Background and PurposeThe aim of this paper was to describe and analyse the impact of formal education and professional experience on physiotherapy students' ways of experiencing interaction within a patient encounter.MethodTwo groups of physiotherapy students were interviewed on two occasions; during the second and last term of their formal education programme, and during the last term and after 18 months' professional experience. Data were subjected to a qualitative analysis. Changes in conceptions between the two interview occasions were described quantitatively.ResultsSubjects' ways of experiencing interaction within a patient encounter could be described in four main categories: Mutuality; Technicalism; Authority and Juxtaposition. Mutuality and Technicalism denoted an integration of the communicative and problem-solving processes involved in the encounter, the former category from a patient-centred and the latter from a physiotherapist-centred perspective. Authority and Juxtaposition denoted a separation of the processes, the former from a physiotherapist-centred perspective and the latter from a patient-centred one.ConclusionsThe results show a trend as regards direction of change in conceptions from separated to integrated perspectives on the communicative and problem-solving processes after the formal education programme. After 18 months' professional practice the Mutuality category dominated.

The central theme of the investigation concerns the role of course objectives in relation to students' study strategies in problem-based learning (PBL). The results comprise data from three different PBL programmes at Link÷pings Universitet, a Bachelor's programme in physiotherapy, a Master's programme in psychology, and a Master's programme in Computer Engineering, respectively. In all three programmes, the faculty provides course objectives with the intention that these should function as a supportive structure and guide for the students' independent studies. The results show that the objectives were used differently in the different programmes, as an integrated tool in the learning process, as an administrative schedule or as a retroactive checklist, respectively. The students' use of the course objectives in the learning process varied according to how the objectives were formulated and conceived. The relationship between the format of objectives provided by the faculty and how students deal with them in the learning process could also denote fragments of the different educational cultures within the three programmes and how the meaning of problem-based learning is interpreted.

The present study is part of a comprehensive research project with the general aims of comparing how problem-based learning is realised in three different professional educational programmes. The specific aims of this study are to describe the impact of assessment on students' approaches to learning in the three programmes. The PBL programmes are a Master's programme in Psychology, Master's programme in Computer Engineering, and a Bachelor's programme in Physiotherapy. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed and analysed qualitatively. The results reveal both an idiosyncratic and a common pattern of categories describing the students’ approaches to learning. The idiosyncratic categories Confronting of perspectives, Reaching consensus, and Clinical reasoning appear to reflect fragments of the kinds of knowledge that are valued and sought-after within Psychology, Computer Engineering and Physiotherapy, respectively. The categories Reflecting, Memorising and Tactical planning appear across all three programmes, portraying deep as well as surface and strategic approaches to learning.

This book compares university students'experiences of problem-based learning in three professional educational programmes; Psychology, Engineering and Physiotherapy. Twenty students from each of the programmes were interviewed and the transcriptions subsequently subjeced to a qualitative analysis.The ways the different groups of students perceive of the characteristics of the pedagogical approach, the meaning and function of course objectives and their accounts of the varying approaches to studying in relation to course examinations, provide three distinct portraits of problem-based learning. The book suggests that the differences in how students perceive of the pedagogical approach reflect different perspectives of knowledge and learning embedded in their respective professional discipline. The book is challenging university teachers intending to implement problem-based learning in their courses to reflect on how their own epistemological standpoints impact on their views on learning and teaching.

Denna bok belyser och jämför flera gemensamma brännpunkter i kommunal vuxenutbildning, folkhögskola och högskola: till vilka utbildningarna riktas, hur de utformas didaktiskt, hur de studerande betygssätts och bedöms. Författarna använder konkreta exempel när de diskuterar bland annat utbildares och studerandes perspektiv på dessa områden. Boken riktar sig till blivande och verksamma personalvetare, yrkes- och studievägledare samt pedagoger.

