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"Virtual reality" adds a new dimension to problem-based learning (PBL) environments in the architecture and building construction educations, where a realistic and lifelike presence in a building enables students to assess and discuss how the various solutions interact with each other. Combined with "Building Information Models" (BIM), "Virtual Reality" provides an entirely new opportunity to innovate and optimize architecture and construction in its early stages, which creates an iterative learning process. The analysis identifies several clear opportunities regarding extended use and involvement of the gamification mechanisms known from, e.g., video games software--like the principles behind quest, levels, dungeons, etc.--to support web 2.0 features in the future development of VR systems. The study clarifies the challenges of creating web 2.0 solutions with the complexity and robustness that supports a sketching, design-oriented, exploratory and investigative learning process, which is at the core of problem-based learning.

According to Stearns (2009), culture shapes childhood. The way a society defines culture shapes: (a) how childhood is constructed; (b) the production of literary products and services for young people; and (c) training for library professionals. In 21st century America, children are viewed as a vulnerable population in need of protection, as evidenced by the books that are challenged in schools and libraries every year. In Denmark, however, childhood is constructed differently. While the American-style of helicopter parenting described in Finkel and Fitzsimmons (2013) exists, since the 1980s a cultural shift has occurred, as Danes move from what Juncker (2007) calls a silent, attendant culture to a vocal, participatory culture. Today, young Danes' right to access culture is mandated through the Ministry of Culture, and libraries and cultural institutions, working in partnership with schools, are largely responsible for providing such access. According to the Royal School of Library and Information Science's website, Bachelors and Masters degrees in Information Science and Cultural Dissemination emphasize connections between information and knowledge, but also focus on the interplay between knowledge and culture. As library education changes, children's library centers in turn are transformed into cultural institutions that incorporate media in all forms, focusing on culture, creativity, and play. This qualitative study uses participant observation gathered in Denmark during summer 2014 at the Royal School of Library and Information Science, libraries and cultural centers, and online analysis. Findings demonstrate how the Danish LIS program addresses changing constructions of childhood and the roles of information and culture, encompassing both aesthetics and play.

The aim of this paper is to investigate and frame some learning conditions involved in the practice of geographical excursions. The empirical material from this study comes from several excursions made by students in human geography and an ethnomethodological approach through participant observation is used. The study is informed by theories from human geography as basis for reflection and discussion. The results from this study show firstly that conditions for learning in excursions are conditioned by the particular method of learning.

Beginning with Lev Vygotsky's long-established assertion that the play of children always involves both imaginary play and rules of behavior, this article argues for a theoretical framework that connects such play with the construction of social identities in kindergarten peer groups. It begins with a discussion of Ivy Schousboe's model of the different spheres of reality in children's play to explain symbolic group play and applies the model to the play of a group of five-year-old kindergarten soccer players. The article finds that the soccer games of kindergartners and their negotiations of play rules intrinsically involve their social identities, both those that are real and those that are imaginary.

Facilitators and barriers to recess physical activity are not well understood. To date, research on recess physical activity has predominantly focused on quantitative measures typically focusing on a narrow set of predefined factors, often constructed by adults. To really understand the factors affecting recess physical activity it is crucial to observe and listen to children to know how they engage in and perceive recess physical activity. The aim of this paper was to gain knowledge on children's perceptions and experiences of factors influencing their physical activity behaviour during recess. Data were collected in three separate studies using different qualitative approaches: participant observation; go-along group interviews and participatory photo interviews. The studies were conducted among 10-13-year-old children (grades 4-6) in 17 Danish schools and in five New Zealand schools among 11-12-year-old children. The socio-ecological model was used as the overall theoretical framework. Twelve factors were identified as influencing the children's recess physical activity: bodily self-esteem and ability; gender; gendered school culture; peer influence; conflicts and exclusion; space and place experiences; lack of play facilities; outdoor play policy; use of electronic devices; recess duration; organised activities; and weather. These factors were located within different layers of the socio-ecological model, but were interdependent. The findings speak for implementing a combination of actions addressing factors from different layers in the socio-ecological model to increase recess physical activity.

This study of institutional categorization reports an investigation of the practices, procedures and assumptions of psychiatric staff members when diagnosing ADHD. The main data upon which the study is based consist of transcribed audio recordings of meetings in the psychiatric clinic. Here children referred from primary schools on the suspicion of ADHD are attended to. The tools and procedures for gathering information are shown to produce decontextualized and individualizing representations of children's conduct. The evaluation against a number of norms is found to be central. Finally, the discussions at the central team conferences are shown to reveal the use of hypothesis testing structured around a number of dichotomies, where isolated aspects of the child's life are considered against each other as the source of the difficulties. Together, these practices have cumulative and profound consequences for how children's problems come to be understood as caused by a neurological condition.

Inspired by studies of apprenticeship and theories of situated learning, this study argues that learning should be understood in relation to ongoing social practice. Using interview material and participant observation studying piano students' learning at the Academy of Music in Aarhus, it describes how transparency and access to the music culture at the Academy are important for the piano students' learning processes. In particular, two ways of learning are described: learning by imitation and learning by performance. In both these ways the learning process involves and is organised around becoming a member of the musical culture and developing an identity as a musician. (Contains 7 footnotes.)

In response to environmental degradation, the Lesotho government, in collaboration with the Danish government, introduced an Environmental Education Support Project in schools in 2001. In order to optimise the achievement of the project goals the, Monitoring and Research Team was established to formatively evaluate the project as it unfolded. The principles of action research were to guide the monitoring process. The paper discusses the findings of the early phase of the monitoring process with reference to the project's epistemological commitment to initiate paradigmatic shift, in the context of conceptualizing environmental education and the associated learning theories and teaching approaches through workshops with relevant stakeholders in the school curricula development. It is illustrated that the workshops initiated cognitive tensions and shifts amongst the participants, and that their occurrence was indicative of the interrogation of the positivist paradigm underpinning the education system in Lesotho.

