Maria Rönnlund
Biographic Data
| ID | 184556 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maria Rönnlund |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maria |
| FAMILY NAME | Rönnlund |
| SIGNATURE | RÖNNLUND M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Umeå University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5308-7002 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 56 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Preschool teachers’ conceptualizations of spontaneous teaching: Relational and balancing interactions
This article delves into conceptualizations of spontaneous teaching within Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Despite its frequent occurrence in ECEC settings, where educators engage in teaching activities for significant portions of the day, spontaneous teaching has not been extensively researched, nor is it often documented or assessed in practice. Empirically, this study draws on data from a one-year project in which Swedish preschool …
Schooling for integration? Reception of refugees in discourse and practice in Swedish rural municipalities 2015–2022
This study explores the integration of migrants in education and the labour market from the perspectives of professionals working with young migrants in Swedish rural municipalities. It compares interview data referring to the situation during the refugee crisis in 2015 with data referring to the period 2019–2022. It addresses the organisation of teaching, how professionals talked about integration in relation to the local labour market and how i…
Educational stakeholders’ perspectives on educational transitions and future careers for young refugees in rural areas undergoing depopulation
There are high hopes that young refugees will help to counter population decline in Sweden’s rural areas. However, there is a need to better understand the factors and processes that facilitate or hinder their persistent integration and continued presence (including further education and work preparation). This article therefore explores the prevailing refugee reception practices and their consequences during and after the major refugee wave in S…
Sense of place in providers’ perspectives of school placement policies in relation to refugee settlement in rural Sweden
School-to-work transitions in rural North Sweden: Staying on in a reviving local labor market
This article addresses young people's school-to-work transitions. The analysis draws on data from a Swedish ongoing qualitative longitudinal project spanning over 10 years. In this article, we focus on eight young people who grew up and still live in a small rural inland town in North Sweden where the regional labor market is going through a process of rapid reindustrialization after decades of industrial decline and welfare state retrenchment. T…
Girls’ school-to-work transitions into male dominated workplaces
The article addresses school-to-work transitions among young women in a strongly male dominated professional sphere – the transport industry. Drawing on interviews with two girls over the time span 2015–2022 and visits to their upper secondary school 2016–2019, the study focuses on how power structures related to gender play out in the positioning that takes place in school and workplaces: How the girls were positioned socially and in relation to…
Tradition and innovation. Representations of a “good” learning environment among Swedish stakeholders involved in planning, (re)construction and renovation of school buildings
This study highlights how 20 Swedish principals, school managers and architects involved in planning, construction and reconstruction of primary and secondary school buildings at regional, municipal and local levels represent good learning environments. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, the analysis focuses on how the stakeholders understand the physical, pedagogical and social aspects of learning environments, including the power relations …
Vocational students’ experiences of power relations during periods of workplace learning – a means for citizenship learning
Students in vocational education may experience situations during on-the-job training in which power relations are strongly manifested, with considerable potential for learning about democracy that have been far from fully explored. Thus, here we analyse how Swedish vocational education and training (VET) students perceived and experienced power relations during their workplace learning periods in upper secondary education, and discuss their expe…
Teaching in a non-traditional classroom: Experiences from a teacher-initiated design project
This participatory design-based research study addresses the relational character of the physical learning environment and pedagogical practice in the context of a design project carried out at a Swedish upper secondary school. Three teachers initiated the project with the intent to introduce student centred pedagogy and increase active learning. In collaboration with the research team, they designed and furnished a classroom supportive for commu…
Between good intentions and practical constraints: Swedish teachers’ perceptions of school lunch
In Sweden, pupils eat tax-funded school lunches, often in the company of teachers. This article focuses on Swedish compulsory school grade (ages 7–15) teachers’ (n = 823) perceptions of the school lunch in terms of intentions and daily practice. Analysis was based on written answers for an open-ended question that was part of a questionnaire focusing on teachers’ attitudes towards school lunch as a pedagogical activity. It was found that particip…
Transitions in Nordic school environments – an introduction
In the Nordic countries, with their longstanding tradition of valuing education for the masses, a large number of schools have been built over a more than century-long period and therefore represent a variety of pedagogical and architectonical ideals (Bengtsson, 2011). For example, the school landscape represents traditional and progressive ideals and in terms of the buildings themselves, those that are currently considered as highly innovative e…
Control and agency in student–teacher relations: A cross–cultural perspective on Finnish and Korean comprehensive schools
