The Adult Learning Research Group is interested in adult learning, from young to older adults, in organized forms such as municipal adult education, higher education, popular education, as well as informal contexts such as working life and leisure time. Furthermore, the conditions for participation and the transition between different forms of education, education and working life and working life and leisure time are studied. 

The research area has two focuses: first, pedagogical work aimed at guiding youth and adults through their questions surrounding education, occupation, and career choices, both as individuals and as groups, in relation to these questions. The second research focus is on educational policy development, institutional practices, as well as individual and group approaches (not least in relation to the structured conditions tied to social positions, and identities, such as class, gender, ethnicity, and ability).

We study learning as a social practice within formally as well as informally organized institutions. We do theoretical and empirical studies of teaching and learning as communicative practices where knowledge and knowing take shape.

The research group of Education Research in Citizenship Competences (ERiCC) defines competence as acquisition and mobilization of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values through a process of reflection, anticipation and action to meet complex demands in order to develop the interrelated competences to broaden, deepen and develop pluralistic democracy. The research focus of the ERiCC research group includes the aspects of teaching and learning, learning environments and various educational policy documents.

The research group on Higher Education Learning Practices at Stockholm University engages in theoretical and empirical research on different aspects of higher education. Key research topics include students’ and teachers’ learning and teaching processes in different higher education settings, but also conditions for academic development, with a particular focus on the complex relationship between educational leadership, the organization of teaching and its implication for student learning in higher education. The group runs the Swedish Higher Education Research Network (SHERN) which hosts the SHERN seminar that offers researchers within the field of higher education regular opportunities to present and discuss ongoing research work within the field.

This departmental research group is supported by a common interest in the meaning and evolution of educational systems. The changing conditions of education are highlighted both historically and in present-day terms, on a conceptual and policy level, as well as in practice and as implemented political policies.

This research group focuses on the intersection between theory, policy and pedagogy applied to the comparative and international inquiry of global educational issues. The research approach rests on the historical tradition established in the field and involves the empirical investigation of cross-national, -local and institutional dimensions of educational development, planning, reform, delivery and assessment.

The research group focuses on the governance, organization, improvement and leadership of pre-schools and schools. The members of the group publish their work and contribute to the field Educational Leadership, Management and Administration nationally and internationally. One strand that ties the group together is a focus on schools rather than the school. This indicates openness and sensitivity to empirical diversity and the importance of moving away from views of schools as stable and uniform phenomena.

This research group is one of the leading groups in Swedish research in Education related to organizations and working life. Internationally the group contributes to research within workplace learning, organizational learning and learning organization. Researchers within the group study work place learning, organizational change and learning in organizations from different theoretical points of departure and with different research approaches and methods.

A number of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches are represented in the research group. It comprises studies of social and cultural notions about health and illness, as well as studies of how such notions are constructed in everyday life and exerts influence on people’s lives. This is explored in, for example, the encounters between caregivers and patients, and the individuals’ sense making regarding their own health.

The research group Philosophical and Critical Studies in Education generates knowledge about transformative process that effect institutions and people through engaging with critical studies of theoretical and philosophical perspectives on education and learning.

The research group VET/YL focuses on issues within Vocational Education and Training (VET), a well-established international field of research that studies questions of skills, qualifications, competences and professional knowledge in relation to early VET, upper secondary as well as adult VET, and advanced VET.