Learning is related to the environment created for the learning experience. This environment is often highly routinized and involves a certain social structure, but in entrepreneurship education, such routinization and structure may actually counteract the learning goals. This article investigates how classroom routines and rituals impact on entrepreneurship education in order to problematize how existing classroom environments may hinder critical learning experiences from taking place. This article builds on extensive insights from six cohorts of students at two Scandinavian universities over a 4-year period (2012-2015). The data were procured using an experiential-explorative research approach in which the researchers were personally involved in reflective processes as co-learners. The findings illustrate how educators can use rituals actively to change how students learn. However, students are very wary of embracing new structures and rituals; indeed, some feel so comfortable with the old rituals that they would prefer not to change from being receivers of knowledge to co-creators of the learning situation. It is therefore important to exchange existing rituals with new ones that enhance the feeling of safety and involve the students in creating the change. This is achieved through scaffolding and setting up ritual markers, which are continuously repeated.

Health promotion and education researchers and practitioners advocate for more democratic approaches to school-based health education, including participatory teaching methods and the promotion of a broad and positive concept of health and health knowledge, including aspects of the German educational concept of "bildung." Although Denmark, from where the data of this article are derived, has instituted policies for such approaches, their implementation in practice faces challenges. Adopting a symbolic interactionist analytical framework this paper explores and defines two powerful institutional rationales connected to formal and informal social processes and institutional purposes of schools, namely conservatism and Neoliberalism. It is empirically described and argued how these institutional rationales discourage teachers and students from including a broad and positive concept of health, the element of participation, and the promotion of general knowledge as legitimate elements in health education. This paper thus contains a perspective on health education practice, which, in a new way, contributes to explain the relatively slow progress of democratic approaches to school health education.

Drawing on discursive psychology this article examines the understandings teachers and principals in Danish Public Schools have regarding Somali diaspora parenting practices. Furthermore, the article investigates what these understandings mean in interaction with children in the classrooms and with parents in home-school communication. It is argued that in a society with increased focus on parental responsibility the teachers and principals draw on a deficit logic when dealing with Somali diaspora parents and children which consequently leads to teachers either transmitting their expertise by educating parents or compensating for perceived deficiencies in parental practices. Both these strategies result in significant marginalizing consequences where "difference" is understood as "wrong" or "inadequate".

The aim of this ethnographic field study was to investigate the influence of school-day social interactions on the well-being and social inclusion of children diagnosed with ADHD. The empirical data consisted of participant observations and informal interviews over a three-month period at a Danish primary school. Two ADHD-diagnosed 11-year-old boys in the fourth and fifth grades were followed on an alternating basis. The field notes were analysed using a qualitative content analysis that incorporated Etienne Wenger's concepts of social identity and participation. The results revealed that the effects of school-day social interactions are complex and situation dependent. Medication, friendships and relationships with teachers and other adults strongly influence how children diagnosed with ADHD participate in social interactions and, consequently, how they thrive. We argue that it is important to emphasise the mediation of these children's participation in the classroom community throughout an entire school day to ensure their social inclusion and well-being.

This paper addresses some of the contradictions, dilemmas, and struggles in a Danish primary school practice involved in medicating children diagnosed with ADHD. It draws on a social practice research study of a 7-year-old boy diagnosed with ADHD, who was medicated against his will. It focuses on his struggles when being medicated, and particularly on meaning making processes and changes in social self-understandings in the first grade class, 1B, generated among students, teachers, and parents. The paper is an analysis of moments and movements in Dennis' social self-understanding generated as part of a social practice research project combining a variety of methods, ranging from collective biography inspired group work and qualitative interviews with teachers and students, photo-based interviews, and participant observation in the school. The study has a double aim of generating theory regarding social self-understanding and ADHD medication, and analyzing concrete contradictions, dilemmas, and action possibilities in a primary school, enabling new "practice recognitions" that (at least partly) move beyond practices that generate marginalized social self-understandings.

With the spread of English as a global language, concerns have been voiced over the impact of English on local languages. This article presents results from an ethnographic study of language ideologies in a Danish workplace with a particular focus on ideologies of English in relation to the local language and to other foreign languages. In this international company, conflicting ideologies construct the local language Danish on the one hand as the natural language in Denmark, but as unimportant compared to English on the other hand. English is constructed as prestigious and powerful in contrast with Danish. While previous studies of English as an international language have tended to focus on the consequences for the local language, this article also includes a discussion of the role of English in relation to other international languages. English is constructed as "the" international language, as the only possible choice for communicating internationally. The prevalence of this language ideology means that other foreign languages are either not considered at all, or even rejected outright as means for international communication, a process referred to by Irvine and Gal as "erasure".

This study focuses on how beginner learners in a task-based teaching and learning (TBTL) environment perceive what is motivating to them in the process of learning Chinese as a foreign language at Aalborg University, Denmark. Drawing upon empirical data from surveys, group interviews and participant observation, this study explores which kinds of tasks are perceived as motivating from the students' perspective and which characteristics the learners associate with motivating tasks. The study indicates that it is important to consider the learners' affective factors and learning situation factors, which can boost learners' intrinsic motivation, when designing a task, especially at a beginning stage of foreign language learning, and to integrate cultural elements into tasks as an added value to motivate learners. Finally, this study identifies challenges and barriers related to TBTL that beginner-level students may find discouraging. It is suggested that motivating learners to continue learning the language and encouraging active participation may be more important than developing their linguistic accuracy and fluency in the given context.

The purpose of this article is to examine how media-generated professional identities in the culinary sector are reflected in Danish male cookery students' narratives about their own identity, experiences and expectations about the trade. Hence, this study takes its starting point in studies that show how the broad popularity of the culinary profession--almost exclusively through male chefs--seems to be attracting more male students to the cooking programme. The previous research indicates, however, that there is a risk of unfulfilled expectations when cookery students realise the hard work involved in working in a professional kitchen. It is this contrast between the media presentation and the practical reality of a profession like cookery that we wish to explore from the students' perspective.

