Inger Erixon Arreman

Educational marketization the Swedish way

Sweden has commonly been regarded as a striking example of a social democratic welfare-state regime (Esping-Andersen 1996), characterized by strong state governance and active involvement in welfare matters. In the last two decades, however, the Swedish public sector and education system have been radically and extensively transformed in a neo-liberal direction, a move that was preceded by extensive decentralization of decision-making from the state to municipalities and schools. In this article the scope, character and some of the consequences of internal and external marketization of Swedish education in the early 2000s are summarized, and the impact of competition on the internal workings of upper secondary schools is highlighted in particular. We conclude that the external marketization of education has proceeded a long way and Sweden also fully embraces new public management, i.e. ‘inner marketization’, of education in most respects. However, aspects of the older social democratic policy paradigm are still visible with regard to the assigned functions, values and governance of education.

Privatisation of public education? The emergence of independent upper secondary schools in Sweden

This article explores the upper secondary (or post‐16) school market. The study on which it is based, funded by the Swedish Research Council, was entitled ‘Upper‐secondary education as a market’. Empirical data include official statistics, policy documents, school publications, company reports and school visits. Printed and other news media were also scrutinised to identify how the marketisation of education is represented in public discourse. A number of themes emerged from the study which included mapping the expansion of the school market, chains of ownership and influence, marketing strategies, choice and the school market and issues raised in the media. These imply that there is a new market discourse which represents a clear break with previous social democratic education policies primarily aimed at enhancing citizenship and wider democratic values within an inclusive public school. However, critiques have also emerged including a call for strengthened regulations of and control over independent schools and concern about an education market equated more with shares and profits rather than pedagogy and student citizenship.

Research as power and knowledge : struggles over research in teacher education

This article explores discourses of research in the ‘academisation’ of Swedish teacher education. It takes as its theoretical framework Foucauldian concepts of power and knowledge to analyse the moves to incorporate teacher education in the university. The study draws on a case study of teacher education in Sweden which used documentary and interview analyses to explore institutional history, and structures and shifts in teacher education and research from the 1950s onwards. The study shows how struggles over power and knowledge were constitutive of the development of a research‐oriented teacher education that emerged in a multilayered process involving a variety of actors at different levels. It also shows the tensions in the emergence and construction of a new research discipline. The article should be understood in the context of current international discourses where there is a need for a research base for teacher education.

Gender, research and change in teacher education: a Swedish dimension

This paper explores the factors that are at present reconstructing teacher education in Sweden and in other European countries, including professionalization, inherited traditions, feminization and globalization. The authors use as a basis for the paper: documentary analysis and nearly 60 qualitative semi‐structured interviews with management and teaching staff from teacher education at one Swedish higher education institution, Umeå University. Five overall themes emerged from the study: gender; teacher education cultures; organizational changes; collaboration; and research. It is argued that women and men in teacher education are positioned differently with regard to change. Women teacher educators identify more with research and accountability imperatives while their male colleagues tend to focus more on classroom knowledge and skills. The paper considers possible explanations and makes tentative extrapolations to other European sites in varying political contexts.

The Process of Finding a Shape: stabilising new research structures in Swedish teacher education, 2000-2007

This article explores the development and effects of Swedish post-war policies on the emergence of a research base for teacher education. From 2001 onwards, it is possible to undertake research and postgraduate studies within teacher education in Sweden, which prior to the 2001 reform was not possible. The article draws on a variety of frameworks to explore relationships between various parts of teacher education and also more widely in the university. These include relations of power, discourse and gender based on the theoretical perspectives of Bourdieu, Foucault, Sarfatti Larson and Connell among others. Policy documents relating to teacher education and research into national, regional and local perspectives were used to explore institutional history, structures and research development in teacher education from 1946 to the present time. For a micro-level perspective, an interview study was also carried out between 2000 and 2002 with teacher educators and senior managers who from the late 1940s were responsible for teacher education programmes, in and around Umeå, in northern Sweden. A further complementary interview study was carried out with teacher educators and union representatives between 2005 and 2007. The extended study reveals the emergence of new research areas in teacher education as a multilayered process involving a variety of actors at different levels at Umeå University and elsewhere. The aim of the article is to explore the implications of the new research structures for teacher education in Sweden and also to contribute to current cross-national discourses on the need to establish a research base for teacher education.

