On October 19, 2023, a workshop on the topic "Disentangle the concept of Habitus through Illusio" took place at the Education Sciences Group at WU Wien, led by visiting professor Carina Carlhed Ydhag. Prof. Carlhed Ydhag, who heads the Department of Education at Stockholm University, presented key research findings from the longitudinal study "Against all Odds - successful schools in superdiverse educational contexts [Gegen alle Widrigkeiten – erfolgreiche Schulen in superdiversen Bildungskontexten]", funded by the Swedish Research Council.

The Illusio typology developed serves to analyze the educational trajectories of high-achieving students from diverse backgrounds. During the workshop, illustrative interview excerpts from qualitative educational studies were classified using the typology and reflected upon in a theory-based manner.

About

Carina Carlhed Ydhag holds the position as Professor of Education at Stockholm University. Currently, she is head of the Department of Education.

Her research spans studies of social structures of dominance within and between social and professional fields (Education and Medicine). Another theme of research relates to young adults transitions, educational strategies and success in upper secondary education and higher education as also the conditions of scientific knowledge production of ”student completion” in the European educational policy context.

She has experience of both qualitative and quantitative research methods covering surveys, case studies with mixed methods, interviews, historical studies using archive material and discourse analysis. The theoretical tools relate primarily to Cultural Sociology and Sociology of Education with a solid base in Pierre Bourdieu’s work, in addition she has used theory from sociology of professions, especially Andrew Abbott’s work.

Since 2023 she has been directing a project funded by Swedish Research Council: Against all Odds – successful schools in superdiverse educational contexts. The research team includes Ali Osman, Anna Lund and Stefan Lund, all from Stockholm University.