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  • 1.
    Alexiadou, Nafsika
    Keele University, United Kingdom.
    United in diversity?: The place of religion in state education in Europe and in Greece2006In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 5, no 1, p. 71-76Article in journal (Refereed)
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    United in Diversity?
  • 2.
    Alexiadou, Nafsika
    et al.
    Department of Education, University of Keele, United Kingdom.
    Fink-Hafner, Danica
    Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
    Lange, Bettina
    Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
    Education policy convergence through the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC): Theoretical reflections and implementation in ‘old’ and ‘new’ national contexts2010In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 9, no 3, p. 346-359Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article addresses two key questions about the convergence of education policies in the European Union (EU). How does the open method of coordination (OMC), a new governance instrument for the Europeanisation of education policies, change existing national education policy making and how can the OMC and national responses to it be researched? The authors argue that the OMC brings to national policy making a particular set of ideas about education, such as an emphasis on the contribution of education to building competitive economies and a new public management approach. The authors further suggest that the significance of such policy ideas in national education policy making can be best analysed through a combination of sociological institutionalism and discourse analysis. Hence, ‘implementation’ of EU education measures – which have been developed through policy learning – should be understood as a combination of a ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ policy-making process that links EU and national levels. Finally, the article suggests – on the basis of a preliminary exploration of the implementation of education OMC measures in the United Kingdom and Slovenia – that education OMC policy ideas resonate to varying degrees in ‘old’ and ‘new’ member states.

  • 3.
    Alexiadou, Nafsika
    et al.
    Keele University, England.
    Ozga, Jennifer
    University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
    Modernising education governance in England and Scotland: Devolution and control2002In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 1, no 4, p. 676-691Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article considers the impact of the neo-liberal agenda for modernising the government of education in two of the United Kingdom's education systems: England and Scotland. The article looks at differences between England and Scotland in the context of devolved education governance and concludes that there are significant and possibly ongoing differences in the 'local' interpretation of New Labour's modernisation project.

  • 4.
    Alexiadou, Nafsika
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science. Umeå University, Sweden.
    Rambla, Xavier
    Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.
    Education policy governance and the power of ideas in constructing the new European Education Area2023In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 22, no 6, p. 852-869Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Twenty years after the Lisbon strategy, education policy in the European Union (EU) is at a critical juncture, with a new set of strategic goals endorsed for the 2021–2030 decade. This article examines the complex interplay of ideas, institutions and actors, in articulating education policy priorities in the new European Education Area (EEA). Drawing on documentary reviews and interviews with policy actors in the European Commission and the Council of the European Union, we trace the rise and fall of policy ideas in the new framework. The negotiations over the definition of EEA reveal new tensions between and within European institutions over specific policy ideas, with “lifelong learning” and “gender” as the most controversial ones. Continuing, longstanding tensions between the education and employment fields remain, and present adifficulty for the construction of a comprehensive and cohesive education policy program.

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  • 5.
    Alexiadou, Nafsika
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Rönnberg, Linda
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Transcending borders in higher education: Internationalisation policies in Sweden2022In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 21, no 3, p. 504-519Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article examines the national and European policy contexts that shaped the Swedish internationalisation agenda in higher education since 2000, the policy ideas that were mobilised to promote it, and the national priorities that steered higher education debates. The analysis highlights how domestic and European policy priorities, as well as discourses around increasing global economic reach and building solidarity across the world, have produced an internationalisation strategy that is distinctly ‘national’. Drawing on the analysis of the most recent internationalisation strategies we argue that the particular Swedish approach to internationalisation has its ideational foundations in viewing higher education as a political instrument to promote social mobility and justice, as well as a means to develop economic competitiveness and employability capacity. In addition, internationalisation has been used to legitimise national reform goals, but also as a policy objective on its own with the ambition to position Sweden as a competitive knowledge nation in a global context.

