The thesis explores the role of academic education in police professionalisation. Due to its high complexity, specialisation and status, detective work is well-suited for illustrating these developments and the practical and symbolic benefits they can bring to the police and policing as a whole. The overall approach of thesis is iterative. Literature from police studies and sociology of professions provides the conceptual and theoretical framework for the empirical data of 24 semi-structured interviews conducted with 14 police national training coordinators and local police trainers. The increasing academisation of police training and the formalisation of the police-academia relationships suggest police professionalisation has reached a tipping point. This is seen in the current investigative skills training in England and Wales, which is characterised by growing centralisation, standardisation, and emphasis on formalising the professional knowledgebase of investigations and policing – a trend which the Professionalising Investigation Programme exemplifies. While the police (including the investigative specialism) can be shown to display many of the qualities of professions, it has lacked the level of instructional abstraction characterising other professions, typically provided by higher education and, crucially, leading to externally recognised qualifications. Developing academic police education is not without its challenges, chief among them the perceived epistemological and cultural divide between the ‘two worlds’ of police and academia. A successful transformation requires careful consideration of the content and format of the arrangements, investment, support, acceptance and engagement from police, academia and government, and a simultaneous change to cultural dispositions (habitus) and internal and external structures (field). This is worth the effort as a number of practical and symbolic benefits of police academic education can be identified. It has the potential to improve the quality of service by deepening police knowledge and understanding and facilitating community-oriented approaches. More importantly, academic education bestows a rich cultural capital, strengthens and legitimises police expertise, market monopoly, and status in the eyes of the public, other professions and the government. It enables the survival of the profession, giving it the tools to prevail in conflicts over competence and the right to define and interpret policing and its social context. In summary, police professionalisation via academic education can be explained in terms of agency and structure both; as a deliberate occupational upgrading spurred by social and economic aspirations and aimed to reconceptualise and relegitimise policing; and as an inevitable reaction to wider changes and a deeper ontological shift taking place in the society.

La pédagogie par les compétences est entrée dans les formations du secteur sanitaire et social, en France, depuis les années 2000. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’en explorer les effets sur la motivation, les résultats scolaires et l’adaptation professionnelle. La thèse s’appuie sur les théories constructiviste, socioconstructiviste, et sociocognitiviste. Dans ce cadre, trois enquêtes ont été menées, les deux premières auprès des étudiants et la dernière auprès des professionnels de terrains. Ces enquêtes ont permis de comparer deux groupes d’étudiants : un groupe ayant bénéficié d’une pédagogie par les compétences et un autre groupe ayant bénéficié de pédagogies traditionnelles. La thèse montre que les étudiants ayant bénéficié d’une pédagogie par les compétences ont moins d’amotivation, et plus de motivation extrinsèque (MEID et MERE). Leurs résultats scolaires sont aussi plus élevés. Par contre, ils semblent moins autonomes et moins aptes à transférer leurs connaissances. Ces résultats interrogent l’encadrement, la formation des encadrants, et l’emploi du portfolio et des unités d’intégration en formation. / Competence-oriented pedagogy has entered the training of the health and social sector in France since the year 2000. The aim of this doctoral dissertation is to explore the effects on motivation, academic achievement and professional adaptation. This doctoral dissertation is based on constructivist, socio-constructivist and socio-cognitivist theories. In this context, three surveys were conducted, the first two with students and the last one with professionals. These surveys compared two groups of students : a group that benefited from a competence-oriented pedagogy and another group that benefited from traditional methods.This doctoral dissertation shows that students who have benefited from a competence-oriented pedagogy have less amotivation, and more extrinsic motivation (MEID and MERE). Their school results are also higher. However, they seem less autonomous and less able to transfer their knowledge.These results question supervision, training of supervisors, and use of portfolio and integration units in training.

Between the Promise of Specificity and the Demand for Evidence – A study of knowledge and the approach to knowledge in socially oriented non-profit, private and public sector organizations In the social work field it is possible to identify two parallel processes in time. On the one hand a qualitative developmental process―even towards a form of standardization―where central concepts are academisation, professionalization, scientifically produced knowledge, expertise and evidence based methods. Simultaneously, there is a drive to create the conditions for increased diversity, where hopes are especially being pinned on the non-profit sector. In spite of representations and expectations concerning the non-profit sector and its so-called specificity, however, much of existing research lacks a comparative perspective, i.e., studies where non-profit organizations are related to comparable activities in the private and public sector. The aim of the study―with special focus on issues concerning evidence based knowledge in social work―is to compare and analyse whether and in that case how employee conceptions differ between the sectors, and whether and in what way non-profit employees and their activities can be said to fulfil the expectations of contributing to increased diversity. Data is from a questionnaire directed to about 1300 social work employees. The results show a greater interest in research and more marked efforts at professionalization in the public sector, while above all in the non-profit sector there was skepticism about science paired with reservations about work carried out in a professional way. In the non-profit, but also in the private sector, issues of ethics, views of humanity and values were paid greater attention. Also stressed here was the importance of creating relationships, the unique human encounter, genuine commitment, and human kindness. However, there was significant uniformity across all sectors in the use of methods, where three dominated: solution focused measures, network support/therapy, and psychosocial work.

