Pedagogisk forskning vid Göteborgs universitet 1963 – 1975

en personlig betraktelse

Abstract

The article is a personal text about pedagogical research and the department of education at the University of Gothenburg in the years 1963 - 1975. In the beginning there was a thin line of demarcation between departments of education and psychology. Only a corridor separated them. The research within education was characterized by studies related to the ongoing reforms of the school system. Several of the studies that carried out gave a scientific base for the education policy. These led to the foundation longitudinal studies.

During the period, the research community changed. Funds for research groups were added and a new doctorate exam was introduced. During the first years of the period, the university was small and there was free access to all study courses. I followed the seminars in General and Comparative Ethnography and Theory of Science. The University was rather small.  Towards the end of the period, universities had more than doubled the number of students and it was barely understandable variety of subjects and programs. The departments in psychology and education had different profiles and attracted different student groups.

Initially, research was often an individual project with none or little of financial support. There were no education programs for doctoral students. In the year of 1975 there was a completely different organization for research; with research groups, and doctoral studies was a specific study program.

Finally, my purpose was to describe the growth of the university system – with the University of Gothenburg in focus – during the period 1963 – 1975 in general and how education as science was formed in particular.