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  • 6.
    Arnesen, Anne-Lise
    et al.
    Högskolen i Östfold.
    Lahelma, Elina
    University of Helsinki.
    Lundahl, Lisbeth
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science, Child and Youth education, Special Education and Counselling.
    Öhrn, Elisabet
    Göteborgs universitet.
    Agency in a changing educational context: negotiations, collective actions and resistance2010In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 9, no 2, p. 159-163Article in journal (Refereed)
  • 7.
    Beach, Dennis
    et al.
    Göteborgs universitet.
    Johansson, Monica
    Göteborgs universitet.
    Öhrn, Elisabet
    Göteborgs universitet.
    Rönnlund, Maria
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science, Child and Youth education, Special Education and Counselling.
    Rosvall, Per-Åke
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Rurality and education relations: metro-centricity and local values in rural communities and rural schools2019In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 18, no 1, p. 19-33Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Based on ethnographic fieldwork in six different types of rural area and their schools in different parts of Sweden, this article identifies how rural schools relate to the local place and discusses some of the educational implications from this. Recurrent references to the local community were present in some schools and people there explicitly positioned themselves in the local rural context and valorised rurality positively in education exchanges, content and interactions, with positive effects on young people's experiences of participation and inclusion. These factors tended to occur in sparsely populated areas. An emphasis on nature and its value as materially vital in people's lives was present as was a critique of middle-class metrocentricity. Such values and critique seemed to be absent in other areas, where rurality was instead often represented along the metrocentric lines of a residual space in modernizing societies.

  • 8.
    Bergmark, Ulrika
    et al.
    Luleå tekniska universitet .
    Erixon, Per-Olof
    Umeå University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Creative Studies (Teacher Education).
    Professional and academic knowledge in teachers' research: an empowering oscillation2019In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 19, no 6, p. 587-608Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In this article, we study the academisation of the teaching profession in Sweden, which follows contemporary trends in other Nordic and European countries. The specific aim was to analyse 14 reports written by researching teachers enrolled in a master's programme to investigate how they perceive, interpret and value academic and professional knowledge. The conceptual framework comprises theories concerning academic literacies and knowledge structures. The report analysis focussed on scope, aims and research questions, and how the researching teachers related to teacher knowledge and academic knowledge, normativity and a critical approach. After a preliminary analysis, the researching teachers were invited to participate in the analysis, giving their contextual understanding. The study indicates that the reports were based on empirical data and situated in a professional context, with the aim of exploring and understanding professional issues in relation to research, national policies and professional teacher experience. Report orientation was deeply nourished by teacher knowledge. The researching teachers' contextual knowledge both benefitted and challenged academic knowledge and vice versa, with the ambition to improve practice. Accordingly, the teachers' contextual knowledge can deepen the understanding of a research phenomenon. There was an empowering oscillation between teacher knowledge and academic knowledge in the teachers' research.

  • 9. Cone, Lucas
    et al.
    Brøgger, Katja
    Berghmans, Mieke
    Decuypere, Mathias
    Förschler, Annina
    Grimaldi, Emiliano
    Hartong, Sigrid
    Hillman, Thomas
    Ideland, Malin
    Landri, Paolo
    van de Oudeweetering, Karmijn
    Player-Koro, Catarina
    Bergviken Rensfeldt, Annika
    Rönnberg, Linda
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science. Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science. Department of Education, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
    Taglietti, Danilo
    Vanermen, Lanze
    Pandemic Acceleration: Covid-19 and the emergency digitalization of European education2022In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 21, no 5, p. 845-868Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    With schools and universities closing across Europe, the Covid-19 lockdown left actors in the field of education battling with the unprecedented challenge of finding a meaningful way to keep the wheels of education turning online. The sudden need for digital solutions across the field of education resulted in the emergence of a variety of digital networks and collaborative online platforms. In this joint article from scholars around Europe, we explore the Covid-19 lockdowns of physical education across the European region, and the different processes of emergency digitalization that followed in their wake. Spanning perspectives from Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the Nordic countries, the article’s five cases provide a glimpse of how these processes have at the same time accelerated and consolidated the involvement of various commercial and non-commercial actors in public education infrastructures. By gathering documentation, registering dynamics, and making intimations of the crisis as it unfolded, the aim of the joint paper is to provide an opportunity for considering the implications of these accelerations and consolidations for the heterogeneous futures of European education.

