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Publications (10 of 79) Show all publications
Lindgren, J., Benerdal, M., Carlbaum, S. & Rönnberg, L. (2025). 247 inspectorates: Swedish municipalities as guarantees of quality in private preschools?. In: : . Paper presented at NERA 2025: Helsinki, Finland, March 5-7, 2025.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>247 inspectorates: Swedish municipalities as guarantees of quality in private preschools?
2025 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Refereed)
National Category
Other Social Sciences
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-239231 (URN)
Conference
NERA 2025: Helsinki, Finland, March 5-7, 2025
Funder
Swedish Research Council
Available from: 2025-05-26 Created: 2025-05-26 Last updated: 2025-05-26Bibliographically approved
Benerdal, M., Carlbaum, S., Lindgren, J. & Rönnberg, L. (2025). Doing and living (non)competition: Experiences from local preschool quasi-markets in Sweden. In: : . Paper presented at NERA 2025: Helsinki, Finland March 5-7, 2025.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Doing and living (non)competition: Experiences from local preschool quasi-markets in Sweden
2025 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Refereed)
National Category
Social Sciences
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-239230 (URN)
Conference
NERA 2025: Helsinki, Finland March 5-7, 2025
Funder
Swedish Research Council
Available from: 2025-05-26 Created: 2025-05-26 Last updated: 2025-05-26Bibliographically approved
Alexiadou, N., Holm, A.-S., Rönnberg, L. & Carlbaum, S. (2025). Learning, unlearning and redefining teachers’ agency in international private education: a Swedish education company operating in India. Educational review (Birmingham), 77(3), 731-749
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Learning, unlearning and redefining teachers’ agency in international private education: a Swedish education company operating in India
2025 (English)In: Educational review (Birmingham), ISSN 0013-1911, E-ISSN 1465-3397, Vol. 77, no 3, p. 731-749Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Private international education is on the rise, but we still have limited knowledge on how different commercial actors operate in this field and how it affects local teachers and their work in the schools abroad. Swedish school companies have been active in exporting schooling in the international arena, including “Swedish” education models. In this article, we examine one company and their operations in India. We explore the interpretations of the company education model by teachers in the Indian schools, and how this affects their professional capacity. Mixed qualitative methods of interviews, on-site school visits and documentary reviews, were used to examine the possibilities for teachers to exercise professional agency within their working environment. Our findings show that teachers operate within a highly structured pedagogical environment characterised by a given curriculum, a centralised learning platform and training programme, and a set of dominant discourses around values and teaching practices. Teachers are expected to embrace a new professional identity in a process of discarding past experiences and adopting the new professional language given by the company's particular education model. In willingly embracing the company discourses and expectations, teachers’ agency tends to be constrained.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2025
Keywords
Teacher agency, international schools, local teachers, private education, India, Sweden
National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-212036 (URN)10.1080/00131911.2023.2228507 (DOI)001020311500001 ()2-s2.0-85164717032 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2018-04897
Available from: 2023-07-16 Created: 2023-07-16 Last updated: 2025-05-13Bibliographically approved
Carlbaum, S., Lindgren, J., Benerdal, M. & Rönnberg, L. (2025). Navigating legal discourses in quasi-markets: juridification and privatisation in Swedish local preschool governance. Journal of education policy
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Navigating legal discourses in quasi-markets: juridification and privatisation in Swedish local preschool governance
2025 (English)In: Journal of education policy, ISSN 0268-0939, E-ISSN 1464-5106Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

