Lisa Isenström

Lisa Isenström is a senior lecturer at the department of educational studies. Her primary research interest is children's human rights in educational settings. 

Together with Ann Quennerstedt at Örebro University she has a research project, financed by Unicef Sweden, in which pedagogical work with children's human rights in Swedish compulsory school is studied. The overarching interest is to shed light on the effects of the school program Rights based schools which is based on the Rights Respecting School Award program. Over three years teachers and students have been interviewed about their views on children's rights and students' participation and influence in school. The project is ongoing until 2024. 

Isenström is also involved in a project in which the position of children's human rights in school-age educare is studied. So far, the primary interest of children's human rights research has been school and pre-school settings. In Sweden school-age educare centers are an established part of the educational system. Still, there is very little research on how children's human rights are handled within this context. In this project, teachers in school-age educare settings are interviewed about their views on children's human rights in their practice. 

Isenström is part of the international Children's human rights in education network. The network meets for 2-3 days a year and additionally 3-4 digital meetings per year. The network gathers educational children's rights researchers from several national contexts for example Poland, Israel, Scotland, Italy, Turkey and Australia. 

Further, Isenström is part of the network 25 at the ECER conference where several children's rights issues are discussed. 

Isenström is also part of UBB (Utbildning- och idrottsvetenskapliga studier av barn och barndom) at Karlstad University. The research group gathers around research on children and childhood issues in educational contexts. The group comprises of researchers and research students with a wide spectrum of overlapping skills and theoretical approaches in areas such as learning and development in early childhood, values education, children’s rights and citizenship, social circumstances and the governance of education systems, teacher training, and the teaching profession.

ReCEL (Research on Children, Education and Learning) is a research environment at Örebro University which Isenström is a member of. The environment is interdisciplinary with members from Education, Gender Studies and Science Pedagogy. At the center of the environment’s research is a broad interest in pedagogical practices for younger children (0-12 years), both formal education for children in the age range and informal pedagogical activities for this age group.

Isenström has a bachelor degree in sports pedagogy from Halmstad University. Further, she holds a primary school teaching degree from Örebro University and has worked in all stages of the Swedish compulsory school She finished her doctoral studies (PhD) in 2020 with the dissertation with the title Att utbilda rättighetsbärare (Educating rights-holders). 

Isenström, L. (2022). Collateral human rights learning situations: what are they?. Cambridge Journal of Education, 52 (3), 271-290.

Isenström, L. (2022). Teachers' Rights-Teaching Mentalities - What Teachers Do and Why. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 66 (2), 275-289.

Frödén, S. & Isenström, L. (2022). Forskarens olika roller i praktiknära forskningsprojekt. I: Inger Eriksson; Ann Öhman Sandberg, Praktikutvecklande forskning mellan skola och akademi: Utmaningar och möjligheter vid samverkan. Lund: Nordic Academic Press.

Isenström, L. (2020). Children as growing rights subjects - the significance of teachers' actions. The International Journal of Children's Rights, 28 (2), 258-287.

Isenström, L. & Quennerstedt, A. (2020). Governing rationalities in children's human rights education. International Journal of Educational Research, 100.

Isenström, L. (2020). Att utbilda rättighetsbärare: Med läraren i fokus när undervisning för mänskliga rättigheter i skolans yngre åldrar studeras. (Doctoral dissertation). (Sammanläggning) Örebro: Örebro University.

Isenström is part of the international Children's human rights in education network. The network meets for 2-3 days a year and additionally 3-4 digital meetings per year. The network gathers educational children's rights researchers from several national contexts for example Poland, Israel, Scotland, Italy, Turkey and Australia. 

Further, Isenström is part of the network 25 at the ECER conference where several children's rights issues are discussed. 

Isenström is also part of UBB (Utbildning- och idrottsvetenskapliga studier av barn och barndom) at Karlstad University. The research group gathers around research on children and childhood issues in educational contexts. The group comprises of researchers and research students with a wide spectrum of overlapping skills and theoretical approaches in areas such as learning and development in early childhood, values education, children’s rights and citizenship, social circumstances and the governance of education systems, teacher training, and the teaching profession.

ReCEL (Research on Children, Education and Learning) is a research environment at Örebro University which Isenström is a member of. The environment is interdisciplinary with members from Education, Gender Studies and Science Pedagogy. At the center of the environment’s research is a broad interest in pedagogical practices for younger children (0-12 years), both formal education for children in the age range and informal pedagogical activities for this age group.