The aim of this study was to explore, analyse, and critically discuss conditions for Swedish ICT coordinators working on school digitalisation in a local municipal school context. More specifically, the study draws on findings from interviews with 13 Swedish information and communication technology (ICT) coordinators working in eight…

As the privatisation of the public sector has grown rapidly in Sweden in the last decade, private companies have become an imperative part of education. Private companies sell and deliver consultancy, hardware, software, services, etc. to schools and municipalities. This study examines a growing rate of activities from companies and businesses…

The article aims to depict the political framing of three grading reforms in Swedish compulsory school, in terms of the political problem they are supposed to solve and what kind of attention is given to the lowest performing pupils. Discourse analysis is employed, focusing on statement producers. The empirical material consists of policy…

This article focuses on how 'problems' regarding quality in adult education are constituted as particular sorts of 'problems'. The analysis takes its point of departure in a poststructural analytic strategy called 'What's the problem represented to be?'. The material analysed consists of various policy documents concerning contemporary Swedish…

Analysis of Swedish educational policy will start the importance of some state commissions on education. The first one was published in 1946 (SOU, 1948:27) and the second in 2017 (SOU, 2017:35). The first commission's main aim was to form democratic citizens, while the second focused on equity in learning opportunities. Both state commissions had…

This chapter focuses on the governing work of Swedish school inspectors with regards to the role and function of knowledge. As professionals, inspectors are situated as relays and brokers of policy standing in contact with both the political arena and practice arenas. School inspectors use and produce knowledge and they rely on, search for,…

This chapter is dealing with transitions in the governing of schooling in Sweden. Referring to uses of different dominating governing models, four periods were identified since the WW2, first a centralizing reformation period (1950-1980), followed by decentralizing realization period (1980-1990), and then a deregulating restructuration period…

Global trends inspired by neo-liberal tendencies have influenced developments in the Swedish school system. A flurry of educational reforms over the last decades have rapidly transformed the municipal school arena into a market in which independent, for-profit schools have expanded and school segregation has increased. This article examines…

A cadre of school inspectors with different backgrounds visit thousands of schools annually in Sweden as is also the case in several other European and other nations. Do these inspectors believe that they 'make a difference'? In this chapter we elaborate on inspection effects as they are perceived by Swedish inspectors and inspection managers at…

This book offers an original contribution to the area of international research on comparative education policies and the influence of transnational agencies on national school policy and reform. With a focus on grasping what "the Nordic model" or "the Nordic dimension" means in school and educational policy, the book explores…

Discursively learning outcomes have been embedded within an education-policy context characterised by a shift from teaching to learning. In the dominant education policy discourse, learning outcomes have come to play an important role in education whose emphasis is more on product than process, which by its critics have been characterised as…

In the European neo-liberal policy context, there has been an increase in pressure on teachers to exercise a type of professional responsibility that contributes to the development of a competitive knowledge-based economy. From a communication theory perspective, this paper examines if it is at all possible to talk of professional responsibility…

This article analyses a specific part of the actions taken to improve the quality of Swedish education, namely the expectations formulated in national policy documents for the quality work that local authorities, schools and teachers are supposed to undertake. For the empirical analysis of how these expectations have changed over the last two…

This article investigates preschool teachers' professionalism and professional strategies in relation to narratives about learning in preschool. These are expressed through the teachers' talk about documentation. A policy on increased systematic documentation in preschools has been introduced in Sweden. Preschool teachers were interviewed about…

Auditing, accountability, and transparency are concepts that greatly impact the working conditions of today's public sector professionals, including teachers. Documentation requirements have been on the increase for some time, which can be seen in the education sector's Individual Development Plans (IDPs), for example. These IDPs are pedagogical…