The education sector has been increasingly affected by legal discourse, new managerialism, litigation, burgeoning regulation and accountability involving inspections and audits, and rises in lawsuits. These processes have been described as juridification and have complex effects. In this paper we focus on juridification’s impact on preschool governance during times of increased privatisation in Sweden. We aim to unpack links between juridification and privatisation by analysing the multifaceted issues of how law, litigation and legal discourse become manifested and are navigated by various actors in local preschool quasi-market governance. The results show how intricate connections between juridification and privatisation tend to make public and private relations more legalistic, contract-based and competitive. Juridification and privatisation also increase conformity in terms of, for instance, pedagogical profiles, practices and organisational structures. In addition, these inter-related processes promote and largely benefit corporate group formation and expansion as legal knowledge and economic resources to navigate local preschool quasi-market governance become increasingly essential. This starkly contrasts with the core ostensible objectives of privatisation and marketisation reforms – to promote diversity, pluralism, and a wide range of preschool options for parents.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2025
Keywords
early childhood education and care, juridificaton, marketisation, preschool, privatisation, Sweden
National Category
Educational Sciences Public Administration Studies
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-234228 (URN)10.1080/02680939.2025.2452202 (DOI)001396403300001 ()2-s2.0-85214942144 (Scopus ID)
Projects
Förskolan som marknad
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2020-03157Umeå University, FS 2.1.6-390-21
Available from: 2025-01-17 Created: 2025-01-17 Last updated: 2025-02-21
Carlbaum, S., Rönnberg, L., Benerdal, M. & Lindgren, J. (2025). Selling and buying preschools: Experiences of business transfers on the Swedish edu-market. In: : . Paper presented at NERA 2025: Helsinki, Finland March 5-7, 2025.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Selling and buying preschools: Experiences of business transfers on the Swedish edu-market
2025 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Refereed)
National Category
Social Sciences
Research subject
educational work; educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-239228 (URN)
Conference
NERA 2025: Helsinki, Finland March 5-7, 2025
Funder
Swedish Research Council
Available from: 2025-05-26 Created: 2025-05-26 Last updated: 2025-05-26Bibliographically approved
Carlbaum, S. & Rönnberg, L. (2024). Exporting preschool quality assurance: ideational power and legitimation of a Scandinavian edu-business. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Exporting preschool quality assurance: ideational power and legitimation of a Scandinavian edu-business
2024 (English)In: Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, ISSN 0031-3831, E-ISSN 1470-1170Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

This study explores the quest for preschool quality and the ideational foundation it builds on through the work of a Swedish edu-business operating preschools internationally. We analyse associated flows and uses of (global) ideas on preschool quality to understand how such businesses draw on, remould and ‘move’ certain ideas on quality and quality assurance. For this we use data obtained from visits to, interviews with representatives of, and various documents produced by the business and two of its subsidiaries, one Swedish and one Norwegian. The analysis highlights important aspects of three dimensions of ideational power: the power through, over and in ideas. The results show how the business acts, particularly through the Norwegian subsidiary, as a pioneering ideational leader of preschool improvement. In this position it conveys an acclaimed state-of-the-art quality system to the policy domain, thereby legitimising large-scale private preschool provision in policy contexts where it is increasingly questioned.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2024
Keywords
early childhood education and care, global education industry, privatisation, quality assurance, circulation of ideas, ideational leaders, policy instrumentation
National Category
Educational Sciences Political Science
Research subject
educational work; education; political science
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-232828 (URN)10.1080/00313831.2024.2434816 (DOI)001371228300001 ()2-s2.0-85210966273 (Scopus ID)
Projects
FS 2.1.6-390-21_Lärarhögskolan, Umeå universitet/ Förskola på import och Export,
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2018-04897Umeå University, FS 2.1.6-390-21
Available from: 2024-12-10 Created: 2024-12-10 Last updated: 2025-05-28
Rönnberg, L., Benerdal, M., Carlbaum, S. & Lindgren, J. (2024). Förskola, marknad och kommunal styrning. In: Håkan Forsberg; Esbjörn Larsson; Andreas Alm Fjellborg (Ed.), Förskolans expansion och marknadisering: . Paper presented at Nordic Educational Research Association: Rethinking the futures of education in the Nordic countries (NERA 2020), Turku, Finland, March 4-6, 2020 (pp. 75-97). Paper presented at Nordic Educational Research Association: Rethinking the futures of education in the Nordic countries (NERA 2020), Turku, Finland, March 4-6, 2020. Lund: Studentlitteratur AB
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Förskola, marknad och kommunal styrning
2024 (Swedish)In: Förskolans expansion och marknadisering / [ed] Håkan Forsberg; Esbjörn Larsson; Andreas Alm Fjellborg, Lund: Studentlitteratur AB, 2024, p. 75-97Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [sv]