In recent years, many countries within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have formulated educational policies aimed at providing better education to more students. However, this may be perceived as constituting dilemmatic spaces, where teachers must make efforts to reconcile coexisting political demands in their everyday work. The purpose of this article is to provide insight into how teachers handle coexisting educational policies of increased student retention and performance. Empirical findings from a one-year field study at a Danish vocational school explore how teachers' decision-making as response to coexisting demands of increased student retention and performance involves the development of various pedagogical approaches to the students: an active "caring" approach, a passive "wait until this class is over" approach, an active "vocational gate-keeping" approach, and a passive "wait and see whether they drop out" approach. Based on the findings, it is argued that the various pedagogical approaches are developed through social negotiations with leaders, students, and other teachers. Moreover, these pedagogical approaches lead to the development of further negotiated, dilemmatic decisions to be made. Thus, a dynamic approach to teachers' dilemmatic decision-making is proposed.

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been drawing increased attention from language teachers and researchers in the past decade. This paper focuses on the effects of TBLT on beginner learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) in Denmark. Participatory observation and semi-structured interviews were carried out with 18 participants from two beginning-level Chinese classes. Qualitative analysis of the data indicates that TBLT benefits learners in terms of increasing participation, creating more opportunities for speaking, easing learners' anxiety, and enhancing enjoyment. However, TBLT encountered challenges such as lack of Chinese pronunciation practice, difficulty in balancing learners' different preferences for learning strategies, and a lack of sufficient instructional time support. Possibilities for improving TBLT and proposals are discussed. This study provides further evidence that TBLT is not a one-size-fits-all method, but rather interacts with various contextual factors in its application, and suggests that the features of the Chinese language need to be taken into consideration as well.

This article investigates the interplay between learning and economy in the cooperation between participants from different professions on a construction site. From a situated perspective it is claimed that learning and economy are linked in two different ways: Firstly, it is argued that the participants have differing economic interests, which dynamically constitute the continual negotiations across professions. The economic interests are often contradictory to aspects of quality in the work, and it is claimed that learning involves the continual negotiation of this fundamental contradiction. Secondly, it is argued that the negotiations are carried out on the basis of an overall regulatory principle, which involves an economical logic based on reciprocal give-and-take relations between the different professions. In this way, issues of economy dynamically constitute and regulate practice. The conceptualisations are underpinned by qualitative interviews and participant observation from a construction site, and from a situated perspective it is suggested that issues of economy must be understood as preconditions for learning in the cooperation between different professions.

Background: Elite athletes often take part in group trainings and use teammates as learning resources. Despite this, research on the training and learning of elite athletes tends to characterise this training and learning as primarily individual. Purpose: This study, explores interrelated learning processes among elite athletes by exploring the performance-related learning that takes place between elite trampoline athletes in their training environment. The case will be made that such learning may be described most accurately as apprenticeship learning. Participants: The research focuses on a case study involving two Danish synchronised trampoline jumpers, Daniel and Peter, and their training as part of the Danish national trampolining team. Data collection: The data were generated through participant observation. During 10 days of observations, the principal researcher held informal talks with the athletes and the coach and took descriptive field notes. At the conclusion of the observation period, each athlete submitted to an individual, semi-structured interview. Data analysis: A theoretical reading of the data was carried out to facilitate interpretations that went beyond observations and the athletes' own descriptions, in order to reach a deeper understanding of how practice facilitates learning. Results: We encircle the athletes' interrelated learning processes by introducing the training environment of the national team and situations in which the athletes guide each other verbally or by jumping together. Discussion: We argue that the practice of the Danish national trampolining team can be considered a community of practice. Taking point of departure in our theoretical perspective we discuss how verbal and tacit bodily exchanges between athletes become opportunities for learning. Conclusion: In a practice containing varied resources for learning, we show that athletes can be each others' "performance analysts", guiding each other through the use of metaphors and cues which disclose the practical meaning of how to overcome specific practical challenges. We also show that the athletes can be each others' "sparring partners" when they perform their sport together. In this form of interaction they directly feel and impact the other's performance, which means that both athletes encounter opportunities for learning.

This article explores the parenting practices of wealthy Danish families and offers insight into the workings of dominant parenting norms within contemporary Danish society. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted among 15 families living north of Copenhagen, Denmark, this article identifies the parenting strategies of people with ample resources. Possessing strong economic capital, these families do not have to sell the full labour potential of the mother and are also able to afford help at home. This gives them free time that can be invested in developing the minds and talents of their children, as well as in socialising them and creating a network. Whereas existing Bourdieu-inspired family research emphasises the transmission of cultural capital as significant for members of the dominant classes, this article highlights social capital as a central aspect of wealthy families' parenting strategy. This latter can therefore be characterised as a "concerted civilising strategy" where families--in cooperation with preschools and primary schools--not only cultivate the children academically but also train their sociability.

This article explores challenges of applying an ethnographic approach, combining participant observation and interviews, to a study of organizational change. The exploration is connected to reform changes, as they are constructed in the interaction between managers and teachers, in a Danish Upper Secondary High School. The data material is presented in four vignettes from the organizational field. The vignettes present insights from the study and emphasize the value of interviews. In this way, the article makes a case that interviews add analytical depth and complexity to the study to counter the view that they are context stripping and are the minor partner in the ethnographic relationship between observational fieldwork and interviews.

