Marie Carlson

Adult Education Goes to Market: an ethnographic case study of the restructuring and reculturing of adult education

The restructuring of adult education in Göteborg was first initiated experimentally with respect only to SFI education (an education in beginning Swedish for ethnic minorities living in Sweden). This was done on the basis of decisions in the Göteborg Municipal Council in 1999. But restructuring came into full force for all municipal adult education in the Göteborg municipality later in 2002, after the completion of the National Adult Education Initiative (AEI). The restructuring processes followed guidelines for franchise in the public sector as per the 1992 Purchasing Act and had consequences for all education suppliers, but in particular one of them, Studium AB. This was a company created and owned by the Göteborg Metropolitan Council that had been established in order to safeguard the provision of the municipally owned adult education public service previously known as Komvux. This ‘humanist’ form of comprehensive adult education has a strong history in Sweden, within the provision of adult education on a ‘folk-home’ basis. Studium AB had been the single largest provider of adult education in Göteborg up until the franchise but lost its mandate in the tendering processes. Although it concentrates mainly on ‘talkdata’ the present article has been developed from an ongoing ethnographic case study of the effects of restructuring in Göteborg.

The nationalised and gendered citizen in a global world – examples from textbooks, policy and steering documents in Turkey and Sweden

ABSTRACT This article analyses the construction of the gendered and nationalised citizen in education in Turkey and Sweden. We draw on a narrative approach identifying narratives linked to educational discourses. Our empirical data consist of textbooks (in the later years of mandatory schooling), steering documents and interviews. In both our cases, we encounter continuities in these narratives; the citizen is defined with ethno-cultural references along with civic ones, and differentiated according to gender. In the Turkish case, a meta-narrative is constructed around the narratives of enemy and defence related to masculinity, and the feminine as the object of protection. The gender regime is an important part of the processes of normalisation of nationalism. In Sweden, nationalism is formulated around the ‘Swedish miracle’, a social-welfare state, among the best democracies, and with a story of ‘gender success’. In both cases, we also found new narratives in line with Europeanisation processes.

Nordic discourses on marginalisation through education

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is analysis of discursive marginalisation through education in Nordic welfare states. What knowledge do Nordic research discourses produce about marginalisation through education in Nordic welfare states? What are the Nordic contributions to research discourses on marginalisation through education? We apply a discourse theoretical approach and analyse 109 peer-reviewed publications on marginalisation by the Nordic Centre of Excellence “Justice through education in the Nordic countries” (NCoE JustEd) between 2013 and 2017. The publications are from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland. Four critical Nordic research discourses reconceptualise marginalisation in relation to dominant educational discourses on marketisation, Eurocentrism, gender equity and ableism. These Nordic research discourses document discursive effects of the dominant, normalising discourses in terms of stigma, segregation and exclusion of poor, working-class students, non-white and immigrant students and descendants of immigrants, as well as sexual minorities and disabled students. Based on ethical, epistemological and methodological considerations, the critical Nordic research discourses produce knowledge about marginalisation as a relational, intersectional and interdiscursive phenomenon. The critical Nordic research discourses de- and reconstruct knowledge about marginalisation in Nordic welfare states.