Drawing on a cross-cultural, qualitative study in Finnish and Korean comprehensive schools, we explore how teacher control and student agency are manifested and exercised in the teaching and learning practices of the “official school” and in the student–teacher interactions of the “informal school”. We also elaborate on how students reflect on control and agency. Bernstein’s concepts of framing and classification are employed as a theoretical len…
Being and becoming a female student and worker in gendered processes of vocational education and training
This article reports results of an ethnographic study of how girls are positioned, and position themselves, in relation to gender regimes in three vocational programmes in Swedish upper secondary education: Restaurant Management & Food, Health & Social Care, and Vehicle & Transport. The comparison shows that there are different possible feminine positions where the girls resist and comply to varying degrees both within and between the programmes,…
Socialisation and citizenship preparation in vocational education: Pedagogic codes and democratic rights in VET-subjects
Previous studies of citizenship preparation in upper secondary school, including studies on vocational programmes, have primarily focused on general subjects. Potential and actual roles of vocational subjects in this context have received little attention, so we have little knowledge of what is likely a significant part of the citizenship preparation that occurs in vocational programmes. Drawing on the work of Basil Bernstein and ethnographic dat…
The lived experiences of school lunch: An empathy-based study with children in Sweden
School lunch is in general regulated through policies and agendas constituted by the perspectives of adults. In this article, we focus on children's lived experiences of school lunch with a special emphasis on emotions and how they relate to social and physical dimensions. This study draws on empathy-based stories written by 10-11 year olds (n = 171) from schools in Sweden. We identified three themes: Interaction and exposure, Routines and restri…
I Love this Place, but I Won’t Stay’: Identification with Place and Imagined Spatial Futures Among Youth Living in Rural Areas in Sweden
This study contributes to a body of literature that addresses relationships between space, place and identity, and their effects on young people’s ‘spatial horizons’. Drawing on ethnographic data from Sweden, it analyses youths’ identification with home place and how it relates to their imagined spatial futures in terms of staying ‘local’ or migrating. The findings indicate that locality strongly influenced the identity-processing of youths, but …
Young people's career choices in Swedish rural contexts: Schools' social codes, migration and resources
Vocational or academic track? Study and career plans among Swedish students living in rural areas
This ethnographic study explores how rural lower secondary school students reflect on study and career choices, focusing on the choice between vocational and academic upper secondary programs. Applying a spatial perspective, we analyze individual students’ reflections about study and career choices within a variety of rural regions, and compare patterns in the regions. The results indicate complex interactions between structural factors and indiv…
Schoolyard stories: Processes of gender identity in a 'children's place
Drawing on data from a Swedish primary school, this article explores how the schoolyard and places within the schoolyard are discursively used in processing gender identity. The analysis of children's narratives in relation to four identified key places indicated diverse and parallel ways of processing gender identity, and that spatial characteristics formed different conditions for processing gender identity. The analysis stresses the importance…
Young people's career choices in Swedish rural contexts: Schools' social codes, migration and resources
I Love this Place, but I Won’t Stay’: Identification with Place and Imagined Spatial Futures Among Youth Living in Rural Areas in Sweden
This study contributes to a body of literature that addresses relationships between space, place and identity, and their effects on young people’s ‘spatial horizons’. Drawing on ethnographic data from Sweden, it analyses youths’ identification with home place and how it relates to their imagined spatial futures in terms of staying ‘local’ or migrating. The findings indicate that locality strongly influenced the identity-processing of youths, but …
The lived experiences of school lunch: An empathy-based study with children in Sweden
School lunch is in general regulated through policies and agendas constituted by the perspectives of adults. In this article, we focus on children's lived experiences of school lunch with a special emphasis on emotions and how they relate to social and physical dimensions. This study draws on empathy-based stories written by 10-11 year olds (n = 171) from schools in Sweden. We identified three themes: Interaction and exposure, Routines and restri…
Vocational or academic track? Study and career plans among Swedish students living in rural areas
This ethnographic study explores how rural lower secondary school students reflect on study and career choices, focusing on the choice between vocational and academic upper secondary programs. Applying a spatial perspective, we analyze individual students’ reflections about study and career choices within a variety of rural regions, and compare patterns in the regions. The results indicate complex interactions between structural factors and indiv…
Being and becoming a female student and worker in gendered processes of vocational education and training
This article reports results of an ethnographic study of how girls are positioned, and position themselves, in relation to gender regimes in three vocational programmes in Swedish upper secondary education: Restaurant Management & Food, Health & Social Care, and Vehicle & Transport. The comparison shows that there are different possible feminine positions where the girls resist and comply to varying degrees both within and between the programmes,…
Schoolyard stories: Processes of gender identity in a 'children's place
