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This article investigates stakeholders' learning and transformative action when developing a collaboration platform between a Swedish regional authority organisation (RAO) and civil society organisations (CSOs) to find new ways to provide welfare services. The material is based on 22 semi-structured interviews and observations of seven general meetings at which RAO officials and CSO representatives met. In addition, notes were taken during two workshops with key stakeholders and interviewees, respectively. Learning and transformative action were analysed through a TADS approach. The findings reveal that a signed agreement, stipulating collaboration between the two sectors (public and civil society) became a second stimulus for shared transformative agency. After signing the agreement, conflicts of motives arose, which challenged learning between stakeholders. Surprisingly, it was not the conflicts of motives between the two sectors, but those within each sector that constituted the most severe expansive learning challenges, and consequently also a delay in the development of the collaboration platform that was to provide welfare services. Nonetheless, the conflicts also contributed to small, incremental, steps of transformative action toward what they had set out to do.

The significance of reading comprehension can hardly be overestimated. Nevertheless, teachers vary in their disposition or willingness to teach reading comprehension. A wealth of field experimental studies have confirmed the importance of text talk, in class or in teacher-guided small groups, for students´ reading comprehension. However, researchers have not yet fully explored what makes teachers use text talk in the classroom. This study aimed to describe and predict teachers´ disposition to use text talk. The study posited two hypotheses based on professional development theory and social capital theory. The data came from a survey study of 320 Swedish teachers (of grades 1 to 12). The study used (a) item response estimation for measurement and (b) linear regression for analysis. It was found that attitudes towards professional development varied with disposition for text talk, on average, after adjusting for other predictors. It was furthermore found that social capital varied with disposition for text talk, on average, after adjusting for other predictors. The conclusion is that the data offer support for both teacher development theory and social capital theory.

Teachers' and special educators' attitudes towards research-based work differ but remains poorly understudied. This study predicts Swedish teachers' and special educators' attitudes towards (a) research-based work and (b) inviting researchers to schools. The data comes from a survey with a convenience sample of more than 300 teachers and special educators. The analysis combines methods such as: factor analysis, bootstrapped linear regression, and ordinal regression. Theoretically, this study derives predictions from professional capital theory. First, the results show how teachers and special educators differ in attitudes towards research-based work. Second, the results show how teachers with greater social capital have a higher probability of willingness to invite researchers to the school. This study concludes support for professional capital theory.

Academic libraries, apart from their main function, which is to provide information services to academic communities, may also perform a number of social roles in the broad meaning of the term. Accordingly, they now tend to serve as the third place offering inclusion and animation activities to academic as well as local communities (including potential students) and to groups in risk of social exclusion (immigrants, persons with disabilities, senior citizens, etc.) or in need of various kinds of care and support. However, for libraries to be able to fulfil those tasks, they need properly trained staff who not only have the required competencies but also the right social attitudes. The paper presents an analysis of the social attitudes of academic librarians from twenty countries across the world as compared to the personnel of other types of libraries. The level of individual social capital, activity in social networks, aspirations in life and social and civic engagement were investigated. It was noted that the respondents tend to undervalue the importance of the work done by libraries for local communities. At the same time, the research showed that academic librarians have a somewhat lower level of individual social capital and trust than public librarians and less extensive social networks. Nonetheless, they are open to relationships with others, which enables them to engage in various social projects.

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to contribute to an understanding of the relational work carried out in mentoring programmes and the implications for learning capabilities in future practices. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on field research of a mentoring programme bringing together senior and newly graduated workers in a large Swedish health care organisation. In total, 54 qualitative interviews with mentors, mentees, HR, managers and union representatives are included. Findings: The findings point to the role of trust and a psychological sense of community in the socialisation work that goes on in relationships between the mentor and the mentee. This in turn leads to increased social capital in the form of learning and retaining workers. The conditions for being vulnerable and asking questions, as well as daring to be independent, are an essential and decisive part of constructing bonding within the professional group and bridging out to other professions and parts of the organisation. Practical implications: The practical contribution from this study is the workplace conditions that are central to organising mentoring programmes, with implications for learning capabilities in future practices. Originality/value: With its theoretical focus on social capital, the study shows the importance of relationships for learning and retaining both newly graduated and experienced employees in a context of high employee turnover. It is central to achieving strong and mutually beneficial relationships through continual and trustful interaction between actors. By using the concepts of social capital, socialisation agents and psychological sense of community, this study contributes to an understanding of mentoring and workplace learning.

