Prize for educational writers to professor of business administration

Lars-Torsten Eriksson, professor of business administration at the University of Gävle, has been awarded the prize for educational writers “Lärkan” (the lark), for 2017.

“For me, books have also been of great value. This is the finest prize I can imagine. I am very much honoured,” Lars-Torsten Eriksson says

Lars-Torsten Eriksson, professor of business administration, and for 40 years a writer of textbooks in business studies, has been awarded the prize Lärkan for educational writers for 2017, in the category university/higher education institution. Olle Burell, commissioner of education for the city of Stockholm, will award him the prize at the educational event Skolforum on 30 October.

What does it mean to you to be awarded the prize?

“It means that I am recognised as an author of educational material. My books have reached a great many students and that has always been amazing to me. I am very honoured by this prize.”

Why do you think that you are awarded the prize?

“I am not aware of the motivation yet. I will be told in October. But I guess that it has to do with two books primarily.

My first textbook, which I wrote 45 years ago, is still used in higher education. At the time, I was working in Uppsala and was assigned to be in charge of the essay course. There were no books in methodology, so I wrote one. It is called Att undersöka, att forska och att skriva rapporter and was a trend setter for books in methodology.

The second book, which was a later bestseller, is called Kritiskt tänkande (Critical Thinking). About ten years ago, there was a debate in Universitetsläraren on whether students even knew what critical thinking was. The discussion made it clear that neither did the teachers. I though, I will write a book about it, and currently I am working on the third edition.”

What is your incentive for writing educational material?

“It comes with the teaching. When you structure your teaching, it becomes natural to write about it as well. The dissemination of knowledge takes place in different ways, through printed material and through the spoken word. For me, books have always been of great value. If you read, you see the context.”

The future

“A third edition of Kritiskt tänkande will be released in the coming spring. Critical thinking is a vast field and you always find new examples and new, more mature formulations. I also have a ten percent position at the University of Gävle and, currently, I am writing the history of the business programmes here. I was involved in starting the programmes back in 1977, when higher education institutions first came to life in Sweden.

Finally

“The one who reads lives several lives, and I want more people to experience the value of books.”

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The prize “Lärkan” for educational writers is awarded by the Swedish Association of Educational Writers; in 2017, it is for the sixth time. There are five categories, and the prize is 5000 SEK in each category.

The prizes were established to give recognition to the role of authors when it comes to producing educational material in printed or digital format. Good textual quality and evidence of good teaching methods are important criteria for the jury.

This year the prize in the category university/higher education institution goes to Lars-Torsten Eriksson, professor of business administration, and a long-time associate of the University of Gävle.

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For more information, please contact:
Lars-Torsten Eriksson, professor of business administration at the University of Gävle
Phone: 026-64 85 50, 070-658 85 59
Email: lars-torsten.eriksson@hig.se

Text: Douglas Öhrbom
Photo: Private