Drawing on data from a Swedish primary school, this article explores how the schoolyard and places within the schoolyard are discursively used in processing gender identity. The analysis of children's narratives in relation to four identified key places indicated diverse and parallel ways of processing gender identity, and that spatial characteristics formed different conditions for processing gender identity. The analysis stresses the importance…
Socialisation and citizenship preparation in vocational education: Pedagogic codes and democratic rights in VET-subjects
Previous studies of citizenship preparation in upper secondary school, including studies on vocational programmes, have primarily focused on general subjects. Potential and actual roles of vocational subjects in this context have received little attention, so we have little knowledge of what is likely a significant part of the citizenship preparation that occurs in vocational programmes. Drawing on the work of Basil Bernstein and ethnographic dat…
Sense of place in providers’ perspectives of school placement policies in relation to refugee settlement in rural Sweden
School-to-work transitions in rural North Sweden: Staying on in a reviving local labor market
This article addresses young people's school-to-work transitions. The analysis draws on data from a Swedish ongoing qualitative longitudinal project spanning over 10 years. In this article, we focus on eight young people who grew up and still live in a small rural inland town in North Sweden where the regional labor market is going through a process of rapid reindustrialization after decades of industrial decline and welfare state retrenchment. T…
Girls’ school-to-work transitions into male dominated workplaces
The article addresses school-to-work transitions among young women in a strongly male dominated professional sphere – the transport industry. Drawing on interviews with two girls over the time span 2015–2022 and visits to their upper secondary school 2016–2019, the study focuses on how power structures related to gender play out in the positioning that takes place in school and workplaces: How the girls were positioned socially and in relation to…
Control and agency in student–teacher relations: A cross–cultural perspective on Finnish and Korean comprehensive schools
Drawing on a cross-cultural, qualitative study in Finnish and Korean comprehensive schools, we explore how teacher control and student agency are manifested and exercised in the teaching and learning practices of the “official school” and in the student–teacher interactions of the “informal school”. We also elaborate on how students reflect on control and agency. Bernstein’s concepts of framing and classification are employed as a theoretical len…
Schoolyard stories: Processes of gender identity in a 'children's place
Drawing on data from a Swedish primary school, this article explores how the schoolyard and places within the schoolyard are discursively used in processing gender identity. The analysis of children's narratives in relation to four identified key places indicated diverse and parallel ways of processing gender identity, and that spatial characteristics formed different conditions for processing gender identity. The analysis stresses the importance…
Vocational or academic track? Study and career plans among Swedish students living in rural areas
This ethnographic study explores how rural lower secondary school students reflect on study and career choices, focusing on the choice between vocational and academic upper secondary programs. Applying a spatial perspective, we analyze individual students’ reflections about study and career choices within a variety of rural regions, and compare patterns in the regions. The results indicate complex interactions between structural factors and indiv…
Young people's career choices in Swedish rural contexts: Schools' social codes, migration and resources
The lived experiences of school lunch: An empathy-based study with children in Sweden
School lunch is in general regulated through policies and agendas constituted by the perspectives of adults. In this article, we focus on children's lived experiences of school lunch with a special emphasis on emotions and how they relate to social and physical dimensions. This study draws on empathy-based stories written by 10-11 year olds (n = 171) from schools in Sweden. We identified three themes: Interaction and exposure, Routines and restri…
I Love this Place, but I Won’t Stay’: Identification with Place and Imagined Spatial Futures Among Youth Living in Rural Areas in Sweden
This study contributes to a body of literature that addresses relationships between space, place and identity, and their effects on young people’s ‘spatial horizons’. Drawing on ethnographic data from Sweden, it analyses youths’ identification with home place and how it relates to their imagined spatial futures in terms of staying ‘local’ or migrating. The findings indicate that locality strongly influenced the identity-processing of youths, but …
Control and agency in student–teacher relations: A cross–cultural perspective on Finnish and Korean comprehensive schools
Drawing on a cross-cultural, qualitative study in Finnish and Korean comprehensive schools, we explore how teacher control and student agency are manifested and exercised in the teaching and learning practices of the “official school” and in the student–teacher interactions of the “informal school”. We also elaborate on how students reflect on control and agency. Bernstein’s concepts of framing and classification are employed as a theoretical len…
Being and becoming a female student and worker in gendered processes of vocational education and training
This article reports results of an ethnographic study of how girls are positioned, and position themselves, in relation to gender regimes in three vocational programmes in Swedish upper secondary education: Restaurant Management & Food, Health & Social Care, and Vehicle & Transport. The comparison shows that there are different possible feminine positions where the girls resist and comply to varying degrees both within and between the programmes,…
Socialisation and citizenship preparation in vocational education: Pedagogic codes and democratic rights in VET-subjects