School-based vocational training has been organised to support students' boundary crossing between school and work. Such training has the potential to engage students in relevant work-oriented schooling. Drawing on theories of boundary connections and symbolic resources, it is argued that school participants define and attribute quality to school-based vocational training based on their experiences and expectations of past, present, and future boundaries between school and work contexts. Empirical findings from an ethnographic study conducted at a Danish vocational school illustrate that students and teachers in some cases attribute negative qualities to school-based vocational training, whilst, in other cases, they find it difficult to define the boundaries between school and work, thus questioning the relevance and organisation of school-based vocational training in supporting students' boundary crossing between school and work. It is therefore argued that boundaries between school and work practices do not exist per se. Instead, more attention needs to be directed to the negotiations in which particular boundary connections between school and work practices are developed. This may have important consequences for the preparing of students for apprenticeship.

A current challenge to public managers is the lack of a well-defined role. How can masters programmes prepare managers to live up to an undefined function? In this paper we argue that the lack of role description enhances the need for reflexivity and we show how it is done at Master in Educational Management (MEM). MEM provides the participating managers with a new language that can give them a critical distance to the overload of expectations they meet at work; and MEM teaches participants to translate this new language into practice. The pedagogy used for this is labelled "experimental management". This requires participants to conduct experiments in their own organization, to reflect on and analyse their experiences with concepts from the curriculum. While the new language and the experimental teaching format are difficult, participants learn a reflexive practice that can enable them to live up to an undefined role.

With the growing number of immigrant youth moving into new communities and host nations across the globe (Suarez-Orozco, 2007), it is critical that we deepen our understanding of the ways in which schools enable either the civic engagement or the social marginalization of these young people. In this article Reva Jaffe-Walter presents the results of an ethnographic case study of Muslim students and their teachers in a Danish secondary school. Her findings reveal how liberal educational discourses and desires to offer Muslim immigrant students a better life can slide into processes of everyday exclusion in schools. Jaffe-Walter theorizes that immigrants in liberal democracies face "technologies of concern"--that is, policies and practices that champion the goals of fostering the engagement and social incorporation of immigrant students while simultaneously producing notions of these youth as Other, justifying practices of coercive assimilation (Foucault, 1977; Ong, 1996). She argues that beyond just producing negative representations, technologies of concern position youth within hierarchical schemes of racial and cultural difference that complicate their access to educational resources in schools (Abu El-Haj, 2010; Ong, 1996). This article has implications for the education and social integration of Muslim immigrants within liberal societies, as it reveals the troubling persistence of exclusion buried within practices of concern.

This paper sheds light on how competence assessment takes place in the Danish Vocational and Educational Training System. It discusses how intentions formulated by the government have unintentional effects when implemented in practice. The qualitative methods used in this study consist of participant observations from my field study of dropouts in a Danish car mechanic programme, in which I was enrolled as a student in the basic course for 30 weeks. These observations were derived from field notes; teaching and test materials; and interviews with students, teachers, a school counsellor and the school leader. According to the Danish Ministry of Education, the competence assessment should describe the students' prerequisite competencies during the first two weeks and track students' progress to different levels of ability. Contrary to official intentions, several students are advised to seek alternative educational placement in each beginning class, thus creating a "push-out" effect.

This article discusses the approach to the management of change taken by a Danish university when introducing a university-wide market for education and it explores the different positions taken by some of the central stakeholders in one of the faculties involved. I argue that neither the inadequacies of a popular management model nor insufficient communication fully explain the problems with the change project. Based on strategy papers, memorandums and detailed observations of meetings, I discuss the introduction of the education market and analyse the reception given by directors of studies to a specific social technology, a common year and timetable structure. I offer an explanation of their reactions that draws on an anthropological approach to organisations. I call for university leaders to take what I call an "improvisational" approach to leadership, which takes account of local ways of interpreting the meaning and significance of large-scale changes and works through professional motivation.

In extant research, the concept of student engagement refers to individual behavioural patterns and traits. Recent research indicates that engagement not only should be related to the individual but also should be anchored in the social context. This ethnographic field study of students and teachers in a Danish vocational education and training school responds to the need for more knowledge on this theme by exploring the social dynamics of engagement perceptions. Results show that teachers and students held diverging perceptions of student engagement that rested on educational goals as well as goals related to the perceived future work settings. The misrecognition of the students' perception of engagement had direct negative consequences for student performance and school attachment. The implications of the findings are discussed in detail. (Contains 1 table.)

Background: Studies of absence in educational settings have primarily been concerned with the causes for and results of student absence. However, recent research has argued that distinguishing between different forms of absence could be important. In consequence, studying the way in which different forms of absence are interrelated provides important novel insights into student absence behaviour. Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the concept of absence and the way absence behaviour is developed. This may help to provide a basis for further research on how and when absence is best prevented. Sample: Fieldwork was conducted at a vocational school containing 850 students. In this particular study, 24 student interviews were used in combination with interviews from four teachers and three school managers. Design and methods: The study is an ethnographic case study of a single school conducted over a continuous six-month period. It used participant observation followed by semi-structured interviews and school documents. Results: Findings suggest that student absence consists of interrelated forms of absence behaviour that have specific consequences for student performance. It is helpful to describe these findings using theoretical frameworks from sociology and psychology: specifically, spill-over theory and symbolic capital theory. Conclusions: This study has demonstrated how different forms of absence become dynamically interrelated through ongoing negotiations in the social practice of students, teachers and school managers. Evaluations of both absence "from" class and absence "in" class are important for understanding how absence behaviour can be identified and prevented.

This article explores ways of representing young children's perspectives in an empathetic and empowering manner. Based on a poststructuralist reinterpretation of ethnographic field notes taken at a Danish day care institution, the article argues, first of all, that in order to represent young children's perspectives in an ethically sound manner, it is necessary to combine the "voice approach" with ethnomethodological insights and critical sociological analysis, which together enable "critical sociological empathy". Second, that a methodological strategy that combines differentiated researcher participant roles with a "least adult role" approach, enhances the possibilities of successfully achieving empathetic and empowering representation of young children's perspectives. (Contains 2 notes.)

