WERA TASK FORCE Global Research in Extended Education Conference, Linköping University 2025

Joakim Caspersen is a sociologist (PhD) and Research Director at NTNU Social Research in Trondheim, Norway. He also works at the Norwegian Centre for Learning Environment and Behavioural Research in Education at the University of Stavanger. In recent years, much of his research has focused on inclusion and exclusion in schools and Norwegian day care facilities for children. He has also conducted extensive research on educational organizations, discretionary decision-making in welfare professions, and the relationship between professional practice and professional competence. Caspersen is currently part of the national research coordinator team for both the 2022 and 2027 cycles of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study.

Inclusion and exclusion as consequences of disretionary desicision making in extendend education practice

Inclusion and exclusion in education outcomes of professional and organizational practices, framed within various political structures that share the educational system

Professional practices can be viewed as a continuous series of discretionary decisions, influenced by the specific characteristics of professional, the situation (including the traits of individual children and groups of children), professional knowledge, experiences, and values; the characteristics of each organization (routines, leadership, resources, etc.); external factors (collaboration with others, economic resources, and municipal resources); and laws, guidelines, and regulations.
In the daily grind and chaos, structural limitations are more explicitly reflected upon than the constraints occurring in specific situations, and how these constraints relate to norms of inclusion and exclusion, as well as fairness and equality. These norms sometimes guide practice but are also overshadowed by the everyday demands and minute-to-minute decisions that must be made.

In this talk, I will reflect on the idea of inclusion and exclusion as consequences of discretionary decision-making in extended education practice and relate this to often unarticulated norms of inclusion and exclusion. Examples will be drawn from Scandinavian, particularly Norwegian, day care facilities for children, which are universally oriented with a mandate for social inclusion and equality, but where daily practice involves handling multiple dilemmas and discretionary decisions at a rapid pace, often leading to undesired outcomes.