This study aims to understand how Swedish storybooks targeting youth portray, the relationships (social capital) and emotions of characters with intellectual disability. A collection of 37 storybooks were analysed using grounded theory. The results suggest that romantic relationships dominate in the storybooks. In the portrayal of romantic relationships, sexuality had a prominent role for the characters with intellectual disability. Work relationships were portrayed as fulfilling and joyful, and family relationships as plentiful and secure. The characters with intellectual disability felt secure at home, almost as a safe haven. Romantic relationships were described as exciting and filled with curiosity. At work, the characters with intellectual disability felt joy and a sense of belonging, and the family invoked a sense of security. Negative emotions had a less prominent role in the stories. The study concludes a strong relationship between social capital and emotions in the storybooks.

High aspirations can be an important factor for educational attainment, especially for youth in disadvantaged schools who are otherwise more likely to leave school early. In this article, I study the relationships between pre-migration status, social capital, and educational aspirations among youth in disadvantaged Swedish schools, using data on 960 students collected in 2014. Regression results showed that access to social capital was related to pre-migration status, and that both factors contributed to high university aspirations among children of immigrants, partly through high expectations from parents. The findings consequently show how post-migration resources and outcomes relate to pre-migration factors, challenging the destination country bias that is often present in studies on immigrants and their children.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how current trends in organization -- government regulation, authoritarian governance and digitalization acts specifically to stop relevant change of a Nordic model. These trends unfold in organizational contexts by revoking mandates, stopping information sharing and eroding trust. When these elements of what is often seen as core characteristics of different Nordic models are hindered, this also means that change is stoked, such as it is understood by organizational learning theory. Hopefully, this more conceptual analysis can inspire fieldwork. Design/methodology/approach: This viewpoint article investigates how recent trends may act in the ability of a Nordic model to change and remain relevant. Core elements of the abstract concept of a Nordic model are defined. These elements are related to organizational learning. In as far as the Nordic model can be seen as capable of organizational learning, it may be able to develop and change in response to external influence. Examples of current trends in society are presented. It is found that these new current trends act on the ability of the Nordic model to change. This poses an existential threat to the longevity of that model. Suggestions for further work is included. Findings: The paper finds that core elements of the Nordic model are influenced in such a way that the ability of the model to work as learning organizations (at least in the sense of Senge's theory) is inhibited or even prohibited. The way this unfolds in principle may inform choices for fieldwork. Research limitations/implications: A major limitation of this topic is that it discusses emerging changes that have only recently become apparent in the Nordic countries. The number of cases is yet limited and recent. This is why more conceptional approaches might be useful. Practical implications: The digital realm is changing society, and this change has been catapulted by the pandemic. This may impact on how Nordic organizations are able to deliver on the purposes of co-decision legislation, how organizational culture based on "Nordic" values such as trust (as defined by the WVS), information sharing and mandate can develop, how organizations that abstain distributed information and mandates are able to adapt. Social implications: Recent (2020) estimates indicate that between one in three and one in two jobs will be directly impacted in the Nordic countries. This is likely to have implications, but the nature of these is still under debate. This paper points to the possibility that core values and ways to deliver productivity may be challenged. Originality/value: The originality lies in linking some core elements of different versions of a very abstract construct ("a Nordic" model) to one specific theory of organizational learning (in this example, Senge). This allows for a discussion about how societal change may be relevant specifically for the ability of Nordic model(s) to change. The discussion is current as the chosen trends are all recent phenomena in Nordic society.

This paper describes the changes in lifelong learning policy that have taken place since the 1990s in Sweden. Policy documents regarding lifelong learning in Sweden have appeared since 1994. The first of these documents contains general recommendations with regard to lifelong learning, in both a lifelong and a lifewide perspective, concerning pre-school and compulsory school together with adult education and training. Much support for early stages in life can have a tendency to put adult education and learning in second place instead of the whole functioning well together. Regarding lifelong learning in practice, this paper will focus on popular education and study circles. The recently developed knitting cafés will also be accounted for. The paper also asks the question "Who is getting education and learning in later life?" "What are the criteria that will give individuals access to these possibilities" and "What results can be expected?" The theoretical perspective taken in this paper is that social capital is a part of wellbeing, and the paper examines the extent to which this is connected to the social context.