Background: The application of a social theory of learning and the notion of situated learning as a theoretical basis for understanding students' learning in PE is broadly recognised. Nevertheless, it is far more unusual for this theoretical approach to provide a basis for understanding learning processes in talent development in elite sport. Purpose: The purpose is to explore talent development and skill learning in youth elite football as a situated activity in a highly specialised community of practice (CoP) shared by talented male under-18 football players. From a social theory of learning perspective we seek to identify how the football player's ability to stay in elite football probably is influenced by the construction of the social practices in a football community of practice. Participants and setting: The research took the form of a case study of the best under-18 team from two Danish football clubs. Both teams competed in the best Danish tournament series and trained 16-20 hours a week. Data collection: Data were collected from participant observation and formal as well as informal interviews with four selected football players. The participant observations took place every day for three weeks at each club, and were performed as a "moderate participant", who observed day-to-day training, acted as an assistant coach, acted as a player in some exercises, and observed matches and other activities. Data analysis: The analysis of data was inspired by an ethnographical approach that involves a step-wise shift from data collection, analysis and description to write-up and theory, and an interpretive naturalistic approach. Findings: On the basis of observed differences in the organisation of the players' mutual relations, we established a categorisation of the two communities of practice into (1) a Small group and Position-specific based Community of Practice (SgPCoP), and (2) a Team based Community of Practice (TbCoP). The organisation influenced the ways in which players participated in the CoP, i.e. how their learning trajectories evolve in the community. The SgPCoP, rather than the TbCoP, created opportunities for players to "play upwards", mirror older players, and the feeling of being recognised by the coach. Conclusions: Due to the organisation of the training sessions, peripheral players in the SgPCoP experienced inbound learning trajectories, i.e. training-inclusion and multimembership, and assumed ownership of their long-term development as football players. This was only the case to a lesser extent in the TbCoP. (Contains 1 note.)

Drinking stories are immensely popular among contemporary Danish youth. The stories are shared with much enthusiasm in school, at parties, over the telephone and via the Internet. But why are the young so compelled by these seemingly vulgar stories? Applying the theories of, most importantly, Bakhtin (1968), Ricoeur (1991), and Jackson (2002), this paper examines a sample of drinking stories that were collected through two anthropological research projects on Danish youth. The stories were recorded through participant observation and qualitative interviews. Our analysis proposes that Danish youth employ drinking stories in order to (1) constitute narrative identity, (2) entertain, (3) cope with tragic events, and (4) explore taboos.

This article argues in favour of a situated approach to understanding learning in practice at trade vocational school and at trade in vocational education. Boundary crossing is regarded as contributing to expansive situated learning by apprentices across trade vocational school and the trade. The purpose of the article is to show that the relationship between strangeness and legitimacy is central to situated learning across different contexts such as at trade and at trade vocational schools. The article draws on examples from a recent qualitative field study of learning among apprentices in the Danish vocational education sector.

Background/Context: This article returns to and expands upon Cremin's and Garfinkel's ideas about education as work--deliberate, systematic, and sustained work--that changes one's consociates, whether planned or not. That is, education must be seen as occurring everywhere, to and by everyone, in many contexts other than in classrooms or schools. Purpose: In particular, this article examines the ways in which people are instructed to become Hard of Hearing in Sweden. In Sweden, national and medical policies and practices have made Hard of Hearing people almost, but not quite, inevitable. This study explores how people teach each other about hearing loss, and the responses of those being taught. Research Design: Data were collected in 1998-1999 during multi-sited anthropological fieldwork in Sweden and Denmark, at hearing aid examinations, hospitals, labs, schools, manufacturers' offices, governmental institutions, research and training conferences, and universities. Research methods included participant observation, interviews, content analysis, and archival research. Findings/Results: With the active guidance of the state and medicine, people in Sweden teach each other how to become Hard of Hearing. There are a variety of responses to these lessons, ranging from the compliant patient who goes to appointments and wears a hearing aid to patients who are not at all interested in these lessons and do not "obey their teachers" (e.g., audiologists, doctors, hearing aid manufacturers). Patients who do not conform create problems for the health care field and the Swedish state, undermining the structures of Hard of Hearing created to help people who, quite often, do not want to be helped. Conclusion: Hard of Hearing is a social position (re)created by the interactions and interpretations of people, history, and machines, and whole segments of societies are dedicated to its maintenance. It is a transformative, supremely educational arena in which the state, medical institutions, and citizens try to make certain that (1) hearing loss is noticed and people are redefined as satisfactory Swedish Hard of Hearing persons, and (2) all this continues to change as institutions and persons notice each other and new deficiencies. By taking up the moments in the process of becoming Hard of Hearing, this case study exemplifies a broader concept of what can be considered "education." If we are to fully understand what education is for culture theory and research, the kinds of moments and spaces in which learning takes place must include those historical processes, policies, places, and markets of everyday practice previously ignored.

This paper examines the impact of the Religious Right on American social policy as it relates to family, sexuality and reproductive health. The article focuses on the current debates and practices of abstinence-until-marriage programs vs. comprehensive sex education programs--and the ways in which they reflect and affect cultural attitudes about sexuality, teenagers, parents and rights. The manuscript is based on comparative fieldwork, including participant observations in schools and interviews in the United States and Denmark with teenagers, teachers and sexuality educators. We question whether it is sex education that goes too far in promoting early and promiscuous sex or the Religious Right in attempting to censor vital information and services from young people.