A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource.The number of doctorates being awarded around the world has almost doubled over the last ten years, propelling it from a small elite enterprise into a large and ever growing international market. Within the context of increasing numbers of doctoral students this book examines the new doctorate environment and the challenges it is starting to face. Drawing on research from around the world the individual authors contribute to a previously under-represented focus of theorising the emerging practices of doctoral education and the shape of change in this arena. Key aspects, expertly discussed by contributors from the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, China, South Africa, Sweden and Denmark include: (1) the changing nature of doctoral education; (2) the need for systematic and principled accounts of doctoral pedagogies; (3) the importance of disciplinary specificity; (4) the relationship between pedagogy and knowledge generation; and (5) issues of transdisciplinarity. "Reshaping Doctoral Education" provides rich accounts of traditional and more innovative pedagogical practices within a range of doctoral systems in different disciplines, professional fields and geographical locations, providing the reader with a trustworthy and scholarly platform from which to design the doctoral experience. It will prove an essential resource for anyone involved in doctorate studies, whether as students, supervisors, researchers, administrators, teachers or mentors. After an introduction, this book is divided into three parts. Part I, Old Basics/New Basics?, contains the following: (2) Framing Doctoral Pedagogy As Design and Action, Susan Danby and Alison Lee; (3) Writing as Craft and Practice in the Doctoral Curriculum (Claire Aitchison and Anthony Pare); (4) Learning from the Literature: Some Pedagogies (David Boote); (5) "Team" Supervision: New Positionings in Doctoral Education Pedagogies (Catherine Manathunga); (6) The Seminar as Enacted Doctoral Pedagogy (Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren and Anna Bjuremark); (7) Taking a Break: Doctoral Summer Schools as Transformative Pedagogies (Miriam Zukas and Linda Lundgaard Andersen); and (8) "What's Going on Here?" The Pedagogy of a Data Analysis Session (Harris, J., Theobald, M., Danby, S., Reynolds, E., Rintel, E.S., and Members The Transcript Analysis Group (Tag)). Part II, Disciplinary and Transdisciplinary Pedagogies, contains the following: (9) Designing (In) the PhD in Architecture: Knowledge, Discipline, Pedagogy (Charles Rice and Linda Matthews); (10) Pedagogies for Creativity in Science Doctorates (Liezel Frick); (11) Creative Tensions: Negotiating the Multiple Dimensions of a Transdisciplinary Doctorate (Juliet Willetts, Cynthia Mitchell, Ku mi Absurdity and Dena Fame; (12) Cognitive Apprenticeship: The Making of a Scientist (Barbara J. Gabey's and Alina Bletch); and (13) Pedagogies of Industry Partnership (Barbara Adkins, Jennifer Summer ville, Susan Dan by and Judy Matthews). Part III, Inter-National and Intercultural Pedagogical Spaces, contains the following: (14) The Graduate School in the Sky: Emerging Pedagogies for An International Network for Doctoral Education and Research (Madeleine Brandt-Walgreen, Sofia Nostrum, Garnet Grossman and Alison Lee); (15) Ignorance and Pedagogies of Generative Equality: Internationalizing Australian Doctoral Education Programs and Pedagogies through Engaging Chinese Theoretical Tools (Michael Sing and Fang Chen); and (16) Expanding Pedagogical Boundaries: Indigenous Students Undertaking Doctoral Education (Liz McKinley and Barbara Grant). [Foreword by Erica McWilliam.]

The focus of this study is on how final-semester students and newly-graduated teachers experience theformal objectives of teacher education, with a particular view of the concepts of learning, responsibilityand collaboration. The ways of experiencing these concepts varied from conceptions in which only onedimension is discerned from in the student teachers group to conceptions in which several dimensions ofthe phenomena are discerned in the graduate teachers group.

This longitudinal study focuses on the transition from higher education to working life. Research has hitherto described the transition in rather general terms, and there is still only limited knowledge about how graduates construe themselves as professionals, or how they experience the transition to the sociocultural contexts of working life. In this study, the transition is viewed as a trajectory between different communities of practice. Three different Master's programmes at Linkping University are focused on and compared: political science, psychology and mechanical engineering. The specific aims are to: (i) identify aspects of identity and knowledge formation as reported by informants, both as senior students and later as novice workers with 18 months of work experience; (ii) identify features of discourses of knowledge and competence operating in the programmes and working life; and (iii) to relate the results to differences in the way the programmes are designed. The results indicate that the psychology programme prepares for working life in a rational way, that is, the generic skills and substantive knowledge acquired seem to correspond to the demands of professional work. The other programmes stand out as preparing for working life either by providing generic skills that need to be transformed in professional work, or by containing elements that mainly play a ritual role rather than corresponding to the demands of working life.

The book reports on a longitudinal European resesrch project aiming at understanding how the transition between higher education and work life is experienced by the students. Informants are selected from a variety of study programs such as Psychology, Political science, Engineering and Law. The students are interviewed at the end of their studies and later after about one and a half year of work life experience. The aim is to describe and understand in what ways the studies have prepared the students for work life. The results indicate great differences between programs and also between the participating universities located in Sweden, Norway, Poland and Germany.

At the core of higher education is the experience of students whose focus for learning is often directed towards their future employability. In this paper, we explore the intersections between two large international research projects involving over 500 students. Interviews with students yielded their conceptions of learning and work in specific discipline and professional areas. Analysis of the Swedish and Australian data sets showed the important interplay between students' individual ideas about learning and future work with their workplace. A meta-analysis of the two projects highlights the utility of higher education for students' future working life and suggests ways in which institutions and policy makers can critique current practice in a way that will incline curriculum and teaching development towards professional formation. © 2007 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.

Our objective was to assess parents' expectations about participating in antenatal parenthood education classes and to determine whether their expectations might be related to gender, age, and educational level. Data from 1,117 women and 1,019 partners residing in three cities in Sweden were collected with a questionnaire in a cross-sectional study. Participants believed that antenatal education classes would help them to feel more secure as parents and to be better oriented toward childbirth. Men had more positive expectations about the childbirth than the women. The participants mostly wanted help in preparing for parenthood and in learning infant care skills, followed by help in preparing for childbirth. The participants' expectations were affected by gender, age, and educational level. The expectant parents appeared to want more focus on preparation for parenthood than on childbirth.

