This article investigates how professional development courses for university teachers are viewed by different stakeholders, specifically students, university teachers, central university management, and the government. The particular focus of the investigation is on the relationship of theory and practice, disciplinary content, and forms of…

The objective of this article is to explore differentiation of education through juridification. We examine changes in school governing, including trends towards globalization and marketization, as well as increased regulatory intervention in addressing complex social problems. Drawing on Luhmann's theory of functional differentiation and…

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of special education professionals in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden in light of educational policies and reforms. The study places emphasis on (a) the policy context of inclusion and special needs education, (b) the formal qualifications required of special education professionals, and (c)…

The horrendous impact of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues to unfold. One of the consequences has been the systematic destruction of Ukraine's education system. This OECD publication aims to support Ukrainian policymakers in the twin challenge of ensuring high-quality education can continue and to aid the remodeling of an education…

A key concern in international educational policy during the 21st century has been the impact of teacher professionalism on outcomes of schooling. Sweden makes for an interesting case because of the country's initiatives to improve the quality of education through an academization of the teachers. The aim of this study is to analyse how Swedish…

Module A of the OECD Higher Education Policy Survey (HEPS) 2022 elicited information on policies to promote digitalisation of higher education in OECD member and accession countries. In total, 30 jurisdictions responded, providing comparative information on various areas of digitalisation policy, from regulation and governance to financial and…

Sweden's first Elementary School Act of 1842 stated that every parish was obliged to organise and fund schools to be offered to all children in the parish. Many parishes were poor and had a difficult time funding schools. In some parishes, local industries, such as ironworks, organised, funded, and managed schools for their workers. Even though…

This article surveys current management ideals of higher education institutions, and our analytical focus is on the balance between line management and faculty self-governance. It presents an empirical study of evolving governance structures including all 31 public sector higher education institutions in Sweden. The point of departure is the…

The present study focuses on challenges to the work of teachers as a result of a Swedish educational reform that mandates schools guarantee pupils receive early learning support concerning reading, writing, and number sense. The outcome of reforms is connected to how teachers achieve agency in their work , and we use the ecological model of…

This article takes the interlinkages between law and politics as its starting point. It analyzes recent changes in the legislative style of education governance in Sweden as not only a species of crisis management, but also a long-term response to a series of tensions arising out of the push toward what has been identified as 'juridification' in…

As a result of international neoliberal and neoconservative trends, the status of the arts has been devalued in secondary school curricula. This paper examines why the arts are not considered core educational knowledge in pedagogic discourse arising from the New Right policy agenda. In a case study analysis of Swedish educational policy debates,…

This article examines the juridification of education in Sweden with a particular focus on changes in the legal regulation of schools' measures to combat degrading treatment. In Swedish schools, any degrading treatment must be reported to the head teacher who, in turn, has an obligation to report it to the governing body. Based on interviews with…

Schools are recognised as key arenas for health promotion (HP). The development of health literacy (HL) is one of the cornerstones of HP. HP is closely linked to democratic principles and social values. School-based HP may best be understood within the context of the socio-political spectrum in which it is embedded. This study explores how…

This article proposes and discusses a theoretical framework that combines elements from critical policy sociology and discourse theory to study enactments of policy for research-based music teaching in three Swedish policy contexts. Sweden, being the first country to incorporate legal demands for research-based education into its Education Act in…

This article focuses on the Swedish context of upper and post-upper secondary education provided in two sectors, universities and the Swedish Folk High School. The article is centred on the analysis of the support services offered by fifty-five university and Swedish Folk High School institutional websites to individuals and groups designated as…