According to the national curriculum, Swedish RE is supposed to be non-confessional. The purpose of this contribution is to highlight recurring patterns of liberal theology in Swedish RE textbooks and, in light of this, discuss the intended curricular division between confessional and non-confessional RE. The article takes two previous studies by the authors (Liljestrand, Carlsson & Thalén 2021; Liljestrand, Carlsson, Jonsson & Thalén 2025) as starting point to describe a tendency in contemporary textbooks for lower secondary and upper secondary schools to favour Christianity with liberal theological interpretations. We describe the themes we have been able to identify and provide some examples from the textbooks. In the article, we also discuss how this trend can be understood in terms of the ambition to educate citizens in accordance with the prominent values in Swedish curricula. Based on the presentation in the textbooks, teaching about (liberal) Christianity, through its value-conveying task, is assigned a role that dissolves the sharp division between confessional and non-confessional religious education. This dissolution concerns both the conveying of values in itself and the liberal theological tendency that can be distinguished in the teaching books.

Med utgångspunkt från två tidigare studier av författarna beskrivs i artikeln en tendens i nutida läroböcker för högstadiet och gymnasiet att ge liberalteologiska tolkningar av kristendom en särställning. I artikeln diskuterar vi också hur denna tendens kan förstås utifrån ambitionen att fostra medborgare som överensstämmer med centrala värden i svenska läroplaner. Utifrån läroböckernas framställning tilldelas undervisningen om kristendom, genom sin värdeförmedlande uppgift, en roll som upplöser den skarpa uppdelningen mellan konfessionell och icke-konfessionell religionsundervisning. Denna upplösning handlar både om förmedlandet av värden i sig och den liberalteologiska vinkling som kan spåras.

This study examines primary school teachers as policy actors through focus group conversations addressing a municipal investment lasting for ten years. This case illuminates how international and national policy is interpreted in municipal policy aiming to implement one-computer-one-student (1-1) teaching. The data is approached through the lens of policy enactment and ethnomethodology, with a special attention to how policy is enacted in local practices. Two common patterns in our data are scrutinised: focus groups for the investment and focus groups against the investment. A third focus group in which teachers disputed the investment is also reported on. In relation to earlier studies, ours shows how the enactment of the municipal policy depends on how the repertoires are shaped and developed in the local context of teachers’ work. It is concluded that if educational policy is to be understood in full, the variety of ways in which teachers respond to and enact policy should be documented and scrutinised. 

The overall aim of the article is to contribute to international research on the interaction between the printed media and political reform proposals when it comes to naming and framing the debate about teacher education and the problem-solving practices that appear in it. This is done through the following sub-objectives: a) a study based on four Swedish national newspapers to discern themes for how teacher education is presented between November 2017 and April 2024, b) to show whether and how these themes become visible in a government inquiry for a reformed teacher education programme and c) to investigate the most active writers during this period. The methodology, content analysis, includes a descriptive measure of content patterns and makes use of illustrative quotes. The result shows an essentially critical view of teacher education and where certain debaters are particularly prominent. The article also illuminates the consistency between the content of the government inquiry and the strongly critical and dominant features of the media debate preceding the investigative assignment.

Christian plurality is challenging for a religious education teacher in a classroom of students with different orientations of Christianity, not least due to immigration. As Christianity represents an essential component of the majority culture in many European countries, in this study we examine how it is represented in religious education textbooks used in upper secondary schools in Sweden. The purpose is to examine how liberal Christianity is shaped in the textbooks and the possible implications for educating citizens in a plural society. The selection of books is based on those used by religious education teachers in Sweden. The results show a tendency towards a modernised liberal Christianity, the implications of which are discussed in relation to the significance of religions and worldviews in education for social cohesion.

This article focuses on Swedish primary teacher education and the conditions for student teachers’ development of digital competence. Previous research has pointed to the importance of preparing teachers to use digital technology to support pupils’ learning. The aim of this study is to examine the development of course content to enhancing student teachers’ critical awareness of information and communications technology in primary teacher education. Data was collected from groups of primary student teachers consisting of anonymised course materials, a survey and course assignments. The results show that primary student teachers experience that digital technology facilitates the planning and organising of their teaching, digital technology can support the children’s learning and critical pedagogical reasoning is important when using digital technology in the teaching situation. The results have relevance internationally for teacher educators and highlight the importance of promoting a critical awareness of the pedagogical use of digital technology in the classroom.

Fallstudien uppmärksammar systematiskt kvalitetsarbete (SKA) i förskolor, i Sandvikens kommun under tidsperioden juni 2018 till april 2024. Under denna period initierades bland annat en programvara av förvaltningen med syfte att stödja rektorers och förskollärares systematiska kvalitetsarbete. Det insamlade materialet baserar sig främst på intervjuer med fokus på två rektorsområden i kommunen. En sammanställning av relevant forskning jämförs med resultaten från studien. Eftersom kommunens systematiska kvalitetsarbete omfattar flera organisatoriska nivåer framkommer utmaningar för hur dessa organisationer – i rapporten uppmärksammas förvaltning, rektorer, biträdande rektorer, kvalitetssamordnare och ansvariga förskollärare – samordnar sina olika perspektiv på kvalitet. Introduktion av en offentligt upphandlad programvara introducerad 2018 har ingått i kvalitetsarbetet och uppmärksammas särskilt i rapporten. Utifrån forskningsgenomgången belyser författarna utmaningar som har sin bakgrund i hierarkiska kommunikationsmönster. Det finns tecken på att kommunen har uppmärksammat sådana utmaningar och börjat arbeta aktivt med dessa.

The case study draws attention to systematic quality work in preschools, in the municipality of Sandviken during the time period June 2018 to April 2024. During this period a software was initiated by the administration with the aim of supporting the systematic quality work of principals and preschool teachers. The collected material is mainly based on interviews with a focus on two principal areas in the municipality. A compilation of relevant research compares with results from the case study. Since the municipality's systematic quality work covers several organizational levels, challenges emerge for these organizations - the report focuses on administration, principals, deputy principals, quality coordinators and responsible preschool teachers – in coordinating their different perspectives on quality. Introduction of a publicly procured software introduced in 2018 has been given special attention in the report. Based on the research review, the authors highlight challenges that mirrors hierarchical communication patterns. There are signs that the municipality has noticed such challenges and started to deal with these.