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Årsboken ger en inblick i delar av den forskning kring socialt arbete med barn som sker vid Socialhögskolan. Den ger också en kort introduktion till verksamheten vid Socialhögskolan.

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989, which has had a major impact on children’s rights, policies and legislation in many countries around the world. This paper describes longstanding experiences of running a Sida-funded training programme on children’s rights at Lund University. The authors have participated in the programme as teachers, and have, over the years, visited around 20 countries and gained deep insights into change processes at different administrative levels of these countries’ education systems. These experiences from similar projects in other countries and continents help put developments in Sweden into perspective. The aim of the present chapter is firstly to gain an understanding of how the CRC can be used to bring about change in schools and in the classroom. The chapter’s secondary aim is to analyse and reflect on, from a norm perspective, how the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has contributed to bringing about change at different levels of the participating countries’ education systems. The chapter consists of five sections. Each one begins by describing the programme’s background, goal and objective. This is followed by a description of the changes implemented in the participating countries since 2003, which are based in three key CRC perspectives: ’Participation’, ’Protection’ and ’Provision’. The third section introduces norm-theory and the importance of norms in change processes, both in an international as well as as a Swedish context. The fourth section deals with change processes from the local to the national level and can be initiated both from the bottom–up as well as top–down. The final discussion addresses how some school problems, seen from a Swedish perspective, could be discussed in terms of changing norms in areas where children and students are able to exert a degree of influence. The terms “children”, “pupils” and “students” are used variably throughout the text. The Swedish Education Act adheres to the CRC and defines children as “every human being below the age of eighteen years” (the Swedish Education Act 2010:800, Chap.1 §10). Additionally, the student is also defined as “whomsoever participates in education under this act, with the exception of children attending preschool” (the Swedish Education Act 2010:800, Chap.1 §10).

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a human rights legal document decided and adopted by the UN General Assembly in November 1989. This international convention has had a major impact on children’s rights, policies and legislation in many countries around the world. Another prominent feature of the development, however, is the lack of research in many areas on implementation of children’s rights. This underline the importance of a book like this with contributions from countries seldom represented with research in their own context. This book has been initiated by researchers at the Child Rights Institute, Lund University, a research network with the aim to act for and support the rights of the child in different contexts, national and international, in research, in education or in other relevant practices. The Institute gather researchers to stimulate and to support new and continued research with a point of departure in the CRC. It provides an open and suitable arena for researchers to publish new material on implementing CRC in society. Invitation of researchers from our global network to contribute to an anthology was therefore fully in line with this ambition.Fifteen new international studies on the enactment of children’s rights in schools and education are presented in this book. The authors are researchers from Colombia, Zambia, Viet Nam, Egypt, India, Kenya, Indonesia and China. They are researchers and scholars active in many different academic environments as research universities (Indonesia, Zambia, China, Kenya, Egypt, and Sweden), teacher training universities (China and India), National University of Education (Viet Nam, Colombia), Institute of Social Work and Health (India), District Teacher Training Institution, DIET (India).

Lund University has offered the Sida-financed International Training Programmeon Child Rights, Classroom and School Management since 2003. Theprogramme targets those in a position from which they can initiate processesof change in the education sector in their countries. During the programmeall participating teams initiate a change project in their respective countriesaiming at the realization of the intention of the Child Rights Convention inpolicy as well as in practice. This book contains the final reports from Batch20 with change agents from China, Colombia, DPR of Korea, Indonesia, Malawi,Mozambique, Namibia, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Viet Nam, and Zambia.

Lund University has offered the Sida-financed International Training Programmeon Child Rights, Classroom and School Management since 2003.The programme targets those in a position from which they can initiate processesof change in the education sector in their countries. During the programmeall participating teams initiate a change project in their respectivecountries aiming at the realization of the intention of the Child Rights Conventionin policy as well as in practice. This book contains the final reportsfrom Batch 21 with change agents from Cambodia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia,Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Viet Nam, and Zambia.

