Carina Carlhed

Parent Perspectives on Early Intervention: The Paradox of Needs and Rights

The aim of this study is to describe conceptions of support in early intervention in Sweden, as perceived by parents to young children with disabilities. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with eight parents and were analyzed with a qualitative approach. The theoretical framework is based on developmental ecology and empowerment and the results are discussed in relation to theory and empirical studies. The results show that parents experience discrepancies between their needs and received support. The paradoxical effects of need fulfillment and empowerment that occur in parent-professional interaction are highlighted and points to needs for future research about filling needs and providing support through encounters between parents to children with disabilities and professionals. Collaboration in the intervention process using the expertise of both parents and professionals is also discussed.The aim of this study is to describe conceptions of support in early intervention in Sweden, as perceived by parents to young children with disabilities. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with eight parents and were analyzed with a qualitative approach. The theoretical framework is based on developmental ecology and empowerment and the results are discussed in relation to theory and empirical studies. The results show that parents experience discrepancies between their needs and received support. The paradoxical effects of need fulfillment and empowerment that occur in parent-professional interaction are highlighted and points to needs for future research about filling needs and providing support through encounters between parents to children with disabilities and professionals. Collaboration in the intervention process using the expertise of both parents and professionals is also discussed.

The Social Space of Educational Strategies: Exploring Patterns of Enrolment, Efficiency and Completion among Swedish Students in Undergraduate Programmes with Professional Qualifications

ABSTRACT The aim of the study was to analyse enrolment patterns, and study efficiency and completion among students in programmes with professional qualifications, using microdata from Statistics Sweden. The programmes were Architecture, Medicine, Nursing, Law, Social work, Psychology, andEngineering (year 2001–2002,n = 15,918). Using the concepts from Bourdieu’s sociology, data was analysed with Specific Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Different patterns emerged and were constructed as different dimensions of the social space of educational strategies in higher education, patterns of enrolment, efficiency, and completion. The students’ relative positions in the social structure were analysed by the type and amount of their cultural capital. The most important factors for differences between coherent intensive and scattered extensive enrolment patterns were programmes, gender, mother’s socioeconomic index, parents’ education, and type of university. Regarding efficiency, the most important factors were programme and type of university. The factors most important for graduation were gender and type of university.

Resistances to scientific knowledge production of comparative measurements of dropout and completion in European higher education

The article is a critical sociological analysis of current transnational practices on creating comparable measurements of dropout and completion in higher education and the consequences for the conditions of scientific knowledge production on the topic. The analysis revolves around questions of epistemological, methodological and symbolic types and, in particular, how the social processes in the creation and use of different measures offer researchers different positions in the knowledge production. Descriptions of statistics and measurements from statistics agencies in Sweden and the UK and from the OECD, EUROSTAT and Eurydice, as well as policy texts and data collection manuals from European Union bodies, have been compared and analysed. Particular interest is directed towards examples of measures used in Sweden and the UK. The results suggest that available data on student completion offers only a very limited basis for research-driven comparative analysis. It offers also a problematisation of the notions of researchers seen as users or producers of data and different position takings in statistical reasoning in using statistics as for example different types of evidence for policymaking.