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The professionalization of the field of education in Sweden: A historical analysis

På svenska

Author

  • Margareta Nilsson-Lindström
  • Dennis Beach

Summary, in English

This article analyses the professionalization of the education field in Sweden from a historical perspective by tracing efforts towards professionalization of teaching from a clerically consecrated to a scientifically grounded praxis. Some of these efforts seem to be fairly typical for welfare states like Sweden. However, others are more unique, such as the state ambition to create a unified teacher profession based on a scientific knowledge base across elementary and grammar school teacher categories. This ambition failed. Some reasons are speculatively discussed primarily from a Bourdieuan perspective in terms of different teacher habitus, education capital and professionalization strategies among teachers in different positions in the field of education. Primary and secondary data sources are used but National Policy Documents have formed the main data source.

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Pages

1-18

Publication/Series

Professions and Professionalism

Volume

3

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus

Topic

  • Sociology (excluding Social Work, Social Psychology and Social Anthropology)

Keywords

  • professionalization
  • teacher habitus
  • teacher education
  • cognitive base
  • scientification

Status

Published

Project

  • The Professional Landscape
  • Carriers of Knowledge Society: A Study of the Historical Emergence and Contemporary Importance of the Swedish Professions

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1893-1049