Lund University has offered the Sida-financed International Training Programmeon Child Rights, Classroom and School Management since 2003.The programme targets those in a position from which they can initiate processesof change in the education sector in their countries. During the programmeall participating teams initiate a change project in their respectivecountries aiming at the realization of the intention of the Child Rights Conventionin policy as well as in practice. This book contains the final reportsfrom Batch 21 with change agents from Cambodia, China, Egypt, Ethiopia,Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Viet Nam, and Zambia.

Lund University has offered the Sida-financed International Training Programmeon Child Rights, Classroom and School Management since 2003. Theprogramme targets those in a position from which they can initiate processesof change in the education sector in their countries. During the programmeall participating teams initiate a change project in their respective countriesaiming at the realization of the intention of the Child Rights Convention inpolicy as well as in practice. This book contains the final reports from Batch20 with change agents from China, Colombia, DPR of Korea, Indonesia, Malawi,Mozambique, Namibia, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Viet Nam, and Zambia.

Lund University has offered the Sida-financed International Training Programmeon Child Rights, Classroom and School Management since 2003. The programmetargets those in a position from which they can initiate processes ofchange in the education sector in their countries. During the programme all participating teams initiate a change project in their respective countries aiming atthe realization of the intention of the Child Rights Convention in policy as wellas in practice. This book contains the final reports from Batch 19 with changeagents from Cambodia, China, Colombia, Indonesia, Malawi, Namibia, SouthAfrica, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Vietnam.

Lund University has offered the Sida-financed International Training Programme on Child Rights, Classroom and School Management since 2003. The programme targets those in a position from which they can initiate processes of change in the education sector in their countries. During the programme all participating teams initiate a change project in their respective countries aiming at the realization of the intention of the Child Rights Convention in policy as well as in practice. This book contains the final reports from Batch 18 with change agents from China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Uganda, and Zambia.

Lund University has offered the Sida-financed International Training Programmeon Child Rights, Classroom and School Management since 2003. The programmetargets those in a position from which they can initiate processes of change in theeducation sector in their countries. During the programme all participating teamsinitiate a change project in their respective countries aiming at the realization ofthe intention of the Child Rights Convention in policy as well as in practice. Thisbook contains the final reports from Batch 17 with change agents from Cambodia,China, Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Viet Nam.

Lund University has offered the Sida-financed International Training Programmeon Child Rights, Classroom and School Management since 2003. The programmetargets those in a position from which they can initiate processes of change in theeducation sector in their countries. During the programme all participating teamsinitiate a change project in their respective countries aiming at the realization ofthe intention of the Child Rights Convention in policy as well as in practice. Thisbook contains the final reports from Batch 16 with change agents from Cambodia,China, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Malawi, Mozambique, Sri Lanka andZambia.

Lund University has offered the Sida-financed International Training Programmeon Child Rights, Classroom and School Management since 2003. The programmetargets those in a position from which they can initiate processes ofchange in the education sector in their countries. During the programme all participating teams initiate a change project in their respective countries aiming atthe realization of the intention of the Child Rights Convention in policy as wellas in practice. This book contains the final reports from Batch 15 with changeagents from Cambodia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malawi, Mozambique, SouthAfrica, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam.

In 2003 Lund University Commissioned Education was given the task, after publictender, to create and administrate a programme on “Child Rights, Classroom andSchool Management” following the provisions and principles contained in the UNConvention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Sida’s development policy on Education and other internationally ratified instruments in the areas of child rights and education. The programme was oriented to target persons holding a position from where they could initiate processes of change in their home countries. During the years 2003-2009 the International Training Programme (ITP) on Child Rights, Classroom and School Management was arranged 11 times with 330 participants completing it. Most of them are still working for child rights in their countries and have formed national and regional networks. In 2010 Lund University Commissioned Education won the contract in a new procurement for arranging the programme twice a year 2010 - 2012 with an option for another two years. In 2010 the 12th and 13th batch started the redesigned programme and this book is one of the results of batch 13.

Lund University has offered the Sida-financed International Training Programme on Child Rights, Classroom and School Management since 2003. The programme targets those in a position from which they can initiate processes of change in the education sector in their countries. During the programme all partici¬pating teams initiate a change project in their respective countries aiming at the reali¬zation of the intention of the Child Rights Convention in policy as well as in practice. This book contains the final reports from Batch 12 with change agents from Cambodia, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zambia.