In recent years, research has brought attention to the heterogeneity of resources that first-generation students bring with them to higher education and the factors that assist in these students' social and academic adjustment to university life. However, few studies have focused on how these students' early socialization and experiences over the life course influence their adjustment experiences to university. Drawing on Bourdieu's habitus concept to explore the life histories of first-generation students at a midranked Swedish university, we identify three types of adjustment profiles--Adjusters, Strangers, and Outsiders--and highlight five key factors over the life course that explain why they differ: family resources, early social environment, educational experiences and opportunities, peers, and partners. Our findings suggest that class-related adjustment challenges in college can be traced to different levels of cultural capital acquired during first-generation students' early socialization but also to capital acquired through sustained contact with cultural capital--abundant social environments throughout their life course, resulting in subtle but consequential habitus adaptations. This study extends previous research in the field by exploring a broader set of social contexts that can spur first-generation students' cultural capital acquisition before college and facilitate their adjustment to higher education.

The focus of this paper is to investigate what type of support high-achieving Swedish upper secondary students from families with low socioeconomic and educational capital, identified contributed to embark on a successful educational career. The analytical framework of the study is concepts that have emerged in empirical studies inspired by both Coleman's and Bourdieu's understanding of social capital concerning educational performance. The data analysed in this study are interviews with 23 students between 17 and 19 years old, 10 male and 13 female students. A substantial group of the students in this study is of migrant background. The support these students identified as critical in their successful educational experience was a combination of academic and emotional support by the teachers, a caring home environment and unconditional emotional support, and socialising with peers that had similar educational ambitions. When all these support dimensions line up for these students, they can embark on a successful educational career.

The Swedish welfare state has social protection policies focusing on labour market participation. Initiatives have been introduced after the increase of asylum seekers in 2015, focusing on so-called 'fast tracks'. In this paper I consider one of these fast track courses aimed at newly arrived teachers wishing to continue their teaching career in Sweden. Based on interviews and observational data I have followed one cohort throughout their course. The research aims for an understanding of the teachers' experiences from their own perspective as well as from the stakeholders'. The theoretical framework is mainly taken from the concepts of the capital market introduced by Bourdieu. In light of the findings, while the education the participants receive may be useful in order to understand the educational system, many are disappointed to find that fast track courses do not give them a clear advantage in terms of finding a faster way into the Swedish labour market. In addition, there are tendencies for local teacher communities to devalue the qualifications of this group. Generally, the emphasis on 'fast tracks' may ignore the need of individuals to complete formal Swedish education and to navigate complex processes of nationally set standards of professional requirements, which impede a fast integration process.

This study examines parental involvement in urban public schools, focusing on how parents in organised school-centred networks support, navigate, and negotiate from their different social positions. The multiple case study of specialised music programmes provides insights into parent strategies and behaviours in intermediate practices between school-based socialisation and extracurricular activities largely run by the parents associations. The paper draws on data from in-depth focus group interviews with members of parents associations in socially, culturally, and historically different schools. Findings demonstrate that parent approaches to specialised education and their modes of involvement vary according to social class, resources, and school culture. There are class-based differences in parent strategies and the way their collective symbolic capital is used in policy negotiation. However, relationships between a parents association and the school administration are generally regulated by the social and cultural history of a particular school.

This article reports on the outcomes for students who experienced a strongly inclusive learning environment as a means for all to succeed. This Swedish lower secondary school dramatically improved its results, and the article reports the outcomes from the students' perspectives. Social capital, with its emphasis on relationships, was used to structure interviews with students who had since moved on to high schools across Sweden and was also used to analyse the interview data. Two elements of social capital that appeared to be strongly associated with the students' success -- trust and confidence -- are discussed in depth. The article concludes with a consideration of the significance of the role of schools in cultivating trust and the risks associated with schools ignoring this obligation.

In the global academic capitalist race, academics, institutions and countries' symbolic power results from the accumulation of scientific capital. This paper relies on the perspectives of system actors located at the institutional, national and international levels to assess the perceived importance of eight systemic factors in contributing to the comparative advantage of social-democratic regimes, namely Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. A deductive thematic analysis performed on 56 transcripts and a one-way repeated-measure ANOVA (and pairwise post-hoc t-tests) performed on 324 questionnaires confirmed the hypotheses regarding the positive influence of academic traditions and internationalization. This study contributes to the development of a varieties of academic capitalism (VoAC) approach to apprehend how political-economies condition higher education systems' (HES) comparative advantage.