This article explores how Korean exchange students organized their studies during exchange programs in Swedish higher education. For most students, the programs became a disordered period in relation to their education. The value of exchange studies seems mainly to be extra-curricular. Drawing upon actor network theory, the article argues that the students’ way of organizing their studies is based not only on individual choice but also on relations to other actors in a network.

This study explores students’ attitudes on international exchange programs in higher education in Sweden. Internationalization of higher education has been one of the main agendas during the last decades and increasing students’ international mobility has been one of the key issues in work of internationalisation of higher education. There are strong arguments and assumptions on the positive value of what internationalization of higher education would bring. For the individual students, it is often argued that students would gain international and intercultural knowledge and understandings by studying abroad. In addition

it is not only educational merits but an advantage in employability and mobility in the future labour market, which is described to be international and intercultural.

Exchange studies as an inclusive and integrated part of students’ education are aimed to make it easier for the students to move and study abroad. It is intended that studying abroad would be an open opportunity for students. Despite the accessibilities and universities’ ambitions and efforts in improving conditions for the students, not many students take this opportunity. In Sweden, the number of outgoing students is not impressive. For example during 2007-08, the percentage of outgoing students in higher education was only 1,8 % (Högskoleverket, 2009).

The main question of the study investigates students’ attitudes on exchange programs and their choices; which groups of students are more likely to take part in exchange programs? The study is based on survey data collected from two different educational programs: one is over- represented and the other is under-represented in internationally mobile student groups. Independent variables such as gender, the parents’ socio-economic backgrounds and level of education are used to describe student groups and their attitudes. To gain better understanding on the students’ attitudes and participation in exchange programs, the study further explores; the students’ international experiences, the families’ international experiences and the students’ perceptions on their future labour market.

Influenced by Bourdieu’s work, the concepts such as international capital, educational capital and educational trajectories are used to interpret the results. The results further discuss the students’ subjective attitudes and choices within the objective conditions and structures.

Denna bok belyser och jämför flera gemensamma brännpunkter i kommunal vuxenutbildning, folkhögskola och högskola: till vilka utbildningarna riktas, hur de utformas didaktiskt, hur de studerande betygssätts och bedöms. Författarna använder konkreta exempel när de diskuterar bland annat utbildares och studerandes perspektiv på dessa områden. Boken riktar sig till blivande och verksamma personalvetare, yrkes- och studievägledare samt pedagoger.

Community of practise - a way of understand the learning process of voluntary representatives. This paper has its background in my PhD-project, still in process, witch concerns some of the people that works in a trade union, the voluntary representatives , or as they are named in the Swedish Municipal Workers Union -arbetsplatsombud-. For me this group is interesting in many ways, one of them concerns the voluntary representatives special situation, they have their role as union representatives at the same time as they have a job from which they earn their living. They are at the workplace, working together with other members, acting like a link between the member and the union. In a way you can say that they have two jobs at the same time. They are in one context, the workplaces, but are moving between/in two different practices, having legitimated participation in both. My science question concerns the voluntary representatives learning process and how their movements from -novices to experts- can be described. In order to understand the voluntary representative-s learning process and there movements in to the unions community of practice I-m using the theory of ´Community of practice´ (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) as an analytic tool. Inspired by the method of ethnography I have collected data during different methods; several, recurrently, life story inspired interviews with voluntary representatives, observations at workplaces and during different contacts between the voluntary representatives and the union club/union courses. In this paper I will present one of my informants and her movements on here way learning the task as a voluntary representative through the perspective of ´Community of practice´. And my wish is that this can start a discussion about the voluntary representatives learning situation and my use of ´Community of practice´ as an analytic tool. Ulla Alsin, PhD Student in Pedagogic 

Inom omvårdnadsvetenskapen har det funnits och finns, delade meningar angående begreppsdefinitionen av det Svenska begreppet Omvårdnad. Hur detta har debaterats i två vetenskapliga tidiskrifter åren 1987 - 2001 har analyserats.Resultatet visar att den debatt som förekommit under perioden var ringa, endast 6 artiklar kunde lokaliseras. Det visade sig även att omvårdnadsbegreppet verkar vara starkt förankrat till en vetensakplig områdestillhörighet tillika professionsanknuten. Trots att den senaste av artiklarnas, 1996, artikelförfattare uttryckte både en önskan och en nödvändighet om fortsatt debatt återfanns ingen sådan fram till 2001. Vilket bidrar till frågan: Är ämnet infekterat och i sådana fall varför? 

