) [1962]. With Darwin man is defined as one species among many and after the rise of Ecology man is regarded as a species subsumed into an ecosystem. Ecologist Tormod Valaand Burkey advocates therefore for a new ethics where economy and man´s practices and values must adapt to a larger ecological context (2013).

The picture book analysis focuses on the combined pictorial and verbal narrative depiction of climate change and its threat to biodiversity. The focus is on how the representation of man as a species is depicted as well as its relation to other species of fauna and flora. The analysis will concentrate on attitudes, actions and ethical values expressed by protagonists when dealing with climate change in relation to an ecological ethics where human rights are closely knit with animal rights and biodiversity.  

Nesser’s most popular crime novel Kim Novak and its pendant Piccadilly, set in the 1960’s in Midsweden, share time, location, and the adolescence’s search for identity. In that quest the merging popular culture plays an important role. (Grossberg 1997) Nesser catches the characteristics of the time; Erik, 14 years, reads and writes comics; Mauritz, 17 years, listens to the latest pop music and constantly adds to his album collection. He also writes poetry and reads classics while listening to his rock music. The preferences of music, film and literature as well as the media practices by the protagonists convey authenticity to the setting but also serve as a narrative device to characterize the protagonists. The paper illustrates how the references to popular culture are used to depict the complexity and the dynamics of the main characters’ development.

Konstetablissemanget speglar en patriarkal värld i vilken olika spelregler gäller för kvinnor och män. Detta förhållande påkallar en undersökning för hur förutsättningarna ter sig för manligt och kvinnligt konstnärskap i bilderböcker i barnlitteraturen. Den västerländska bilderboken är ett lämpligt undersökningsobjekt eftersom den sedan modernismen har varit en konstform som uttrycker, speglar och experimenterar med bildkonst och konstnärskap. (Beckett 2012, Druker 2008). Beckett undersöker i sin översikt av crossover-bilderböcker en del av detta fenomen, nämligen bilderböcker som alluderar till bildkonst. I hennes redogörelse framkommer det att anmärkningsvärt få böcker handlar om kvinnliga konstnärer, liksom om konst skapad av kvinnor, Frida Kahlo undantagen. Om Becketts översikt är representativ bekräftar den att framställningar av kvinnligt konstnärskapande är försummat i bilderböcker. 

Syftet med mitt paper är sålunda att studera hur bildkonstnärer och konstnärlig aktivitet representeras på den svenska bilderboksmarknaden med hänsyn till genus. Till min hjälp har jag genusstudier utförda på barnlitteratur (Andrae 2001, Söderberg et al. 2013) och på bilderböcker (Österlund 2009). Min metod är att jämföra framställningar av kvinnliga och manliga konstnärliga aktiviteter ur ett genusperspektiv. Min analys kommer också att inkludera en inledande kvantitativ undersökning av bilderböcker som behandlar konstnärer och konstnärlig kreativitet på marknaden. Hur många är de? Hur många representerar kvinnors konstskapande? Min avsikt är att kvantifiera antalet böcker som behandlar kvinnliga konstnärer i förhållande till manliga, liksom att skissera typiska karakteristiska i dessa bilderböcker för konstnärskap och konstnärlighet med hänsyn till genusmönster.

Föredraget kommer att ge exempel på representationer av konstnärskap i vilken också paratexter (biografier och marknadsföring) har undersökts. Den preliminära studien är ur ett genusperspektiv betraktad en besvikelse (2014). Det finns inte en enda bilderbok som endast ägnar sig åt en svensk kvinnlig konstnär. I de fall de förekommer är de i egenskap av hustru, till exempel Karin Larsson i böcker om maken Carl.

Eftersom den kvinnliga konstnären är marginaliserad är nästa steg att finna ut om och hur kvinnligt konstnärskap kan definieras i andra termer än manligt? I så fall, hur ser villkoren ut? Eftersom materialet är så tunt med historiska karaktärer kommer jag att inkludera bilderböcker som porträtterar fiktiva karaktärers kreativa aktiviteter, till exempel Lundbergs Vita Streck, Wirséns Nallen och Höglunds Mina, vilka kan betecknas som konstnärliga, om än inte utifrån ett konventionellt synsätt. 