The implications of school marketisation for students enrolled on introductory programmes in Swedish upper secondary education

Sweden has, like most countries, transformed its educational system with the aim of increasing the economic productivity of its citizens. Nowadays, it has one of the world’s most market-oriented school systems, including few hindrances for new free-school actors. Swedish students have thus become commodities in a competitive school market. The aim of the article is to study students’ exchange value in relation to choice of different schools and study paths with a special focus on the introductory programmes within the Swedish upper secondary school. Traditionally, Swedish upper secondary schools offered vocational and academic programmes, channelling young people into skilled jobs or higher education. Introductory programmes are recent innovations, aimed at the 13% of young people who do not qualify for vocational or academic programmes. This group includes those who have failed to complete compulsory school for a variety of reasons, including those who are recent arrivals in the country. Through observations, formal and informal interviews as well as reading of national and local documents and marketing material, we conclude that introductory programme students do not seem to be sufficiently ‘profitable’ to warrant investment by free schools. Public schools are obliged to help this group of students attain additional qualifications, investing heavily in their education so that they may become part of the mainstream school market.

Social Justice in Swedish Post-16 Education? New Preparatory Programmes

ABSTRACT Under a recent national curriculum reform in Sweden within a highly decentralised, competitive, and marketised education system, access to post-16 education is restricted. In this study, we map and analyse the early onset of new preparatory programmes. We draw on interviews with local politicians and school staff in six different municipalities, along with documents and statistics. The study is positioned within a framework of analysis of policy ideas and theoretical perspectives on inclusive education, equal education opportunities, and marketisation. Bernstein’s theoretical concept of “pedagogic rights” serves as a lens for the interpretation of the findings. The study suggests that the preparatory programmes tend to have marginalising effects for vast numbers of 16 plus students, in contrast to wider policy aims of social and economic inclusion and employability.

Extended Writing Demands – A Tool for ‘Academic Drift’ and the Professionalisation of Early Childhood Profession?

ABSTRACT This study explores the extended demands for writing in the Swedish public service sector of early childhood and how academic writing in the higher education programmes aimed at professional work in that sector is perceived to be of value for early childhood practice among practitioners. Empirical data was collected in individual interviews and focus groups among 65 early childhood staff in two different communities. The study points to an overall focus on assessments and evaluation in professional writing which tends to challenge everyday communication, i.e. everyday discourse for an internal audience (staff, parents and children). The study further indicates that professional writing holds implications for social relations and contributes to strengthened hierarchies among early childhood staff; younger generations more trained in academic writing tend to be ‘ranked’ higher than staff more experienced in practice. Whether the twin demands for ‘professional’ and ‘academic’ writing will contribute to a ‘professional’ early childhood staff community, as suggested in policy and teacher union rhetoric, remains an open question.

Postcolonial teacher education reform in Namibia: Travelling of policies and ideas

Long before Namibia’s independence in 1990, Sweden initiated a policy dialogue with Namibia’s future political leadership. This article reviews the impact of an educational reform in Namibia in the early 1990s called the Integrated Teacher Training Programme (ITTP), which was an outcome of collaboration between the South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO), the liberation movement and teacher educators from Sweden and other Western countries. Research questions posed concerned: (1) the ITTP’s perceived impact on the participants’ private and professional lives; and (2) the ITTP’s impact on the participants’ views on knowledge and education in relation to democracy. A combination of individual interviews and questionnaires was administered in situ in 2009 in Namibia to 17 former ITTP students who were living in various places across Namibia. This follow-up study indicates that the ITTP was crucial for the participants’ professional careers and private lives. The majority saw education as a key to democracy and social transformation, and considered themselves as important actors at local, regional and national levels in forwarding these aims. However, it is concluded that, while the learner-centred education philosophy initially had a strong impact, its application in teacher education has functioned more than anything as a rhetorical device for nation-building.

Developing Research Structures and Research Capacity: The Swedish National Postgraduate School in Educational Work (NaPA)

This article focuses on the emergence and development of new research structures and research capacity within Swedish teacher education at the beginning of the new millennium. Since 2001, it has been possible in Sweden to undertake postgraduate and research studies within teacher education — something that was previously impossible. As a result of a national reform, a new research discipline, educational work, was established at several Swedish universities. At the same time, the National Postgraduate School in Educational Work (NaPA) was created, the responsibility for which was given to Umeå University, one of the larger Swedish teacher education providers. The aim of the article is to provide a picture of Swedish national teacher education policies in the first years of the millennium that have generated new research structures, which, in turn, have enabled a rapid and nationally distributed expansion of research within the field of Swedish teacher education. It draws on a combination of policy documents, research carried out by the two authors and reflections on their own experiences, as a former Ph.D. student who now has a doctoral qualification in educational work and as the head of NaPA respectively.