Who governs the Swedish school? Local school policy research from a historical and transnational curriculum theory perspective

Abstract

In this article, we present a comparative research project on municipal school policy in Sweden 1950Á2010 which in our view contributes to the research fields of education policy and curriculum theory. Our project which started in 2014 links to a line of international research on education policy concerned with the tensions between decentralisation and globalisation and comparative research investigating transnational transfers of education policy ideas. In this article, we provide some preliminary findings which display municipal school policy dealing with national and transnational school initiatives and affecting local school actions. Most of the findings in this article concern the time period 1950Á1975, during which the present two Swedish school forms, Grundskolan (a 9-year comprehensive school) and Gymnasieskolan (upper secondary school), were introduced and established. We compare local policy, through six interrelated indicators, in two municipalities with different structures and origins. On the basis of our findings, we conclude that municipal school policy research in a comparative and historical perspective is an important field of research as it reveals the complexity of school governance. Historical studies of municipal school policy and practice are crucial for exploring different dimensions of curriculum theory, including the transnational dimension.

Variations on Modernisation: Technological Development and Internationalisation in Local Swedish School Policy From 1950 to 2000

“…Irrespective of methodology, the emphasis has mainly been national, reflecting the fact that this strand of CT in many ways developed in parallel to the emergence and evolution of the comprehensive school system in the Nordic countries. Over the last decade, a growing number of publications have broadened the analysis of Swedish school policy enactment to include the transnational level (e.g., Forsberg & Pettersson, 2014;Nordin, 2012;Pettersson, 2008;Ringarp & Waldow, 2016;Román et al, 2015;Sivesind & Wahlström, 2016) in what has been described as a methodological shift towards a transnationally oriented curriculum theory (see Nordin, 2012).…”

“…Anderson-Levitt, 2008), and the field of curriculum research itself has become more internationalised (cf. Autio, 2014), little attention has so far been paid to the local arena where multiple and sometimes contradictory policies are enacted (Jarl, 2012;Nordin, 2015;Román et al, 2015). Among relevant studies in other Nordic countries, Coninck-Smith, Rosén Rasmussen, and Vyff's (2015) extensive historical research analysed the Danish school as a municipal concern, as well as the introduction of new technologies.…”

“…As Larsson, Letell, and Thörn (2012) have shown, this self-image has been reproduced internationally and nationallynot only in Swedish school policy rhetoric but also in research. In line with this thinking, contemporary studies of Swedish school policy have largely treated schools as a core national project, affording limited opportunities to test assumptions of homogeneity and/or increased decentralisation in Swedish school policy (Román, Hallsén, Nordin, & Ringarp, 2015).…”

“…Landahl, 2015;Lawn, 2014;Pettersson, 2008;Waldow, 2008), the post-WWII period marks the beginning of an intensified transnational exchange with regard to education policy (Nordin & Sundberg, 2014). The transformation of the Swedish school system that occurred after 1950 as part of the more general process of societal modernisation can in many ways be seen as an opening of Swedish society to the outside world (Román et al, 2015)-a process facilitated by technological development and labour migration. Television, radio and later information and communication technology (ICT), along with a more heterogeneous workforce, brought the "outside world" to people in new and more direct ways than before.…”

“…Television, radio and later information and communication technology (ICT), along with a more heterogeneous workforce, brought the "outside world" to people in new and more direct ways than before. In that sense, technological development and internationalisation can be seen as fundamental to understanding the role of education in Sweden's societal transformation from the 1950s onwards (Almqvist, 2006;Román, 2014;Román et al, 2015). Pursuing this line of thinking, the concepts of technological development and internationalisation are deployed here to capture some of the ideas and visions that informed political decision making during the two different periods of reform.…”