Utvärderingens övergripande syfte är att med utgångspunkt i deltagarnas erfarenheter belysa och värdera Landstinget Sörmlands studiecirkelsatsningar ut ett demokrati- och hälsoperspektiv, med betoning på det senare. Datainsamlingen består av intervjuer och deltagande observationer och metodansatsen är den kvalitativa fallstudeien med en beskrivande värdering. Resultatet visade att studiecirkeldeltagandet kan ha betydelse för hälsan, men att ett anvädnande av studiecirkelformen innebär att dess ursprungliga idé måste beaktas, då den till sin form är demokratisk. Men att satsningen Det goda livet kan liknas vid ett styrt lärande, där den lärande dialogen saknas. 

Dena c-uppsats handlar om studiecirkeln som lärande- och demokratisk mötesarena där medborgare och landstingspolitiker kan mötas för att utveckla dialogen dem emellan. Utifrån den kvalitativa fallstudiens metod har studiecirkeldeltagare, pensionärer och landstingspolitiker i den av Landstinget Sörmland initierade studiecirkelsatsningen Vårdens Svåra Val intervjuats. Resultatet visade att studiecirkelverksamheten kan fylla en funktion i dagens Sverige, trots att initiativet till Vårdens svåra val kom -uppifrån- från en myndighet. En funktion som i det mesta överensstämmer med dess grundares intention och ideologi och som vid upplevd återkoppling kan åstadkomma många ringar på vattnet. Studiecirkeln Vårdens Svåra Val var annorlunda uppbyggd än andra studiecirklar genom möjligheten att ha ett direkt möte, en nära dialog med företrädare för landstinget. I de studiecirkelgrupper som använde den möjligheten har vi, till skillnad mot Larsson (2001) sett att den studiecirkelformen som Vårdens svåra val använde kan ge ytterligare en demokratisk dimension till studiecirkelverksamheten. Detta då studiecirkeldeltagarna i ett direkt möte med en förtroendevald och/eller genom dialogbladen framförde sina medborgerliga ståndpunkter som grundats i en lärandeprocess genom studiecirkeldeltagandet. Man skulle därför kunna uttrycka det som att det genom studiecirkeln sker ett direkt och aktivt medborgerligt demokratiskt utövande och det i en direkt politisk handling som kan ha påverkan på samhället.  

Syftet med studien är att belysa studiecirkeln som studieform och som ett medel för kommunikation och dialog mellan medborgare och myndighet.För att kunna tolka studiecirkeln som företeelse har den spcifika studiecirkeln Vårdens Svåra Val studerat, initierad av Landstinget Sörmland för att få tillstånd en fortlöpande dialog mellan medborgarna angående prioriteringsfrågor. Utifrånden kvalitativa fallstudiens metodik har 13 intervjuer genomförts. 8 med deltagande pensionärer och 5 med deltagande förtroendevalda landstingsledamöter. 

Utvärderingens övergripande syfte är att med utgångspunkt i deltagarnas erfarenheter belysa och värdera Landstinget Sörmlands studiecirkelsatsningar ut ett demokrati- och hälsoperspektiv, med betoning på det senare. Datainsamlingen består av intervjuer och deltagande observationer och metodansatsen är den kvalitativa fallstudeien med en beskrivande värdering. Resultatet visade att studiecirkeldeltagandet kan ha betydelse för hälsan, men att ett anvädnande av studiecirkelformen innebär att dess ursprungliga idé måste beaktas, då den till sin form är demokratisk. Men att satsningen Det goda livet kan liknas vid ett styrt lärande, där den lärande dialogen saknas. 

This evaluation concerns a health- and democratic project, carried out by the local authority Landstinget Sörmland together with Länsbildningsförbundet Sörmland, of two studycircles; Vårdens svåra val (The difficult priorities in Medical and caretaking services) and Det goda livet (The good life). The purpose was, through the participant-s experiences; to describe the studycircleproject from a democratic- and a health perspective. The research includes interviews, observations and a miner analyse of the materials. A holistic health perspective, shows that the studycircle can be good for the health, though it provides the participant tools to perform acts witch can lead to one ore several goals. This can in turn lead to new knowledge of both the own and the societies condition. An important role, according to the participant-s experiences regarding the democracy aspects, is the material. Det goda livet, can describes as closed; the experts tells, without including the participants, howe to live a good life. The connection towards the society disappears and the democratic parts are shadowed by a steered, individual, education. The study also showed five different -studycircleframes- witch illustrate the necessity of the circles two divergent poles; nearness through distance and distance through nearness. 

Utvärderingen av Landstingets Sörmlands initierade studiecirkelsatsningen Vårdens Svåra Val har svarat på frågorna utifrån den kvalitativa fallstudiens metodologiska ansats. Har studiecirkeln i det här sammanhanget fungerat som; en arena där en dialog kan komma till stånd, där kunskap kan utvecklas och utbytas för att vidga den demokratiska delaktigheten? Ja, intervjuerna med cirkeldeltagarna och läsningen av dialogbladen har givit oss intrycket att studiecirkelformen fungerat som ett verktyg, en mötesplats där en dialog mellan medborgare och företrädare för landstinget kan ske. Det har dock saknats möjligheter för cirkeldeltagarna att ta del av landstingsföreträdarnas reaktioner på dels dialogbladen och dels på deras medverkan i cirkelträffarna. Denna respons behövs för att cirkeldeltagarna ska uppleva att deras medborgerliga engagemang har tagits till vara. Det borde även nå de medborgare som inte deltagit i studiecirkeln, dels för att informera alla medborgare om vad som görs och dels för att den informationen kan bidra till att ett deltagande i den demokaratiska processen ökar och fördjupas. 