  • 10.
    Edström, Charlotta
    Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Science and Mathematics Education.
    Preschool as an arena of gender policies: The examples of Sweden and Scotland2009In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 8, no 4, p. 534-549Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    As many countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have developed more universal provision for early childhood education during the last decades, preschool increasingly has become a central policy arena. Gender politics, especially with an aim to promote female labour market participation, but also policies addressing children and preschool staff, constitute one vital aspect. This article analyses staff responsibilities for promoting gender equality inpreschool in Sweden and Scotland. These countries represent different welfare regimes, but also display common features, both influenced by tradition and recent transnational policies and discourses. Based on national policy documents from 1970 to the early 2000s, this study shows that gender equality has continuously been brought up in the Swedish context since the 1970s, but entered the Scottish context at a later stage. Since the late 1990s, such questions have been addressed in both countries. In both cases, teachers are constructed as role models who should promote certain gender values and provide children with opportunities. The Swedish curriculum places more emphasis on similarities between girls and boys, while the Scottish counterpart tends to emphasize difference more, paying attention to boys and the need for male role models. Scottish gender policies are influenced by the travelling discourse of ‘the boys’ underachievement crisis’, whereas Swedish gender policies in preschool demonstrate little of this.

  • 11.
    Eiríksdóttir, Elsa
    et al.
    University of Iceland.
    Rosvall, Per-Åke
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    VET teachers' interpretations of individualisation and teaching of skills and social order in two Nordic countries2019In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 18, no 3, p. 355-375Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The age at which young people leave education for the labour market has increased in recent decades, and entering upper secondary education has become the norm. As a result, the diversity of the student population has increased, for instance in terms of students’ academic merits and achievements at school. Increased diversity seems to affect vocational education and training more than tracks preparing students for higher education, because entry into vocational education and training (VET) programmes is rarely selective. In this article we analyse a series of interviews with VET teachers regarding VET practices in upper secondary schools in Sweden and Iceland. We examine how policy plays out in practice in VET by looking at how VET teachers navigate the sometimes-conflicting educational goals of employability and civic engagement, while simultaneously teaching a highly diverse group of students. In both countries, pedagogic practices are dominated by individualisation with a focus on task-related skills. Those practices are important in VET, but can exclude broader understandings of civil and workplace life, because general knowledge about areas such as ethics, democracy, equality, and environmental issues is difficult to obtain if education gives students few opportunities to interact with others, such as through group work or classroom discussions.

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  • 12.
    Erixon Arreman, Inger
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Student Perceptions of New Differentiation Policies in Swedish Post-16 Education2014In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 13, no 6, p. 616-639Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In Sweden, and in most other OECD countries, post-16 education is a general requirement to succeed in adult life. By the late 2000s, after about two decades of policies for student choice and publically funded free schools, students’ results in PISA had plummeted. A recent reform for stricter demands on schools and students includes strengthened qualifications for entry into post-16 education. This article explores how students maneuver in their choice of upper secondary school study pathway including their ideas on future education and career. Methods used were questionnaires and focus group interviews with students, document analysis and statistics, and snapshots of media comments. The study shows that perceived ‘rational’ student choice is closely related to social interaction, geographic place and time. Influential also are habitus and cultural capital affecting gendered recruitment patterns. The study further indicates lack of knowledge and understanding of the reform among students. A major conclusion is that current Swedish polices may exclude many school students in upper secondary education, and also reduce their opportunities for future life chances, with notable negative implications for collective and economic development.

  • 13.
    Erixon Arreman, Inger
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Child and Youth education, Special Education and Counselling. Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    The process of finding a shape: stabilising new research structures in Swedish teacher education, 2000-20072008In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 7, no 2, p. 157-175Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article explores the development and effects of Swedish post-war policies on the emergence of a research base for teacher education. From 2001 onwards, it is possible to undertake research and post-graduate studies within teacher education in Sweden, which prior to the 2001 reform was not possible. The article draws on a variety of frameworks to explore relationships between various parts of teacher education and also more widely in the university. These include relations of power, discourse and gender based on the theoretical perspectives of Bourdieu, Foucault, Sarfatti Larson and Connell among others. Policy documents relating to teacher education and research into national, regional and local perspectives were used to explore institutional history, structures and research development in teacher education from 1946 to the present time. For a micro-level perspective, an interview study was also carried out between 2000 and 2002 with teacher educators and senior managers who from the late 1940s were responsible for teacher education programmes, in and around Umeå, in northern Sweden. A further complementary interview study was carried out with teacher educators and union representatives between 2005 and 2007. The extended study reveals the emergence of new research areas in teacher education as a multilayered process involving a variety of actors at different levels at Umeå University and elsewhere. The aim of the article is to explore the implications of the new research structures for teacher education in Sweden and also to contribute to current cross-national discourses on the need to establish a research base for teacher education.