The aim of this paper is to investigate transmediations of the Anthropocene discourse into two picture books from the northern hemisphere, both published in 2007, I skogen (In the wood) by Eva Lindström and Winston of Churchill: One Bear’s Battle Against Global Warming by Jean Davis Okimoto.  The analysis is focused on how the combined pictorial and verbal narrative transmediate scientific media of climate change and its threat to biodiversity. The focus is on how the representation of man as a species is transmediated as well as its relation to other species of fauna and flora. In the Anthropocene discourse nature is no longer a passive and static context for human actions. (Crutzen 2002).  Rachel Carson was among the first to state that the human control of nature is an illusion born in an age “when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man”. (2002)[1962]. Since Darwin man is defined as one species among many and since the rise of Ecology man is defined as a species subsumed into an ecosystem. Ecologist Tormod Valaand Burkey sketches an ethics where economy and man´s practices and values must adapt to a larger ecological context (2013). In this paper I will direct my attention to how man is depicted in relation to other species of fauna and flora from an ecological perspective. The analysis will concentrate on attitudes, actions and ethical values shown by protagonists when dealing with climate change in relation to an Anthropocene ethics where human rights are closely knit with animal rights and biodiversity. 

Since modernism picturebook typography and its visual display in cooperation with the image have been used to produce iconotext (Druker 2008; Beckett 2012). Typographical arrangement can for example create the illusion of movement, time and space and sonorous effects (Druker 2008). It can also imitate a still image as is the case in artists’ books (Beckett 2012). The use of picturebook typography has parallels to visual poetry (Druker 2008). The connection Druker detects between visual poetry and picturebook text has, however, major focus on the influences on the plot, character and setting, and less on the influences from the poetry-genre.

During the last decades picturebooks with traits that correspond to those defining the genre of poetry have emerged. (Rhedin 2004). The poetical picturebook is characterized by Rhedin as depicting rather than narrating, but her focus is mainly on the picturebook illustration, not on the poetical traits of the text.

The aim of this paper is therefore to explore the influence of poetry in the text of poetical picturebooks and contribute with knowledge about how the use of visual devices in cooperation with the picturebook image creates a poetic iconotext. What influences from poetry in the picturebook text, and particularly from visual poetry, can be found in the material?

This study will be carried out by combining findings by Druker and Beckett with Rhedin’s about the poetical traits in picturebooks, but also by adding theories/findings concerning visual aspects of poetry (Olsson 2007; Elleström 2011) and poetry combined with images (Almgren White 2011). Elleström develops a typology for visual iconicity of poetry and distinguishes between visual and auditive material signs, that also will be tested.

The expected result is to show examples of how the figurative language of poetry about instant moments, atmospheres, emotions and mental states contributes visually to create a poetic iconotext.

This study illuminates the political, ideological, moral and ethical driving forces behind the Swedish governmental initiative to digitalize the educational system—the Swedish Digitalization Initiative (SDI). Taking a sociocultural point of departure, policy documents are considered mediational means and have agency. Nexus analysis is the analytical lens that is deployed. Policies are analyzed according to the public consultative discourse analysis scheme. Three main findings are reported in this study:

• The policy documents are chained, that is, one document is linked to one or more others.

• There are three important discourses that circulate in the policy documents: digital competence, programming and an economical discourse.

• Different policy documents have different strengths of agency, expressed rhetorically in terms of both languaging and layout.

The driving forces of SDI are politically and ideologically economical liberalism. Moral and ethical driving forces can be seen in terms of equality between women and men.

Aim/Purpose

The aim of the study is to explore students’ encounters with digital tools and how they account for their experiences of using digital tools within formal education.

Background

While computers have a long history in educational settings, research indicates that digital tools function both as affordances and constraints, and that the role of digital tools in schools continues to be debated. Taking into consideration student perspectives can broaden the understanding of knowledge formation practices.

Methodology

The study is part of a larger ethnographic project, focusing on agency at all levels with respect to digitalization in schools. The present exploratory study is built primarily on interviews with 31 secondary school students at five different schools (15 girls and 16 boys). The analytical framework was a Nexus Analysis, focusing on discourses in place.

Contribution

The paper shows how digital tools are conceptualized as being formed by and fitted into the traditions and habits of the institution, rather than acting as a transformative force to change knowledge formation practices in schools.

Findings

From the students’ narrative accounts, the following key themes emerge: (1) Action in contexts, (2) Agency in contexts, and (3) Equality in contexts. The first deals with the use of digital tools in school and the interaction order as it is accounted for in the use of digital tools in schools. The second frames human agency with regards to usage of digital tools and how agency fluctuates in interaction. The third deals with the compensating role digital tools are supposed to play for students who are identified with special needs and for students with divergent backgrounds, especially socioeconomic standards.

