56. årgang, nr. 5/6 November 2019

Anna Crawford Kromann and Lene Tanggaard
Like rings in the water – PPR’s contribution to public school development through Nest
The public Danish school system is faced with the complex task of both enabling students to become as skilled as possible and ensuring comprehensive inclusion of students with special needs. PPR’s objective is to support schools’ endeavours in securing learning and growth in children who are in need or at risk. This article describes PPR’s adaptation of the US-based Nest program in various school settings and the learning derived from this. As a cohesive framework, Nest has provided PPR with a mandate, as well as a legitimacy to intervene into all levels of the school environment and to work with proactive class-wide support for all students rather than solely focusing on needs of individual students. Through this, PPR has experienced a new platform from which to not only influence public school development targeting successful inclusion but also to reform in general.

Anne Stærk and Thilde Westmark
Mind the gap – A culture-sensitive approach to narrative conversations with young people
Conversations with young people take place in the context of current youth culture which calls for the attention of the fit between our therapeutic practices and youth culture of today: Are we (still) practising in relevant ways? Are we actually doing what we think we are doing? From our point of view, practitioners of narrative therapy (as well as other forms of therapy) have a vital task in adjusting their ways of working according to current cultural contexts. We are particularly interested in how to avoid reinforcing some of the cultural norms that put young people of today under pressure; norms that expect young people to be a success and take almost sole responsibility for their own lives. We suggest ways to develop culture-sensitive practices and offer examples from our therapeutic practice.

Annegrete Gohr Månsson, Mette Elmose, Søren Dalsgaard and Kirsten K. Roessler
Target shooting as embodiment – a body-phenomenological analysis of children with inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity
This paper aims to explain the significance for children with ADHD or ADHD symptoms with varying degrees of severity when they practise target shooting in school time at local shooting associations in Denmark. The aim is to shed light on the children’s experiences and perspectives with a view to understanding possible mechanisms for the changes the children experience through their participation in the activity.
The methodological procedure is inspired by Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological approach, and the analysis has, as its starting point, Merleau-Ponty’s theory of body phenomenology and Embodiment Learning. The analytical strategy is inspired by Malterud’s systematic text condensation. The analysis in the study showed that the following concepts seemed to be particularly crucial for the children: To be grounded and focused on one thing at a time; to experience calm and to give oneself time; to persevere while at the same time having fun and that practising targetshooting sport is a measurable and concrete learning. The results of the analysis show that participation in the activity changed their body schema, body image and embodiment, which reduced their ADHD-related difficulties. The children could use this particular learning in other contexts, which means new activities and opportunities for participation are opened up for the children.

Else Skibsted
The students’ development of cross-curricular competencies as it appears in the purpose of Nordic public schools
This article addresses the concept of the students’ general development of cross-curricular competencies as it appears in the legal framework of the Nordic schools. The hypothesis is that Life Psychology may contribute to operationalising this concept in a theoretical and empirical way. The study is conducted as an intervention study based on qualitative data and investigates
whether and how a specific intervention can develop skills that facilitate the students’ general development. The results show that targeted education in Life Psychology can be one way to facilitate the students’ general development, and moreover, a metacognitive development has taken place.

Mathias Nimgaard Larsen
Gaming – a game or an addiction. A cultural historical view on computer games in the 21st century
Recently, Gaming Disorder was added to the WHO’s list of mental health disorders, and computer gaming officially went from a youth activity, which many parents had little knowledge about, to being a mental health disorder. This paper seeks to give a cultural historical perspective on online computer games focusing on the social relationships and skills developed through participation herein, in contrast to the dominating discourse focusing on the adverse developmental effects. It is shown through several empirical works that gaming as a social practice can enrich the
everyday conduct of life of adolescents and that motivation and motives for playing are essential for whether or not the adolescent develops social competences and strategic thinking or compulsive gaming. Further research should investigate how computer games could help adolescents with disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, develop social and communicative
competences because most online computer games require collaboration in order to succeed.

Mette Molbæk, Maria Christina Secher Schmidt, Charlotte Riis Jensen & Janne Hedegaard Hansen
Collaboration in inclusive education – innovation or decoration?
This article takes its point of departure in an understanding of inclusion as, on the one hand, an expression of ensuring all students rights to participate in established communities by making the pedagogical and didactical environment accessible for all students and support an optimal outcome for all students both personally, academically and socially. At the same time, the school is obliged to ensure all students are committed to participating actively in the schools social and academic communities by making all students able to participate and by supporting that all students can realise their potential for learning. Thus, inclusion is both a question of the right and obligation to participate. The article is based on data and analyses from the basic research project Approaching Inclusion (AppIn) (2016-2019) which studies the implications of the professionals’ collaboration for the limits to in- and exclusion in school.

Sara Priscilla Damgaard-Møller & Johanne Jeppesen Lomholt
Implicit theory of intelligence individuals facing challenges with different mindsets.
According to Dweck’s theory about the implicit theory of intelligence individuals facing challenges with different mindsets, an incremental theory of intelligence refers to people that believe their intelligence is malleable, which means that they see challenges as a natural part of a learning process. On the other hand, people with an entity theory of intelligence see their intelligence as immutable, which means that they associate setbacks with personal failure, and, therefore, react with emotional distress when they face challenges. In the recent years, a political social debate
about the increasing number of stressed pupils in Denmark has created the term ‘12-tals piger’ (top-mark girls), which refers to the ambitious girls in the educational system who’s wellbeing and self-esteem is affected by their school performance. In this paper, it is analysed and stated, that the term entity theory of intelligence can be used as a theoretical explanation for the mental aspects of ‘12-tals piger’, which gives us a better understanding for these girls’ maladaptive behavioural tendencies.

Thomas Szulevicz
Analyses and discusses the current educational climate and its implications for educational psychologists.
Over the past few years, our educational system has witnessed a number of significant changes, which have set new types of requirements for Danish educational psychology service centres (EPS). This article analyses and discusses the current educational climate and its implications for educational psychologists. Throughout the article, I argue how there is a growing need for focusing on what I term the normative conditions of educational psychology practice. Based on an on-going empirical project, I argue that educational psychologists are often faced with normative questions related to 1) an increasingly test-oriented school system, 2) the relation psychiatry, clinical and educational psychology and 3) the move towards a more inclusive
educational system. I conclude the article by discussing some ways to address the normative questions in relation to educational psychology practice.