Prioritizing Violence Prevention - An evaluation of the implementation of a school-based initiative to prevent violence in Sweden

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of a violence prevention initiative called Northeast Free from Violence (NFFV), in a Swedish lower-elementary school. The aim was to explore how the initiative was received and implemented into the daily activities and what challenges could be identified in the process. A series of semi-structured interviews was conducted with teachers, a school management representative, and a representative from NFFV. A thematic analysis was used to identify patterns and determine themes in the material (Braun & Clarke 2006). This thesis also used theoretical concepts of balancing production logics with development logics (Sjöberg 2012; Ellström 2010) as well as the concept of resistance (Amundsdotter et al. 2015; Lindholm 2012). The main findings were that the initiative was overall well received, and that the implementation had indications of being promising. The challenges were mainly due to poor organizational prerequisites, which also manifested in difficulties to prioritize the initiative, resulting in resistance and dilemmas and a deficient integration of the initiative into ordinary activities.