Johannes Westberg

Stimulus or Impediment? The Impact of Matching Grants on the Funding of Elementary Schools in Sweden during the Nineteenth Century.

What was the impact of government grants on the emerging national elementary school systems of the nineteenth century? This article deals with this question through a study of the introduction of matching government grants in Sweden during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The analysis shows that, although the government grants increased rapidly with the introduction of matching grants, they did not crowd out local funding. Instead, the grants stimulated local taxation, increasing the number of teachers as well as their salaries. This occurred because the grants were perceived as an incentive by local school boards and because the financial control of the Swedish elementary school system remained at a local level. Thus, this article also contributes to the research on the expansion of mass education during the nineteenth century, commenting on the significance of both state intervention and a decentralised organisation.

Funding the Rise of Mass Schooling : The Social, Economic and Cultural History of School Finance in Sweden, 1840-1900

This book presents expert analysis on how the remarkable rise of mass schooling was funded during the nineteenth century. Based on rich source materials from rural Swedish school districts, and dra ...

Making mass schooling affordable: in-kind taxation and the establishment of an elementary school system in Sweden, 1840–1870

Abstract This article discusses the significance of in-kind taxation and payments in kind for the establishment of an elementary school system in Sweden, in the 1840–1870 period. By analysing the funding of teachers’ wages, the heating of the school facilities, and school building construction in the 12 rural school districts of the Sundsvall region, this study shows that schooling to a large extent relied on in-kind transactions in this area. Despite the practical problems that such transactions entailed, the author has argued that they were instrumental in the establishment of schooling in the Sundsvall region. Apart from making schooling affordable for the school districts, since in-kind taxation and payment made it possible to avoid extensive cash expenditure, the natural economy presented an opportunity to align the school funding to the school districts’ local resources, price levels and social structure. In contrast to the historiography of schooling that has mainly linked the emergence of mass schooling to the modernisation of society, this work reveals that age-old customs of in-kind transactions are an important factor to acknowledge when explaining the educational revolution that mass schooling entailed.

How much did a Swedish Schoolhouse Cost to Build? Rewriting the history of 19th-century rural schoolhouses

How much did the 19th-century rural schoolhouse cost to build? On the basis of a study of schoolhouse building in the Sundsvall region in the period 1842–1900, this article shows how the cost of school buildings increased over time, both overall and by schoolhouse, largely because of the marginalization of cheaper and simpler redevelopment projects, as well as the construction of a number of more expensive schoolhouses. Through the use of extensive source material, preserved from the building of 66 schoolhouses, a more detailed analysis of these developments has demonstrated differences in price levels between purchased schoolhouses, redevelopments of existing buildings and new building projects, and buildings intended for different types of schools. Insights are also given into labour and material costs. In addition to establishing basic facts about a main feature of the expanding system of mass education, this study thus makes a reinterpretation of the 19th-century rural schoolhouse which emphasizes new patterns of development and fundamental distinctions, presenting schoolhouses as a social and economic issue, rather than an architectural or pedagogical concern. Instead of being described as rather simple buildings, in comparison with the major buildings in the cities, schoolhouses thus appear as a major item of expenditure for local government.

The challenge of returning home: the role of school and teachers in the well-being of Finnish war children, ‘Finnebørn’, during and after World War II

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to clarify what kind of role schools and teachers played in the well-being of Finnish war children during and after the Second World War. The study focuses on the children who were evacuated to Denmark, also known as Finnebørn, and their experiences and memories as war children in Denmark and returning evacuees back home in Finland. All together, 11 former Finnebørn were interviewed for the research. The interview data was supported by other primary sources such as published and unpublished written material and newspaper articles. This article explores the roles schools and teachers played in the lives of the evacuee children; what kind of influence an individual teacher had on Finnebørn’s resilience processes; and finally, how schooling effected children’s well-being. According to our data, going to school played an important role in Finnebørn’s lives. In Denmark, the children’s integration to their new home country was facilitated by supportive and understanding teachers. Escaping the wars, and learning a new language did, however, affect the children’s return to Finland. Having lost their first language, the re-integration into the Finnish society could prove a challenge, to which the Finnish schools and teachers were not prepared for.

A conflicted political will to levy local taxes: inequality and local school politics in Sweden, 1840–1900

ABSTRACT Through an extensive study of 12 parishes in the Sundsvall region, this article, informed by studies in the economic history of education, examines changes and continuities in local school politics during the period of 1840–1900. Using the Sundsvall region in the northern part of Sweden as its point of departure, this article shows how basic political conflicts shifted when political franchise, tax regulations and the social structure of the region changed during the second half of the nineteenth century. At the end of the investigated period, the basic conflict of school politics was no longer between those who owned land and those who did not but rather between high- and low-income groups. Judging from local school politics, the local elites of the Sundsvall region, in contrast to local elites in the USA, England, Spain and Prussia, focused their attention on school funding. The main conflicts between the social groups not only concerned the distribution of school expenditures but also included issues, such as the location of schools.

State formation and the rise of elementary education at the periphery of Europe: the cases of Finland and Turkey 1860-1930

ABSTRACT This article addresses the role of the state and state formation in the establishment of national education during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Through a comparative case analysis of two countries at the European periphery (Finland and Turkey), this article shows how national educational systems, in both instances, were driven by periods of intense state building. In the nineteenth century, military defeats sparked educational reforms, and in the early nineteenth century school laws were enacted due to the establishment of the republics of Finland and Turkey. Nevertheless, these examples also show the limits of a state formation perspective. Despite changes in educational policy, neither state reached high enrolment levels in the nineteenth century, and only in Finland schooling for all was realised in the 1930s. Thus, this work encourages further comparative analyses of the social, economic and political circumstances in which these states acted.

A Mundane History of School Finance

The nineteenth century saw the rise of mass schooling. During this era of the agrarian and industrial revolutions, school acts were implemented in countries such as Prussia (1763), Denmark (1814), France (1833), Sweden (1842) and Finland (1866). In the northern US states, compulsory school systems were established during the period 1830–60; in the southern states, they were established after the Civil War. Schooling was made compulsory during 1869–82 in 15 crownlands of the Austrian Empire, four Australian states, Scotland, The Netherlands and New Zealand.1

The In-Kind Economy of Early School Districts

Like their economic culture, the nature of school districts’ expenditure remains understudied. In stark contrast to the number of vital studies in economic history that have estimated the changing levels of educational expenditure, there is a marked paucity of studies that reflect upon the qualitative nature of educational expenditure.1 Although the available evidence shows that non-monetary resource allocation mechanisms remained a significant feature of nineteenth-century society, the relationship between the non-monetary and monetary components of educational expenditure is rarely discussed. Instead, quantitative analyses of educational expenditure reduce these transactions to dollars, francs, marks or pesetas. This pre-occupation with the monetary aspect of educational expenditure is also evident in the assumption that “the edifice of public education rests on dollars and cents.”2

Pursuing a Fair and Reasonable Economy

Economic culture has been attributed increasing importance in the historical and social sciences. In historical research, concepts such as “moral economy” are currently well-established, albeit not undisputed, and references to culture and institutions have been fashionable among economists. Indeed, an article in The Economist (1996) claimed that Hermann Goring, who is said to have reached for his revolver each time he heard the word culture, would have a sore hand today.1