Political parties are essential for the functioning of parliamentary democracy, yet parties have not received much attention in contemporary research on popular education. The aim of this article is to analyse the contemporary role of party-political education as a form of popular education in two labour movement parties in Sweden. The study is based on semi-structured interviews focusing on the reasoning behind the organisation of education in political parties. The interviews were conducted with ten interviewees who represented ABF (the Swedish workers' educational association), the Left Party, and the Social Democratic Party. The thematic analysis resulted in four categories of roles ascribed to education in political parties: "ideological training," "training skilled members and leaders," "training for a social infrastructure," and "training for internal positioning and distinction." The first two categories correspond to knowledge-oriented roles, while the two last represent relationship-oriented roles. Findings show that party-political popular education still plays a significant role in contemporary Sweden. The shrinking member base of political parties creates challenges when new members and prospective representatives cannot be expected to have as extensive popular movement experience as previous representatives. In this situation, study activities are, to some extent, attributed more significance than previously.

This study examines how Swedish students originating from metropolitan areas have used university colleges to access higher education. In the 1970s, as part of a series of reforms to the Swedish higher education system, university colleges were established. One reason being to make higher education more accessible to students outside the metropolitan areas. However, students from metropolitan areas have increasingly enrolled in these institutions over time. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the pre-entry attributes of metropolitan students from four enrolment cohorts (1995, 1998, 2001, and 2004) and patterns in their enrolment at university colleges. The results indicate that over time metropolitan students from less advantaged backgrounds have increasingly attended university colleges, particularly those whose qualifications excluded them from entering the more prestigious universities.

This study explores how bilingual teachers with an immigrant background construct professional identity in the context of initial literacy and second language teaching of adults. Specifically, the study seeks to understand what the teachers' membership of different work-related communities means for their professional identity and what capital the teachers use, negotiate and acquire to strengthen their positions in this professional field. The study is based on interviews with seven bilingual teachers. The data has been analysed from the perspective of situated learning theory and by employing some complementing concepts of Bourdieu used as thinking tools. The findings illustrate how the teachers construct their professional identity in relation to their students and by positioning themselves in different teacher communities. Moreover, the findings stress how the local school community plays a crucial part in determining the position the teachers obtain in the field. But in spite of being acknowledged as professionals, the teachers still need to negotiate their position by acquiring new capital and stressing the capital they already have.

The Scandinavian countries currently face their largest ever wave of immigration. The immigration wave increases the need for immigrants to learn the host language to be able to participate in work life and become a citizen of the host country. Yet, the language training programmes -- 'Swedish for Immigrants' in Sweden have come under great criticism for inefficiency. But now, surveys have been carried out with the adult immigrants taking part in the language training programmes. Consequently, the purpose of the present study is to identify predictors of adult immigrant students' attitudes towards language learning at the training programmes in Sweden. Using survey data collected from adult immigrants participating in the language training programmes, we conduct a series of ordinary least squares regressions. We report that the majority of immigrant students are satisfied with the language programmes. Our findings indicate that satisfaction seems to be due to variables such as level of education, age at arrival, and language exposure through social networks but not to socioeconomic status or sex.

Trust is one crucial prerequisite for the welfare state. However, very few empirical studies exist that help us understand the mechanisms through which trust affects the welfare state. Influencing public support for developing friendly public policies might be one of these mechanisms. In this study, we use unique micro data from 34 countries to investigate the relationship between trust and support for public education expenditures. We use the Life in Transition Survey (LiTS) conducted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank in 2010. Our empirical results show that trust has a positive effect on support for public education expenditures. Our results are robust when controlled for various individual characteristics and country fixed effects, tested using OLS and Probit models and different samples. This empirical evidence helps us understand the micro foundations of support for public education expenditures.

This study examines the encounter of Somali parents with their children's teachers and how these relations "affect" their possibility of supporting their children's attaining a successful school experience. The study is inspired by and combines the insight and concept of social capital developed by Coleman and Bourdieu. The parents realize that they lack the knowledge and expertise to support their children in their educational endeavor and have neither the material nor ideational support to compensate individual limitations to support their children in the encounter with the Swedish school.

