Med livet på schemat : om skolämnet livskunskap och den riskfyllda barndomen

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to understand and cast light over how the school subject Life Competence Education (Sw. Livskunskap) is developing in the Swedish school context. In focus of the study is how this school subject is defined and organized by actors (i.e. politicians, national governmental institutes, local governmental authorities, teachers and children in compulsory schools) in the different practices that together constitute the field of school. Of specific interest is how children and childhood is formulated within this specific subject, as well as what possibilities to contribute and participate in the process of defining and organizing Life Competence Education as a school subject. The study is conducted in Malmö, a community where Life Competence Education is part of the local public health strategy. The study draws upon a theoretical framework in which childhood sociology (James & Prout, 1997; Corsaro, 2005) is combined with critical discourse analysis (CDA, Fairclough, 2010). The empirical data has been collected by a variety of methods: such as policy documents at both a national and a local level; interviews with local key persons; as well as an ethnographic fieldwork and video recordings from classroom interaction. This methodological design offers the possibility to analyze Life Competence Education from different perspectives, with a special interest in how childhood is constituted within different formulations of this specific school subject. The analysis shows a national concern for children’s vulnerable positions in the society. At a national level politicians and governmental institutes formulate Life Competence Education as a way for schools to improve children’s health and empower children to act as democratic agents. In local curricula this subject is formulated as a possibility for schools to organize values education and other mandatory cross-disciplinary subjects. Thus, when Life Competence Education is interpreted in the local school practice t is transformed into more of a solution of locally defined social and individual problems. Children’s personal experiences are often at center of attention when problem solving, risking exploiting children’s private relations. As a consequence, the educational setting transforms into a therapeutic setting. The analysis shows that the children, in classroom interaction, demonstrate their agencies opposing the values upheld by the teachers.