The aim of this paper is to present an autobiographical account on the prospects and process of academic career in Nordic countries, and specifically in Sweden. The method used is biographical, or self-ethnographic, dealing with life transitions including struggles and experiences when making the career. The point of departure is the final step in the academic career, i.e. Professorship, and reconstruction of the life events backwards, both as diachronic, a moment in time, as well as synchronic, over time dimensions. This includes research initiation, PhD writing, Postdoc experience, habilitation, and struggling to get a position of a senior lecturer and finally a professor. Involvement in various projects and international networking are presented. Biographical work and learning are used to understand how a woman researcher is navigating in a difficult male dominated terrain, including both negative and positive experiences.
In social sciences and humanities, a variety of approaches to biographical research are used. The question then arises what is appropriate and what is not? Which approach is worth using and why? This article looks at biographical research from the critical point of view, especially at a time when the diversity of approaches, concepts, and perspectives can make it difficult for novices to use this method. Having long experience in applying the biographical method allows me to look critically at my own research and think about using the abductive method to generate a theory on identity formation and transformation by non-traditional students in higher education in Sweden. How is this possible and what are the consequences? This article tries to show the beginnings of the biographical method in the context of social sciences and reflects on the different approaches, pitfalls as well as advantages and disadvantages. It presents problems in applying biographical interview, sampling, ethical issues, data analysis and conceptualization as well as creation of typology on the example of my own research.
The chapter looks at challenges mature adults face in life, when ageing and learning are in focus, and where work and love are still important to live a life. The thesis is that if we have suitable or normal conditions we are able to adjust and change, and live a happy life as long as we live. The second thesis is that in the centre of ageing is learning, but it is defined broadly not as a formal learning but learning through life. Learning, as a concept, gets a new dimension and scope: it is a biographical learning. Biographical learning contributes to bridge the duality between body and mind. The article starts with the issue of ageing from the demographic point of view. It looks at the tradition of life course research that contributed to our understanding of phases in life and developmental tasks that we, at each period of life cycle, have to fulfil. Furthermore, article focuses on work and love as two important spheres or activities of life when ageing. In the concluding part, ten important issues that ageing adults can think about, and we as adult educators can help them to deal with struggles of life, are presented.
Increasing access of non-traditional students
This article discusses the consequences of increasing access of non-traditional students to higher education (HE) in Sweden, for society, individuals and HE. The findings are based on a recently finished European Research Project called Access and Retention: Experiences of Non-traditional Students in Higher Education (RANLHE) with seven countries involved. First, a general introduction about opening access to HE is presented, followed by a review of Swedish HE policy which emphasizes employability, lifelong learning, and completion. Next, is a brief presentation of RANLHE project including the project’s research focus, methodology and a comparison between the partner countries (completion rate and general characteristics). The Swedish case is highlighted and a typology of non-traditional students introduced which demonstrates a change in students’ identity formation as a result of mass HE. The role of research and teaching institutions in regards to mature/non-traditional students and their impact on students’ identity formation is discussed. Finally, the article concludes with the general consequences for HE in Europe.
Story telling as a key to learning
Reflective, autonomous learning of mature students was the main focus of the research project in which seven European partners were involved over three years[1] (among others Poland). The aim of this article is to find out what reflection about learning students make when they tell their stories. One particular Swedish case from the project is presented to serve this purpose. The way of conducting life history interview is regarded a crucial methodological tool which allows researchers to initiate processes of reflection and self-reflection.
The story consists of a case of a male mature student who, while narrating his story, is puzzled by a sudden reflection and deepening self-reflection on his way of learning and the possible consequences of such learning for his personal, social and working life is a gro. The article presents an in-depth analysis of the biographical interview with the student. His discovery that learning is not only an individual and unique course, but a social process in its own right, triggers reflection and a spontaneous or even an illuminating reaction based on biographical learning.
The concept of biographical learning is advanced and link with identity work as well as with notion of the self and the others in the last part of the article. G. H Mead's theory of self is used, with the support from the empirical data. The intention is to challenge the predominant view in contemporary higher education discourse that learners are unique and individual persons who learn in a specific and distinct way without being affected by others. Moreover to go beyond a view of a collective versus individual learning and advance the idea that learning is a profoundly social process from the very start.