In light of an international policy movement to increase focus on students' academic achievement, the question of how to improve schools has become an important issue at all levels in the school system. Substantial resources have been invested in reforms to improve conditions for pupils' learning. Great expectations and responsibility are often placed on teachers in terms of their professional development (PD), the aim being to improve their teaching practices. Consequently, the question of how to evaluate the results of school improvement programmes, including teachers' PD, has arisen. However, there is a lack of theoretical concepts that can capture the outcomes of such development in a qualified way. Taking inspiration from the research on teachers' PD and theories relating to teachers' knowledge and capabilities, the aim of this study is to outline a conceptual framework that can serve as an analytical tool when evaluating both school improvement initiatives in general and school actors' learning in particular. Four types of learning capital that are intended to reflect the central aspects of teachers' and school organisations' learning and the capabilities linked to teaching practice and its development are outlined. This conceptual framework is applied and exemplified based on the results of a 3-year research project evaluating a school improvement programme in a Swedish municipality. Finally, some conclusions are drawn regarding the different types of analysis possible with the current conceptual framework related to the evaluation of school improvement efforts.

Drawing on empirical data regarding educational strategies among internationally mobile families in the Stockholm-Uppsala region, this study questions the notion of a global middle class. First, a quantitative analysis shows that immigrating middle class professionals and their children are few, having marginal impact on the demand for international education. Furthermore, they far from constitute a homogeneous class, instead comprising of fractions opting for different types of schools. A second, qualitative study on capital conversion among mobile families illustrates that even well-educated international movers face serious challenges converting their existing knowledge, skills and contacts into well-informed social, professional and educational strategies in their new context. This suggests the limitations of concepts such as international capital. It is argued that the GMC concept overshadows the fact that social groups within the middle classes have varying degrees of international mobility that constitutes just one dimension of what separates them from each other.

English-speaking learners of L2 Spanish who were taking part in a four-week study abroad program in Spain and Japanese-speaking learners of L2 English who were individually studying in year-long abroad experiences participated in the present study. Quantitative and qualitative data from language questionnaires and contact profiles along with open-ended responses revealed details on learners' engagement with and use of their languages while abroad. We discuss the findings and their implications for programs, educators and learners.

During decades of change in the Western higher education sector, new ways of understanding academic work have reinforced notions of the impact of social capital. The present study investigates researchers' experiences of their own career making within two areas of Education Sciences in Swedish higher education: Childhood Studies (CS) and Science Education (SE). The structure at the CS departments is collaborative and integrated; teaching and research are seen as an entity. This structure creates a coherent career path where members of the collective group jointly produce and accumulate social capital; it also appears to be related to discourses of femininity. In the SE departments, the career structure is strategic and differentiated; the two career paths work in parallel through a differentiation between teaching and research. This appears to be related to discourses of masculinity. In conclusion, our analysis shows how social capital and gender mutually create different ways of doing an academic career.

The present study compares how Swedish (n = 340) and Norwegian (n = 236) teachers' human capital and social capital support reading habits as an aspect of professional development. The overall aim was to describe how teachers' human and social capital support their professional development as measured by the aspect of reading habits during leisure time. Our research questions were: To what extent do Swedish and Norwegian teachers differ in their reading habits during leisure time? To what extent do young and old Swedish and Norwegian teachers differ in their reading habits during leisure time? To what extent does Swedish and Norwegian teachers' social capital (collegial talk, principal talk) predict their reading habits during leisure time? To what extent does Swedish and Norwegian teachers' human capital (based on their age, education, and work years) predict their reading habits during leisure time? We compared teachers' reading habits between countries. Older teachers read, on average, more fiction, nonfiction, and newspapers. However, younger teachers in both countries are more prone to read digital texts than older teachers. By contrast, teachers' social capital only seemed to matter in Sweden, while talks with the principal had no effect in either country.

The article presents a comparative analysis of educational policy and provision in Sweden and Australia, with particular emphasis on the relative investment in continuing and further education in both countries. The authors investigate the extent to which further education opportunities provide a "second chance" at learning for adults and contribute to social and economic capital. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)

The aim of this study is to explore the determinants of the educational expectations of young people in disadvantaged urban areas in three large cities in Sweden. In addition to the conventional predictors such as parental resources (economic and cultural capital) and demographic characteristics (such as age, gender, immigration background), this study examines the impact of the different types of social capital (both within-family and extra-familial), on the educational ambitions of these young people. The results indicate that the class background of the respondents, together with the demographic characteristics of young people, are important predictors of their educational ambition. Different forms of social capital also explain a significant part of the variance in students' educational expectations.