Recommendations for Practitioners

For teachers, the recommendation is to engage in dialogue with the stu-dents on how and when to use digital tools and the affordances and con-straints involved from a student’s point of view.For school leaders, the recommendation is to review how organizational structures, culture, and processes hinder or support the development of new practices in digitalization processes.

Recommendation for Researchers

The three key themes that emerged in this study emphasize the need to reflect upon how a panopticon view of contemporary classrooms can be challenged. Involving students in this work is recommended as a means to anchor ideas and results.

Impact on Society

This study is part of a larger project at Jönköping University, focusing on agency at all levels with respect to digitalization in schools. The overall goal is to increase our understanding of how to improve digitalization and implementation processes in schools.

Future Research

Future studies that address digital technologies in schools need to pay special attention to the interaction between students, teachers, and various kinds of tools to map the nature of the education process, with the aim of challenging the panopticon view of the classroom. Future studies need to focus upon processes themselves, rather than accounts of processes.

The aim of the research was to explore how 55 Swedish independent schools, directed at (or limited to) students in need of special support (SNSS), describe their organisation, work and visions. The empirical data of the research consisted of the schools' website presentations, which were processed and analysed in consecutive steps. The results showed that the students' complicated school- and life situations were often combined with disabilities mainly in the neuropsychiatric field. The majority of the schools (76%) practiced both schooling and methods for treatment and care, differentiating their role from the mainstream track. Neuropsychiatric and psychological perspectives had a significant influence, reflected in how the schools describe their daily routines, therapeutic methods of treatment and access to specific categories of staff. Small groups, individual instruction and competent staff were described as specific features. Teaching content and didactic aspects were seldom highlighted. The focus on the websites was on socialisation and subjectification while qualification, i.e. knowledge development, had a more limited role. The study points to a need for further research exploring daily pedagogical practice in more depth and calls for a greater focus on student perspectives. Consequences for learning contexts are discussed in the concluding part of the article. The specialist role, the independent schools in the present study tended to take on are most urgent issues to discuss in an educational context striving for equity and inclusive learning environments. 

Student teachers consider teacher training as an important part of teacher education. Despite this, students’ explicit descriptions of quality in mentoring have not been paid much attention in the Swedish context. This study aims to contribute with knowledge of student teachers’ expressions of quality in mentoring during the teacher training program. Two focus group interviews and seven individual interviews were conducted with student teachers specializing in teaching grades F–3 and 4–6, in teacher training schools that participated in the trial activities in Sweden. Their statements have been analysed based on the theory of social representations. The result shows that three social representations appear: Qualitative mentoring is characterized by a) student’s professional development, b) collegial cooperation, and c) trust. These social representations influence students’ expectations of mentoring and its design. Although the students want to be seen as colleagues, they expect mentors to decide when, where and how mentoring should be carried out, and to have a distinct feeling to use the right type of mentoring at the right time. The mixed professional roles, which is highlighted by the students but seem to be implicit, calls for different forms of mentoring strategies that need to be explicit for both the mentor and the student.

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.

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.

The refugee crisis is also a crisis in education. While attention is frequently directed toward primary and secondary school levels, higher education is a strategic issue for refugees, both as individuals and for long term processes of post-conflict recovery and peacebuilding. Education prospects and content are drivers of onwards migration, but also affect economic structures on return.  Higher education has the potential to support sustainable socio-economic development, but impacts will depend on which strategies are adopted and which types of capacity are prioritised. The article examines the issue of access to higher education for Syrian refugees, describing the situation in Lebanon in particular. Foreign interests can fuel sectarianism as well as creating economic structural dependencies. Both existing and possible future options supported by the international community are considered here, and discussed with respect to how they might affect opportunities for democratic and autonomous societal developments. 

This article discusses both conceptualizations regarding inclusion as action and issues related to representational-didactics. Taking a point of departure in both my scientific engagement and my experiences of research and societal developmental projects related to ethnicity, gender and functionality both inside and outside Sweden, the article argues for the need to shift focus (i) from the marginalized other to the non-marked norm, and (ii) to the boundaries that are drawn in everyday actions and activities that in themselves create the Other. I illustrate how understandings about human identity and diversity, including ”an imaginary community” (Andersson 1996), plays a decisive role for how societies plan for and organize support services regarding integration, inclusion, equity, etc. I specifically discuss identity and the conceptualizations (or metaphors) regarding the dominating dichotomized positions – inclusion and segregation – we have inherited, live with and that in themselves create possibilities/restrictions for children, young-people and adults in different institutional contexts.