Previous studies of citizenship preparation in upper secondary school, including studies on vocational programmes, have primarily focused on general subjects. Potential and actual roles of vocational subjects in this context have received little attention, so we have little knowledge of what is likely a significant part of the citizenship preparation that occurs in vocational programmes. Drawing on the work of Basil Bernstein and ethnographic dat…
Tradition and innovation. Representations of a “good” learning environment among Swedish stakeholders involved in planning, (re)construction and renovation of school buildings
This study highlights how 20 Swedish principals, school managers and architects involved in planning, construction and reconstruction of primary and secondary school buildings at regional, municipal and local levels represent good learning environments. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, the analysis focuses on how the stakeholders understand the physical, pedagogical and social aspects of learning environments, including the power relations …
Vocational students’ experiences of power relations during periods of workplace learning – a means for citizenship learning
Students in vocational education may experience situations during on-the-job training in which power relations are strongly manifested, with considerable potential for learning about democracy that have been far from fully explored. Thus, here we analyse how Swedish vocational education and training (VET) students perceived and experienced power relations during their workplace learning periods in upper secondary education, and discuss their expe…
Teaching in a non-traditional classroom: Experiences from a teacher-initiated design project
This participatory design-based research study addresses the relational character of the physical learning environment and pedagogical practice in the context of a design project carried out at a Swedish upper secondary school. Three teachers initiated the project with the intent to introduce student centred pedagogy and increase active learning. In collaboration with the research team, they designed and furnished a classroom supportive for commu…
Between good intentions and practical constraints: Swedish teachers’ perceptions of school lunch
In Sweden, pupils eat tax-funded school lunches, often in the company of teachers. This article focuses on Swedish compulsory school grade (ages 7–15) teachers’ (n = 823) perceptions of the school lunch in terms of intentions and daily practice. Analysis was based on written answers for an open-ended question that was part of a questionnaire focusing on teachers’ attitudes towards school lunch as a pedagogical activity. It was found that particip…
Transitions in Nordic school environments – an introduction
In the Nordic countries, with their longstanding tradition of valuing education for the masses, a large number of schools have been built over a more than century-long period and therefore represent a variety of pedagogical and architectonical ideals (Bengtsson, 2011). For example, the school landscape represents traditional and progressive ideals and in terms of the buildings themselves, those that are currently considered as highly innovative e…
School-to-work transitions in rural North Sweden: Staying on in a reviving local labor market
This article addresses young people's school-to-work transitions. The analysis draws on data from a Swedish ongoing qualitative longitudinal project spanning over 10 years. In this article, we focus on eight young people who grew up and still live in a small rural inland town in North Sweden where the regional labor market is going through a process of rapid reindustrialization after decades of industrial decline and welfare state retrenchment. T…
Girls’ school-to-work transitions into male dominated workplaces
The article addresses school-to-work transitions among young women in a strongly male dominated professional sphere – the transport industry. Drawing on interviews with two girls over the time span 2015–2022 and visits to their upper secondary school 2016–2019, the study focuses on how power structures related to gender play out in the positioning that takes place in school and workplaces: How the girls were positioned socially and in relation to…
Sense of place in providers’ perspectives of school placement policies in relation to refugee settlement in rural Sweden
Schooling for integration? Reception of refugees in discourse and practice in Swedish rural municipalities 2015–2022
This study explores the integration of migrants in education and the labour market from the perspectives of professionals working with young migrants in Swedish rural municipalities. It compares interview data referring to the situation during the refugee crisis in 2015 with data referring to the period 2019–2022. It addresses the organisation of teaching, how professionals talked about integration in relation to the local labour market and how i…
Educational stakeholders’ perspectives on educational transitions and future careers for young refugees in rural areas undergoing depopulation
There are high hopes that young refugees will help to counter population decline in Sweden’s rural areas. However, there is a need to better understand the factors and processes that facilitate or hinder their persistent integration and continued presence (including further education and work preparation). This article therefore explores the prevailing refugee reception practices and their consequences during and after the major refugee wave in S…
Preschool teachers’ conceptualizations of spontaneous teaching: Relational and balancing interactions
This article delves into conceptualizations of spontaneous teaching within Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Despite its frequent occurrence in ECEC settings, where educators engage in teaching activities for significant portions of the day, spontaneous teaching has not been extensively researched, nor is it often documented or assessed in practice. Empirically, this study draws on data from a one-year project in which Swedish preschool …
Sociology (15 works) · Pedagogy (12 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Political science (9 works) · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics (8 works) · Mathematics education (6 works) · Rural development and sustainability (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Ethnography (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works)