Public pressure on evaluation has influenced educational projects and national evaluation systems for many decades. This article extends the ongoing discussions in the field, offering a problematising exploration of evaluation as an educational policy phenomenon, thinking with the notion of rhythm in the analysis. Approaching educational evaluation with the notion of rhythm has, for us, implied a philosophical exploration of the dynamics between evaluation and education, drawing on the writings of Henri Lefebvre and Anna L. Tsing. Rolling of chairs between computers, with the policy documents spread out on a table alongside the original philosophical texts, in a material sense, placed us, as researchers, in an embodied analytical process between human and non-human agency. The turns and returns, back and forth, between policy, philosophy, and previous research enabled unexpected frictions to emerge and prompted us to view issues central to evaluation in surprisingly new ways. ‘Striving towards goals and orientations’, ‘goal-in-between’, ‘striving-in-between’, and ‘results of and for results’ are with inspiration from Anna L. Tsing presented as a rush of troubled stories.

In this article, a collaborative Deleuze-Guattarian-inspired cartography is produced with preschool practitioners to explore the assemblages of teaching in preschool. The aim is to map how teaching comes into being in preschool planning and reflection practices following the movements of territorialisation and re-/de-territorialisation. Unwinding from a policy change that 4 years ago introduced teaching to the Swedish preschool curriculum, the overarching question of what teaching is and could be to follows through the text. The preschool teaching assemblages are visited through three territories in which different continuums of (un)teaching unfold when staying with the emerging messiness. The movements of de-territorialisation open for divergent thinking, questioning traditions and assumptions of how to conduct teaching in preschool practice, in entanglement with both local and global movements.

The Swedish preschool has undergone some radical education policy changes during recent years, all of which have affected teachers’ work. The focus of this article is on the changes relating to the demand for research-based education and how the concept of teaching has been introduced in preschool. The aim of this article was to study preschool-teachers’ professional learning in relation to research-based education within an action research project which focused a new conversation method with the children. The theoretical framework of the study was based on social learning theory and communities of practice. The empirical data consists of collegial conversations and written documents produced in the action research project. The results show that the preschoolteachers in a mutual agreement persistently examined and negotiated conversation methods so that they could be adapted to their view of teaching, their professional self, and children and children’s participation and learning. Through a common repertoire of scientific tools and social learning processes, they reflected each other’s teaching in an open, trustful, and appreciative collaboration, and together, they critically reviewed and problematized their earlier experiences and their teaching in relation to research.

The aim of this paper is to challenge the physical and conceptual boundaries of educational places and spaces with the use of metaphor: the story of Professor Kirke’s magic wardrobe in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia by CF Lewis (1950). By explicating and theorising the concerns that arise, we provoke diverse ways of thinking about the complexities of shifting, expanding, constantly evolving educational spaces and places. In our theorisations, we draw on the philosophy of the life-world through Maurice Merleau-Ponty, on a post-structural approach through Julia Kristeva’s work, and on the new-materialist perspective of Gilles Deleuze. As these three philosophical perspectives draw upon different basic assumptions about humans and the world, they also illuminate different aspects of a variety of phenomena and concepts, which we elaborate on in this paper to reach a more comprehensive understanding of educational spaces and places. Our argument arises from philosophical engagements with the story of the Pevensie siblings’ transformation – and transportation – to Narnia through the wardrobe, with notions of educational openings and opportunities, to explore possibilities for reimagining the conceptions and realities of places and spaces in education. To conclude, citizens of today, including children, students, teachers, politicians and researchers, need to discuss basic assumptions for education and policy to reimagine the entangled complexities of educational spaces and places.

The aim of this article is to explore student participation in teaching and learning, focusing on third-year students’ experiences in a Swedish teacher education programme. Student participation is here defined as students being active and engaged in the classroom; students impacting on curriculum design; and students’ feeling of belonging to a community. The research reported is based on an interview study and analyses processes, benefits and challenges of, as well as motivations for, student participation. The findings revealed that students have diverse understandings of student participation and that the degree of participation is dependent on students’ and teachers’ engagement, expectations and responsibility. Student teachers also connected student participation to their learning and future profession as teachers. The students mainly discussed intrinsic motivations (beneficial to learning) for student participation, but there were also traces of altruistic motivations (learning citizenship). Extrinsic motivations (university benefits), however, were absent. Voices of resistance to student participation were also present; these students preferred a more teacher-led education and were not used to a high degree of participation. Students’ understandings of student participation challenge teacher–student roles in teacher education specifically, but also in higher education generally. It is important to acknowledge students’ diverse understandings of student participation. Overall, based on students’ experiences, student participation creates engagement and motivation for learning here and now and for the future profession. The study indicates that student participation has an inherent value beyond benefitting measurable outcomes, where democratic values, engagement and learning for the future profession are promoted.