While entrepreneurship education increasingly uses various means to connect students to the "real world", the impact of social networking on learning remains underexplored. This qualitative study of student entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom and Sweden shows that their entrepreneurial journey becomes increasingly complex, requiring skills and knowledge not solely developed through formal or non-formal learning. Social networks, and associated informal learning, are shown to be critical in developing social capital important to a student's entrepreneurial progress. This study exposes a key value of social networking and encourages educators to embed in the curriculum activities that facilitate informal learning.

The present study examined how access to home and school IT resources impacted student mathematics achievement. Data comprised 144,395 secondary school students from 7,308 schools in 22 developed economies who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012. Results of hierarchical linear modelling showed that after controlling for student and school covariates, student achievement benefited from their access to home IT resources (main effect), and from the access to both home IT resources and highly educated mothers (interactive effect). Furthermore, IT resource shortages in school had a detrimental impact on student achievement (main effect), and the shortage accentuated the negative effects of school shortage in qualified teachers on achievement (interactive effect). Lastly, the results showed that students with less home academic and cultural resources were more impacted by IT resource access when compared to peers from advantaged families.

"Delayed participation" in higher education (HE) is an increasingly important feature of modern HE systems in many countries. Despite this, surprisingly little empirical research has been undertaken seeking to better understand levels of delayed adult participation in HE across Europe. The present article responds to this gap by analysing country-level data on delayed adult participation in HE across 15 European countries and by modelling associations between participation levels and a range of theoretically derived economic, social, demographic and systemic factors. The findings suggest that there is considerably more cross-national variation in levels of adult delayed participation and that prevalent typologies of HE, such as Trow's, fail to give recognition to the importance of delayed participation. The modelling work finds that social and demographic factors exhibit relatively strong associations with delayed participation in HE. This questions the pre-eminence of economic factors within much of the academic literature, policy discourse and policy activity.

A Swedish municipality that has transformed its position at the bottom of the national school league tables to top within three years--through inclusive education--has attracted much attention both in Sweden and internationally. This article offers the students' perspectives on the transformation and how they have experienced success. A social capital framework was used to interpret the students' perspectives and experiences and revealed the strong norms and values to which the students were exposed and the bonding, bridging and linking practices which connected them to one another. The students articulated a strong commitment to the norms and values relating to personal goal achievement and success but also to helping other students to succeed and conveyed a clear understanding and confidence about themselves as learners. The outcomes in Essunga, of raised achievement through an inclusive orientation, are significant in the context of what has been called a new policy hegemony operating in Sweden and elsewhere, whereby commitment to democratic ideals continue to be voiced while inequalities surface through new discursive practices.

According to the cultural sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, gaining access to a social space or a position within a social space requires a specific capital. For teachers, this is normally indicated by a valid teaching certificate with relevant subject knowledge. However, when no qualified teachers are available, which is the case for the subject of school sports in Sweden, other assets gain recognition. Drawing on Bourdieu's conceptual framework, this paper examined the conditions for school sports in Sweden, and based on questionnaires answered by 109 teachers, explored the competencies, education and backgrounds teachers in upper secondary school sports possess. The paper address the question: what valuable resources are required to become a teacher of school sports and gain recognition as symbolic capital? The results show that while school sports in Sweden are carried out through a school subject and thus regulated by the government, it is influenced by both the fields of education and sport. Furthermore, the questionnaire results show that a majority of the teachers are employed as coaches instead of teachers and that less than half of them (45%) have a teacher education background, while 95% have a coaching education background. However, the results also show that teachers assessed their competencies for teaching school sports as high, especially with regard to competencies in specific sport skills. In conclusion, this paper shows how coaching education and experience in competitive sports are an important resource required to become a teacher in school sports and is thus recognized as symbolic capital. Therefore, school sports cannot be viewed as a legitimate part of the field of education but can be viewed as a part of the field of sport.

Based on Bourdieu's conceptualization of social capital (the social stratification perspective), this study examines the impact of social capital on the educational outcomes of young people in Sweden, with a focus on the extra-familial aspect of social capital -- that is, social capital generated by parental networks and active membership in various social organizations and friendship networks. The results indicate that the class background of respondents is the main predictor of access to all three forms of extra-familial social capital. However, after controlling for class background, the children of racialized immigrant groups are more likely to have access to more types of social capital than others. All three aspects of extra-familial social capital positively influence the educational performance of pupils.

