Browsing by Author "Fröberg, Wilhelmina"

Aims. Education students create their paths to working life in an insecure and complicated environment. Their journey throughout education studies involves many choices, that are significant in terms of their future career. In this narrative study I review the paths of educational scientists to working life from the perspective of human agency. Agency is understood in this study from a temporal perspective. Method. This study was conducted with narrative methods. I collected the data during fall 2018 by narrative interviews. During those interviews seven educational scientists revealed their paths to working life. I analyzed the stories by means of narrative analysis. As a result, a new story, that reflects the educational scientist´s path to working life was constructed. To finish off with I examined the stories of the interviewees and the story I reconstructed from the perspective of human agency. Results and conclusions. The result of this study was a story that reflects the path of educational scientist´s to working life. The story consisted of four phases: (1.) the beginning of the story, (2.) the rise of uncertainties and anxieties, (3.) the discovery of one´s own direction and letting go of the past and (4.) the end of the story. Different time horizons were present in the story and the future was the most preeminent time horizon in all of the phases. The stories of the interviewees could be understood as stories about the construction and structuring of professional identity. The stories proceeded through the feelings of uncertainty and anxiety to discovering of one´s own direction, happiness and confidence. This study also reflected the way people construct their life paths in their stories. The stories of the interviewees built up a story of overcoming difficulties, where the journey included uncertainties and challenges, but where the result was worth of all the trouble.