This case of biographical interviewing is part of a biographical research approach. A biographical approach concerns people's stories and experience of everyday life and has a twofold purpose: to give the researcher rich material to analyse while the interviewees have an opportunity to learn about themselves. This account presents a case study conducted with non-traditional students in higher education by capturing ethical, practical and social aspects of biographical interviewing as well as presenting a way of working with rich biographical material (i.e. how to transcribe and analyse data from biographical interviews gained from this example). Finally, the case discusses some difficulties in conducting biographical research.
Theorising biographical work from non-traditional students’ stories in Higher Education
The article is about methodology of theorising, i.e. how we can get knowledge about non-traditional students struggles and crisis when learning and working with their biographies. Often we use theories to support research questions and results. But seldom do we know how to theorise from our own data and build a theory. This article is about the process of theorising by talking example from our research on non-traditional students in Sweden. By discovering biographical work that students were involved in, we could understand processes of forming and transforming their identities. We present our thoughts on theorising and developing a theory, and next we give an example of a student’s story outlining the process of biographical work to show the stages in the analysis that leads us to the theory. Trusting that everybody can learn how to theorise we discuss also how our theory could be used in further research regarding adults’ life.
The aim of this article is to examine non-traditional graduates’ life transitions before, during, and after higher education (HE) in Sweden. The article builds on a theory called biographical work, which is used for understanding non-traditional graduates’ identity formation and transformation. The article is based on the narratives of two non-traditional graduates who were selected from biographical interviews with nine non-traditional graduates, 2–5 years after graduation from HE. By exploring significant events, learning paths and the formation and transformation of identities in the two graduates’ lives, we identified two expressions of their ongoing life transitions: being in recurrent formation and being in constant transition. Being in recurrent formation means returning to well-known paths in life and learning reactively by reflecting on experiences, whereas being in constant transition means a constant focus on what is next in life and a constant commuting between reactive and proactive learning, i.e. by both reflecting on experiences and preparing oneself for the next move. In the article, we discuss what it means to be in transition as a non-traditional graduate. We conclude that the theory of biographical work helps to understand identity formation and transformation processes in periods of transition, and also how periods of transition occur as parts of biographical learning.
The chapter is concerned with European policies for employability of graduate students from higher education to the labour market and a Swedish higher education system which has traditionally invluded widening access students. The chapter highlight issues of inequality relating to employability particularly in relation to working class an minority ethynic students. The study indicates that in relation to employability non-traditional students experience greater challenges than traditional students in the labour market resulting in a segregated labour market.
The aim of this paper is to deepen understanding of the forming of learning identities amongst non-traditional students in Higher Education (HE). Learning identities are related to how actors experience themselves as learners in relation to their previous experiences, social background and different academic cultures and contexts. The forming of learning identities is a part of the forming of overall identities, and we use three identity types for our analysis: multiple integrated, floating and adopted. The study is built on biographical interviews with six students (chosen from a pool of 100) and 37 semi-structured interviews with staff from three HE institutions in Sweden. The results show that non-traditional students tend to feel like outsiders, and that this seems to be related to class and age rather than ethnicity and gender. Nevertheless, they form different identities and learning identities. Those forming a multiple integrated identity define themselves as learners and sometimes even as independent learners, while students forming an adopted identity seem to identify themselves with the academy generally. The learning identity they form is that of a "good student". Students forming a floating identity have difficulty defining themselves within the academy. Finally, some students seem to form a pragmatic identity, identifying with their future profession rather than the academy. In doing this an instrumental learning identity is formed. In the academy and in the case of lecturers, status is related to research orientation, whereas in the case of students, the value of education seems to be related to gaining employment. This creates tensions in the HE system.
Changes in higher education (HE) in Sweden, from elite to mass education, with an increased number of students and institutions, has raised questions about the role of HE in society. Relating to conflicts between discourses of employability, democracy, traditional academic norms and experiences of non-traditional students, the aim of this article is to explore and discuss non-traditional students' motives for studying as part of the process of the formation of student identities. In this article motives and commitment to HE are two aspects of student identity apparent in student narratives. The material is based on 48 biographical interviews with non-traditional students at three HE institutions. The result shows different motives for entering, dropping out and continuing to study. From these motives, we have identified eight student identity types that are analysed in relation to commitment to HE, and to being a ‘continuer’ versus a ‘drop out’: the altruistic student, the ambivalent student, the car-park student, the life-long learner, the at-risk-of-failing student, the instrumental student, the one-track student and the self-realiser. These identity types are further discussed in relation to conflicting discourses of HE in society.