Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are emerging as a promising approach for educational change by closing the gap between educational research and practice. However, these partnerships face several challenges, such as addressing cultural differences as well as relationship-building in a historically unbalanced relationship between researchers…

The neo-liberal university not only changes systems of governance but also impacts on how subject positions are valued. These changes justify critical questions on how academics manoeuvre in academia. In this study focus is on the told experiences of 18 researchers who describe how they made an excellent career in academia. The results show that…

The article explores a professional learning programme, a research circle, in which preschool teachers and researchers collaborate on content relating to sustainable development, science and technology. It investigates how collaborations between preschool teachers and researchers can contribute to professional learning and preschool development.…

This article takes as its point of departure an action research project conducted in an upper secondary school in Sweden. The project had a practitioner research approach and was carried out with students in one class. In this article, I elaborate on the tensions that appeared during the project concerning collaboration and action. This is done by…

The neo-liberal restructuring of academia justifies research concerning what constitutes academic work, what it means to be an academic researcher and how researchers manoeuvre in academia. The aim of this article is to investigate how this reshaping of higher education affects how research careers are formed and impacts on "becoming…

Proliferating excellence gold standards in the global academic system tend to obscure the far-reaching diversification of academic missions, practices, ambitions and identities brought by massification. This article approaches this topic by a review of theory on academic scholarship and how it has changed in the wake of academic massification and…

Certain common elements can be identified regarding teacher education development in advanced knowledge-based economies. One of these is the attempt, up until relatively recently, to develop a solid foundation of scientific professional knowledge for what Basil Bernstein called the teacher education "Trivium": roughly speaking,…

Against the background of Swedish preschool's historical and traditional functions in Swedish society, this article focuses on some of the choice points and their implications for professional and organisational development in preschool. By combining feminist pragmatism and feminist action research, some analytical points are made regarding the…

There is an ongoing debate both in the United States and Europe about the need to develop a broader view of scholarship and the different activities connected with it, including "service to the community". This empirical study reveals that researchers who are engaged in collaboration with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) encounter…

Swedish faculty, researchers, and administrators were surveyed on their feelings about recent organizational changes in the university system. Attitudes varied among the target populations on these objectives: integration of disciplines and functions, spreading of resources, equality, emphasis on teaching, and reorientation of research, including…

Although the Swedish college faculty member's role has historically combined both teaching and research, the greater emphasis has been on research. It will continue to be important to maintain a balance between the two functions. (MSE)

Promoting local development in order to support school improvement is an important aspect of contemporary educational policy in Sweden. Recent state initiatives have sought to combine curriculum and teacher development. A common form of cooperation is facilitation, where academics support groups of teachers in their school projects. This article…

Local responsibility for school development in Sweden has led to new possibilities for teacher improvement. This paper looks at using the potential of action research generated by the decentralization for the inservice training of teachers. Decentralization offered opportunities for inservice development work through special funding for projects,…

Describes and analyzes Swedish curriculum theory and research over the last 20 years. Relates this to changes in the comprehensive school system and the decline of the welfare state. Recounts the break-up of the cooperative relationship among the research community, the National Board of Education, and the Ministry of Education. (MJP)