Utvärderingen av studiecirkelsatsningen Vårdens Svåra Val genomfördes för att undersöka studiecirkelformens användbarhet för en utveckling av dialogen mellan medborgare och landstingspolitiker. Resultatet visade att studiecirkelformen är ett möjligt arbetssätt för att utveckla en dialog mellan medborgarna och landstinget och att den kan ses som en demokratisk arena. 

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the indigenous people and the culture in Latin America is represented in Swedish high school schoolbooks in comparison with their equals in Colombia. The aim is to discover whether there are any differences or similarities between the reproductions in both countries. The theoretical part discusses the difficulties involved to determine both a Latin-American identity as well as a Colombian one. This is due to the fact that identity in Latin America is a product of colonization, which is to say that it came into being through the people who conquered the region because, prior to their arrival, Latin America didn’t exist as we know it. Multiculturalism within the region complicates this construction since different groups and nations construct their memory and ‘wear’ these concepts from which they get their proper sense of the past in function with the present and how it aspires to identify itself with the future. This means that not just one Latin America exists, but many. Part of the problem is, according to some scholars (cf. Díaz Geniz 2004), Latin Americans desire to identify themselves with the ‘other’, meaning the white, the European or the North American. The study concludes that there exists a European point of view in the books of both countries in their way of representing the history of the region.

In this article we compare how the native population of Latin America and their culture is represented in History schoolbooks both in Sweden and in Colombia. The aim was to find out if there are differences and similarities in the reproduction of the native community in both countries. The study shows that Colombian schoolbooks give information more thoroughly, describing and explaining the facts, however, both countries consistently show the trend to represent the natives as being different and inferior, especially when describing their way of living and their knowledge. We find explanations about what they owned and what they did not own, what they knew and did not know, all focused from a Eurocentric perspective.

In this article we compare how ‘slavery’, among Indian population during the colonization in Latin America, is represented in History schoolbooks both in Sweden and in Colombia. The aim of the subject is an intent to point out similarities and differences in the reproduction in both countries. The study shows that Colombian schoolbooks transmit more profound information and give more space to the facts. However, in the schoolbooks of both countries, the connection between the hard work burden which the slavery ment and the change for the worst of the immunsystem in the explinations of the diminishing of the Latin-American indigenous population.

Denna rapport är resultatet av ett ettårigt forskningsprojekt som Folkbildningsrådet finansierat. Projektet har genomförts av en grupp forskare vid Linköpings universitet: Lisbeth Eriksson, Martin Lundberg, Thomas Winman och Robert Aman.Forskarna undersöker hur olika religiösa och etniska gruppers skapande av “egna” folkbildande verksamheter kan förstås. I rapporten beskrivs de processer som lett fram till etablerandet av Kista folkhögskola, Agnesbergs folkhögskola, studieförbundet Ibn Rushd samt Samernas utbildningscentrum.

The present essay focuses on problematizing the European Union’s claim that interculturaldialogue constitutes an advocated method of talking through cultural boundaries—inside as wellas outside the classroom—based on mutual empathy and non-domination. More precisely, theaim is to analyze who is being constructed as counterparts of the intercultural dialogue throughthe discourse produced by the EU in policies on education, culture and intercultural dialogue.Within the Union, Europeans are portrayed as having an a priori historical existence, whilethe ones excluded from this notion are evoked to demonstrate its difference in comparison to theEuropean one.The results show that subjects not considered as Europeans serve as markers of themulticultural present of the space. Thus, intercultural dialogue seems to consolidate differencesbetween European and Other—the‘We’ and ‘Them’ in the dialogue—rather than, as in line withits purpose, bringing subjects together.

Folkbildningen i Sverige har, i en mening, varit oförändrad under lång tid, men som vi ser det sker nu ett trendbrott. Nya intressenter eller nya aktörer börjar ta andelar av den begränsade statsbidragsberättigade folkbildningen. Vad kommer det att leda till? Många inom folkbildningen talar i dag om att folkbildningen är omodern och vi undrar om nyetablerandet av folkbildningsverksamhet är ett tecken på det eller finns det helt andra utgångspunkter för denna (Eriksson, 2008)?

Det övergripande syftet med studien är att få en fördjupad förståelse av vad det är som händer. Vi är intresserade av två olika frågeställningar. Den första handlar om varför. Vad finns det för motiv och bevekelsegrunder bakom olika etniska eller religiösa gruppers skapande av ”egna” folkbildande verksamheter? Vad är det som gör att de väljer en segregerad organisatorisk lösning framför en integrerad sådan?

