This article maps the landscape of Swedish educational research as it has been published over the period 2000–2020 in peer-reviewed English language journals. Topic modeling techniques were used to analyze the metadata of keywords, abstracts, and titles from 7,402 peer-reviewed articles in the Scopus database. This analysis identified 25 topics characteristic of Swedish educational research. Analysis of supplementary bibliographic information, including reference lists, authorship, and journal titles, reveals that qualitative studies on teaching and learning, particularly those using phenomenographic, pragmatic, and socio-cultural/activity theory approaches, have dominated Swedish educational research. The article concludes by examining the content of this body of knowledge along key axes of contestation. Research on skills and competences often employs a markedly different language than studies focusing on values and attitudes. Furthermore, research centered on learning and didactics as a microphenomenon contrasts with work that emphasizes educational organization and large-scale evaluation.

Trots folkhögskolans digra historik över drygt 150 år och omvittnade betydelse för nordisk folkbildning, demokrati- och samhällsbyggnad, kvarstår mycket arbete för att undersöka hur denna utbildningsform ändrat karaktär över tid och vilken plats den fått i olika länders utbildningssystem. I kontrast till barn- och ungdomsskolan är utbildningsstoffet vid folkhögskolor inte styrt av nationellt fastlagda läroplaner. Avsaknaden av en kunskapsmässig infrastruktur och den föränderliga karaktären hos folkhögskolornas läroplan gör det utmanande att få grepp om utbildningsformen oh dess många metamorfoser över tid. Samtidigt gör de flexibla institiotionella ramvillkoren skolorna särskilt intressanta eftersom man via deras utveckling potentiellt kan få syn på större strukturella förändringar i utbildningsväsende, arbetsmarknad och tidsanda. Då målgruppen är vuxna och skolformen är frivillig behöver folkhögskolorna hela tiden anpassa verksamheten för att möta skiftande intressen och behov. I denna artikel vill jag pröva användbarheten av årsberättelser som utgångspunkt för en analys av arkivmaterial från Hola folkhögskola 1896-1989. Årsberättelser från folkhögskolor är exempel på vardagstrycksmaterial med stort lokalt och kulturhistoriskt värde men som riskerar att förbli outnyttjat då det inte har katalogiserats och/eller digitaliserats. Mitt bidrag utgår från ett pågående forskningsprojekt om den svenska folkhögskolan där samtliga skolors årsberättelser och kurskataloger digitaliseras och analyseras med utgångspunkt i storskalig text- och bildanalys. Jag frågar mig vilka förändringar som kan skönjas i folkhögskolornas verksamhetsbeskrivningar över tid. Vilka ämnen och kompetenser framställs som centrala? Hur har de bärande didaktiska metoderna beskrivits och förändrats? Möjligheterna att besvara dessa frågor underlättas av konstruktionen av sammanhängande longitudinella databaser i digitalt format vars betydelse sannolikt kommer att öka i takt med nya tekniska landvinningar inom databearbetning och storskalig språkmodellering.

In this chapter, we explore what kinds of research themes on lifelong learning have been salient in a selection of peer-review journals written in the English language throughout the last half-century. We draw on large-scale text mining techniques to identify 15 latent topics that have been the most prevalent within academic journals and trace how the semantic composition has changed in character over time. Based on this topic model analysis of metadata from 4561 articles, we show how the research field of lifelong learning hinge on broad distinctions between education and work, quantitative and qualitative research paradigms, as well as encompassing more fine-grained research clusters within this broader frame. We conclude by arguing that research on lifelong learning has undergone substantial changes since the 1980s, especially with regard to adult education that has lost its former role as the center of gravity with increased attention being directed toward learning within higher education as well as in relation to workplaces.

This book shows the continuing importance of art education. Art education attracts students who see multiple meanings and justifications for the worth of that education. Their engagement in art education is not limited to the uncertain prospects for jobs or routes into employment in the arts. Fürst and Nylander approach art education through a rich array of empirical examples derived from Swedish folk high school programs in music, visual arts, and creative writing. Based on an analytical framework of pragmatic sociology, the book allows the reader to understand the competences and critical capacities held by students and teachers. The book challenges the dominant public perception of art education and broadens our understanding of what it is good for. The Value of Art Education is essential reading for those defending the status of this vital sector of education, offering a deeper understanding of why people engage, what they gain, and the social importance of the arts.

The question of what the research of lifelong education is all about needs to be revisited from time to time. Not only is this line of research approached from a multitude of academic disciplines - such as sociology, psychology or philosophy - the very concepts that are used to denote the field also undergo important changes over time, e.g. from lifelong education to lifelong learning. In this contribution, we will explore this rather elusive research territory using a large-scale text analysis of a specific scientific journal, International Journal of Lifelong Education, based on meta-data (abstracts, keywords and titles) from 1,185 articles published between 1982 to 2021. Based on topic modelling techniques, we identify the main themes that have been prevalent within the journal, and how the journals content has changed character over time. We end the paper with a more critical examination of what kind of political and scientific currents might help explain what has led research practices to be more descriptive, micro-oriented and work-related over time.

