This article studies the role of the village teacher in three rural parishes in eighteenth-century western Sweden. Earlier research has shown that the clergy and parents were important in reaching high literacy rates in early modern Sweden. However, many parishes were sparsely populated, and many villages were far from the church, affecting…

A child's vocabulary ability may be influenced by many different factors in their home environment. The present study focused on supportive aspects in home environments and the relation to children's vocabulary size through an online study where 166 parents of children aged 47.63 months (range 33.7-59.9 months) responded. Children's home literacy…

Background: Stuttering development in preschool children might be influenced by parents' concern, awareness and knowledge. Indirect treatment may therefore be appropriate. Intervention in a group format has been shown to be positive for stuttering and an online procedure increases the accessibility of the intervention. Aims: The aim of this study…

Based on arguments about the need for greater individual freedom, school choice was introduced in Sweden in the 1990s. Swedish municipalities now set up local school choice systems, whose organization varies between municipalities. This study is based on interviews with three politicians and two civil servants from two average-sized municipalities…

Parental capacity is one of the main aspects assessed by social workers as part of child protection investigations. The aim of this study is to explore the social workers' perceptions of assessing the parental capacity of parents with intellectual disabilities in child protection investigations. Four focus group interviews were conducted with…

Health promotion from an early age is key to preventing unhealthy weight development in childhood, and parental involvement is essential. The school-based Healthy School Start intervention aims to promote healthy dietary and activity habits in the home environment and prevent child obesity through parental support. This study evaluated the…

One central issue in sports is the role of informal learning in organized child and youth sport in contrast to learning in the school context of physical education (PE). In Scandinavia, the model for organizing sports include an independent sports organization that organizes child and youth training on many levels, including the grassroots level…

This article examines the role of teachers, parents, and friends in stimulating the development of societal interest among adolescents. It assesses the extent teachers can compensate for societal interest differences among adolescents that arise due to socioeconomic differences. The YeS panel study is used, with 587 students aged 13-18 assessed…

This paper presents an exploratory study of English and Swedish teachers' perspectives on the role of homework in year-one children's learning of number. In order to ensure cultural integrity, data were analysed independently by two colleagues in each context. Analyses yielded three broad but cross-culturally common themes reflecting culturally…

This article proposes that the scope for parental involvement is limited in the current Swedish school system, despite its claim to the highest level of democracy and its extensive marketisation and juridification. In order to define this deficit, we introduce the notion of democratic parental involvement. We further trace the history of the…

By recognising young athletes as active socialising agents in their own right and how they experience parents' behaviour, the article contributes knowledge about parent-created educational practices and conditions for players' political socialisation in competitive youth games in grassroots soccer. Parents play an important role in the creation of…

This review aims to provide an overview of content in Nordic research between 2006-2014 in the field of special education in preschool. More specifically, this review identifies the similarities and variation in and between content in the research. A total of 31 studies were found to be relevant. A summative thematic content analysis was made. The…

The aim of this study was to examine the challenges of being either a parent--coach or a child--athlete of a coach within the context of Swedish youth sport. Conceptually, this paper draws on educational and sociological theories regarding changing perspectives in child-rearing. The results are based on data gathered from interviews with…

There have been increasing demands to improve Swedish children's reading habits, triggered by poor PISA results in 2013, and public healthcare has stepped in as a strong reading-promoting actor. Drawing on the emerging field of valuation research in STS, the paper explores the values enacted in health-related information brochures about reading…

The seven papers in this issue address a variety of challenges that parents in several different cultural places encounter as they do their best to ensure their children's safe, happy, and successful development from infancy through middle childhood: infant sleep, developmental agendas, temperament, preschools, academic success, and learning to be…