A School for Every Child in Sweden

Moving landscapes of Nordic basic education: approaching shifting international influences through the narratives of educational experts

“…The three transformation periods based on interviews in all three countries are both overlapping and deviant with the time periods presented by previous research on the development of the Nordic education model. On the one hand the three transformation periods fit well into various historical descriptions on the development of basic education in Finland (Ahonen 2014), Norway (Imsen and Volckmar 2014) and Sweden (Blossing and Söderström 2014). In these studies, the most important milestones for further development of basic education are considered to be establishment of non-church organised folk education in the mid nineteenth century (Finland 1866, Norway 1889, Sweden 1842), comprehensive school reform in the 1960s (Finland 1968/1972, Norway 1954/1969, Sweden 1946/1962, decentralisation of school management in the 1980s and 1990s and increasing international influence since the beginning of the new millennium.…”

Varying access to professional, special educational support: a total population comparison of special educators in Swedish independent and municipal schools

“…The Swedish education system was highly centralised prior to the reforms introducing the independent school in the 1990s (Lindensjö and Lundgren, ; Whitty, Power and Halpin, ). This was considered a marker of equity in terms of ‘a school for all’ and the quality and content of education (Blossing and Söderström, ; Lindensjö and Lundgren, ). As these prior conceptions of equity came into question, they were redefined towards a focus upon the output or results of education and the independent schools were ascribed the role of developers of new educational ideas and methods and means for increased plurality in education.…”

“…Thus, the content and process of education could be different as long as all children were given the possibility to achieve the (centrally defined) educational goals and families became able to choose school profiles in line with their preferences and needs (Proposition 95, 1991/92). Hence, what emerged in the Swedish context was a move from a collectivistic view towards an individualist view of education, society and democracy (Blossing and Söderström, ; Bunar, ; Daun, ; Englund and Quennerstedt, ). While this rise of individualist market view of education allowed room for different interpretations and manners of carrying out education (Lindensjö and Lundgren, ), it also ascribed the responsibility to obtain and retain welfare services that ‘the enabling state’ offers to the individual (Daun, ).…”

Swedish Upper Secondary Students’ Perspectives on the Typical Mathematics Lesson

“…The achievement of such goals has seen a gradual abandonment of traditional whole class teaching in favour of increased individualisation (Carlgren, Klette, Mýrdal, Schnack, & Simola, 2006), particularly with respect to mathematics (Emanuelsson & Sahlström, 2006). Indeed, "students are supposed to take a large part of the responsibility for motivating themselves and for planning and accomplishing their own mathematics learning" (Hansson, 2010, p. 172), with the increasing support of their parents (Blossing & Söderström, 2014).…”