Using the findings of different ethnographically framed research projects and with the fields where deaf individuals are focused upon as illustration, I introduce a third-position in a conversation about human diversity. Such a position, I argue, makes possible newer conceptualizations that include representational-didactics and inverted-inclusion. This has relevance for the organization of education, culture, and other services for everyone. In other words, by taking the case of research and the organization of language issues in the domain of deaf monolingual and bilingual education as specific instances of a dominating dichotomy, the aim of this article is to illustrate how a third-position makes visible languaging i.e. the doing of language, and identity-positionings i.e. the doing of identity, thereby allowing for newer ways of understanding functional dis/abilities, participation and inclusion. Such a position builds upon a critical humanistic thinking where theoretical sociocultural and decolonial framings are central. This position allows for, I argue, new ways to conceptualize a one-education-for-all and a-society-for-all.

The multidisciplinary research presented in this paper focuses everyday life and social practices that can be characterized by the use of one (or more) language variety, modality or register. Conceptual ideas that arise from explorations based upon empirical analysis of situated and distributed so called monolingual and multilingual oral talk, written communication, signed interactions and embodiment in and across virtual and in-real-life settings inside and outside higher education and schools are presented and discussed. Using sociocultural and decolonial perspectives on language-use or languaging, analytical findings from traditionally segregated fields of study – Literacy Studies, Bilingualism, Deaf education, Language Studies – are juxtaposed. An overarching concern here is framed by the continuing dominance of structural linguistic positions and demarcated fields within the Language and Educational Sciences that frame didactical thinking. The work presented here highlights concerns regarding established concepts like ‘bilingualism’ and ‘codes’ and suggests more empirically relevant alternatives like ‘chaining’, ‘languaging’, ‘fluidity’, ‘timespace’ and ‘visual-orientation’ from ethnographically and netnographically framed projects where data-sets include everyday life in virtual settings and educational institutions in the global North. Focusing social practices – what is communicated and the ways in which communication occurs – challenges currently dominant monolingual and monological perspectives on human language broadly and oral, written and signed languaging specifically.

At an overarching level, and the key argument I offer in this paper is the need to go beyond the “single grand story” in order to make visible, the naturalization of Northern hegemonies in how language and identity are conceptualized, and the (continuing) marginalization of studies where social actions or practices are center-staged. Building upon a conceptual critique of the continuing hegemonies of these single stories in the Language and Educational Sciences, my aim is to raise issues from and contribute conceptually towards sociocultural perspectives and decolonial studies (also called Southern Theories).

I attend to this task by firstly, center-staging analytical engagement with people’s social actions and secondly, by engaging with alternative epistemologies and issues from the global-South (Khubchandani 1997, Maldonado-Torres 2011). I take a point of departure in a sociocultural perspective on communication and participation (Linell 2009, Säljö 2005) that builds significantly upon Wittgenstein (Rorty 2006) and others’ writings on a Linguistic-Turn, and Maldonado-Torres (2011) and others’ writings on a Decolonial-Turn. Going beyond, the mirroring/ representational functions of language and drawing upon critical humanistic perspectives (Bagga-Gupta 2017a, Bagga-Gupta 2017b) allow for, I argue, asking critical (new) questions that enable the illumination of Northern hegemonies (Gramling 2016, Makoni 2012).

My vantage point for enabling this enterprise is engagements in multi-sited inter/transdisciplinary ethnographic projects in the nation-states of Sweden and India across three decades. These projects, situated at the CCD, Communication, Culture and Diversity research group (www.ju.se/ccd), have been enriched though dialogues with scholars situated in the global-South, and in particular my engagements at Aligarh Muslim University and Mumbai University in India since 2010. Key points of departure in what I call a Second Wave of Southern Theory is paying heed to the plurality of spaces within and across the global-North/South. This calls for, amongst other things, the need to accord visibility to Southern spaces in the North and Northern spaces in the South. Furthermore, key issues relate to raising questions regarding what language and identity are, where, when, why and for whom language and identity are central in contemporary human existence, including in academic explorations (Bagga-Gupta, Hansen & Feilberg 2017, Finnegan 2015).

