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The educational field is traditionally characterized by a distinction between general and special education in educational practice, theory and research. Especially in cross-professional collaborative processes related to inclusion, it becomes evident that the professionals represent different perspectives and positions with different roles, functions and main goals. Based on a research project in Denmark which examines how the collaboration of professionals constitutes in- and exclusion processes, we compare different understandings of aims and problems in the work with inclusion in collaborative school practice with the current models of inclusive education and special education represented in international literature. Our findings show that understandings of problems related to inclusive school development are mainly directed towards strategies targeting and compensating the needs of the student but seldom involve changing the professional practice of teachers and other educators, including their collaboration. Based on this, we argue – and present a framework to support – that inclusive school development involves a process of transforming general and special education into inclusive education, which requires changes in content, teaching methods, approaches, structures, and strategies in education. In order to succeed, classroom practice is only one sub-practice among many sub-practices in a school practice that needs to be transformed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the implicit assumption that tests are a neutral tool for measuring an individual’s learning achievement is challenged. Instead, testing is explored as a social practice which becomes part of children’s conduct of everyday life. The theoretical foundation for the analysis is Danish–German critical psychology. This approach offers a dialectically developed set of concepts and hereby another basis for understanding school testing than the one implicit in the technology of testing. The analysis is primarily based on a case consisting of an observation conducted in a second grade class at a low socio-economic school in Denmark. The analysis focuses on children looking for signs of assessment in the test situation. The discussion focuses on similarities between testing and computer gaming strategies. The article concludes by suggesting that we learn powerful lessons on assessment by taking the children’s perspectives seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This article describes the rationale and contents of an intervention program aimed at strengthening students' social relations in order to reduce dropout from vocational schools in Denmark. Taking its theoretical cue from the concept of 'social participation', a qualitative study was performed to investigate the specific relationships between the social environment within the schools and the institutional structures in order to analyse reasons for school dropout and their relation to well-being, cigarette smoking and substance use. Methods: The development study was based on ethnographic methods, including 22 qualitative interviews with students 17-19 years old and fieldwork with participant observations at four vocational schools over 40 days, including informal interviews and discussion meetings with managers, teachers, counselors and students. As part of the fieldwork, four additional qualitative interviews and four group interviews were conducted with students 16-25 years old. Results: The qualitative data collection resulted in seven major themes to be addressed in the intervention: social relations, sole focus on professional skills, institutionalized individualization, importance of the introduction period, physical surroundings and schedules, tobacco and cannabis use and communication about drug use. The program addressing these themes incorporates suggestions that are meant to improve how teachers welcome new students, to enable greater integration of social and educational activities and to enhance the capacity of teachers and counselors to deal with drug use problems among students. Conclusion: The development of new intervention programs might benefit from adopting a theoretical and methodological perspective that enables a closer exploration of the everyday social practices in which interventions are embedded. Thus, we aimed to create a comprehensive intervention that worked through organizational changes in everyday school practices. Intervention programs must be planned in dialogue and collaboration with practitioners in the field to ensure the pertinence and usability of the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes its point of departure from a qualitative study of the personal conduct of everyday life in Danish families at risk for Huntington's Disease (HD). The study focused on how awareness and understanding of the personal implications of HD arise in everyday life and among family members and how concrete life conditions and personal relations unfold and change over time in the context of present-day genetic knowledge and technology. In this article theoretical insights from existential psychology shed light on how existential concerns arise in lives marked by HD. A critique is directed at clinically orientated and psychoanalytically inspired existential psychology for staging specific existential concerns as ontological preconditions. These theories tend to decontextualize and individualize the understanding of the person in opposition to theoretical positions within the broader tradition of existential philosophy, and other constructivist and research-orientated areas of existential psychology. As a consequence, existential concerns are likely to be understood and handled as 'inner-self' projects, particularly in the context of psychotherapy, rather than as relational concerns that arise in concrete circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several established school smoking prevention initiatives involve restrictions on places to smoke. The focus on tobacco control in schools is due to the risk of smoking initiation during adolescence and the perception of this life stage as a period of time when health behavior is established. Hence, this period of time is considered to be ideal for health-promoting initiatives. This paper is part of an ethnographic study on adolescents' perceptions of tobacco use. Focus groups and field observations were used to explore adolescents' smoking-related practices related to smoking bans at schools. The findings show that smoking, as a place-based practice, is influenced by locally embedded rules and carries social implications resulting in a distinction between smokers and non-smokers. The distinction between smokers and non-smokers contributes to the retention of a stereotypical view of smokers and, moreover, stigmatizes smokers. According to this, restrictions on places to smoke within the school should be considered carefully in order to avoid stigma or ethical issues.