From Pedagogik to Educational Sciences? Higher Education Reform,Institutional Settings and the Formation of the Discipline of Educational Science in Sweden

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to address the question of Pedagogik as an academic discipline in Sweden based on a social study of the science's point of departure. The philosophical and epistemological issues which constitute the conceptual questions about the nature and content of educational science are, although crucial, peripheral to this article. The article is concerned with the general consequences of the formation of the discipline due to ongoing changes and reforms in Swedish higher education. Text analysis of self-evaluations of education departments in Sweden provide the material for a critical examination of the changing institutional settings for educational sciences. Three general tension fields are highlighted in the ongoing formation of the discipline: Pedagogik as a discipline opposing segmentation and professional specialisation, Pedagogik in relation to other disciplines/subjects in the university system, and the pragmatic specialisation of professional knowledge. The ‘boundary work’ of the education departments in the positions they take in these tension fields is highlighted and analysed. Studying discipline formation processes can serve, in this regard, to deepen the reflexive self-understanding of the producers and users of educational knowledge. The article concludes with some outlines for further empirical research on the formation of the discipline of Swedish Pedagogik.