I detta kapitel fokuserar vi på hur barnlitteratur kan användas för att främja läsning i fritidshem och ger exempel på bokpraktiker som skapats på några fritidshem. För att förstå litteraturens plats i barns skol- och fritidshemsliv idag, är det nödvändigt med en historisk tillbakablick. 

Syftet med projekt Meningsskapande i Naturvetenskap och Teknik genom Skönlitteratur (MNTS) var att utveckla undervisningen i naturvetenskap och teknik i förskolan och åk F-6 genom att integrera skönlitterära böcker i undervisningen. Projektet var ett forsknings- och utvecklingsprojekt där samverkan var en viktig del. Samverkan byggde på ett samarbete mellan forskare vid Linköpings universitet, medarbetare från Utbildningskontoret, Norrköpings stadsbiblioteks medarbetare, skolbibliotekarier samt förskollärare och grundskolelärare i ett antal av Norrköpings kommunala skolor och förskolor. Projektet har finansierats av Norrköpings fond för forskning och utveckling.

The integration of AI tools has significantly impacted society and education. Despite ongoing debates about the function of AI in schools, these tools offer potentially valuable resources, necessitating thorough evaluation. A basic AI literacy is thus crucial for understanding AI’s effects and making informed decisions about AI, especially for young people as AI is predicted to have a large impact on all aspects of life in the future. STEM education aims to prepare students for future citizenship and work life, but rapid advancements in these subject domains can outpace teachers’ professional development, making them feel compelled to exclude AI from their teaching. The Swedish curriculum (Lgr22) fosters interest in technologies and encourages work with technical solutions and projects, contributing to technological literacy in the STEM domains. AI is not explicitly mentioned but can be linked to an understanding of the importance of technology, technological awareness, and its impact on society and socio-scientific issues, thereby contributing to STEM literacy. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate how technology teachers in Sweden conceptualize AI in technology education in lower secondary schools, and to seek understanding in how they perceive the purpose of integrating AI in technology education. Based on interviews with eight teachers, it highlights the need for ongoing professional development, fundamental AI understanding for students, and the necessity for both technical and practical AI understanding and competencies.

In Sweden, all students study technology during compulsory school. In uppersecondary school, they choose a program based on their own interests andfuture plans. This pilot study utilizes the PATT-SQ-SE questionnaire toexplore its applicability in a different context. The aim is to investigate uppersecondary school students’ attitudes and perceptions of technology andtechnology education, based on their experiences during compulsoryschooling. In the study, students in a Swedish midtown, ages 16-19, weresurveyed. They have completed their technology education in compulsoryschool but have chosen to pursue other programs in upper secondary school,such as Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, or Child and Recreation.

The survey was analysed through the attitudinal components; affective,behavioural, cognitive, and the relationship between them.

The findings provide insights about what these students retain from theirtechnology education in terms of attitudes and teaching content. Byexamining their views and experiences, this study seeks to provide insightsand the impact of technology education in compulsory school.

Although using computers is the most common strategy to teach programming, “unplugged programming” (UP) has gained in popularity within educational settings. UP refers to the act of programming without a computer. However, research on UP has mainly focused on upper primary, middle-and high school students. The limited number of studies on UP in early primary school are, in addition, mainly quantitative effect studies. In this case study, we focused on the UP-classroom practice in early primary school during one lesson in technology (grade 1, 6-7-year-old students). The programming content, or the object of learning, that was in focus during the lesson was students’ capability to understand the idea of sequencing commands. The aim of the study was to explore what aspects of the object of learning emerge as critical in the UP classroom. Our analysis revealed that the students, to be able to understand the idea of sequencing commands, needed to discern several rather detailed aspects. Importantly, one can’t take for granted that these are aspects they discern when observing or interacting with programmable artefacts out of school. Rather, the results imply that it is a content that needs to be explicitly dealt with in the primary technology classroom.

Bringing more girls and women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, is often highlighted as an aim in education and industry. A constantly growing body of research on engagement is driven by equity concerns caused by the unbalanced gender distribution in STEM. In this study, Swedish teenage girls on a three-day technol- ogy camp are in focus. The camp was an initiative with three goals: “Get girls interested, keep girls interested and provide knowledge about futures within technology professions”. We explored the participating girls’ technological activities and conceptions of technology at the camp. Data collection was conducted through participant observations and a focus group interview. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and a gender theoretical framework. Results show the camp presented uncertain notions of what technology can be, and traditionally male-oriented domains were “girlified”. However, girlified activities might not have been constructive in this context since the girls expressed interest in technology before the camp and showed few signs of gendering technology – they liked all kinds of technology. Girlified technology can, at its worst, give a false image of the future industrial work life that the camp organiser aimed to inspire. Despite this, the camp activities were still meaningful and relevant to the girls. The camp created opportunities for the girls to develop their sense of being technical and a feeling of belonging. Implications for technology classroom settings and future camps are to value practical work and improvisational design without leaving the teaching unreflected. This could be a way of engaging and familiarising girls with the multifaceted world of technology without girlifying it. In addition, a broad conception of technology could make gender codes less relevant and open new opportunities. 

Since 2018, programming is a content in the technology subject in Sweden. Thus, teachers must develop new subject-specific competence to be able to realize their teaching in and about programming. This is especially challenging for primary teachers since primary technology education is a young subject and lacks a common professional base of proven experience. Research focusing on the classroom practices that are now taking form, and which are based on teachers’ use of tutorials provided from different resources, is scarce. Hence, our understanding of which programming-related knowledge is possible to develop through participation in these practices is very limited. As a novice, understanding the meaning of programming assumes an understanding of what a computational device may—or may not— ‘understand’ in relation to a human. When it comes to introducing early primary pupils to the concept of programming, there are examples of tutorials describing activities that focus on this very issue. In the study reported in this chapter, we explore an activity during an introductory lesson in programming in an early primary classroom, where the teacher used such a tutorial aimed to prompt reflections about the differences between a human and a robot. The aim of the study was to explore what content is constituted and hence what knowledge pupils are enabled to develop during this introductory activity. The results showed that the constituted content focused on a central difference between human and robot; humans, as opposed to robots, have own will and ability to think. However, the analysis also showed that the pupils had ideas beyond this rather narrow content, and that classroom conversations with the youngest pupils about the differences between a human and a robot are, in several ways, challenging to orchestrate.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) implies teaching about how to change or transform the world to become more sustainable, and to challenge status quos. This includes that students shall develop abilities to critically examine how different actors present information in different formats, with the aim of influencing society. However, this is a complex terrain to navigate in for educators, and questions regarding accuracy, fact acquisition, assessing information and source criticism have become particularly important.In a previous study, free teaching materials directed to education about sustainable development were analysed. The analyses show that the stakeholders claim that they already take responsibility; there is no reason to worry, since the challenges humanity faces can be solved with various technical solutions. An implicit message is that no lifestyle changes are needed. Based on these results, the aim is to outline how to research ESD further, amidst a planetary crisis, climate change, technological solutions, and evolving information battles. An interdisciplinary pilot study will be performed. It will be composed of a survey sent to teacher students, and students in strategic planning and global studies, where they will be faced with scenarios including dilemmas.