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Communicating technical concepts in preschool is of vital importance for developing the quality of the technology teaching practice and the development of the children's language skills within the content area. The aim of this study is to investigate how preschool teachers discern technology in relation to everyday situations in preschool. The study is part of a larger practice-based research and development project focusing on language development and technology teaching practice in preschool, while simultaneously developing and trying a collaborative model between preschool teachers and researchers. The empirical data for this study was collected using semi-structured interviews with preschool teachers. A phenomenographic approach is used to analyze the data. Focus is directed towards how preschool teachers experiences technical concepts in everyday situations in preschool. The findings include four qualitatively different ways of experiencing technology: "exploring techniques"; "exploring techniques using artefacts"; "exploring artefacts as technology" and "developing constructions using artefacts."

In this study, a learning study was used to enhance prospective teachers' learning about how to teach a specific topic in mathematics or natural science to 4th-6th graders. It has been argued that participating in learning study can direct prospective teachers (PTs) towards the object of learning, and what needs to be enacted in teaching to make it possible for the learners to learn what is intended. However, less is known about what capabilities PTs develop from planning lessons in collaboration with peers and a teacher educator in learning studies. Our research question concerns what opportunities PTs have to develop pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) when participating in learning studies. We analyzed three groups' lesson planning on two occasions, once when planning without a teacher educator, and once when planning with a teacher educator in a learning study using theory-informed questions. The software NVivo was used as a tool to code their discussions concerning PCK. For the three groups studied, there were significant differences regarding possibilities for developing PCK under the two conditions.

We analyse the utility of social capital for children's achievement, and if this utility interacts with family human capital and the quality of the parent-child relationship. Our focus is on parental activities directly related to children's school work. Our data stem from a Swedish cohort born in 1953 and consist of both survey and register data. We find that parents with more human capital tended to offer their children more social capital. OLS regressions showed that, when present, social capital was directly related to children's grades and its utility for achievement did not depend on parents' human capital. The utility of social capital was enhanced when combined with a very good parent-child relation.

This paper draws on the concept of parental involvement, popular among educators and policy-makers, in investigating differences in level of attained education by family background. The question is if parental involvement in children's schooling at age 14 acts as a mediator between family resources and mid-life level of attained education. Using structural equation modeling we analyze longitudinal survey and register data of a Swedish metropolitan cohort born in 1953 (n = 3300). Several of the commonly used indicators of involvement are investigated, distinguishing between parents' involvement "beliefs", such as educational aspirations and agreement with school curriculum, and involvement "practices", such as reading children's schoolbooks and helping with homework. We find that parents' educational aspirations are an important mediator between family resources and attained level of education, while other involvement forms are related to academic performance only. We also find that parental involvement is greater in families with more resources, which leads us to warn against developments turning more responsibility for children's schooling over to parents. Unless sensitive to the diverse family contexts this might increase the importance of family resources for children's educational outcomes.

The focus of this study is on interaction between local public administration, businesses and universities in a Triple Helix. The paper presents experiences from an independent research organization set up to further regional development, where doctoral students worked with a local community. The paper also draws on experience from other similar independent research units in Sweden. It is suggested that a major reason for the lack of rapport between the parties is that researchers and entrepreneurs tend to stress different parts of the research process. While orthodox science emphasizes verification, entrepreneurs are more interested in theoretically informed creativity and innovation, especially when they gain from saving time. They see uncertainty and risk management as unavoidable components of doing business, and often mistrust scientific proofs and abstract modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To create a new tool for life-course studies of health outcomes as well as social outcomes. Methods: Two anonymous data sets, one a local birth cohort and the other a nationwide registry, covering information from early and middle life, respectively, were matched using a “key for probability matching” based on a large number of variables, common to both data sets. The first data set provides social and health information from birth, childhood, and adolescence on boys and girls, born in Stockholm in 1953. The second data set provides information on income, work, and education as well as any inpatient visits and any mortality from mid-life for the entire Swedish population. Results: For 96% of the original cohort it was possible to add data from mid-life. Thus, a new database has been created, referred to as the Stockholm Birth Cohort Study, which provides rich and unique life-course data from birth to age 50 for 14,294 individuals: 7,305 men and 6,989 women. Comparison of matched and unmatched cases in the original cohort suggests that those individuals that could not be matched had slightly more favourable social and intellectual circumstances and had often moved away from Sweden in the 1980s. Conclusion: The new database provides excellent opportunities for life-course studies on health and social outcomes. It allows for studies that have not previously been possible in Sweden or elsewhere. Further, it provides an opportunity for collaborative work with similar databases in Copenhagen and Aberdeen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article comments on the Swedish level of living survey. This study seems to have been conceived from a rather isolated position. A number of research projects have appeared more or less simultaneously in different countries which are linked together in a field of research with a distinct profile, social indicators. As in the case of Sweden, these studies have all in some way originated close to political power-centers. It is therefore reasonable to discuss some common elements with regard to the issue. Social indicator-studies are in themselves a social indicator of some interest, and it is relevant to ask what it is that has brought them about. There are however obvious tendencies outside of science in the development of western societies which promote an interest in normative empiricism. The basic processes in Western society are economic in character. With increased economic structural change, through concentration, integration and competition, the influence of the economic forces are expanded into many new spheres of life. Social development is achieved mainly as a secondary effect of economic development, when not as social infrastructure to the economy. The economy probably effects social life today more than in most historical periods.

This article reports on research programs conducted by faculty at the Institute of Social Research in Stockholm, Sweden. Roif Andersson is researching the effects of economic integration on the labor market. Peter Nyberg is working on the link between labor mobility and economic development, with a focus on labor emigration from Finland. Goran Ahrne and Christian Kornevall are using a a national survey sample to study working conditions, labor turnover, and wage theory. Lena Gonas is analyzing the impact of a shipyard closing.