Constructing vocational education capital: An analysis of symbolic values in the Swedish VET system of 1918

• Main Author: Åsa Broberg
• Format: Article
• Language: Danish
• Published: Linköping University Electronic Press 2020-06-01
• Series: Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training
• Subjects: history of vocational education; symbolic capital; educational capital; field of vocational education; sociology of education
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3384/njvet.2242-458X.20102129

This article explores ways of creating educational capital in vocational education and training in Sweden during a period in the early 20th century when vocational learning was first institutionalised as education. As such, at the same time it had to create itself and submit to the established educational system. This process is the focus of the article; it is examined by using concepts from Bourdieu’s capital-theory. In this perspective, vocational education and training as an educational form is considered part of the field of education. However, the main focus of the analysis is the newly formed education for vocational learning as a field of vocational education where a particular vocational educational capital was created. The aim is to illuminate ways of creating vocational education capital by borrowings, crossovers and reinventions of values from two traditions of learning and knowledge production: apprenticeship in the guilds and education in academia. The symbols from both crafts and academia were passed on into the early VET system through its institutions and actors. It materialised in titles, artefacts and rituals that that are presented in archives, journals and school memorial books.