Maria Zackariasson

Professor in European Ethnology

Throughout my academic career, my research has followed two main tracks. Firstly, I have done research on various aspects of education and learning from an ethnological perspective. Secondly, I have done research on social participation and democracy, including involvement in social movements and NGO:s and individuals' communication and interaction with authorities.

Currently, I am the project manager (PI) for the multidisciplinary project School Choice as Citizenship. Communication between Municipalities, Schools, and Parents in School Choice Processes External link, opens in new window., which is funded by the Swedish Research Council 2025-2028. The project, in which Jenny Magnusson and Fredrika Björklund also participate, examines school choice in compulsory school in Sweden as a way to exercise social citizenship. The main aim of the project is to examine how schools and municipalities enable and how parents exercise social citizenship through the school choice process, by studying practices and communication between municipalities, schools and parents. We examine what information is offered by municipalities and schools to help parents make an informed choice and the ways in which this is done, as well as how this information is received, perceived and managed by parents in the school choice process.

Previously I was a researcher within the project Independence in higher education: A comparative study of Sweden and Russia External link, opens in new window., funded by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies with Jenny Magnusson as project manager (2016-2023). The aim of this project was to examine how the concept "independence" is understood and used within teacher education and journalism in Sweden and Russia, as it comes to show in the Bologna process, syllabi, documented supervision interaction and interviews with teachers and supervisors. Publications from the project include Collective dimensions of academic supervision External link, opens in new window. and the monograph Supervising Student Independence. A Research-Based Approach to Acadmic Supervision in Practice External link, opens in new window., both written together with Jenny Magnusson.

I focused on higher education already in my PhD project, at Uppsala University. In the PhD thesis, and related articles, I used participant observation and interviews to examine young university students' experiences of university studies and student life, as well as their reflections and views on the educational choices they were making.

My research interest in societal participation and democratic and political engagement emerged in my post doc project, which was carried out at the Department of Cultural Studies and Oriental Languages at the University of Oslo, Norway (2003-2007). In this qualitative research project I studied young people´s political and democratic involvement through ethnographic fieldwork in a number of local organizations within the Global justice movement, in Sweden as well as in Norway. The research questions included how these politically active youths viewed democracy and political action, their relation to parliamentary politics and what their political involvement looked like in practice. Publications in English from this project include the article "Angry Young Men" External link..

Young people's involvement in society and views on democracy was the focus also in a research project on young people within Christian youth organizations, with a particular focus on the traditional "free churches" in Sweden (2012-2016). In the project I used an ethnological perspective to examine the relation between religious involvement and societal participation, experiences of being young and Christian in today´s society and learning processes within the youth organization. Publications in English from this project include "Being yourself" External link. , "Loving and forgiving?: Emotions and emotion work in the youth organization Equmenia External link." and "Coming from the outside: Learning and experiences among youths from non-religious families in Christian youth organisations" External link..

In addition to doing research, I have been teaching and supervising students at the three universities where I have worked, in ethnology, cultural history and within teacher education.  At Södertörn University, I have had assignments as Head of Internationalisation at the Teacher Education Programme 2011-2015, Deputy Head of the School of Historical and Contemporary Studies 2012-2015, and Research Director and Deputy Academic Director at the Department of Teacher Education 2016-2021. Since 2022, I am the project manager for ULF External link, opens in new window. at Södertörn University, i.e. the national organisation for practice-based research within the school context.