This book celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Department of Education at Stockholm University. The content depicts the developments in education, research and cooperation. An extensive section present the development and footprint of the different research groups of the department. The book is addressed to a diversity of readers going from interested in history of institutions of higher education, comparative education and specific developments in different areas of educational sciences.

The aim of the article is to understand ageing as a process of lifelong learning through a whole variety of experiences, to consider what ageing in a biographical perspective means, and to investigate the process of biographical ageing within identity formation. The method of the project was based on the employment of in-depth narrative interviews with older Polish migrants now living in Sweden. The author argues that ageing is a natural process of the life cycle and is socially and culturally constructed and that consequently everyone experiences this process individually. One of the paper’s conclusions is that we do not age according to the numbers of years we live, but due to our life experience and the social-historical contexts in which we have lived. Furthermore, we age due to the biography we re/construct while we are ageing during our life course. Ageing, from a biographical perspective, is a learning process in which people re/construct their lives with social, educational and cultural contexts and from which they draw from their experiences relating to social practices and historical events.

The general aim of this paper is to identify the meaning of critical thinking from the perspective of a sample of international students’ experiences and explain how that knowledge can be used to improve teaching. The main research question is: how do international students understand critical thinking? The author presents the data from a focus group discussion consisting of nine1styear students in the Master of Education Program, at the Department of Education of StockholmUniversity (SU). The hermeneutical approach was used in both epistemological and methodological aspects as the framework for the analysis of the focus group discussion. One of the conclusions is that critical thinking is re/constructed and a part of lifelong and life-wide learning. 

The general aim of this paper is to present insights from a Polish case study on the learning experiences of Polish older men. The research data was collected by means of ‘guided’, semi-structured interviews. This paper presents two well-educated older men's life stories from two different local communities in Poland and the analyses of their life experiences in the context of masculinities and ageing using a bio-graphical learning approach. The analyses of the two biographical narratives have shown the diversity in the life histories of older men, but also similar struggles and challenges. They have illustrated how older men cannot simply be reduced to their experience of ageing, but that they also carry some con-tinuously (re)negotiated struggles with masculinity, weaving new and rich threads for learning that is lifelong and life-wide.

Namen prispevka je predstaviti poljsko študijo primerov o izkušnjah učenja starejših Poljakov. Podatki so bili zbrani s pomočjo delno strukturiranih vodenih intervjujev. Prispevek se osredotoča na življenjski zgodbi dveh izobraženih starejših moških iz različnih lokalnih skupnosti na Poljskem in analizi njunih življenjskih izkušenj v okviru moškosti in staranja z uporabo pristopa biografskega učenja. Analizi obeh biografskih pripovedi sta pokazali na raznolikost življenjskih zgodovin starejših moških, hkrati pa tudi na soočanje s podobnimi napori in izzivi. Pripovedi sta ponazorili, da starejših moških ne moremo preprosto enačiti z njihovo izkušnjo staranja, ampak da nosijo tudi nekaj stalnega (pre)pogajanja z moškostjo ter spletajo nove in bogate niti tako za vseživljenjsko kot večrazsežnostno učenje.

The article presents the assumptions, process, reflections and conclusions from the project entitled “U3A – Learning – Creating – Supporting” („UTW: Uczyć – Tworzyć –Wspierać”) funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, as part of the “Support for Universities of the Third Age” program. The authors, beside description of the project and outline of the U3A’s development, face up some questions: What is the future of the U3A in Poland? Are we watching their twilight in the second decade of the 21st century? or maybe on the contrary – we are witnessing the renaissance of this educational institution? And referring to theory and practice they try to give the answers. Based on a preliminary analysis of the objectives of the project and activities undertaken for the benefit of older people, the authors point to several directions of development in which, in their opinion, U3A follow or can follow.

The general aim of this paper is to present some insights into Polish senior immigrants in Sweden. In particular, it seeks to identify and illustrate the important contribution of previous generations of Polish senior immigrants in building on the diverse culture, traditions and values of the Polish community (Polonia) in Sweden. The paper considers what it means to be an older (age 65+ year) Polish immigrant in Sweden. A biographical method was used in this research to gain these insights. The research evidence was largely collected by means of narrative interviews. Life history is one of the ways to gain insights into the experiences of individuals. A narrative output is never an isolated product. There is always a close link between narrative and other social, cultural and ideological contexts. This paper emphasizes that stories and participant experiences will make more sense if there is a good understanding of the broader contexts in which the individual's story and experiences are embedded. Because of its brevity, the focus of this paper is an in-depth rendition of one older woman's learning experiences in adjusting from war-torn Poland to Sweden.