1 Various Paths to PhD and Academic Career in Education – A Qualitative Study Juha Suoranta and Marjo Vuorikoski Department of Education University of Tampere Finland Paper presented at the Nordic Perspectives of Lifelong Learning in the New Europe conference, Turku 15-17.03. 2007 Introduction In this paper we focus on doctoral studies as a particular form of socialization, and will explore various paths to PhD and academic career in the Finnish educational sciences. We utilize a life history method in analyzing our data that includes biographies and autobiographies of Finnish doctors in Education. Our respondents represent researchers from different generations. Although our approach is qualitative and rather open-ended we are interested in knowing, how such factors as age, gender, social class, family’s economic and social status influence the selection of post- graduate studies and later academic careers. Our approach stems from the theory of cultural capital: We are interested in how our respondents make sense and construct their lived experiences in terms of gender, social class, and cultural capital. Sex/gender has long been among the most common factors in singling out women from the postgraduate studies and hence from the academic career. Besides that we like to find out, if it is the same with social class in the Finnish – seemingly ”classless”– society. Is the class background another ”hidden truth” in the academia? In the paper we present the points of departure of our research project. First, we outline the expansion of Finnish postgraduate education and professoriate in Education. This ”big picture” of Finnish higher education as well as education and science policies forms the context knowledge of our study. Secondly we focus on gender perspective, and thirdly take a look on class issue– autobiographical texts by some first-generation academics offer examples of lived experiences. The Expansion of Finnish Postgraduate Education and Professoriate in Education Education is one of the oldest disciplines in Finnish universities. The first professorship was established in 1852 at the University of Helsinki. The University of Helsinki maintained a central position in Education in the nineteenth century as well as in the first decades of the twentieth century. Two new professorships were established in the 1930’s in Turku and Jyväskylä. The increase of professors took place gradually and slowly before the 1970’s when the expansion of the discipline began: the academization of teacher education led to the establishment of faculties of education in several universities in 1973. (Rinne 1998.)