Den andra frågan rör processen. Vi vill beskriva den process som lett fram till att muslimer, romer och samer agerar på detta sätt. Här är både processen inom grupperna och processen i samhället av intresse. Vi ställer oss frågan om det finns någon relation mellan dessa processer. Finns det företeelser i samhället i stort som kan förklara vad som sker inom folkbildningen och vice versa? Det är också av intresse att se om det finns likheter eller olikheter i de olika gruppernas processer.

Frågorna kan preciseras på följande sätt:

1. Hur kan olika religiösa och etniska gruppers skapande av ”egna” folkbildande verksamheter förstås?
2. Hur kan den process som lett fram till detta beskrivas; dels utifrån vad som skett och sker i samhället, dels utifrån de olika gruppernas perspektiv?

För att kunna besvara dessa frågor har vi studerat fyra olika fall, fyra empiriska exempel. Som vi nämnt tidigare har vi valt att studera det romska initiativet att starta en egen folkhögskola i Agnesberg utanför Göteborg, det muslimska initiativet i Kista utanför Stockholm att göra detsamma samt det muslimska studieförbundet Ibn Rushd. Vi har dessutom valt att studera samernas situation i detta sammanhang.Muslimerna och romerna har valts med anledning av deras initiativ till egen folkbildande verksamhet, medan samerna valts då deras utveckling skulle kunna tolkas som den motsatta. De har tidigare haft en egen folkhögskola som nu avvecklats. Samerna har status av att vara en nationell minoritet, vilket även romerna har, men inte muslimerna.  Muslimer, romer och samer är dock alla tre exempel på  minoritetsgrupper i det svenska samhället. Detta aktualiserar frågor kring mångkultur, integration/segregation och majoritetssamhällets möte med minoritetsgrupper.

Historically the majority society in Sweden has categorized minority groups out of different inconsistent characteristics. It can be out ethnical or cultural belonging but sometimes it is out of religious believes and the point of departure for those categories can only be understood out of a historical perspective. Examples of those historically well established patterns of categorizations are Romans and Muslims. In the group of Romans there might be several different religions represented, and in the Muslim group there might be several ethnical belongings represented. The categories, Romans and Muslim, are historically often used to distinct people from a belonging to the majority in Sweden which has an excluding effect as it separates us from them. As an answer to this excluding or marginalizing process, the groups themselves have organised their activities within groups of associations. Those associations have served several purposes depending on the specific group of interest, such as education, culture issues, or building up communities of fellowship. From one perspective those associations can be seen as segregated groups which run the risk to strengthen the marginalization for their participants. But the associations themselves argue that they instead have a crucial role for the integration of marginalized categories of citizens, on both a group and an individual level. In this paper we discuss associations which origin from two minority groups (Muslims and Romanise) with a theoretical frame of social pedagogic. They are built upon different categories, ethnicity and religion, but participants themselves says that the need for their associations origin from experiences of exclusion and marginalization from the majority society as well as needs for social cohesion within the groups. The aim is to develop knowledge and discuss the associations own purposes where the dichotomy between adaptation and mobilisation are of certain interest, and moreover, adaptation or mobilisation, to what? Such a question entails a discussion about the relations between minority groups and the majority society. One core question is – how can this kind of associations be understood from a social pedagogical perspective? Is it a place where the groups can experience community or a place where knowledge, traditions and values can be transferred from one generation to another? Or is it more platforms for mobilization and consciousness awareness about the relation to the majority society, where the relations itself are seen as having a great impact on everyday life? The empirical data derives from interviews with stakeholders from the associations and observations of group activities. Theories about participation and communities form the base for our analyses and understandings about the associations own work with issues like education, fosterage, commitment and mobilisation. We also lean on theories about multi-culturally politics of identity to analyse the associations’ relation and position to the surrounding society. The expectations are that the results will show which meaning the associations have for the minority group’s inclusion and relation to the majority society where the question of us and them is significant.

This case study examines how a lecturer and a group of students adjust to a request for English-only medium of instruction in tertiary education. The study draws on sociocultural theories considering context and language use as tools for meaning making. Goffman's theories of stage setting and footing are used to analyse how the lecturer positions himself in relation to language use. The findings show that in the observed session the lecturer used code-switching as a tool to extend students’ academic literacy. Further, we found that he in most cases assigned different classroom spaces to different languages. Hence, English as the targeted language of instruction was used when the lecturer was standing at the board, the official teaching space, whereas French, a previously accepted language, was used in a semi-official space closer to the students. Kinyarwanda, the lecturer's and students’ first language, is not permitted as a medium of instruction, but was used when the lecturer was close to the students. We label this a personal space, where the lecturer changed code in order to improve interaction and students’ understanding. Such code-switching has cultural and historical traditions and is viewed in this study as a strategy to avoid misunderstandings and allow more equitable learning opportunities.

