The governing document of the Swedish SAEC has shifted to becomemore focused on teaching and learning. The updated curriculum (SNAE,2011) added new requirements of the educational programme throughstating that activities should be ‘based on the pupils’ needs, interestsand initiative’ (SNAE, 2011, p. 23). The aim of this study is to explorehow SAEC can reach these goals and what kind of inventory the staff inSAEC use to plan the activity. The study takes its theoretical point ofdeparture from childhood studies (James, Jenks, & Prout, 2015). Themethodology was based on action research and conducted togetherwith eight different teams. The results show that there are differentways to inventory pupils’ interests. Inventories are shaped differentlywhen staff see pupils as co-actors planning the educational programmetogether, or viewing pupils as objects and put in a subordinate position.

At a time when educational assessment drives school development in all Nordic countries, it is a challenge to work in school-age educare, where the development of local service should be driven by the needs and interests of the pupils (SNEA, 2018). Our action research project aims to explore this specific part of school-age educare practice together with staff in two urban schools in different socio-economic areas. While there are studies about assessment (Andersson, 2013) and systematic development work (Lager, 2016) that will inform this study, there is no other research about school-age educare that focuses on this particular aspect of school-age educare. Research in preschools suggests that staff develop the service based on their own interests rather than the children’s (Fast, 2007). Moberg (2018, p.122) explores ”how the concept ofchildren’s interestsis allowed to act through its relations to other actors” and thus “what gets to count as children’s interests” (p.123) suggests that we try and trace the concept in practice. The project attempts to map methods already in use as well as explore possible new methods to assess pupils’ needs and interests. We want to discuss whose perspective the practice opens up for and what view of the child the practice allows. The project hopes to activate discussions about what pupils are allowed to do and be or how they should behave in school-age educare. We also want to avoid fixed categorisations of children, since how children are discussed limits or allows for change in different ways (Holmberg, 2017).

In recent years, the number of different course books focused on school-age educare available for undergraduates in teacher education programs for primary school has increased. Thus studying what particular version of school-age educare is legitimized in this discursive practice and how this is done rhetorically becomes pertinent. This article examines and illuminates how this course literature – used at several universities in Sweden – stages a certain way of speaking about school-age educare and thereby may ascribe teachers and children specific subject positions. The study shows how recurrent ideological dilemmas are used as linguistic resources to manage some constantly present contradictions: school-age educare is supposed to be both democratic and child centered, as well as professionally planned and lead. The findings illuminate a homogenous depiction of how school-age educare is distinguished from traditional and formal schooling and thereby promoted as a unique but also necessary form of education. As a consequence, an ideal teacher is someone who is specialized in being actively passive and passively active, and an expert on children’s learning while children are considered expertson themselves and in the activities as well. That is, teacher’s professionalism in educare is tied to the skill of not being formal and school-like, but still being educational in a way that promotes politically-approved learning and development.

In Sweden there has in recent years there been an increase in literature focused on school-age educare available for undergraduates in teacher education program for primary school, specializing in school-age educare. With this, it seems pertinent to study which particular version of school-age educare that is legitimized in this discursive practice, and how this is done rhetorically. Thus, this article examines and highlight how this literature – used at several universities in Sweden – stage a certain way of speaking about this phenomenon and thereby ascribes teachers and children specific subject positions. The study shows how recurrent ideological dilemmas are used as linguistic resources in order to manage some constantly present contradictions; school-age educare is supposed to be both democratic and child centered, as well as professionally planned and lead. The findings illustrate a homogenous depiction of how school-age educare should be distinguished from traditional and formal schooling and thereby be viewed as a unique but also necessary form of education. As a consequence, an ideal teacher is positioned as someone who is specialized in being actively passive and passively active, and as an expert on children´s learning while children are to be considered as experts in the activities as well. That is, teacher’s professionalism in educare lies in the skills of not being formal and school-like but still being educational in a way that promotes politically approved learning and development.

This article is based on data from a two-year ethnographic study on children in school-age child-care in Sweden. It describes a boy’s way from positioning himself as a “boy who does not fight” to a “boy who fights”. In Sweden, independence is viewed as paramount. Fostering children to independence can be seen from different perspectives, and the teachers in this particular setting hand over the power to the children. The social climate in the setting was quite tough, and the children – especially the boys – formed a social hierarchy by using their fists. The material was studied with help from analytical tools dealing with gender, position and power.

The aim of this article is to contribute to the discussion concerning the concepts used in the field of extended education by scrutinising different concepts that can contribute to research and guard the specific educational attitude of extended education as viewed from a Swedish perspective. The discussion will be based on a review of concepts used in both national and international research, as well as those formulated in Swedish policy documents and traditionally used in Swedish schoolage educare activity. Defining extended education as a social practice that aims at meaning making based on experiences from everyday life will be an important theoretical starting point to which the discussed concepts will be related. The significance of taking a point of departure in children’s perspectives is central in the article. Finally, some newly created concepts will be suggested as significant for the development of extended education.