Johanna Ringarp

Is the Grass always Greener? The Effect of the PISA Results on Education Debates in Sweden and Germany

What does a country do when its schools and educational system in general do not produce the results the country believes they are capable of? This article describes the political debates that comparative international studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment have given rise to in Germany and Sweden. As a result of the assessments, both countries have gone outside their borders in order to find new models and policy norms. The article analyzes whether or not the debate on educational policy in the two countries plays a role in policy borrowing. Germany looks to the north, primarily to Sweden — the country at the forefront of pedagogy — but also to Finland. At the same time, Sweden is in the process of dismantling just those parts of its educational policy that have aroused interest and admiration in other countries, especially Germany. Instead, it is investing in individual solutions, elite education and apprentice systems. Through the use of public funds, Sweden has gone from having one of the industrialized Wests most centralized educational systems to one of its most decentralized and privatized. Accordingly, the authors pose the following questions: Who is learning from whom? And is the grass always greener on the other side?

The Problem of the Welfare Profession: An Example--The Municipalisation of the Teaching Profession.

As an answer to the welfare states transformation and increased focus on goal- and result-oriented regulation, Swedish educational policy is in a state of change. The matter of the teaching professions aspirations with regard to professionalisation has come up once again: reminders that reference the introduction of teacher certification in order to guarantee the quality of education have emerged from political quarters, while union quarters are pleading for greater status for the teaching profession. The article discusses whether the municipalisation of the teaching profession in 1989 was a break with the goal of Swedens previous political debate on education - namely, a comprehensive school for all - and whether the increased control over the work of the teachers can be said to be a consequence of the reform.