Research
Magdalena Raivio is a member of the research affiliation Studies of Children and Childhood within Science of Education (UBB) here at Karlstad University. Her research focuses on intercultural, norm-critical and intersectional perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and Preschool Teacher Education, with a special interest in religion and worldviews.
The Place of Religion and Worldviews in Swedish Preschool Teacher Education, 2024 - 2026
This project is funded for three years by the Swedish Research Council and will examine the discourses and contents related to religion and worldviews in Swedish Preschool Teacher Education (PTE) programs, by analysing course plans and documents, as well as complementary data from teacher educators and students. The project team includes Raivio, PhD. Ellinir Skaremyr, Borås University and Prof. Arniika Kuusisto, Helsinki University.
Previous research (Bayati 2014; Layne & Davies 2016; Rosén & Wedin 2018) identifies exclusionary discourses in teacher education regarding ethnicity, however, discourses related to religion and worldviews have yet to be studied. Research on pedagogical practice for conveying cultural heritage in ECEC (Puskás & Andersson 2017; Reimers & Puskás 2022) shows a critical need to develop teachers' intercultural competencies further, more specifically what can be called Religion and Worldview (R&W) Literacy, indicating that Swedish ECEC teacher education has failed to provide students with the necessary tools for meeting the demands for socially sustainable and interculturally aware teaching and care, as set in the national curriculum (Skolverket 2018).
Grounded in critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 2001; Wodak & Mayer 2021), we draw from critical pedagogy (Kumashiro 2000), black feminist and postcolonial theory (hooks 2003; Spivak, 1987; Yuval-Davis 2011) and feminist ethics of care (Langford & White 2019; Noddings 2013). Our findings will contribute with knowledge and tools for developing a more inclusive and socially sustainable (Raivio, Skaremyr & Kuusisto, 2022) PTE and, through that, enhancing the R&W literacy in Swedish ECEC.
Democratic work in Preschool, 2023 - 2024
In 2023 and 2024 cooperative research is conducted, where researchers from Karlstad University, work together with pedagogues at a small privately owned preschool. In this project, different understandings of the preschool's obligation to teach democracy, or “democratic work in preschool” are explored, and pedagogical strategies to develop the teaching and education related to democracy are tested. The project is funded by ULF and the teacher education board at Karlstad University.
Religion and worldviews in Swedish Preschool Education Curricula - a pilot study, 2022 - 2023
In 2022, the unfunded pilot study Religion and worldviews in Swedish preschool education curricula was carried out, together with university lecturer Ellinor Skaremyr at the University of Borås and professor Arniika Kuusisto, at the University of Helsinki. The study aimed to examine the content and discursive norms around religion and worldviews in Swedish preschool teacher education at the national policy level and contribute to knowledge in religious studies and higher education.
The results show that although there may be implicit incentives for teaching about R&V, all but one of the educational plans for the twenty educational programs in Sweden lack an explicit mention of 'religion' and 'worldview'. Based on the results, we can see that the content of the education plans expresses liberal secular and humanistic worldviews as the norm on a national political level. There is also a lack of clear policy-related incentives to promote social sustainability in equipping students with the knowledge and skills needed to develop a caring and norm-critical R&W literacy. The study results will form the basis of a larger research project where an in-depth study is made of the place of religion and worldview in Swedish preschool teacher training.
Teaching
Magdalena Raivio is a teacher in the ECEC program, where among other things, she teaches about norms, gender, diversity and power. She also supervises students on their preschool internships and when writing their final essays.