In this study, the spatial structure of primary schools and alternative organizational frameworks are studied in a number of rural municipalities in the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The aim of the study is to investigate how the spatial structure of schools has changed between the years 2008 and 2013 in these municipalities, what strategies the municipalities have developed to adapt their schools to changing conditions, and what constraints there are to apply the strategies at the local level. To answer these questions, semi-structured interviews with municipal representatives were conducted. Substantial changes to the spatial structure of school organizations through closures and mergers can be observed. The overall strategy for the future in all three national settings is a spatial structure with well equipped and well staffed schools in municipal centers and as few small village schools as possible, using information and communication technology (ICT) as a distance-bridging technology. The constraints to applying these strategies are on three different spatial levels. At the state level, the state places constraints regarding what municipalities and schools can and cannot do. At the municipal level, local politicians do not want to close schools for fear of losing the next election. At the community level, the constraints mainly lie in the resistance and strong social capital of the inhabitants who are focused on keeping their schools open irrespective of per capita costs.

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.

In this paper, we develop a multi-level comparative approach to analyse Trends in International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS) and Programme of International Student Achievement (PISA) mathematics results for a country, Russia, where the two tests provide contradictory information about students' relative performance. Russian students do relatively well on the TIMSS mathematics test but relatively poorly on the PISA. We compare the performance of Russian students with different levels of family academic resources over the past decade on these tests compared to students with similar family resources in Russia's neighbours and to Russian students studying in Latvian and Estonian Russian-medium schools. These comparisons and interviews with educators in Latvia and Estonia help us understand why students in Russia may perform lower on the PISA and to draw education policy lessons for improving international test performance generally and Russian students' PISA mathematics performance specifically.

In multinational corporate companies, multilingualism is often a daily reality for employees and the negotiation of language practices for work and social purposes, a routine. Despite the role of English as a lingua franca, the linguistic ecology of modern workplaces is dynamic, rich and diverse. While English is often used for communication between a company's headquarters and its subsidiaries, language choice is dynamically negotiated between the interactants in informal meetings and everyday interactions in the workplace. Against this backdrop, the article discusses the lived experience of the multinational workplace. We draw on interview data with 40 employees in senior and junior management posts in 12 companies situated in Croatia, Greece, Italy, Serbia, Sweden and the UK where English is the official corporate language. Special attention is paid to the employees' perceptions of the role of languages in their daily work life. We focus here on three discourses that have emerged from the analysis of our data: multilingualism and the use of English, multilingualism and cosmpolitanism, and challenges and expectations of multilingualism. Our findings show that the employees draw on a range of linguistic resources in order to manage their work-related interactions, and dominant ideologies in relation to language use come to the fore. We close the article by focusing on the profile of the 'global' employee and the impact of the 'modern' workplace on the working realities of the participants.

In sport, schools and physical education (PE) ability has invariably been understood as an inherent and relatively immutable capacity, amendable to varying degrees by interventions such as training regimes and education. Differences in achievement are assumed to be an inevitable consequence of natural variations in ability and an indication of motivation or effort. Drawing on the theoretical tools of Pierre Bourdieu, Evans, in 2004, proposed an alternative socially constructed perspective of ability. Evans suggested that an individual's embodied dispositions can function as capital and thus be "perceived as abilities when defined relationally with reference to attitudes, values and mores prevailing within a discursive field" (e.g. PE). Drawing on the data of existing socially critical research on the social construction of ability, this paper takes the form of a systematic appraisal. Systematic searches were conducted in numerous electronic databases and electronic journals and contact was made with authors to identify relevant studies. Nine studies in total complied with a pre-determined inclusion/exclusion criteria. The data for the studies included in this appraisal are for the most part located in Queensland, Australia and to a lesser extent Sweden. Therefore, importantly, the Australian and Swedish contexts are the focus of this report. The aims of this systematic appraisal are to investigate how ability is socially constructed (conceived of and re/produced) in PE and how conceptualisations of ability in the subject influence students' learning, experiences and potential achievement. The conclusions of this paper suggest that teachers and the PE curriculum in Queensland, Australia and Sweden play a significant role in (re)producing particular discourses around the body which reward (with "high" ability identification) only those few (mostly male) students whose abilities are consistent with the values prevailing within the field (e.g. being competitive and aggressive). The limited acknowledgement of a "range" of abilities in the subject leads to many students (both male and female) perceiving themselves incapable of being successful, not because they lack ability per se but rather because their abilities are not recognised or transactable for high achievement grades in the field. (Contain 1 table and 1 figure.)