Under de senaste decennierna har frågor om marknadisering alltmer kommit i blickfånget i den offentliga debatten om skola och utbildning. Ofta har diskussionen rört grund- och gymnasieskolan, men denna utveckling rör också i allra högsta grad förskolan. Detta kapitel behandlar hur förskolan som marknad styrs och hur detta tar sig uttryck med ett fokus på kommunens centrala roll som marknadsorganisatör. Därigenom vill vi ge läsaren en referensram och en begreppsapparat för att beskriva och förstå förskolans marknadsutsättning samt att stimulera till vidare reflektion och diskussion om hur denna situation i förlängningen kan påverka förskoleverksamheten och de yrkesverksammas arbete.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Lund: Studentlitteratur AB, 2024
National Category
Educational Sciences
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-227740 (URN)9789144164250 (ISBN)
Conference
Nordic Educational Research Association: Rethinking the futures of education in the Nordic countries (NERA 2020), Turku, Finland, March 4-6, 2020
Projects
Förskolan som marknad (Vetenskapsrådet 2020-03157)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2020-03157
Available from: 2024-07-06 Created: 2024-07-06 Last updated: 2024-08-06Bibliographically approved
Holm, A.-S., Carlbaum, S. & Rönnberg, L. (2024). 'How do we marry the two things together?': a Swedish education company expanding its business to India. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 22(2), 172-183
Open this publication in new window or tab >>'How do we marry the two things together?': a Swedish education company expanding its business to India
2024 (English)In: Globalisation, Societies and Education, ISSN 1476-7724, E-ISSN 1476-7732, Vol. 22, no 2, p. 172-183Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article focuses on a Swedish school company and its operations in India, examining how setting up and operating schools in another national place forge particular spatial imaginaries. It contributes to literature on the Global Education Industry by focusing on international moves of commercial non-Anglo-Saxon actors. Drawing on interviews and extensive fieldwork in India, we show how the ‘marriage’ between the global (represented by the Swedish company) and local (the ‘Indian’) are manifested in the spatial imaginary of the ‘glocal school’, encompassing hierarchical otherings rooted in discourses of both globalisation and colonialism.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2024
Keywords
Private education, globalisation, for-profit actors, education branding, colonialism, global education industry
National Category
Pedagogical Work
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-198463 (URN)10.1080/14767724.2022.2100982 (DOI)000827099800001 ()2-s2.0-85134185377 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2018-04897
Available from: 2022-08-05 Created: 2022-08-05 Last updated: 2024-04-30Bibliographically approved
Carlbaum, S., Lindgren, J., Benerdal, M. & Rönnberg, L. (2024). In the name of equity and quality: juridification in swedish local preschool quasi-markets. In: : . Paper presented at NERA, March 6-8, 2024, Malmö, Sweden (pp. 165-166). The Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA)
Open this publication in new window or tab >>In the name of equity and quality: juridification in swedish local preschool quasi-markets
2024 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
The Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA), 2024
National Category
Educational Work
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-239835 (URN)
Conference
NERA, March 6-8, 2024, Malmö, Sweden
Funder
Swedish Research Council
Available from: 2025-06-09 Created: 2025-06-09 Last updated: 2025-06-11Bibliographically approved
Lindgren, J., Benerdal, M., Carlbaum, S. & Rönnberg, L. (2024). Neoliberalism and managerial governance in the Swedish pre-school sector. Critical Policy Studies
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Neoliberalism and managerial governance in the Swedish pre-school sector
2024 (English)In: Critical Policy Studies, ISSN 1946-0171, E-ISSN 1946-018XArticle in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

Tax-funded private provision of welfare services in Sweden is among the most extensive in Europe. This paper focuses on a contradictory example of how discrepancies between neoliberal ideals and practice are embedded in the governance of Swedish preschool. Over time, national and local regulations in Sweden have become increasingly comprehensive and moved toward managerial systems. Using Alain Enthoven’s model of managed competition, and drawing on documents and interviews, this paper focuses on two right-wing, urban municipalities with a very high share of preschools operated by private actors, and their organization of local preschool quasi-markets in terms of so-called sponsors concerning five functions: establishing rules of equity, approving all participating private pre-schools, managing the enrollment process, creating price-elastic demand, and managing risk-selection. The findings show how instead of limiting bureaucratic power, municipal managers have been empowered to plan and optimize the organization of the preschool sector in ways discordant with neoliberal ideas.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2024
Keywords
Managed competition, neoliberalism, new public management, preschool
National Category
Educational Sciences Public Administration Studies
Research subject
educational work
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-232211 (URN)10.1080/19460171.2024.2424406 (DOI)001350620700001 ()2-s2.0-85209585331 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2020-03157
Available from: 2024-11-27 Created: 2024-11-27 Last updated: 2025-02-21
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0002-2554-1810

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