Illness trajectories are particularly characterised by the temporal dimension of human existence. In the area of low back pain, patients often have challenging temporal experiences such as unproductive waiting time and fragmented, repetitive consultations over many years. This study seeks to investigate relationships between digital technologies, temporal agency, and illness, through describing how users experienced a new digital solution, BackTrace, targeting patients with low back pain. The study builds on six months of ethnographic fieldwork, including semi-structured interviews, participant observation and a workshop. The study shows how the introduction of the digital solution could facilitate new possibilities of temporal actions for individuals living with and receiving care for low back pain. For many research participants, the use of BackTrace facilitated a useful visualisation of their past and present low back pain state; BackTrace could assist participants in navigating different external temporal demands; and it allocated time devoted to managing their back pain in everyday life and in consultations with health professionals. The study discusses how temporality can be a useful analytical entrance point to operationalise and explore the often-desired goal of empowerment in patient pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective and intervention: To explore contextual factors influencing residents' intentions to register with one of the new-coming GPs established as a result of a municipally driven GP coverage intervention in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Copenhagen with a GP shortage. Design: A qualitative study design informed by realist methodology was used to conduct the study. Data were obtained through a survey with residents (n = 67), two focus group interviews with residents (n = 21), semi-structured interviews with the project- and local community stakeholders (n = 8) and participant observations in the neighbourhood. The analysis was carried out through systematic text condensation and interpreted and structured by Pawson's layers of contextual influence (infrastructural and institutional). The concept of collective explanations by Macintyre et al. and Wacquant's framework of territorial stigmatisation were applied to analyse and discuss the empirical findings. Subject and setting: Residents from five local community organisations in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Copenhagen. Main outcome measures: Infrastructural and institutional contextual factors influencing residents' intentions to register with one of the new-coming GPs. Results: Infrastructural contextual factors included the national shortage of GPs, the administration fee for registering with a new GP, and the neighbourhood's reputation as being feared and unattractive for GPs to establish themselves. Institutional contextual factors included mistrust towards municipal authorities and the new-coming GPs shared by many residents, the duration without a local GP, GPs' reputation and a perceived lack of information about the GP coverage intervention, and an experience of not being involved. Conclusion and implication: Infrastructural and institutional contextual factors influenced residents' intentions to register with one of the new-coming GPs. The findings will be helpful in adjusting, implementing, and disseminating the intervention and developing and implementing future complex interventions in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. KEY POINTS: GP coverage interventions in disadvantaged neighbourhoods with a GP shortage should address contextual factors influencing residents' intentions to register with new-coming GPs The neighbourhood's negative reputation led residents to question the GPs' motives for coming and whether they would stay permanently Residents' mistrust of both municipal authorities and the new GPs, combined with a lack of information and a feeling of exclusion from the decision-making process, influenced residents' intentions to register negatively Residents needed more information on the GPs' ambitions and intentions for choosing their neighbourhood to be convinced that they would be there permanently [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency of people presented in emergency departments (EDs) after self‐harming events is increasing. Previous studies have shown that the complexity of the disorders of patients admitted to the ED after self‐harming events can be overwhelming for ED healthcare professionals (HCPs) to handle. The objective of this study was to observe and investigate the pathways for patients admitted to the ED after self‐harming events to either transition or discharge. Participant observation and interviews were selected as the methods to generate insight into the pathways of patients admitted to the ED after self‐harming events. The data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. A sample size of 20 patients was analysed, and a total of 213 h of observation took place during the data collection. Three main themes appeared: (1) patients' mental stress versus high expectations, (2) uncertainty about how to address the self‐harming event and (3) a system of chaos. Patients admitted to the ED after self‐harming events struggle with difficult mental stress. Despite this, they face high expectations that they will fit in and cooperate in the ED. The healthcare system is organised with unclear responsibilities and without systematic ways to care for self‐harm patients and so provides chaotic patient pathways. There is a need for improved cross‐sectional competencies, mutual agreements and systematic communication for discharge, transitions and follow‐up care between those involved in the patient's pathway and care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In western countries, palliative care is a part of the formal healthcare system, ruled by neoliberal, organisational ideas. This Danish study illuminates how nurses and patients with non-western immigrant backgrounds (inter)act in relation to encounters in palliative care settings. Two 'telling' cases were selected, based on interviews and participating observations from a multi-sited ethnographic field study in Denmark. The results showed different care consequences of the structural framework, referring to, for example, political healthcare logics, strategies, and priorities, and illuminated how neoliberally organised healthcare systems inflicted suffering on patients and frustration amongst professionals. It did not seem that the immigrant background per se induced the challenges. The understandings of care and treatment conflicted as nurses often represented a medical, neoliberal logic of disease, treatment, and care, and patients often represented a non-medical logic of disease, formed by their lives. When palliative care took place in a general setting, (inter)actions were also influenced by a curative agenda of treatment and care. The study added to the evidence of the power of neo-liberal rationality across different forms of care and populations, regardless of ethnicity or location of that care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The transition from hospital to home can be challenging for parents of prematurely born infants. The aim of this ethnographic study was to describe a multidisciplinary and cross‐sectoral discharge conference for families with premature infants transitioning from a neonatal intensive care unit to municipal healthcare services. Design and Methods: An ethnographically/anthropologically inspired qualitative design was adopted. We conducted four participant observations of multidisciplinary and cross‐sectoral discharge conferences and 12 semistructured interviews with four neonatologists, four nurses, and four health visitors who had attended one of the conferences. Salient themes were generated by two‐part analysis consisting of a thematic analysis followed by Turner's ritual analysis. Results: This study illustrated how multidisciplinary and cross‐sectoral discharge conferences improved the quality of care for premature infants and their families in their transition process which was perceived as complex. These conferences contributed to promoting a sense of coherence and continuity of care. The healthcare professionals experienced that this event may be characterized as a ritual, which created structures that promoted cross‐sectoral cooperation and communication while increasing