This paper will discuss the methodology to be used in a newly started Ph.D. study about the Image of the Engineering Student and Engineering. The aim of the study is to deconstruct the images of the engineering student and the engineering profession occurring in recruiting campaigns of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). The campaigns can be seen as a part of a discourse. According to Foucault, a discourse is statements more or less uniformly produced. In the Foucault concept, the practice is also of interest in the context. Practice can be described as human activities which bring forth what can be said within a certain institution, e.g., the Royal Institute of Technology. There is no strict boundary between the discourse and the practice, and, hence, the concept discoursive practice will be useful to describe the under-lying restrictions and possibilities of what can be said and done within a practice.

The campaigns are parts of an ongoing larger pedagogic project with the purpose of influencing young people’s notions of technology and technology education. According to Foucault, power is strictly nothing more than its exercise which is practised by control and administrative techniques. In this context, power is brought to the campaigns. This fact does not mean that individuals are victimised by the influence of campaigns, but, nevertheless, they have to act against or adjust to the discourse to which they are exposed.

A suitable methodical approach to the subject implies content analysis and discourse analysis. In this paper, suitable tools and variables for the analysis will be discussed. For example, significant variables are gender and technical specialization in an engineering profession or engineering education. The variables will be organised in a coding system. Other types of variables which will be coded are themes. In this respect, socio-economic status is an example of a relevant theme, which possibly has to be divided into sub-themes.