The idea of Nordic countries as benevolent, egalitarian nations largely innocent of colonialism, is increasingly challenged by researchers. Yet, there is still reluctance within Nordic education systems to properly examine issues of coloniality, race, and white privilege. In this conceptual paper we first draw on research from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden to deconstruct the notion of Nordic exceptionalism. We highlight a shared history of colonial complicity and ongoing coloniality towards Indigenous and minoritised groups. We also show that the Nordic emphasis on societal equality is based on a narrative of cohesion, an imagined sameness, that increasingly fails to reflect their diverse populations. This egalitarian ideology results in colour-blindness in society and an unwillingness to acknowledge or confront issues of race, white supremacy, or inequality for fear of disturbing the equilibrium. Using decolonial theory, we then suggest that within education, Nordic exceptionalism has led to a singular historical narrative and attempts to assimilate minoritised groups, in the process valorising Western epistemology. Educators either dismiss, or are ignorant of, what Quijano (2000) terms the colonial matrix of power: the system of Western domination that continues to normalise epistemic violence and devalue other knowledges and perspectives. Educators prefer to protect white sensitivities rather than allow critical discussion and uncomfortable questions of coloniality. We demonstrate that Nordic education needs to decolonise itself, but that this cannot be achieved until it overcomes a discomfort with difference that prevents alternative knowledges and practices from being valued or adopted. We conclude with some thoughts on how to begin this process.

 Education on doctoral supervisors has been a part of higher education pedagogy in Swedish universities for the last five decades, introduced in 1969 higher education reform and reviewed in 1998 (Jansson & Román, 2016). The purpose of this study is to identify dominant discourses on the education of doctoral supervision, with a particular focus on the construction of doctoral supervisors’ professional knowledge and practice. The study will be undertaken through a critical and pragmatic discourse analysis of doctoral supervision course plans collected from six universities and two university colleges in Sweden. The eight course plans are selected from two senior universities established more than 100 years ago, two universities established 50-100 years ago, and two universities and two university colleges established less than 50 years ago. Based on Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1993, 2003) and a pragmatic discourse analysis, which draws on Dewey´s transactional perspective (Quennerstedt, 2008) and Foucault´s concepts of power (Foucault, 1980, 1982, 2002), the course plan texts will be analysed and discussed in three interrelated steps: (i) conducting a transitivity analysis (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014), focusing on participants, processes (material, mental, verbal, relational), and circumstances; (ii) identifying the main discourses constructing reoccurring patterns of professional action in relation to supervision practice; and (iii) discussing implications for supervisors professional knowledge base, as well as for power relationships in supervision practices. Through these steps, we will closely scrutinize the purposes, goals, contents as well as the teaching and learning activities of the course plans. There will also be a focus on common areas that are addressed by the course plans, the differences that could be identified, as well as what are missing in the documents. Based on our critical analysis, we will suggest possibilities for considering vital issues in relation to future courses on supervising doctoral students. 

Picturebooks are media resources that combine illustrations and texts to reach young children with entertainment and messages about life. They can support children’s development of understanding of democratic principles. For this paper, picturebooks from Sweden and the US with content involving democratic principles were analysed with the goal of inquiring into specifically selected picturebooks through text- and illustration-based methods (iconotext). Ten picturebooks published since 2000 served as exemplars of five democratic principles: (a) equity/equality, (b) respect and appreciation for diversity, (c) rights, (d) freedom, and (e) participation. These picturebooks were examined with regard to power relations between groups or individuals. Dominance was expressed in the form of race differentiation and separation, gender dominance, and the limitation of others’ rights by force. Picturebooks from Sweden and the US differed with regard to individualism vs. collectivism. The picturebooks included contexts in which democratic solutions were sought and obtained; through read alouds they can present young children with models of decision making for their own lives. 

This study deals with all children’s possibilities of meeting the multilingual society and aims to explore the norms regarding language and culture that are reflected in picturebooks in preschools. Previous research has shown how picturebooks can be used to develop literacy skills and intercultural understandings among children. A postcolonial lens is used to identify social locations and thereby unfold hidden power relations and social positionings of who is to be included and who is not (Spivak, 1988; Yuval-Davis, 2006). 35 picturebooks collected from preschools in Iceland, Norway and Sweden have been analysed by frequency and qualitative content analysis, eleven of which were found to contain multilingualism and/or multiculturalism. The results show a) a prevailing monolingual norm in which solely artefacts carry multilingual trails; b) a strong monocultural norm, which places people of diversity in a marginalised position; c) the English language holds an advanced position compared to majority languages, which situates other minority languages as anomalous. The educational significance of the research implicates a need for multilingual and multicultural diversity to be more observable in picturebooks used in preschool, to help children develop languages, and their own linguistic and cultural identity/-ies and, thus, their sense of belonging to a multilingual society.

This study investigates roles teachers could play in developing their students’ critical thinking and transforming society. The study is based on a literature review. Critical pedagogy is used as a theoretical point of departure. The results show three important roles of teachers, the pedagogical, intellectualand activist roles. Teachers acting as pedagogues can help their students understand the subjects they are focusing on and develop a critical understanding of their own and their society’s situation. Teachers as intellectuals produce knowledge through research on their practice and other fields of knowledge, learn on how to disseminate such knowledge and understanding its consequences. As citizens, teachers use their own and their students’ experiences and knowledge of needs of their community/society to play an activist role in transforming society. Thus, the ideal teacher plays a multidimensional role as a pedagogue, an intellectual and an activist.

This paper is based on an interview with one of the principal leaders of an international partnership program between Ethiopia and Sweden, 2018–2022. The purpose of this interview was to deepen the understanding of these kinds of partnerships and to learn more about the possibilities and pitfalls of working in a joint program between national and cultural contexts. We interviewed Professor Gun-Britt Wärvik, the Swedish coordinator of the doctoral program between Addis Ababa University (AAU) and the University of Gothenburg (GU). The interview results suggest that doctoral supervisory challenges were present as students often used concepts produced in cultural contexts foreign to their assigned supervisors. Additionally, the administrative burden was particularly challenging for the Ethiopian counterpart that coordinated the program. Overall, the program created many positive work opportunities for students, provided possibilities for the staff of both universities to exercise supervision and examination of doctoral students, and enriched international experiences for all involved.