This article investigates the question of making choices at Swedish LTCs. The theoretical framework draws on symbolic interactionism and the concept of inhabited institutions analysing teachers’ meaning-making and interactions between teachers and pupils at the LTCs. Because of changing policies, a tension between new demands and an LTC tradition of activities being voluntary has emerged. When teachers try to make sense of the tension between demands and tradition, choice becomes an important issue and teachers try to balance pupils’ free choices with teacher-led activities. The results show that pupils are often given the opportunity to choose, but even though teachers value pupils’ possibilities to choose, pupils’ choices are limited rather than free. When the teachers try to make sense, of pupils’ choices they oriented towards both traditions and values (choice is important), and towards new demands (choice should be visible). Choices are thus highlighted and made measurable in specific ways in LTC practice.

Internationally, provisions of extended education programs and related research are increasing. Over the past decade, many governments have established quality standards according to their specific goals. The aim of this comparative case study of School-Age Educare Centers in Sweden and all-day schools in Germany is to identify steps to ensure high quality of extended education in line with requirements for future education. We analyze the perspectives of policymakers, reflected in guidelines and quality standards and explore data from qualitative studies to determine how children define quality and relate it to their well-being and agency. Despite differences in quality standards in Sweden and Germany, children in both contexts describe similar experiences, shortcomings, and needs.

Studien bygger på ett aktionsforskningsprojekt där tre svenska skolor och sammanlagt åtta fritidshemsavdelningar deltog med syfte att lärare på fritidshem skulle initiera, genomföra och utvärdera utvecklingsarbete på det egna fritidshemmet. Det empiriska materialet i artikeln utgörs av de reflektionssamtal med pedagoger som skedde inom ramen för studien. Fokus i artikeln är på gränsdragningar som görs i relation till skola och lärare i skolan, och vad som beskrivs som fritidshemmens kärnverksamhet (aktiviteter), vilket relateras till skapande av fritidshemskulturer och identiteter. Studiens resultat visar att kultur- och identitetsskapande har blivit viktigt i fritidshem, vilket kan bero på omfattande reformer som ägt rum de senaste decennierna. En konsekvens av reformerna är nya krav men också otydlighet i lärarrollen i fritidshem. Lärare som deltog i projektet uttrycker ett starkt intresse att yrkesrollen och det pedagogiska uppdraget i fritidshem måste tydliggöras för att uppfylla läroplanens mål men också för att tillvarata lärares fritidspedagogiska kompetens både i skola och på fritidshem.

This study aims to answer the question of how pupils’ participation is acted within the context of Swedish leisure time centres (LTCs) through the analysis of ethnographic material from five different LTCs. The analysis took a grounded theory approach, and the results show that pupils’ participation in LTCs can be seen as an ongoing negotiation and that participation is something that needs to be worked with in everyday interactions. We identify three important processes for doing participation in LTCs – participation by negotiating, participation by initiating, and participation by choosing. Different aspects of formal and informal ways of doing participation are also of importance, and while pupils can have a greater influence in informal negotiations, this requires certain negotiating skills that not all children possess.

The study aims to contribute to knowledge of children’s views on their space to fend for themselves at a time in their lives when they face change and decreased institutional care, i.e. in the transition from organized to unorganized after-school activities. The study builds on interviews with 22 children who are about to leave or change after-school arrangements and uses the theoretical framework of the sociology of childhood. The results show that children understand the ‘after’ with regard to the transition as a space that provides more freedom, where they are trusted and where they have more influence over their own activities. Having greater self-determination is often described as positive, but it can also be unwanted and seen as a demand.