A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Being in constant transition or recurrent formation

  2019. Camilla Thunborg, Agnieszka Bron. Studies in the Education of Adults 59 (1), 36-54

  Article

  The aim of this article is to examine non-traditional graduates’ life transitions before, during, and after higher education (HE) in Sweden. The article builds on a theory called biographical work, which is used for understanding non-traditional graduates’ identity formation and transformation. The article is based on the narratives of two non-traditional graduates who were selected from biographical interviews with nine non-traditional graduates, 2–5 years after graduation from HE. By exploring significant events, learning paths and the formation and transformation of identities in the two graduates’ lives, we identified two expressions of their ongoing life transitions: being in recurrent formation and being in constant transition. Being in recurrent formation means returning to well-known paths in life and learning reactively by reflecting on experiences, whereas being in constant transition means a constant focus on what is next in life and a constant commuting between reactive and proactive learning, i.e. by both reflecting on experiences and preparing oneself for the next move. In the article, we discuss what it means to be in transition as a non-traditional graduate. We conclude that the theory of biographical work helps to understand identity formation and transformation processes in periods of transition, and also how periods of transition occur as parts of biographical learning.

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• Feeling like a fish in water or like a fish out of water? A female academic career and experience in Northern Europe

  2018. Agnieszka Bron.

  Article

  The aim of this paper is to present an autobiographical account on the prospects and process of academic career in Nordic countries, and specifically in Sweden. The method used is biographical, or self-ethnographic, dealing with life transitions including struggles and experiences when making the career. The point of departure is the final step in the academic career, i.e. Professorship, and reconstruction of the life events backwards, both as diachronic, a moment in time, as well as synchronic, over time dimensions. This includes research initiation, PhD writing, Postdoc experience, habilitation, and struggling to get a position of a senior lecturer and finally a professor. Involvement in various projects and international networking are presented. Biographical work and learning are used to understand how a woman researcher is navigating in a difficult male dominated terrain, including both negative and positive experiences.

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• Policies for Equality and Employability

  2018. Camilla Thunborg, Agnieszka Bron. Continuity and Discontinuity in Learning Careers, 125-131

  Chapter

  The chapter is concerned with European policies for employability of graduate students from higher education to the labour market and a Swedish higher education system which has traditionally invluded widening access students. The chapter highlight issues of inequality relating to employability particularly in relation to working class an minority ethynic students. The study indicates that in relation to employability non-traditional students experience greater challenges than traditional students in the labour market resulting in a segregated labour market.

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Show all publications by Agnieszka Bron at Stockholm University