Return on investment (ROI) has become part of the policymaking toolkit, particularly pertinent for activities like school-based career guidance deemed optional by some policymakers. There are institutions supporting ideal ROI methods alongside an academic critique, but little research on how ROI has been applied in practice in a guidance setting.…

Intersectionality highlights that different aspects of individuals' identities are not independent of each other. Instead, they interact to create unique identities and experiences, which cannot be understood by analysing each identity dimension separately or in isolation from their social and historical contexts. Intersectional approaches in this…

This article explores how a growing apparatus of edupreneurial actors offers solutions for the current 'school crisis' and how these commercial actors become taken for granted in the public school system. The Swedish case is interesting, as it involves a once-strong welfare state that is now associated with both the neoliberal discourse of…

In this paper, we theorize on local school governance through a multi-method case study of a large-sized Swedish municipality by drawing on neo-institutional theory. In light of a changing governing landscape in Sweden in terms of a 're-centralization', new conditions between the state, the local education authorities (LEA) and the schools have…

In recent decades education has been suggested as an important solution to current problems of the population's health. A high level of education in general is construed as essential for the nation's well-being and competitiveness. In this article we problematise the ways in which discourses on education, learning and health have become…

In Sweden, as in many other countries, inclusion has been on the political agenda for a long time and has served as a blueprint and guiding principle for practical work in school. However, inclusive education has, by and large, been associated with special education measures, which seriously limit the chances of achieving the vision of inclusion.…

Early School Leaving in the European Union provides an analysis of early school leaving (ESL) in nine European Union countries, with a particular focus on young people who were previously enrolled in educational institutions inside and outside mainstream secondary education. The comparative approach employed by this volume adds to the existing…

Papers from the proceedings of the 14th Annual Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society was submitted in two volumes. Volume 1 contains papers submitted at the conference held in Sofia, Bulgaria, June 14-17, 2016. Volume 2 contains papers submitted at the 4th International Partner Conference of the International Research Centre…

Many European governments associate improving literacy with providing development assistance to regions like Africa and Asia from which the majority of the world's 774 million illiterates come. As school attendance is compulsory in the region, it is assumed that the Education for All (EFA) goals have been achieved and literacy is therefore not…

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…