Pedagogik blir pedagogik och didaktik vid Stockholms universitet

Abstract

This article is primarily based on my experiences as professor of Education during the last years of 1990 and first years of 2000, being appointed professor in 1992 and becoming emerita in 2005. With a background in psychology and a licentiate thesis in this discipline I had to tackle the question of the relationship between psychology and education in 1969 when I left psychology for education as academic subject. During the period which I overview a number of new positions as professor, appointed as well as promoted, were important as were adjunct professors, recruited to bridge the gap between academy and society at the department. The two main tasks of a university, education and research, came to be in important ways related to a third task – the cooperation with the world outside the academy, We recruited important persons from abroad as doctors of honors, which improved the quality of research as well as the variation of content in courses. My own interest within what I prefer to name Educology concerns primarily childhood culture and the possibility to interpret its importance with the help of theories of socialization and knowledge formation, which in my case have an origin in psychology of perception and philosophy. What has happened at the department from 1969 (starting as a lecturer), via the appointment as professor 1992 and to my retirement 2005 is viewed from my perspective with focus on events that are of importance for my experience. I have taken up some important authors who are not always acting within the discipline of Educology, or even education, but rather important as challengers in a broader sense. I finish my article with a focus on future development, pointing out possibilities to broaden as well as identifying new important challenges, without losing scientific ambitions.