In this paper, we investigate strategies employed by students, lecturers and academic administrators to facilitate learning within a university in Rwanda. On a political level, the potential of linguistic diversity is a tool for nation building and, in times of globalization, access to information, communication, technology and business with international communities. However, on a societal and individual level, using foreign media of instruction may hamper the implementation of targeted goals.

The focus of this study is on how students handle the linguistic diversity they are exposed to. The research tools used to gather data are questionnaires, interviews and audio-recorded group work. The data were analysed drawing upon theories related to learning in multilingual settings. Findings show that language diversity has a great potential of facilitating learning, thus emphasizing the complementarities rather than the exclusion of languages used in Rwanda. However, what the participants described as “lack of background knowledge” might be a sign of an underlying language problem, where students memorise lecturers’ notes and reproduce them during any kind of evaluation, without questioning and reflecting on the material in order to convert information into knowledge.

The present study investigates three stories produced when a group of grade 6 children in a rural school in Rwanda are requested to tell a story of their own choice. The children speak Kinyarwanda, the first language of the majority of the people in Rwanda, but their medium of instruction at school is French. The findings show that all stories but one were told in Kinyarwanda. Here we want to explore similarities and differences between the story in French and two selected stories in Kinyarwanda. One of the Kinyarwandan stories is selected because it is of similar length as the one in French and the other story is selected because it is well elaborated. All stories are analysed in terms of content, narrative structure and language complexity. Our analysis is in progress but so far we have seen that all children have told stories with a clear high point (Labov, 1992). Moreover, all stories deal with gender issues of some kind. We have also seen that language choice seems to have an impact on where the story is situated.

This dissertation is focussing on students’ experiences of assessments, which means that the assessments are related to studying. The assessments particularly investigated are the main types of assessments used in the application and selection for higher education in Sweden – the grading in schools on secondary level, and the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (SweSAT).

The literature review is an analysis of previous knowledge, resulting in a model of orientations to studying.

The empirical investigation consists of interviews with 100 students in upper secondary school, municipal adult education and folk high schools. The interviews are analysed with a phenomenographic approach, and the analysis results in categories describing ways of experiencing what it means to study, ways of experiencing the grades, and the SweSAT. In addition to this, the analysis gives a description of relations between components within categories, relations between categories, and relations between phenomena.

The main patterns in the students’ experiences of the assessments are the following: The different categories, describing the experiences of the assessments per se, are focussing on assessment of performance, assessment of personal qualities (including developed knowledge), or uncertainty in relation to the assessment. There are four main aspects of the students’ experiences of the value of assessments, i.e., the relation to future plans, the relation to the student’s personal context, the possibility to influence your result, and the relation to other assessments used in the selection.

The final result of the empirical investigation is a reconstructed model of five orientations to studying, where the empirical results are integrated with previous knowledge. The five categories are the knowledge orientation, the duty orientation, the participation orientation, the qualification orientation, and the resistance orientation. These orientations are also described as adaptive and/or non-adaptive in relation to the demands of the education.

A further analysis in relation to three social science perspectives shows how assessments can contribute to the colonization of the educational lifeworld, how assessments can be seen as instruments of discipline, and how assessments can be seen as disembedding mechanisms.

Durant els últims vint anys ha hagut un interès creixent en el treball de Michel Foucault en sociologia i en particular el relacionat amb l'educació. Aquest és el primer llibre que utilitza el seu treball per a considerar l'educació permanent por sí mateix, explora la importància de les polítiques i les pràctiques de l'educació permanent (...) aquest llibre ofereix visions en qüestions com:

¿Quines són els efectes de les polítiques de l'educació permanent dins dels sistemes socio-polítics de govern?

¿Què fa l'educació permanent per la nostra comprensió de nosaltres mateixos com a ciutadans?

¿Com actua l'educació permanent en la regulació i la reordenació d'allò que les persones fan?

Suggereix que la interpretació de l'educació permanent com a contribució a l'economia del coneixement, la globalització o el nou ordre del treball pot necessitar ser revisada si hem d'entendre el seu impacte de manera més completa.

Los Gedge viven en un pueblecito idílico, y en una mansión no me­nos maravillosa. Lo que no saben es que dos ladrones de guante muy blanco codician sus diamantes. La señora Gedge, por su parte, ambi­ciona para su marido la embajada de los Estados Unidos en Francia, y para conseguirla está dispuesta a utilizar incluso el chantaje. Y su pre­sunta víctima es el influyente senador Opal, padre de Jane, una ena­moradiza jovencita... Y con estos ingredientes y algunos más típicos del irresistible humor de Wodehouse como por ejemplo uno de los muy ingleses ladrones de guante blanco, disfrazado de impecable aris­tócrata francés, el lector ya tiene la diversión asegurada. «Sin ningún género de dudas es una de las novelas más desopilantes de su autor» (Daily Telegraph).

Denna artikel ger en kortfattad introduktion till och översikt över aktuell vuxenpedagogisk forskning.

 Denna text ger en sammanfattning och överblick över den kunskap som utvecklats genom den forskning om validering av vuxnas kunskap och kompetens som bedrivits inom ramen för en anställning som forskarassistent, finansierad via bidrag från Vetenskapsrådet. 

