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Abstract

Since the 2/2017 issue, I've taken the position of editor-in-charge of the International Journal for Research on Extended Education (IJREE). As many of you have witnessed during the past few decades, extended education is becoming a vibrant part of the world's educational culture. A variety of extended education programs and activities are thriving and providing opportunities for learning and development to students across the globe. In line with this movement, there is a growing body of research in this field. Particularly, many efforts have been made to conduct international comparative studies. One example is the newly launched WERA IRN Extended Education (World Education Research Association, International Research Network).In the 2/2017 issue, we have five General Contributions. Anna Klerfelt, employing sociocultural and dialogical perspectives, investigated how professional identities are formed among teachers in school-age educare centres in Sweden. Bakhtin's notion of 'authoring' is one key concept in her study to shed light on the commonly shared discourse unifying the professional identity among Swedish teachers. Marie Fahlén examined the issues of freedom of religion versus secular values, which are potentially conflicting concepts in the everyday practices of Swedish schools. Given the increasingly multi-religious society along with intensifying globalization, discussions on this topic could be applicable to nearly every country in the world. David Thore Gravesen and Lea Ringskou analyzed the work of pedagogues in the Danish Primary School and Leisure-Time Center. They suggested a new concept of 'timeagogy', which provides a very interesting perspective to the extended education community. Atara Sivan and Gertrude Po Kwan Siu investigated how extended education is manifested in a place where schooling and academic performance are of primary focus. Looking into the case of extended education in Hong Kong, their research shows that extended education can have the potential to be a vehicle for not only students' all-round development but also families' reproduction strategy. Finally, Björn Haglund and Louise Peterson, employing the viewpoints of the staff at leisure-time centres, examined what kinds of outcomes are expected from children by playing board games at leisure-time centres in Sweden.