interdisciplinary knowledge sharing. Thus, the conferences triggered a sense that the participants were building bridges to unite healthcare sectors, ensuring a holistic and coordinated approach to meet the unique needs of the infants and their families. Implications for Practice: This study presented a unique holistic and family‐centered approach to constructing multidisciplinary and cross‐sectoral discharge conferences that seemed to underpin the quality of interdisciplinary and health‐related knowledge sharing and establish a crucial starting point for early interventions, preventive measures, and health‐promoting efforts. Hopefully, our findings will encourage others to rethink the discharge conference as a transitional ritual that may potentially bridge the gap between healthcare sectors. Specifically, our findings contribute to the mounting body of knowledge of family‐centered care by showing how healthcare professionals may—in a meaningful and tangible manner—operate, develop, and implement this somewhat elusive theoretical foundation in their clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cancer is a major global health concern. Unfortunately, Indigenous populations such as Greenlanders living in Denmark, face significant disparities in cancer risk, incidence, diagnosis, care quality, and outcomes. In Denmark, vulnerable Greenlanders face challenges accessing cancer screening. The aim of this study was to explore their perceptions of cancer, barriers to participation in cancer screening, and potential for developing a tailored intervention. Methods: This qualitative study was based on participant observations and qualitative interviews. The sample comprised 46 participants from four distinct drop-in centres. Of these, 28 were vulnerable Greenlanders (19 women and 9 men), 9 were staff members (6 women and 3 men), and 6 were relatives (4 women and 2 men). The data were analysed through inductive content analysis. Results: Vulnerable Greenlanders in Denmark believed they were responsible for their own health and were generally satisfied with the healthcare system. However, they found it challenging to manage their own health and many depended on support from others. Fear of cancer and death shaped their attitudes towards screening. Conclusion: For vulnerable Greenlanders in Denmark participation in cancer screening programmes was positively viewed for most but could be challenging. Different intervention ideas raised by the vulnerable Greenlanders, relatives and staff members could guide the development of strategies to increase participation rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The curative oesophageal cancer continuum--diagnosis, treatment and survivorship represents different phases with its own challenges for the involved parties. The process of treatment decisions and interactions between patients with oesophageal cancer (EC), relatives and health professionals is vital yet not well described. The purpose of the study was to explore patients' and relatives' experiences with the process of decision-making through the EC illness and treatment trajectory. Methods: Longitudinal explorative design was employed based on ethnographic fieldwork in the form of participant observations inspired by the American anthropologist James Spradley. Results: Sixteen patients and 18 relatives were recruited for participant observations. In total, 184 hours of participant observations were conducted. The study showed that decisionmaking was filled with tension and edginess. Four themes were identified: 1) The encounter with the medical authority, 2) The need to see the big picture in the treatment trajectory, 3) A predetermined treatment decision, and 4) Meeting numerous different health professionals. Conclusion: The EC trajectory and decision-making were filled with anxiety. Patients and relatives lacked an overview of the treatment pathway, leading to their role in decisionmaking often being governed by the medical authority. Timing information and continuity are vital factors in decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To explore factors influencing newly graduated nurses' delivery of direct care in acute care hospital settings. Design: Qualitative study using focused ethnography. Methods: During the period from March to June 2022, a total of ten newly graduated nurses were purposively sampled, and data were collected through 96 h of participant observation as well as ten semi‐structured interviews. This research took place in a large hospital located in Denmark. Data were analysed using LeCompte and Schensul's ethnographic content analysis. Results: Three main structures were developed from the data: 'Contrasting Intentions and Actions for care delivery', 'Organizational Constraints Block Interpersonal Aspects of Nursing Care' and 'Newly Graduated Nurses' Suppressed Need for Support Constitutes Delay in Care Actions'. Conclusion: Newly graduated nurses were committed to delivering high‐quality care but were aware they sometimes provided compromised care. The paradox between a commitment to care and compromised care delivery was borne out of tensions between newly graduated nurses' professional beliefs and nursing values, a desire to integrate patients' needs and preferences, and organizational constraints on everyday practices where newly graduated nurses often worked alone without the support of a more experienced nurse. Critical reflection on cultural, social and political forces that influence direct care delivery might support newly graduated nurses to deliver direct patient care more intentionally. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Establishment of onboarding programs and other support activities for newly graduated nurses to cope with contrasting intentions and actions that must address organizational constraints is essential. These development programs should include how critical reflection competency is supported to address value inconsistencies and emotional distress to ensure high‐quality patient care. Reporting Method: The reporting adhered to the COREQ guidelines. Patient or Public Contribution: 'No Patient or Public Contribution'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The dominant story of HIV in Denmark portrays HIV as compatible with a nearly normal life. International research on the experiences of elderly people diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the 1980s to mid‐1990s challenges this narrative. Aims: To gain knowledge on the experiences of elderly long‐term survivors of HIV in Denmark and to evaluate if a narrative intervention 'giving voice' to this specific group was experienced as improving their quality of life. Methods: In collaboration with relevant stakeholders, we developed a narrative intervention at REHPA, the Danish Knowledge Centre for Rehabilitation and Palliative Care focusing on the experiences and stories of people having lived a long life with HIV. Nineteen women and men living with HIV were included in the study. The intervention's evaluation design was based on ethnographic fieldwork that included participant observation and focus group interviews. The qualitative data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Results: The findings show that the dominant story on HIV does not adequately cover the experiences of elderly Danes who have lived a long life with HIV. The participants continue to suffer from late complications and physical, existential, emotional and social challenges. The narrative intervention helped improve how participants experienced their quality of life. Conclusion: Long‐term elderly Danish survivors diagnosed with HIV in the 1980s to mid‐1990s suffer from complex symptoms and problems related to living their lives with HIV and treatment. They found that telling and sharing their life stories with other people with HIV gave them a sense of coherence, meaning and direction in life. Relevance: The study documents the experiences of a group of long‐term survivors of HIV in Denmark, making it relevant for organisations supporting people with HIV and for health care professionals working with this group. Furthermore, the study adds to the knowledge base on the use of narrative methods in rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how trust is built and maintained in interpersonal care relations between people diagnosed with dementia and their vocationally trained care assistants in a Danish welfare context. The issue of trust is singled out