John Dewey's masterpiece "Democracy and Education", from 1916, is clearly far removed from the dominant tendencies of current education policy in the western world, with their emphasis on the narrow accountability of the New Public Management. Nevertheless, his book still challenges those tendencies and sets forth criteria for…

Swedish educational policy mandates have given schools a double mission: the development of content-based knowledge as well as the promotion of democratic values and competencies. While detailed learning outcomes are specified for content domains, the democratic mission is imprecisely described and unsupported by practical measures. This leaves…

This paper examined policy reform and conflict management in education. Specifically, the discussion focuses on expertise and experimentation as strategies of conflict management in Sweden and the Federal Republic of Germany. The course of events during the reform eras is traced. The fate of comparable policies under different political…

Previous analyses of higher education policy in Sweden are addressed to examine the nature of the major tradeoffs between values. In addition, a set of value categories relevant to higher education policy in general is suggested. Values identified as particularly relevant to the analysis of higher education policy are equality, excellence,…

The application of the idea of diplomacy to educational change is addressed, with attention to the problems faced by the head of a teaching and learning support group within a university, along with the role of educational advisers, or consultants, The analysis is structured based on the main elements of diplomacy. Attention is directed to an…