Att analysera kunskap

– vad internationellt mobila medicinare lär sig av att arbeta utomlands

Abstract

The aim with this article is to discuss analytical tools to understand knowledge and learning processes. Our point of departure is data from our research project about international mobility among highly skilled professionals in the medical field. In this text, we problematize how to classify and analyse different types of knowledge as physicians and medical researchers who have worked abroad and then returned to Sweden tell about their experiences. In the interviews we have conducted so far, we can identify declarative knowledge (facts, theoretical knowledge); skills and embodied knowhow; meta knowledge (about how the medical field works, i.e. publication strategies) and reflexive abilities (broaden one's vision, learn about and be able to deal with cultural variations, extend professional habitus). We find that professional knowledge in the medical field is a process were the different types of knowledge are interdependent. It is therefore necessary to analyse these interrelations. Since we define professional knowledge as a process, difficult to completely separate from everyday knowledge and everyday life, we suggest that reflexive abilities have a vital role among the interrelated knowledge types.