Lisa Asp-Onsjö

Lessons Learned from Research on Individual Educational Plans in Sweden: Obstacles, Opportunities and Future Challenges.

Since 1995, all Swedish compulsory schools have had a legal obligation to establish individual educational plans (IEPs) for pupils with special educational needs. However, previous research shows that there are a number of issues associated with how these plans are used in schools’ overall work and identifies a discrepancy between educational policy and practice. In this article, we review previous research on authentic IEPs in Sweden to clarify issues and obstacles associated with each step of the process of working with these plans. We then problematise and critically discuss the role that IEPs have come to play in the current Swedish education system and Swedish education policy, following recent reforms. Informed by our review of previous research and the transformation of the Swedish education system during recent years, we conclude that the following issues regarding the use of IEPs require particular consideration on both policy and local school levels. Firstly, partly (at least) because guidelines for implementing IEPs are inadequate, schools appear to enact rather than implement these policy demands, without critically considering what an IEP is and how it should be used in practice. Secondly, in contrast to initial intentions, IEPs largely seem to be used primarily as administrative tools rather than to help meet the educational and developmental needs of the pupils concerned. Hence, there is a risk of IEPs being used merely for ‘fabricating’ a sanitised version of the schools’ procedures to demonstrate accountability in national quality audits and give a favourable representation of the schools. Finally, parents and pupils’ participation and involvement in developing IEPs need further exploration in schools. These issues should ideally be critically examined in future studies regarding the use of IEPs both nationally and internationally.

To pass the test: the timing of boys’ parallel positioning

Boys’ (under) achievement is frequently on the agenda in the Nordic countries, like in other parts of the Western world. Theoretical explanations for their lower achievement than girls typically emphasise the dissociation between hegemonic young masculinities and school work. In this paper, we focus on boys’ strategies for managing schools conflicting demands, using data from a recently completed Swedish ethnographic study of the discourses of gender and pupil achievement at school in various local settings. The analyses show that boys engage in a strategy of complex parallel positioning to master school demands and peer-group expectations; they appear to distance themselves from swotting yet, at the same time, devote themselves to schoolwork. This dual positioning needs to be accomplished over a short period of time at the beginning of the semester. The analyses point to the critical time sequencing, and reveal what seemed to be a carefully self-monitored process where boys’ academic participation had to appear convincing to teachers but neither too long nor too intense to interfere with their peer-group interactions and positioning. The analyses also show teachers’ appreciation of the boys who manage to position themselves well academically.

Discourses on Gender and Achievement in Lower Secondary Education

This chapter takes as a starting point gender differences in school achievement in Sweden and other Nordic countries, and what is communicated about the differences in teaching. It is based on a study that explored understandi ngs of gender and achievement in various educational settings and local contexts. This was researched by means of classroom and school observ ations as well as interviews with 9th grade students in nine classes from different schools, in various urban and rural areas. Some of the theme s that emerged with regard to the gender differences were the governance by marks and tests, the gendered discourses on performance, work and talent, groups’ resources for academic positioning, the importance of local contexts and the significance of socio-economic relations.