Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at three lower secondary schools in the northern Vietn... more Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at three lower secondary schools in the northern Vietnamese cities of Hanoi and Haiphong, this article provides a contextually nuanced conceptualisation of Vietnamese school bullying. In doing so, the article not only addresses the lack of knowledge about Vietnamese school bullying, but also poses a number of critical questions about how school bullying is more widely understood. The descriptions of school bullying provided by teachers and students in this article suggest that school bullying cannot be reduced to the negative actions and aggressive intentionality that are so often used to define it in the mainstream literature. Instead, these actions are perceived as instruments for bullying that serve a function in the social and institutional context of the school. Furthermore, the descriptions provided by teachers and students challenge the view of meekness (the passive victim) as an individual personal trait. While they suggest that students who are perceived as meek in the social context of the school are most likely to be bullied, they also highlight that some students accede to the demands of their peers in order to escape being subjected to more direct negative actions. The study thus suggests that a key for understanding the role that bullying plays in students’ day-to-day life at school is to acknowledge the function of ‘meekness’ in bullying situations and to thus place more focus on the social and institutional context within which bullying occurs.
En stor del av den statistik som ligger till grund for medialt uppmarksammade rapporter om okande... more En stor del av den statistik som ligger till grund for medialt uppmarksammade rapporter om okande psykisk ohalsa bland unga representerar inte alltid psykisk ohalsa utan overgaende besvar kopplade ...
Over the past decades socio-emotional programmes have been implemented in schools worldwide. Depr... more Over the past decades socio-emotional programmes have been implemented in schools worldwide. Depression in Swedish Adolescents (DISA) and Social and Emotional Training (SET) are two socio-emotional programmes being practised in Swedish schools. The aim of the present dissertation is to explore students’ perspectives on DISA and SET, as well as the programmes’ intentions and strategies. The empirical material consists of interviews with students taking part in DISA and SET, participant observations conducted in an elementary school practising SET, participant observations of DISA and SET instructor courses, and a broad range of textual material concerning the programmes. Article I reports on an inherent contradiction in DISA, where techniques designed as treatment are practised as universal prevention for girls as a group. The girls’ accounts of DISA demonstrate why this contradiction is problematic – it was not up to the girls as course participants to define what problems they were...
Den har rapporten presenterar en forskningsbaserad utvardering med sarskilt fokus pa barns perspe... more Den har rapporten presenterar en forskningsbaserad utvardering med sarskilt fokus pa barns perspektiv av ett lokalt utformat antimobbningsprojekt med namnet Sag STOPP! i Katrineholms kommun under a ...
Although young people in Sweden report good health, there is an increase in self-reported symptom... more Although young people in Sweden report good health, there is an increase in self-reported symptoms. However, there is uncertainty regarding what these symptoms signify. Using interviews with 15-year-olds, this research examines what the symptoms asked for in the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children survey represent. The analyses takes inspiration from a performative understanding of surveys. It demonstrates that while problems such as feeling low and nervousness are reported as poor mental health, some participants refer them to deep-seated problems and others to everyday challenges. The results points to the necessity of reporting from symptom scales with caution to avoid the pathologisation of everyday problems.
Over the past decades, reports from official authorities and the media have suggested that there ... more Over the past decades, reports from official authorities and the media have suggested that there is a ‘crisis’ in young people’s mental health. However, there is considerable uncertainty regarding how to interpret the data referred to in these alarming reports. The present article draws on ‘the minority voices’ of young people and theories developed by Ian Hacking to undertake a critical analysis of the conceptualisation of young people’s mental health. According to Hacking, systems of classifications formulate general truths about people and frame the suffering of individuals in specific ways. Classification changes people. However, young people are social actors who interact with classifications of their mental health and by doing so they could cause classifications to be redrawn. Hacking refers to these feedback effects as ‘looping effects’. Based on 51 interviews with 15-year-olds, this article explores how young people interact with psychiatric labels associated with their well...
Redesigning outdoor preschool environment may favorably affect multiple factors relevant to healt... more Redesigning outdoor preschool environment may favorably affect multiple factors relevant to health and reach many children. Cross-sectional studies in various landscapes at different latitudes have explored the characteristics of preschool outdoor environment considering the play potential triggering combined physical activity and sun-protective behavior due to space, vegetation, and topography. Criteria were pinpointed to upgrade preschool outdoor environment for multiple health outcomes to be applied in local government in charge of public preschools. Purposeful land use policies and administrative management of outdoor land use may serve to monitor the quality of preschool outdoor environments (upgrading and planning). This study evaluates the process of implementing routines for upgrading outdoor preschool environments in a medium-sized municipality, Sweden, 2008-2011, using qualitative and quantitative analysis. Recorded written material (logs and protocols) related to the proj...
Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at three lower secondary schools in the northern Vietn... more Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at three lower secondary schools in the northern Vietnamese cities of Hanoi and Haiphong, this article provides a contextually nuanced conceptualisation of Vietnamese school bullying. In doing so, the article not only addresses the lack of knowledge about Vietnamese school bullying, but also poses a number of critical questions about how school bullying is more widely understood. The descriptions of school bullying provided by teachers and students in this article suggest that school bullying cannot be reduced to the negative actions and aggressive intentionality that are so often used to define it in the mainstream literature. Instead, these actions are perceived as instruments for bullying that serve a function in the social and institutional context of the school. Furthermore, the descriptions provided by teachers and students challenge the view of meekness (the passive victim) as an individual personal trait. While they suggest that students who are perceived as meek in the social context of the school are most likely to be bullied, they also highlight that some students accede to the demands of their peers in order to escape being subjected to more direct negative actions. The study thus suggests that a key for understanding the role that bullying plays in students’ day-to-day life at school is to acknowledge the function of ‘meekness’ in bullying situations and to thus place more focus on the social and institutional context within which bullying occurs.
En stor del av den statistik som ligger till grund for medialt uppmarksammade rapporter om okande... more En stor del av den statistik som ligger till grund for medialt uppmarksammade rapporter om okande psykisk ohalsa bland unga representerar inte alltid psykisk ohalsa utan overgaende besvar kopplade ...
Over the past decades socio-emotional programmes have been implemented in schools worldwide. Depr... more Over the past decades socio-emotional programmes have been implemented in schools worldwide. Depression in Swedish Adolescents (DISA) and Social and Emotional Training (SET) are two socio-emotional programmes being practised in Swedish schools. The aim of the present dissertation is to explore students’ perspectives on DISA and SET, as well as the programmes’ intentions and strategies. The empirical material consists of interviews with students taking part in DISA and SET, participant observations conducted in an elementary school practising SET, participant observations of DISA and SET instructor courses, and a broad range of textual material concerning the programmes. Article I reports on an inherent contradiction in DISA, where techniques designed as treatment are practised as universal prevention for girls as a group. The girls’ accounts of DISA demonstrate why this contradiction is problematic – it was not up to the girls as course participants to define what problems they were...
Den har rapporten presenterar en forskningsbaserad utvardering med sarskilt fokus pa barns perspe... more Den har rapporten presenterar en forskningsbaserad utvardering med sarskilt fokus pa barns perspektiv av ett lokalt utformat antimobbningsprojekt med namnet Sag STOPP! i Katrineholms kommun under a ...
Although young people in Sweden report good health, there is an increase in self-reported symptom... more Although young people in Sweden report good health, there is an increase in self-reported symptoms. However, there is uncertainty regarding what these symptoms signify. Using interviews with 15-year-olds, this research examines what the symptoms asked for in the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children survey represent. The analyses takes inspiration from a performative understanding of surveys. It demonstrates that while problems such as feeling low and nervousness are reported as poor mental health, some participants refer them to deep-seated problems and others to everyday challenges. The results points to the necessity of reporting from symptom scales with caution to avoid the pathologisation of everyday problems.
Over the past decades, reports from official authorities and the media have suggested that there ... more Over the past decades, reports from official authorities and the media have suggested that there is a ‘crisis’ in young people’s mental health. However, there is considerable uncertainty regarding how to interpret the data referred to in these alarming reports. The present article draws on ‘the minority voices’ of young people and theories developed by Ian Hacking to undertake a critical analysis of the conceptualisation of young people’s mental health. According to Hacking, systems of classifications formulate general truths about people and frame the suffering of individuals in specific ways. Classification changes people. However, young people are social actors who interact with classifications of their mental health and by doing so they could cause classifications to be redrawn. Hacking refers to these feedback effects as ‘looping effects’. Based on 51 interviews with 15-year-olds, this article explores how young people interact with psychiatric labels associated with their well...
Redesigning outdoor preschool environment may favorably affect multiple factors relevant to healt... more Redesigning outdoor preschool environment may favorably affect multiple factors relevant to health and reach many children. Cross-sectional studies in various landscapes at different latitudes have explored the characteristics of preschool outdoor environment considering the play potential triggering combined physical activity and sun-protective behavior due to space, vegetation, and topography. Criteria were pinpointed to upgrade preschool outdoor environment for multiple health outcomes to be applied in local government in charge of public preschools. Purposeful land use policies and administrative management of outdoor land use may serve to monitor the quality of preschool outdoor environments (upgrading and planning). This study evaluates the process of implementing routines for upgrading outdoor preschool environments in a medium-sized municipality, Sweden, 2008-2011, using qualitative and quantitative analysis. Recorded written material (logs and protocols) related to the proj...
Uploads