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Research has been done on children’s participation in review meetings, a method for reviewing foster and residential care. The method is tested within the national project Children’s Needs in Focus (BBIC) inspired by the British Integrated Children’s System and operated by the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) in Sweden. The objective of the evaluation, conducted on behalf of Socialstyrelsen, was to investigate frameworks and scope for – as well as the child’s experiences of – participation and joint decision making concerning planning, decision-making processes and review of arrangements. The overall issue propounded was linked to one of the aims of the development work: do review meetings contribute to strengthen the child’s position in accordance with the aims of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Social Services Act? The study included content analysis of 55 BBIC-forms, together with interviews with 11 children, 8 – 18 years old, 8 independent chairpersons and 11 social workers. One of the conclusions is that the framework and scope that is created for the child’s participation in reviews, within the BBIC project, provide the preconditions to strengthen the position of the child in accordance with the aims of the Social Services Act and the articles 3 and 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Since 1999 the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) has been piloting a project entitled “Children’s Needs in Focus” (BBIC). The aim of this development project is to develop a uniform system of assessing, planning and reviewing in social work with children. It is inspired by the Integrated Children’s System (ICS) in Great Britain and the Swedish Dartingtonproject. The British system has been adapted to Swedish conditions by Socialstyrelsen in collaboration with seven Swedish municipalities and municipal regions. This report presents an investigation of social workers opinions and their methods of conducting assessments of children in need according to BBIC. The study, conducted on behalf of Socialstyrelsen, is characterized as explorative and formative with elements of process-, purpose- and component evaluation. Qualitative methods have been used and the empirical study includes document analysis of 38 assessments and interviews with 15 social workers. The evaluation shows that the assessment forms have been tested to less extent than expected and in addition with different local and personal variations. The experiences are both positive and negative. More concentrated, more balanced, better structured, better founded, more clear and reliable assessments were mentioned in the interviews as positive experiences of BBIC as well as more clear assignments to foster carers and others with responsibility for treatment of the children and families. Technical problems, lack of time, training and support from managers as well as organisational changes and turnover of staff were mentioned as important obstacles for implementation. The forms were criticized for being too detailed, too time consuming to use and difficult to take in. The social workers feared that the assessments would be too ruled and administrative. The theoretical model, the “triangle” was, however, apprehended positive by all the interviewed social workers and it had been a part of the social workers knowledgebase. From a general point of view the assessment process had improved. Collaboration between the social services and schools had for example developed in a positive direction. The document analysis showed that children’s needs were well considered in accordance with the recommended structure. The children referred to had been observed or got the right to talk for themselves in relation to the social workers. The efforts to take children’s own perspectives into consideration were, however, seldom fulfilled in judgement and analysis. Another notification was that children’s needs were described more in terms of problems than in terms of developmental needs. The concluding estimation is that BBIC, from a general point of view, is on its way to fulfil the aims. Children’s rights are strengthened, assessments according to BBIC tend to be more structured and systematic than before and quality and the legal security are improved. The purpose of uniformity seems, however, a bit problematic with regard to the translations which have been done by the local organisations, managers and individual social workers. The Social Services Act (2001:453) is a goal oriented enabling act that is based on voluntary efforts and stipulates general guidelines for the municipalities concerning their social services obligations. This circumstance together with the local self government autonomy and the fact that Swedish social workers have a high degree of discretion are factors which could be of importance for the possibilities to reach full uniformity. Social workers need qualified education, training, support and time for reflection if they going to accept and carry out the fundamental changes demanded by BBIC.

The aim of this report book in Sociology of Law, and Child Rights Institute, Lund University, is to gather, sum up and report, in a summarizing overview in an introduction followed by three concluding articles, our main experiences as researchers and teachers after 2016.That year, 2016, the English version of the Sida-funded international training program, Child Rights, Classroom and School Management, was finished. However, there was a lot of continued work to come with Children´s Rights at Lund University after that.This report could be viewed as an interesting example of how to achieve spin-off effects through strategies for sustainability and dissemination of knowledge and experiences from international cooperation on implementation of children’s rights.

This book contains the presentations and reflections in the Impact and Dissemination Seminar held in January 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand, with participants from the training programmes of the first five years.