Svenskämnesdidaktik som akademiskt professionsfält

Abstract

Several Swedish reforms in the early 2000s had the goal of implementing a more solid research foundation for teacher education. In this study, we investigate how external mechanisms contribute to and counteract the establishment of new research areas related to the teacher profession, through the example of the L1 subject Swedish. The study explores how the materialistic and intellectual landscape of the academic field has evolved in terms of new academic positions with new content and merit assessment. Through the investigation of a corpus of job announcements, from 1990 to 2022, we have been able to follow the development of a new research area, regarding career paths. The development of a new research area can be described in terms of a fight between different opponents for what is considered a valuable cultural capital (Bourdieu, 2000). The analysis of how the research area is formed relates to Bernstein’s (2003) distinction between singularities and regions. Projektet Nytt vin i gamla läglar eller gammalt vin i nya läglar? Etableringen av svenskämnesdidaktik som forskningsfält är finansierat av Vetenskapsrådet (Dnr 2021-05018).

Keywords

• academic posts
• career paths
• higher education
• research fields
• Swedish L1