Educational and professional development in Swedish higher education
Brandén, Henrik and Sonesson, Anders LU
(2024)
NERA 2024
p.283-283
- Abstract (Swedish)
- We invite all interested participants into an exploratory workshop about possible research designs for studying the relationship between educational and professional development in Swedish higher education. The authors’ experience from working in Swedish higher education for a long time is that there are some stories about this relationship that are more frequent than others. The aim of our planned research project is to try to understand some of these more frequent stories. As inspiration for the workshop, please consider the following stories:
In Sweden, all public power emanates from the people. Through public elections, members are elected to Sweden's Riksdag, and based on the election results, a government is formed with the... (More) - We invite all interested participants into an exploratory workshop about possible research designs for studying the relationship between educational and professional development in Swedish higher education. The authors’ experience from working in Swedish higher education for a long time is that there are some stories about this relationship that are more frequent than others. The aim of our planned research project is to try to understand some of these more frequent stories. As inspiration for the workshop, please consider the following stories:
In Sweden, all public power emanates from the people. Through public elections, members are elected to Sweden's Riksdag, and based on the election results, a government is formed with the task of governing the country through laws, ordinances, regulation letters, and special assignments. These laws, ordinances, letters, and assignments govern the work of the Swedish authorities. The task of the civil servants at these authorities is to complete the democratic power chain in such a way that the people is served. In Sweden, universities are authorities, academics are civil servants, and educational development is a professionalisation movement where the academics become increasingly better at serving the Swedish people. Academic leaders and educational developers have a special responsibility for this movement. Their work includes both the deliberation and the domestication of the academics.
During the 20th century, the academic occupation developed into a profession through the process of occupational closure. This means that today, not everyone is qualified to get a position as an academic. Instead, there are special requirements regarding education and training. It also means that the academic of today is a highly trained and knowledgeable professional, fully capable of working independently, without the guidance of others, as well as together with others. Ideally, an academic masters several scholarships, including the production of new knowledge, the integration of knowledge across topics and disciplines, the application of knowledge outside universities, and the systematic study of teaching and learning in higher education. In practice, however, the scholarship of teaching and learning is less developed and not fully occupationally closed. Educational development is an ongoing grassroot movement towards a full occupational closure in this area and, consequently, towards a better balance between different scholarships in higher education.
Research became a professional and prestigious activity during the 20th century. It also became an activity that is no longer performed by every academic. Nowadays, there are teaching positions in higher education that do not require a research education and where the duties only include teaching and administration. There are also other groups, such as educational developers, that do not necessarily do any research. Neither do they necessarily teach or meet students. The duties of educational developers are instead to support those who teach students. Educational development is a process where activities related to education becomes more professional and prestigious. This is a movement towards an interprofessional higher education landscape where several academic professions coexist and collaborate. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/e13844ef-604b-46f0-8179-f15ed2ac5b8a
- author
- Brandén, Henrik
and Sonesson, Anders
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-03-07
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- pages
- 1 pages
- conference name
- NERA 2024
- conference location
- Malmö, Sweden
- conference dates
- 2024-03-06 - 2024-03-08
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- e13844ef-604b-46f0-8179-f15ed2ac5b8a
- alternative location
- https://wordpress.invajo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/pdf_nera2024-3655_1720011407850-2024-07-03-1257-1.pdf#__WKANCHOR_fo
- date added to LUP
- 2024-12-17 11:01:22
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:56:07
@misc{e13844ef-604b-46f0-8179-f15ed2ac5b8a,
abstract = {{We invite all interested participants into an exploratory workshop about possible research designs for studying the relationship between educational and professional development in Swedish higher education. The authors’ experience from working in Swedish higher education for a long time is that there are some stories about this relationship that are more frequent than others. The aim of our planned research project is to try to understand some of these more frequent stories. As inspiration for the workshop, please consider the following stories:<br/><br/>In Sweden, all public power emanates from the people. Through public elections, members are elected to Sweden's Riksdag, and based on the election results, a government is formed with the task of governing the country through laws, ordinances, regulation letters, and special assignments. These laws, ordinances, letters, and assignments govern the work of the Swedish authorities. The task of the civil servants at these authorities is to complete the democratic power chain in such a way that the people is served. In Sweden, universities are authorities, academics are civil servants, and educational development is a professionalisation movement where the academics become increasingly better at serving the Swedish people. Academic leaders and educational developers have a special responsibility for this movement. Their work includes both the deliberation and the domestication of the academics.<br/><br/>During the 20th century, the academic occupation developed into a profession through the process of occupational closure. This means that today, not everyone is qualified to get a position as an academic. Instead, there are special requirements regarding education and training. It also means that the academic of today is a highly trained and knowledgeable professional, fully capable of working independently, without the guidance of others, as well as together with others. Ideally, an academic masters several scholarships, including the production of new knowledge, the integration of knowledge across topics and disciplines, the application of knowledge outside universities, and the systematic study of teaching and learning in higher education. In practice, however, the scholarship of teaching and learning is less developed and not fully occupationally closed. Educational development is an ongoing grassroot movement towards a full occupational closure in this area and, consequently, towards a better balance between different scholarships in higher education.<br/><br/>Research became a professional and prestigious activity during the 20th century. It also became an activity that is no longer performed by every academic. Nowadays, there are teaching positions in higher education that do not require a research education and where the duties only include teaching and administration. There are also other groups, such as educational developers, that do not necessarily do any research. Neither do they necessarily teach or meet students. The duties of educational developers are instead to support those who teach students. Educational development is a process where activities related to education becomes more professional and prestigious. This is a movement towards an interprofessional higher education landscape where several academic professions coexist and collaborate.}},
author = {{Brandén, Henrik and Sonesson, Anders}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{03}},
pages = {{283--283}},
title = {{Educational and professional development in Swedish higher education}},
url = {{https://wordpress.invajo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/pdf_nera2024-3655_1720011407850-2024-07-03-1257-1.pdf#__WKANCHOR_fo}},
year = {{2024}},
}