In this chapter, we explore what kinds of research themes on lifelong learning have been salient in a selection of peer-review journals written in the English language throughout the last half-century. We draw on large-scale text mining techniques to identify 15 latent topics that have been the most prevalent within academic journals and trace how the semantic composition has changed in character over time. Based on this topic model analysis of metadata from 4561 articles, we show how the research field of lifelong learning hinge on broad distinctions between education and work, quantitative and qualitative research paradigms, as well as encompassing more fine-grained research clusters within this broader frame. We conclude by arguing that research on lifelong learning has undergone substantial changes since the 1980s, especially with regard to adult education that has lost its former role as the center of gravity with increased attention being directed toward learning within higher education as well as in relation to workplaces.

It is well established that participation in formal adult education varies by individual background characteristics. However, less attention has been paid to examining inequality in participation as a consequence of policy changes, such as educational expansion. This paper examines the process of tremendous expansion in Swedish Higher Vocational Education (HVE), a vocationally oriented postsecondary educational segment driven by labor market needs. Using a demographic approach with a sociological lens on educational participation, we analyze administrative data from registers, uncovering who has been served by this expanding adult educational form. Our results indicate that expansion of HVE has led to growth in participation for policy-prioritized groups, although the rate of growth in enrollment between groups varies and corresponds to population changes. We also locate the extent of cumulative advantages in participation and discuss these results in relation to social (in)equality in formalized HVE.

Program analysis has been developing into a prolific research tradition illustrating the utility of adult education providers and program descriptions as heuristic objects for addressing larger questions of social scientific and humanistic inquiry. In this research tradition, attention has been directed to the way programs and educational offers of adult education providers reflect the changing labour market, educational systems and cultural zeitgeist. In this article, we interrogate the opportunities to deploy large-scale text analysis on the content of the national catalogues of Swedish folk high schools (1954–2007) to further enlarge the analytical depth and precision of how program analysis can address changing educational offerings. Based on an analysis of a comprehensive digital repository we identify the latent thematic structures of educational offers in Swedish folk high schools over time and discuss how these changing course descriptions reflect broader structural changes in its educational system as well as regarding the purpose of adult education.

Die Programmanalyse hat sich zu einer produktiven Forschungstradition entwickelt, die den Nutzen von Anbietern von Erwachsenenbildung und Programmbeschreibungen als heuristische Objekte zur Behandlung größerer Fragen sozialwissenschaftlicher und humanistischer Forschung veranschaulicht. In dieser Forschungstradition wurde die Aufmerksamkeit darauf gerichtet, wie Programme und Bildungsangebote von Erwachsenenbildungsanbietern den Wandel von Arbeitsmarkt, Bildungssystemen und kulturellem Zeitgeist widerspiegeln. In diesem Artikel untersuchen wir die Möglichkeiten, großangelegte Textanalysen des Inhalts der Programme der schwedischen Volkshochschulen (1954–2007) einzusetzen, um die analytische Tiefe und Genauigkeit der Programmanalyse für sich ändernde Bildungsangebote weiter zu erhöhen. Basierend auf einer Analyse eines umfassenden digitalen Repositoriums identifizieren wir die latenten thematischen Strukturen von Bildungsangeboten an schwedischen Volkshochschulen im Laufe der Zeit und diskutieren, wie diese sich ändernden Kursbeschreibungen breitere strukturelle Veränderungen im Bildungssystem sowie im Hinblick auf den Zweck der Erwachsenenbildung widerspiegeln.

Purpose With the advancement of novel forms of text mining techniques, new possibilities have opened up to conduct large-scale content analysis of educational research from an international and comparative perspective. Since educational research tends to convey great variation based on country-specific circumstances it constitutes a good testbed for context-rich depictions of the knowledge formation within a given research field. Design/methodology/approach In this article, the authors compare the educational research that has been produced by scholars in Singapore and Sweden. The article begins by providing a rich overview of what has characterised the formation and institutionalization of educational research in public policy. After this background they map the knowledge formation of education by means of a comparative bibliometric approach using words from abstracts, titles and keywords published in 9017 peer-reviewed articles between 2000 and 2020. First, the authors describe the dominant topics in each country using topic modelling techniques. Secondly, the authors identify the most distinguishing discourses when comparing the two countries. Findings The findings illustrate two ideal-types for conducting educational research: Singapore being more centralised, practically-oriented, quantitative and uncritical, whereas Sweden is decentralised, pluralistic, qualitative and critical in orientation. After having mapped out the prevailing topics among researchers working in these locations, the authors connect these findings to larger debates on rivalling knowledge traditions in educational scholarship, the role of the state and the degree of autonomy within higher education. Originality/value Through large scale text mining techniques, researchers have begun to explore the semantic composition of various research fields such as higher education research, research on lifelong learning, or social science studies. However, the bibliometric method has also been criticised for creating "mega-national comparisons" that suffer from a lack of understanding of the national ramifications of various research pursuits. The authors study addresses these shortcomings and provides a rich depiction of educational research in Singapore and Sweden. It zooms in on the relationship between each countrys institutional histories, research priorities and semantic output.