as being particularly relevant, as people diagnosed with dementia often possess different cognitive abilities than those most commonly mentioned within existing social theory and research as prerequisites for building and maintaining trust in interpersonal care relations. The article is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in various locations in Denmark, primarily during the summer and fall of 2021. It argues that in order for care assistants to build trustful relations with people diagnosed with dementia, they need to acquire the ability to set the "tone" or the "mood" of the care interactions, as that makes it possible to step into the world of people diagnosed with dementia in ways that acknowledge fundamental human affectedness as captured in Heidegger's notion of "being-in-the-world." Put differently, the social aspects of caregiving should not be separated from the specific nursing tasks that need to be performed. Rather, they should be considered prerequisites for providing those tasks in the first place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With theories of heuristics and decision-making ecology as our analytical lens, we examined social work practitioners' use of heuristics (rules-of-thumb) as a response to real-world situations, emphasising the legal framework and how the work was organised. The data comprised eleven exploratory and follow-up group interviews with thirty-nine social workers and team leaders, observations of 108 decisions in child cases during eighteen meetings, and an analysis of fourteen case files in two Danish municipalities. Open, interpretative coding was used within a systemic approach, using Fish et al. (2008). Three heuristic rules guided decisions in all cases: (i) Form and maintain the first impression. (ii) When in doubt or disagreement, wait. (iii) Avoid parents' resistance. Key takeaways are that these heuristics help social workers and managers and are connected to satisficing strategies as a natural response to legal and organisational factors. However, the heuristics can also lead to a lack of transparency, delayed interventions and other kinds of bias. We point out the need for understanding such patterns through an extended research to facilitate better and timely feedback to practitioners on their decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much public health research has devoted attention to the question of how interventions aimed at reducing health inequalities can access so-called "hard-to-reach" populations. This work has generally reflected an instrumentalist approach, which implies the preexistence of particular target groups characterized by specific public health problems. The key research interests are to find ways to effectively alleviate health inequalities and to identify the best ways to intervene to address disparate health problems among certain groups of people. Based on ethnographic research with public health officers in four Danish municipalities, this article turns the issue on its head by examining how public health officers gain access to intervene in practice and, as part of this process, define and delineate target groups and public health problems. Through detailed descriptions of two ethnographic cases, we develop the argument that public health interventions carry with them moral differentiations that may contradict the overall intention of reducing health inequalities. We adopt a theoretical perspective developed by Lakoff and Collier, suggesting that public health interventions can be understood as "regimes of living." This leads us to the conclusion that the practices of gaining access result in the production of unforeseen target groups and new moral configurations where the value of health becomes linked to other types of value, most importantly economic value. For public health officers, the complicated issue of gaining access to intervene is not simply a matter of finding practical solutions; it also defines and delineates the scope of public health itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of ignorance has become a central topic in social, political, and organizational research, with scholars thus beginning to explore the distribution and strategic uses of not-knowing (Gross and McGoey, 2015). Claiming that ignorance involves making decisions on what should be seen or unseen (Otto et al., 2019), they are calling for insights into the intermediary states produced between knowledge and non-knowledge in practice. Answering this call, the present article empirically details how practices of seeing and unseeing take place within and across the transparent architecture of a newly built psychiatric hospital in Denmark. Drawing on participant observations and interviews with nursing staff, we examine the role that spatial and material circumstances play in the situated production of ignorance. As such, we consider how the mutual visibility afforded by the transparent design of a nursing station in an inpatient setting produces what we suggest is 'a shared zone of ignorance'. Inspired by the work of German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, this article extends current understandings of how ignorance is 'tethered to the spatial' (Frickel and Kinchy, 2015: 175). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To explore and describe how the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) and Individual Early Warning Score (I‐EWS) are used and how they support nurses' patient risk assessment practice. Design: A qualitative observational fieldwork study drawing on ethnographical principles was performed in six hospitals in two regions of Denmark in 2019. Methods: Data were generated from participant observations and informal interviews with 32 nurses across 15 different wards in the hospitals. A total of 180 h of participant observation was performed. The observations lasted between 1.5 and 8 h and were conducted during day or evening shifts. Results: NEWS and I‐EWS supported nurses' observations of patients, providing useful knowledge for planning patient care, and prompting critical thinking. However, the risk assessment task was sometimes delegated to less experienced staff members, such as nursing students and healthcare assistants. The Early Warning Score (EWS) systems were often adapted by nurses according to contextual aspects, such as the culture of the speciality in which the nurses worked and their levels of competency. In some situations, I‐EWS had the effect of enhancing nurse autonomy and responsibility for decision‐making in relation to patient care. Conclusions: EWS systems support nurses' patient risk assessment practice, providing useful information. I‐EWS makes it easier to factor the heterogeneity of patients and the clinical situation into the risk assessments. The delegation of risk assessment to other, less experienced staff members pose a risk to patient safety, which needs to be addressed in the ongoing debate regarding the shortage of nurses. Impact The findings of this study can help ward nurses, hospital managers and policymakers to develop and improve strategies for improved person‐centred nursing care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a strong association between social relationships and health. In this article, we ask how a view of social relationships played out in time can help to nuance the role of patients' social networks in their healthcare-seeking behavior. We investigate this link by exploring the dynamics of relatedness in socioeconomically vulnerable young families with a multimorbid parent and their extended networks. Data were generated through repeated semi-structured and open-ended interviews and participant observation. The study found that, for much of their lives, participants experienced life as a series of events that happened to them and were out of their control. This way of being-in-the-world was linked to a consistent pattern of intense and then suddenly discontinued relationships. The relevance for health professionals is that there is a growing trend in healthcare systems worldwide to involve relatives and extended networks in a patient's treatment process. Our findings indicate challenges to this approach and recommend that health professionals are aware that for socioeconomically vulnerable patients with multimorbidity, important relationships can change dramatically, quickly, and repeatedly, over short periods of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]