The recognition of prior learning (RPL) has been part of adult education policy and practice for a long time, but in different ways and in different times and places. In Sweden, RPL has been an explicit part of the policy since 1996. This policy analysis starts with the current Swedish policy concerning RPL. The figures of thought expressed in official policy texts are traced in, and compared to what is expressed in, the (discursive) practice of a case of local policy and development initiatives. The objective of the analysis is to see how the policy in official texts is reproduced and transformed at the local level. The theoretical starting point is the Foucauldian concept of ‘governmentality’, and RPL is seen as a technique for governing adult education, the adult learner, and also adult learning. The analysis focuses particularly on the governing of adult education, expressed in the ‘salvation narrative’ of RPL, and in ideas of what RPL is and how it should be organised. Indirect as well as direct techniques of governing are identified in the governing of and through RPL.

The selection system for higher education in Sweden could be seen as a two-step system. Firstly the eligibility is assessed through varying measures, to secure that students have the ability to take the course or program in question. Secondly, if there are more eligible applicants than study places, a selection process is undertaken based on partly other measures.

The focus of this paper is the first step, the eligibility, and particularly the 25:4 scheme, a measure for eligibility that was introduced to widen access to higher education in the 1970s, and which is now on its way out. The scheme means that an age of 25 and 4 years work experience are the main criteria in an alternative track for basic eligibility. The aim of this exploratory study is to identify carachteristics of applicants in the 25:4 group and to compare them to groups of applicants with other types of eligibility from upper secondary school and adult education. What are the carachteristics of 25:4 applicants? I what ways do they differ from other applicants?

The analysis is based on a material consisting of data from the admission rounds in 2007 and 2008, the last admission rounds when the 25:4 scheme was still fully useful for potential applicants. The results identify differences and similarities in forms of courses/programmes applied for as well as in background factors such as age, gender and socioeconomic status. The results indicate what influence the 25:4 scheme has had on the admission of traditional and non-traditional students in Swedish higher education.

As individuals and societies try to respond to fundamental economic and social transformation, the field of adult learning and education is rapidly getting increased attention and new topics for research on adult learning have emerged. This collection of articles from the International Encyclopedia of Education 3e offers practitioners and researchers in the area of adult learning and education a comprehensive summary of main developments in the field. The 45 articles provide insight into the historical development of the field, its conceptual controversies, domains and provision, perspectives on adult learning, instruction and program planning, outcomes, relationship to economy and society and its status as a field of scholarly study and practice.

The field of education has experienced extraordinary technological, societal, and institutional change in recent years, making it one of the most fascinating yet complex fields of study in social science. Unequalled in its combination of authoritative scholarship and comprehensive coverage, "International Encyclopedia of Education, Third Edition" succeeds two highly successful previous editions (1985, 1994) in aiming to encapsulate research in this vibrant field for the twenty-first century reader. Under development for five years, this work encompasses over 1,000 articles across 24 individual areas of coverage, and is expected to become the dominant resource in the field. Education is a multidisciplinary and international field drawing on a wide range of social sciences and humanities disciplines, and this new edition comprehensively matches this diversity. The diverse background and multidisciplinary subject coverage of the Editorial Board ensure a balanced and objective academic framework, with 1,500 contributors representing over 100 countries, capturing a complete portrait of this evolving field.It features a totally new work, revamped with a wholly new editorial board, structure and brand-new list of meta-sections and articles. It is developed by an international panel of editors and authors drawn from senior academia; web-enhanced with supplementary multimedia audio and video files, hotlinked to relevant references and sources for further study. It incorporates ca. 1,350 articles, with timely coverage of such topics as technology and learning, demography and social change, globalization, and adult learning, to name a few. It offers two content delivery options - print and online - the latter of which provides anytime, anywhere access for multiple users and superior search functionality via ScienceDirect, as well as multimedia content, including audio and video files.

This study of an initiative for recognising ICT competence is situated in a framework of formal training at upper secondary level. Specific assessment methods were used, but the classification of knowledge and the criteria for assessment were those used in formal training. Thus, there is a risk of excluding individual competence not included in the formal framework. The study also raises the question of whether recognition of prior learning should be a separate or an integrated part of the curriculum. 

Over the last twenty years there has been increasing interest in the work of Michel Foucault in the social sciences and in particular with relation to education. This, the first book to draw on his work to consider lifelong learning, explores the significance of policies and practices of lifelong learning to the wider societies of which they are a part.With a breadth of international contributors and sites of analysis, this book offers insights into such questions as: What are the effects of lifelong learning policies within socio-political systems of governance? What does lifelong learning do to our understanding of ourselves as citizens? How does lifelong learning act in the regulation and re-ordering of what people do? The book suggests that understanding of lifelong learning as contributory to the knowledge economy, globalisation or the new work order may need to be revised if we are to understand its impact more fully. It therefore makes a significant contribution to the study of lifelong learning.