The continuing silencing – visual, auditory, verbal, embodied – of alternative narratives regarding “normal” human communication and “normal” diversity on the one hand, and the continuing hegemonies of boundary-marked and -marking global-North epistemologies on the other hand, constitute the tension grounds that emerge in analysis of mundane language-use or languaging in face-to-face, digital and text-based interactions from the projects at CCD. This calls for the need to break the silence of the circularity and taken-for-grantedness of single grand stories regarding the nature of language and identity, including the need to engage with alternative conceptual framings.

In this chapter, the author, a hearing multidisciplinary scholar, uses her expertise in spoken, signed, and written languages to explore the relationships between language issues and the development of deaf identities. The research that she presents illustrates the ways in which various communication forms including spoken, signed, and written languages can shape the meaning of deaf identities. The focus is on what transpires in segregated and mainstream Swedish classrooms in terms of communication patterns and how the language variety and modality is used to influence the identity positioning of not only deaf students but also the adults who interact with them. A narrow focus on language use can lead to a homogeneous language-learner identity position. In contrast, a broader focus on language use can facilitate a heterogeneous fluid language-learning position where many ways of being deaf is facilitated.

Taking a point of departure in multidisciplinary research related to ethnicity, gender and functional dis/ability, this paper presents a conceptual framework where center staging languaging and identity-positionings are central. Building upon empirically framed results from ethnographical projects across timespaces, it discusses how languaging opens possibilities for discussing learning and identity-positionings that take place in and via the deployment of one or more language varieties and modalities. This is conceptually made possible by going beyond dominating, dichotomizing positions related to language, language learning methods, and the organization of language learning. The study argues that scholars inherit and live with dichotomizing positions within scholarship that in turn create specific framings for children and adults in institutions for learning.

The paper discusses the case of research and the organization of language issues related to bilingualism and diversity education as specific instances of a dominating dichotomy. It illustrates how going beyond this dichotomy makes visible languaging and identity-positionings that open new ways of understanding participation and inclusion. Such a position builds upon critical humanistic thinking where sociocultural and decolonial framings are central. Going beyond the mainstream allows for new ways of conceptualizing research in the areas of language and identity where social practices are center staged. To make visible languaging thus implies that issues related to identity are focused in terms of performative processes.

Aspects like the reach and quality of institutionalized support systems like schools, health services, equity agencies, work agencies, etc. in democratic societies are seen as central for human beings wellbeing and development. However the nature and relevance of opportunities that human beings have access to is a question that goes beyond issues of availability and provision. Focusing marginalization processes that have influenced or currently influence opportunities which children, young people and/or adults have access to are therefore significant.

Within the overarching theme of Marginalization Processes, the chapters in this book focus upon the overlapping areas of Educational Sciences and Language Sciences from social interactional and/or socio-historical frameworks. The individual contributions report from empirical studies that have been conducted inside and outside institutional settings like classrooms, remedial services, health care facilities, etc from different parts of the world. The analysis in these contributions highlights social interaction between the members of these settings (for instance student – student or teacher/resource person – student) and between members and cultural tools. Focusing centrally upon language(s) as mediating tool(s), some contributions highlight the interface between actors or actors-in-settings-with-tools. The contributions that focus more centrally upon the educational sciences enquire from different perspectives and/or scales: actor’s perspective, organizational and/or policy perspective, historical perspective, etc.

The outcomes of the studies contribute to knowledge about how institutional settings are shaped both in the interplay between actors and between actors, tools and settings. These outcomes throw light on how the social world gets shaped in institutional settings. Furthermore some of the studies contribute to knowledge regarding how the social world is shaped specifically in and through verbal/written/gestural interaction. The chapters in the book all focus the overarching theme of marginalization processes, and contribute more specifically to one or more of the following three themes:

Social interaction: these chapters are empirical in nature and data analyzed comes from classroom or other real life settings. The analysis highlights the social interaction between actors (student – student or teacher-student). The studies contribute to the knowledge of how the social world is shaped between actors.

Socio-linguistics: focuses on language(s) as a mediating tool; could be between actor and actor; could be between actor and context. The studies contribute to the knowledge of how the social world is shaped in verbal interactions in different settings.

Educational sciences: focuses on institutional settings (mainly school, including policy settings). The institutional setting is inquired from an actor’s perspective or an organizational perspective. The studies contribute to the knowledge of how institutional settings are shaped both in the interplay between actor and actor and between actor and setting.