What goes on in successful educational settings, in programs that otherwise often have high drop-out rates? That is the fundamental question in our four year project (2009-2012) funded by the Swedish Research Council. Our proposal is a presentation of the theoretical framework, methodology and some first findings of our study. By successful, we mean educational settings where many students pursue their studies, and that in evaluations have been valued and praised by students and others. We mean that it is most important to acquire knowledge about successful organizational and pedagogical key processes in such educational settings, since these kinds of programs in general have high drop-out rates, are highly criticized by politicians and are in the process of a series of reformation during the upcoming years. For teenagers and adults lacking compulsory school equivalence,and therefor are not able to attend ordinary programs at upper secondary education, Swedish municipalities are obliged to provide individual programs and basic education for adults. Our research object is a handful of educational settings in that field which we will study through the concept of action nets, a concept tailored specifically for organization studies (Czarniawska, 1997; Lindberg & Czarniawska, 2006). Our aim is to identify what kind of actions are established and re-established in and connected to these educational settings. More precisely, our objective is to conceptualize how – and through what – such actions are established and re-established and constitute action nets. This is not a study of 'what works', but a study of 'how works'. We understand organizing as a continuous process of translation and connecting of actions, and do not regard the ‘success’ to be found at some certain level, some certain entity or caused by some specific factor. Instead the interest of our analysis is how the ‘success’ is stabilized in terms of connections and translations among actions. Our second theoretical framework is derived from the works of John Dewey, especially as presented in Democracy and education (1916). Dewey’s interactional epistemology has much in common with the theory of action nets with focus on actions, on processes of sensemaking (Weick, 1995) and of translation (Czarnaiwska & Sevon 1996). Dewey's core ideas "that the educational process has no end beyond itself; it is its own end"; and that "the educational process is one of continual reorganizing, reconstructing, transforming" (cf. Chapter 4) opens up for a broad analysis of learning and pedagogical key processes.

Our study of interest (i.e. to learn what is going on in successful educational settings) and the epistemological framework of our inquiry (i.e. the concept of action nets and the idea of education as continual reorganizing) implies fieldwork with multiple ethnographic techniques. Apart from traditional ethnographic approaches as participating over an extended period of time (cf. Hammersley & Atkinson, 1995) – i.e. watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking questions – we follow the suggestions from Czarniawska (2007) on how to study organizing: by help of more mobile ethnography. This implies techniques such as shadowing, diary studies, photograph reports and following objects. We also see that the usage of 'modern' techniques are beneficial when studying settings with young people, and in order to involve them in the narration of what goes on.

Expected outcomes of our study are closely intertwined with the theoretical frameworks and the overall question “What goes on in successful educational settings, in programs that otherwise often have high drop-out rates?” We will depict and analyze actions, activities and interactions in one or two settings, and conceptualize these findings as organizing in action nets. Conclusions of findings will be drawn from following questions: What are the narratives of the ‘success’ of the setting, as shaped and put forth by the students, teachers and other staff? What objects – things, technologies – and procedures are shown to be structuring resources, and durable connections in the organizing of the setting? How – through what – are educational aims translated into methods that cooperate with the activities of the students?