Child and Youth Studies
Child and youth studies is an interdisciplinary field of research that studies children's and young people's living conditions, identity and social participation with geographical and historical perspectives
Research on child and youth is an interdisciplinary field where children's and young people's different living conditions and activities are considered. We study children's and young people's identity and socialization processes in different social arenas such as family, housing, preschool / school / higher education, work and leisure, and how such processes interact with gender, ethnicity and social class etc. Child and youth science critically examine conditions in the lives of children and young people as well as how they experience and handle structural openings and restraints in their everyday lives.
We conduct research on segregation, migration, mobility and education, how gender is constructed, children's and young people's use of digital media, young children's presence in public environments, young people's participation in society through associations and politics, transitions within the education system as well as between school and work. A newly introduced theme is the emergence of a ‘young adulthood’ in the intersection between youth and adulthood.
We often link our research to a geographical theme where spatial place is emphasized in children’s and young people’s everyday interaction and mobility. The theme of spatiality revolves around children's use of inner-city environments, young people's sense of context and integration in various suburbs or deals with issues of growing up in sparsely populated areas. We also study changes over the years and what are recurring patterns in different generations of children and young people.
The questions raised through a generational perspective are whether there are lasting generational effects in young people’s values or if differences in values and behaviors are dependent on life stage changes and in what ways do today's life patterns and conditions among children and young people in an increasingly globalized and digitalized world differ from previous generations' conditions?
The research in child and youth science at EDU is conducted within the framework of educational and social science traditions. We build on theoretical and methodological development in areas such as ethnology, sociology and pedagogy. We also work with perspectives on historical development based on methods adapted to different types of historical source material.
We collaborate internally at Uppsala University with the research group CLIP (Studies in Childhood, Learning and Identity as Interactional Practitioners) led by Professor Ann-Carita Evaldsson.
Contact
Peter Waara or Katarina Gustafson
Research network, educational assignments and collaboration
In addition to the internal collaboration at Uppsala university, there are several established national research networks with Stockholm University, Luleå University of Technology, Malmö University, University of Gävle.
Our international network consists of: Åbo Akademi University (FI), the Finnish Youth Research Society (FI), the University of Tromsø NO), Lancaster University (UK), the University of Amsterdam and the University of Genth (NL).
Our assignment also includes education at the undergraduate and master level in child and youth science. See the education catalog. We are also involved in the preschool teacher- and teacher educations at Uppsala University. In addition, there is also the opportunity to offer external commissioned training.
Our research area is relevant not least for municipalities' planning and management of children and young people within the education system. Organized leisure activities are also important for the sense of context and can be designed to create important learning and motivation-creating environments. Based on the university's external commissions, we have developed extensive experience of collaborating with public and private actors on issues that have to do with children's and young people's learning and participation in society.
Group members
Publications
Barns deltagande i undervisning
Part of Undervisning i förskolan. Förskollärare och forskare i dialog om didaktiska dilemman., Studentlitteratur AB, 2024
Sexual dannelse / Sexual bildung and Sex education in Denmark and Sweden
2024
2024
Possibilized by Physics: Students’ Retrospective Narratives about Safe Spaces and Emancipation
2023
Affect, stancetaking and gender in preadolescent peer cultures
Part of Handbook on Language & Youth Culture, p. 62-78, Routledge, 2023
Teaching nature and nation in the Swedish mobile preschool
Part of Childhood, p. 13-29, 2023
Part of Physical Review Physics Education Research, 2023
Part of History of Education Quarterly, p. 1-18, 2023
Young Peoples’ Online Science Practices as a Gateway to Higher Education STEM
Part of Research in science education, 2023
Part of Cultural Studies of Science Education, 2023
- DOI for The identity turn in science education research: a critical review of methodologies in a consolidating field: A critical review of methodologies in a consolidating field
- Download full text (pdf) of The identity turn in science education research: a critical review of methodologies in a consolidating field: A critical review of methodologies in a consolidating field
Skomakare, bliv vid din läst: Fortsättningsskolans medborgarkunskapsundervisning
2023
Part of Discourse Studies, p. 321-341, 2023
2023
Part of Nordic Journal of Educational History, p. 41-64, 2023
Observed Children at Play: Complex Relations of Agency in a 1930s' Kindergarten
Part of Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, p. 115-133, 2023
2022
Following or defying expectations: The choice narratives of “unexpected” physics students
2022
Choice narratives of “unexpected” physics students
2022
Young peoples’ online science practices as a gateway to higher education STEM
2022
2022
Part of Research on Children and Social Interaction, p. 203-229, 2022
Part of Talking with children, p. 405-425, Cambridge University Press, 2022
Part of Paedagogica historica, p. 19-35, 2022
2022
Part of Childhood, p. 593-611, 2022
- More publications