Sylwia Koziel

Associate Professor in Social Work

I received my PhD in 2011 from the University of Dortmund with a thesis on parenting and parent education in Germany. My main research areas are child welfare and I am interested in children’s participation, child perspective and practice-based research. In an ongoing study based on interviews with children, I investigate children's participation in the transition between child welfare investigation and open care services.

Since April 2024, I have been involved in a research project on Children’s help-seeking in relation to social adversity (https://blogg.sh.se/barnshjalpsokande). The study is based on a survey of pupils, interviews with young adults who have had a vulnerable childhood and interviews with professionals who meet children in difficult life situations. The study is carried out in collaboration with a reference group consisting of young people, social services staff and other professionals. In collaboration with the social services and the reference group, we explore how the research results can be used in practice to strengthen vulnerable children's opportunities for help and support.

I have many years of teaching experience in the social work education and currently teach courses on child welfare investigations, qualitative research methods, thesis supervision and personal professional development.

Please contact me if you have any questions: sylwia.koziel@sh.se

Selected publications:

• Koziel, S., Hultman, L., Spånberger Weitz, Y., Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, H. & Elmersjö, M. (2023). Failures in the Child Perspective: Social Workers’ Experiences of Forgetting and Losing Focus of the Child. The international journal of children´s rights, 31,2, s. 352-377.
• Koziel, S. & Spånberger Weitz, Y. (2023). Discourses about Child Perspective and Children’s Participation in German and Swedish Social Work. Balitic Worlds.
• Elmersjö, M., Koziel, S., Hultman, L., Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, H., Hallqvist, J. & Obrenovic Johansson. S. (2020). Swedish citizenship through multicultural parenting: parental support as a steering practice for migrant parents in Sweden. European Journal of Social work, 25, 2, s. 329–340.
• Hultman, L., Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, H., Elmersjö, M. & Koziel, S. (2021). Making me with others-gendered meanings of youth and youthfulness among young female disabled assistance users. Disability & Society, s. 1–21.
• Koziel, S. (2019). Barnperspektiv i det sociala arbetet? En analys av diskurser kring barnperspektiv och storstaden i Socialstyrelsens dokument. I: Alinia, M. & Songur, W. (red.) Socialt arbete i storstaden - villkor och praktik. Liber, s. 161–178.
• Koziel, S. (2015). "De tyckte att de var finare". En adressatstudie om föräldrastöd för småbarnsföräldrar i Tyskland. I: Tidskrift för samhällsanalys, nr 4, s. 99–120.
• Koziel, S. (2011). Lern- und Bildungsthematiken beim Übergang zur Elternschaft. Ein Beitrag zur sozialpädagogischen AdressatInnenforschung im Kontext von Familienbildung. Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doctor philosophiae (Dr. phil) der Fakultät für Erziehungswissenschaft und Soziologie der Technischen Universität Dortmund.