Between the Promise of Specificity and the Demand for Evidence – A study of knowledge and the approach to knowledge in socially oriented non-profit, private and public sector organizations In the social work field it is possible to identify two parallel processes in time. On the one hand a qualitative developmental process―even towards a form of standardization―where central concepts are academisation, professionalization, scientifically produced knowledge, expertise and evidence based methods. Simultaneously, there is a drive to create the conditions for increased diversity, where hopes are especially being pinned on the non-profit sector. In spite of representations and expectations concerning the non-profit sector and its so-called specificity, however, much of existing research lacks a comparative perspective, i.e., studies where non-profit organizations are related to comparable activities in the private and public sector. The aim of the study―with special focus on issues concerning evidence based knowledge in social work―is to compare and analyse whether and in that case how employee conceptions differ between the sectors, and whether and in what way non-profit employees and their activities can be said to fulfil the expectations of contributing to increased diversity. Data is from a questionnaire directed to about 1300 social work employees. The results show a greater interest in research and more marked efforts at professionalization in the public sector, while above all in the non-profit sector there was skepticism about science paired with reservations about work carried out in a professional way. In the non-profit, but also in the private sector, issues of ethics, views of humanity and values were paid greater attention. Also stressed here was the importance of creating relationships, the unique human encounter, genuine commitment, and human kindness.  However, there was significant uniformity across all sectors in the use of methods, where three dominated: solution focused measures, network support/therapy, and psychosocial work.

Utbildningen av officerare är omdiskuterad och har kanske alltid varit det. Men de senaste årens förändringar av officersutbildningen och akademisering av yrket samt ändrade befälsstrukturer i Försvarsmakten (FM) har återigen satt fart på diskussionen. Det handlar bland annat om FM får den officer som man behöver för att kunna bygga starka krigsförband och om officeren har de kvalifikationer som detta kräver? Men vad är officersyrket för något och vad är det egentligen FM vill ha? Studien undersöker just det, vad en officer är och vilka egenskaper som en officer förväntas att ha med sig in i yrket.  Utbildningen vid Försvarshögskolan (FHS) Officersprogrammet (OP) är det som skall leda till en officer med rätt kvalifikationer och egenskaper vilket leder till den andra delen av studien, där bilden av vad en officer är jämförs med de examensmål som programmet har. Dessa examensmål framgår av förordningen för FHS och med de 17 examensmålen examinerade så skall kadetten vara klar att påbörja sitt yrke som officer. Frågan är om den förutsättningen verkligen finns?   För att kunna göra denna jämförelse har studien, genom intervjuer, tagit fram en modell av en officer från det unika med officersprofessionen, våldsmonopolet, via antagningskrav för utbildningen till egenskaper som officeren måste ha och roller som officeren utövar. Modellen har två portalparagrafer som är att betrakta som en sammanställning, vilka studien anser är nödvändiga för att hantera de mest allvarliga frågor som i förlängningen kan innebära beslut om liv eller död.  Portalparagraferna är mångsidighet och en väl utvecklad inre kompass.   I jämförelsen mellan modellen och examensmålen har studien funnit att examensmålen är avmilitariserade och har en teoretisk slagsida. Den väpnande striden har kommit i skymundan och officerares ansvar för det statliga våldsmonopolet inte finnsmed. De tydliggör inte heller en del av de egenskaper och kvalifikationer, som studien har visat, är nödvändiga för att officeren som ledare ska kunna hantera yrkesprofessionen och axla det ansvar detta kräver. Det gör att kadetten inte fullt ut får den möjlighet att bli den officer som FM behöver.   Studien visar bland annat att examensmålen bör ses över och kanske även till del skrivas om. / The training of military officers is well debated and has always been. But the recent years' changes in officer training and the academisation of the profession and also changed command structures in the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) have once again set the stage for discussion. Among other things, it is about SAF getting the officer they need to build strong units and whether the officer has the qualifications that this requires? But what is the profession as an officer and what does the SAF really wants? The study examines just that, what is a military officer and what qualities an officer is expected to bring into the profession.  The education at the Swedish National Defense University (SDU) and the military officers’ program (OP) is the education, which should lead to a profession as an officer with the right qualifications and characteristics. This leads to the second part of the study, where the image of an officer is compared to the exam objectives for the program. These exam objectives are stated in the ordinance for SDU, and with the 17 exam objectives examined; the cadet should be ready to begin his profession as an officer. The question is whether this condition really exists?  In order to make this comparison, the study, through interviews, has developed a model of an officer from the unique with the profession, the monopoly of violence, via admission requirements for the education, to characteristics that the officer must have and roles that the officer exercises. The model has two portal paragraphs that are a compilation of the model, which the study considers necessary to deal with the most serious issues that may ultimately involve decisions on life or death.   The portal paragraphs are versatility and a well-developed inner moral guidance.  In the comparison between the model and the exam objectives, the study found that the objectives are demilitarized and have a theoretical approach. The armed battle is overshadowed and the officers' responsibility for the state monopoly of violence is not included. Nor do they clarify some of the characteristics and qualifications that the study has shown are necessary for the officer to be able to manage the profession as a leader and shoulder the responsibility this requires. This means that the cadet does not fully get the opportunity to become the officer that SAF needs.  The study shows, among other things, that the exam objectives should be reviewed and perhaps even partly rewritten.