  • 14.
    Erixon Arreman, Inger
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Child and Youth education, Special Education and Counselling. Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Erixon, Per-Olof
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Creative Studies.
    Developing research structures and research capacity: the Swedish National Postgraduate School in educational work (NaPA)2008In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 7, no 4, p. 554-562Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article focuses on the emergence and development of new research structures and research capacity within Swedish teacher education at the beginning of the new millennium. Since 2001, it has been possible in Sweden to undertake postgraduate and research studies within teacher education – something that was previously impossible. As a result of a national reform, a new research discipline, educational work, was established at several Swedish universities. At the same time, the National Postgraduate School in Educational Work (NaPA) was created, the responsibility for which was given to Umeå University, one of the larger Swedish teacher education providers. The aim of the article is to provide a picture of Swedish national teacher education policies in the first years of the millennium that have generated new research structures, which, in turn, have enabled a rapid and nationally distributed expansion of research within the field of Swedish teacher education. It draws on a combination of policy documents, research carried out by the two authors and reflections on their own experiences, as a former PhD student who now has a doctoral qualification in educational work and as the head of NaPA respectively.

  • 15.
    Erixon Arreman, Inger
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Erixon, Per-Olof
    Umeå University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Creative Studies (Teacher Education).
    Rehn, Karl-Gunnar
    Umeå University.
    Postcolonial teacher education reform in Namibia: travelling of policies and ideas2016In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 15, no 2, p. 236-259Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Long before Namibia's independence in 1990, Sweden initiated a policy dialogue with Namibia's future political leadership. This article reviews the impact of an educational reform in Namibia in the early 1990s called the Integrated Teacher Training Programme (ITTP), which was an outcome of collaboration between the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO), the liberation movement and teacher educators from Sweden and other Western countries. Research questions posed concerned: (1) the ITTP’s perceived impact on the participants' private and professional lives; and (2) the ITTP’s impact on the participants' views on knowledge and education in relation to democracy. A combination of individual interviews and questionnaires was administered in situ in 2009 in Namibia to 17 former ITTP students who were living in various places across Namibia. This follow-up study indicates that the ITTP was crucial for the participants' professional careers and private lives. The majority saw education as a key to democracy and social transformation, and considered themselves as important actors at local, regional and national levels in forwarding these aims. However, it is concluded that, while the learner-centred education philosophy initially had a strong impact, its application in teacher education has functioned more than anything as a rhetorical device for nation-building.

  • 16.
    Erixon, Per-Olof
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Creative Studies (Teacher Education).
    Marner, Anders
    Umeå University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Creative Studies (Teacher Education).
    Scheid, Manfred
    Umeå University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Creative Studies (Teacher Education).
    Strandberg, Tommy
    Umeå University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Creative Studies (Teacher Education).
    Örtegren, Hans
    Umeå University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Creative Studies (Teacher Education).
    School Subject Paradigms and Teaching Practice in the Screen Culture: Art, Music and Mother tongue (Swedish) Under Pressure2012In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 11, no 2, p. 255-273Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    There are great expectations that new digital technology will become a powerful tool for developing education activities. Like many countries in Europe and worldwide, Sweden has invested a large amount of resources in new technology and new media (hereafter called digital media), and they have become a natural and important part of school teaching. The developed use of digital media is assumed to lead to educational change and, hence, better teaching. That such expectations have not been fulfilled, however, is shown in a number of Swedish, European and international studies. One explanation of this situation may be that the incorporation of digital media differs between different school subjects. School subjects have their characteristic structures, which are of great importance for how digital media can be integrated. Digital media influence the way in which school subjects can be described from a knowledge theory perspective – i.e. what constitutes the subject’s paradigm and its teaching practice. The point of departure of this article is the school subjects of art, music and the mother tongue (Swedish), which, like other school subjects, are feeling the pressure of a digital media and screen culture to an ever increasing degree, and it queries whether and how teachers and pupils in these three school subjects conceive of and relate to the shifts that take place in the subjects when digital media are being increasingly integrated into the teaching. The study is based on interviews with pupils and teachers in the three school subjects, and the results are presented in terms of four themes that appear in the investigation – namely: (1) educational environments; (2) what teachers and pupils regard as the sacred and the profane; (3) motives for using digital media in teaching; and (4) whether and how working methods are changing with digital technology, i.e. questions concerning collective and individual aspects. In all three subjects, there are clear indications that digital media have already started to influence both the subject content and the working methods, while, at the same time, the proportion of digital media is limited and the impact is weak.

