Children’s experiences: The institutional grip of evaluation in Swedish school-age educare

Karin Lager

doi:10.37291/2717638X.202451334

Authors

Karin Lager University of Gothenburg https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6062-0565

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638X.202451334

Keywords:

Evaluation, School-age educare, Children’s experiences, Institutional thinking, Group interviews

Abstract

Swedish school-age educare has, in the last 25 years, undergone extensive reforms with revised goals for work in practice and new working conditions. The reforms and changing conditions seem to have challenged practice in terms of quality. Since 2010, instead of programme evaluation for generating knowledge about the expected benefits for children of attending school-age educare, quality and evaluation have been regulated in the Education Act 2010:800(2010) as decentralised, continuous, ongoing systematic quality work led by school leaders and teachers themselves. The aim of this study was to examine the norms and the social order forming evaluation in school-age educare practice, including how staff think institutionally about evaluation, how evaluation is classified and categorised and identifying institutional shadows. The article is built on interviews with 53 staff members in twelve different centres. The interviews were analysed using Mary Douglas’ (1986) theory about how institutions think. The analysis contains a careful reading of interviews through a theoretically informed institutional lens and has resulted in different categories of evaluation in SAEC, as well as the identification of an institutional shadow. Children’s experiences is discussed as the institutional grip and shadowing goals and results in evaluation. Finally, it argues for institutional change.

References

Ackesjö, H. (2022). Evaluating the practice in Swedish school-age educare: Issues and contradictions. Journal of Childhood, Education & Society, 3(1), 60-73. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37291/2717638X.202231153

Andersson, B. (2013). Nya fritidspedagoger - i spänningsfältet mellan tradition och nya styrformer [New leisure educators - in the field of tension between tradition and new forms of government.] [Doctorate thesis]. University of Umeå.

Douglas, M. (1986). How Institutions Think. Syracuse University Press.

Durlak, J. A., Weisberg, R. P., & Pachan, M. (2010). A Meta-analysis of After-school Programs That Seek to Promote Personal and Social Skills in Children and Adolescents. Journal of Community Psychology, 45, 294-309. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-010-9300-6

Education Act 2010:800 (2010). Swedish Government. https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/skollag-2010800_sfs-2010-800

Haglund, B. (2015). Everyday practice at the Sunflower: The staff's representations and governing strategies as contributions to the order of discourse. Education Inquiry, 6(2), 209-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3402/edui.v6.25957

Haglund, B., Gustafsson-Nyckel J., & Lager, K. (Eds.). (2020). Fritidshemmets pedagogik i en ny tid. [The pedagogy of the school-age educare in a new era.] Gleerups.

Johansson, I., & Karlsson, O. (1997). Kunskapsläget i barnomsorg inför framtida utvärdering. En inventering och analys. [The state of knowledge in childcare before future evaluation. Inventory and analysis]. Swedish National Agency for Education.

Klerfelt, A., Haglund, B., Andersson, B., & Kane, E. (2020). Swedish school-age educare: A combination of education and care. In Sang Hoon Bae, Joseph L. Mahoney, Sabine Maschke & Ludwig Stecher (Eds.) International developments in research on extended education: perspectives on extracurricular activities, after-school programmes, and all-day schools (pp.173-192). Verlag Barbara Budrich. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvt1shzn.13

Lager, K. (2015). I spänningsfältet mellan kontroll och utveckling. En policystudie av systematiskt kvalitetsarbete i kommunen, förskolan och fritidshemmet [Between control and development: Systematic quality development work in municipalities, pre-schools and leisuretime centres]. [Doctorate thesis]. Gothenburg University.

Lager, K. (2019). Leisure-time centres: social pedagogical tradition in educational practice. Early Child Development and Care, 189 (12), 2005-2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2018.1429425

Lager, K. (2020a). Possibilities and Impossibilities for Everyday Life: Institutional Spaces in School-Age EduCare. International Journal for Research on Extended Education, 8(1), 22-35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3224/ijree.v8i1.03

Lager, K. (2020b). Barncentrerad utvärdering - en modell för utvärdering i fritidshem [Child-centered evaluation - a model för evaluation in school-age educare]. In Å. Hirsch and A. Olin (Eds.) Skolutveckling i teori och praktik (pp.259-271). Gleerups.

Parker, A., & Tritter, J., (2006). Focus group method and methodology: Current practice and recent debate. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 29(1), 23-37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01406720500537304

Plantenga, J., & Remery, C. (2013). Childcare services for school age children: A comparative review of 33 countries. European Commission, Directorate-General for Justice, Publications Office.

Plantenga, J., & Remery, C. (2017). Out-of-school childcare: Exploring availability and quality in EU member states. Journal of European Social Policy 27(1), 25-39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928716672174

Saar, T., Löfdahl, A., & Hjalmarsson, M. (2012). Kunskapsmöjligheter i svenska fritidshem. [Knowledge opportunities in Swedish leisure time centers.] Nordisk Barnehageforskning, 5(3), 1-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7577/nbf.315

Swedish Institute for Educational Research. (2021). Meningsfull fritid, utveckling och lärande i fritidshem [Meaningful leisure time, development and learning in school-age educare centres]. Systematic research compilation. 2021:03. ISBN: 978-91-985317-2-5

Swedish National Agency for Education [SNAE]. (2023). Elever och personal i fritidshemmet [Pupils and staff in School-Age Educare]. 2022/2023. Descriptive statistics. www.skolverket.se/publikationer 2023-04-25. Nr: 2023:531.

Swedish Research Council. (2017). God forskningssed. [Good research practice.] https://www.vr.se/analys/rapporter/vara-rapporter/2017-08-29-god-forskningssed.html

Swedish School Inspectorate. (2010). Kvalitet i fritidshem. [Quality in the school-age educare.] Report 2010:3. https://skolinspektionen.se/globalassets/02-beslut-rapporter-stat/granskningsrapporter/tkg/2010/fritidshem/rapport-kvalitet-fritidshem.pdf

Swedish School Inspectorate. (2018). Undervisning i fritidshemmet inom områdena språk och kommunikation samt natur och samhälle. [Teaching in the school-age educare in areas of language and communication as well as nature and society.] https://www.skolinspektionen.se/beslut-rapporter statistik/publikationer/kvalitetsgranskning/2018/undervisning-i-fritidshemmet/

Trondman, M., & Winerdal, U. (2019). Skolan som tanke och praktikvärld. Mary Douglas teori om hur institutioner tänker [The school as a world of thought and practice. Mary Douglas' theory of how institutions think]. Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige 24(3-4), 65-83. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15626/pfs24.0304.03

Wibeck, V. (2010). Fokusgrupper: om fokuserade gruppintervjuer som undersökningsmetod. [Focus groups: About focused group interviews as a research method]. (2nd ed.). Studentlitteratur.