The purpose of this article is to show second-language pupils' experiences in school and their understanding of school through analysis of how they talk about the multilingual primary school and instruction. These stories about school life are studied with a life story approach, and the research process can be described in three steps: tell, analyse and read. The analysis is based on the pupils' own stories, interpreted with post-colonial theory and theories of social capital. Using the database Skrivbanken, 16 essays, written as part of the national exam in 2003, and with the titles "My School Years" or "My View of School", were selected. The analysis shows that in school these pupils experience themselves as outside and without a key to the school's linguistic context. Other results show the importance of the majority language for the minority-language-speaking pupils, the pursuit of a common language, and the school's importance for pupils' increased social and cultural capital.

This article draws on a longitudinal and qualitative study of students in a master's program in engineering. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze annual, semi-structured interviews with ten students, from the first semester until one year after graduation. The program enjoys a high status and has a reputation of being highly demanding. The results show how the students categorize themselves in relation to outgroups, and partly supports earlier research. The longitudinal design made it possible to study how students' social identities changed throughout their program, and when they went through a transition process to work. The graduated students developed an identity change, which involved a restructuring of the ways in which they understood their position in the social world.

The present article concerns employability in physicians' professional practice. Drawing on interview data from recruiters at 21 Swedish hospitals with the most applicants for a medical internship, the article seeks to develop a theory of what constitutes an "employable medical intern". Using Pierre Bourdieu's concept of capital, two forms of capital were constructed using interview data, orientation toward performance and orientation toward human relations. Orientation toward performance concerns the applicants' drive and ambition, while orientation toward human relations concerns the applicants' social competence, primarily as co-workers. The study suggests that the most highly employable applicants successfully prove that they possess both forms of capital. These forms of capital are thought to involve sorting mechanisms in the process of recruitment as recruiters infer the desired attributes of applicants from a written application and a job interview. The concept of employability, as well as implications for professional socialisation, is examined and discussed in light of the findings.

This article provides an overview and analysis of the relationship between gender, educational policy, and governance in Scotland and Sweden and the two countries' response to European Union and global legislative and policy change. In Scotland, gender is mainly invisible in recent policies on inclusion, achievement beyond academic attainment, and the idealisation of the child. Gender is thus marginalised within a range of factors contributing to social in/equality. In Sweden, in contrast, gender has higher visibility in policy and governance as both an indicator of democracy and a means of preserving social democratic consensus and prosperity. However, recently its privileged position has come under attack. We draw on social capital, gender, and policy theory to analyse the range of influences on gender and educational governance in the two countries including that of the social capital of organised feminism. (Contains 5 notes.)

In recent decades, the concept of social capital has had an enormous impact on the social scientific debate. Despite its vagueness, the concept expresses a distinction that is of significance for the maintenance and depth of democracy. At the same time, the overarching thesis put forward concerning the fundamental role of associations and social networks in the creation of social capital is not convincing. In this article the role of universal institutions, and primarily of one such institution, the general school system, in creating social capital is emphasized. The discussion gradually homes in on Swedish society and the changes it has undergone in recent decades. The term "universal institution" with reference to the Swedish compulsory school system is examined. (Contains 28 footnotes.)

This paper has a double purpose: to see how well Durkheim's [1897, Le Suicide (Paris: 1e edition)] findings apply a century later, and to see if the beneficial effects of social capital on suicide prevention are parallel to those already found for subjective well-being (Helliwell 2003, Economic Modelling 20(2), pp. 331-360). The results show that more social capital and higher levels of trust are associated with lower national suicide rates, just as they are associated with higher levels of subjective well-being. Furthermore, there is a strong negative correlation between national average suicide rates and measures of life satisfaction. Thus social capital does appear to improve well-being, whether measured by higher average values of life satisfaction or by lower average suicide rates. There is a slight asymmetry, since the very high Scandinavian measures of subjective well-being are not matched by equally low suicide rates. To take the Swedish case as an example, this asymmetry is explained by Sweden having particularly high values of variables that have more weight in explaining life satisfaction than suicide (especially quality of government), and less beneficial values of variables that have more influence in explaining suicide rates (Swedes have low belief in God and high divorce rates), because with the latest data and models the Swedish data fit the well-being and suicide equations with only tiny errors. If the international suicide data pose a puzzle, it is more because suicide rates, and their estimated equations, differ greatly by gender, while life satisfaction and its explanations are similar for men and women.