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Principal C.J.L. Almqvist and the principle of personalityThe Swedish author and visionary Carl Jonas Love Almqvist (1793–1866) was the principal for twelve years (1829–1841) of the government-initiated pilot school ”Nya Elementarskolan” (New Elementary School) in Stockholm. In this position, he argued that both the school and the state should be built on the same basic idea: the right of individual freedom. This argument is often referred to as ”personlighetsprincipen” (the principle of personality), a concept launched by another prominent figure of the liberal culture of the time, Erik Gustaf Geijer (1783–1847). This article explores how the principle of personality is expressed in the texts of Almqvist and is mainly built upon the concept’s allegorical resources. It examines the thesis that Almqvist’s use of the term is best understood if one distinguishes between the political, pedagogical, and existential dimension of the concept. The article ends with some thoughts about the context of the concept and a discussion on whether Almqvist had a greater interest in personalities than in principles.

In this article the historical background to the reactivation of the concept of Bildung in the Swedish school debate during 1980s is presented. The article argues that the resurrection of this concept is intimately related to the foundation of the discourse of the Knowledge School (Kunskapsskolan), and shows how these two terms were central in school political program developed by the Knowledge Movement (Kunskapsrörelsen) in the early 1980s. The article shows how the concept of Bildung since it was resurrected not only has been highly contested, but that it was actually reactivated within the same movement that helped pave the way for the manifest economic-instrumentalist school discourse that dominates the current curriculum.

General Subjects in Vocational Education and Training in Post-War SwedenThe present article focuses on the role of general subjects in the curriculum for vocational education and training (VET) in Swedish upper secondary schools after the Second World War. It shows that a steady increase in general VET subjects as a result of Social Democratic legislation in 1968 and 1991 was interrupted by a Liberal-Conservative government bill introduced in 2009, which led to a reduction. The rhetoric of these reforms is analyzed with the intent of increasing insight into the perceived educational benefits of general subjects in VET. The study employs the analytical lens of Gert Biesta and his proposed major functions of education: qualification, socialization, and sub-jectification. The results serve to illuminate the present-day educational po-licy debate, showing that the place of general subjects in the curriculum has been motivated by the important role they play in educating youth in demo-cracy, teaching them to function effectively in an increasingly international-ized and multicultural society and economy, for their lifelong learning and for the continued economic growth of the Swedish society. With the enactment of the government bill of 2009, however, the qualifying function of general subjects in VET was devaluated. The new curriculum that followed prioritized strictly vocational skills and the transition of graduates directly into the labour market.

Romanesque round church towers - a Skandinavian perspective: The aim of the article is to discuss the interpretation of the Romanesque round church towers seen from a Scandinavian perspective. After a research history and a geographical outlook, which passes Ireland, England and Holstein, the article focusses on the 15-19 churches with round towers in medieaval Denmark, Sweden and Norway, with the main part in Southern Schleswig and Scania; none are known from Finland. The chronology and social context, function and meaning of the church towers are discussed. The Romanesque round church towers are also discussed in relation to the 33 known Romanesque round churches in the same area. Finally a catalogue of the round church towers in Scandinavia is presented. The theses of the article is, that the building material was not decisive for the choice of the round architecture, at least not in Scandinavia. The round church towers were unfortified burial memorials and bell towers, where the architecture, as was the case for the round churches, copied central church buildings in the West. In a period, where most churches were without a tower or had square towers, the round church towers were examples of a “conspicuous symbolism”. The initiative to build the round church towers must have been taken by an aristocracy, who participated or were inspired by the contemporary crusades at the Baltic Sea, and who used the towers in their mutual competition on status.Corrections in the pdf 2015.

Forays in Estonia: Experiences from participation in an excavation om St Michaels monastery in Tallinn, Estonia.

This article deals with the foundational juncture in a 60-year long (and counting) relationship between Swedish and Tanzanian adult educators. It analyses how Swedish correspondence education methods and objectives were adapted as they entered the emerging field of foreign aid. Two educational institutions in Tanzania, in which Swedish funds and personnel played a central role are studied: the Nordic-funded Co-operative Educational Centre in Moshi founded in 1964, and the Swedish-funded National Correspondence Institute in Dar es Salaam (1971–). The analysis shows how international NGOs and individual policy entrepreneurs created the initial arenas for policy transfer. It emphasises how the ideal of creating an equal partnership affected the policies that were being lent and borrowed. The article argues that the concept of aidification can be used to capture the ways in which transnational policy areas such as education were transformed in the wake of decolonisation.

Chaos in the chaos research: Reply to Stig Welinder, who commented in META 1989: 4 on the article Jes Wienberg, "Kaos i tiden", META 1989: 3

The fortified churches of Bornholm: Comments on the article Jes Wienberg, "Bornholms kirker fra den ældre middelalder", reprinted in the same volume of Bornholmske Samlinger; first printed 1986

Historical archaeology in the present : Personal reflections on the subject, now that medieval archaeology at Lund University from January 2005 has been transformed into an historical archaeology.

The purpose of this article is to examine the major changes Finnish school craft has undergone and explain these changes by using societal, pedagogical and subject-driven determinants. The main sources of this research include committee reports and national curricula. Research data was classified into five periods: craft for home well-being (1866–1911), craft for civic society (1912–1945), craft for independent hard-working citizens (1946–1969), toward equality craft (1970–1993), and unlimited craft (1994–2014). The analysis show that school craft has steadily followed students’, society’s and the subject’s different needs during these periods.