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  • 17.
    Fredriksson, Ulf
    et al.
    Mid Sweden University, Härnösand, Sweden.
    Holzer, Thomas
    Statistical Office of the City of Bern, Switzerland.
    McCluskey-Cavin, Huguette
    Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
    Taube, Karin
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Teacher Education in Swedish and Social Sciences.
    Strengths and Weaknesses in the Swedish and Swiss Education Systems: a comparative analysis based on PISA data2009In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 1, no 1, p. 54-68Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Sweden and Switzerland are among the wealthiest countries in the world, but also two countries with different approaches to how to provide welfare. Sweden has followed a social democratic welfare model and Switzerland a liberal model. This has implications for how the education systems have been organised. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study makes it possible to compare the achievements of students in reading and mathematics. Students in Switzerland are significantly better than Swedish students in mathematics. In reading, Swedish students are significantly better than Swiss students. In both countries, girls are better readers than boys. The gender difference in reading is larger in Sweden than in Switzerland. Boys are better than girls in mathematics. The gender difference in mathematics is smaller in Sweden than in Switzerland. The difference in reading between natives and non-natives is considerably lower in Sweden than in Switzerland. Sweden is among those countries where the variance between schools is very low. In Switzerland the variation in student performance among schools is higher than the average in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Both education systems may be regarded to be of high quality in an international perspective. The Swedish system has, with the exception of the gender gap in reading, produced a system that seems to have a higher degree of equity than the Swiss system.

  • 18.
    From, Jörgen
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Education.
    Holmgren, Carina
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Education.
    Andersson, Håkan
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Education.
    Ahl, Astrid
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Education.
    Are Timetable-free Schools Possible?2003In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 2, no 4, p. 547-558Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article is about timetable-free schools, the latest ‘innovation’ in Swedish educational policy, and is based on findings from an ongoing research project. In autumn 2000, the Swedish government started a 5-year trial period where a limited number of municipalities and schools were allowed to abandon the current restrictions in the national timetable for comprehensive schools. The research primarily focuses on the effects of abandoning the timetable on the inner life of the schools. Two categories of schools are followed: (two) schools with the national timetable and (four) schools without. Primary findings indicate that the use of time in school is a complex sphere of operation. In many aspects, the differences within the category schools without the national timetable are more notable than differences between the two categories of schools. How time is spent in schools is related to a wide range of interlinked factors on different levels, and the national timetable is only one of them. It seems that when the new so-called freedom increases, the instruments of individual control also increase. This may be an indication that disciplining and selection still are fundamental tasks for schools to fulfil.

  • 19.
    Hanberger, Anders
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    What PISA intends to and can possibly achieve: A critical programme theory analysis2014In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 13, no 2, p. 167-180Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper advances the enlightened discussion of the nature, logic, and possible effects of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The purpose is to analyze the assumptions regarding how PISA is to achieve its intended effects, that is, to reconstruct PISA’s programme theory (PT) and to probe the validity of its underlying assumptions. The paper demonstrates that PISA’s PT has low internal validity. However, some PISA assumptions are consistent, for example, the assumption that legitimization activities justify PISA as a transnational benchmarking system measuring education system performance. PISA exemplifies systemic evaluation governance: all actors in the field are expected to use PISA results to react to and reflect on their own practice, compare themselves with others, and then act accordingly to improve education systems and school practice, though no activities or resources are allocated to change school practice. There is no empirical research into how systemic evaluation governance works in practice that can be used to probe PISA’s external validity. PISA’s PT is in line with discourse policy, governance theory, and school effectiveness research, but whether and under what conditions and how PISA helps change education systems and school practice are empirical questions waiting to be answered.

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  • 20.
    Hansson, Kristina
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Creative Studies (Teacher Education).
    Erixon, Per-Olof
    Umeå University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Creative Studies (Teacher Education).
    Academisation and teachers' dilemmas2020In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 19, no 4, p. 289-309Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In 2010, the Swedish Education Act introduced new provisions stating that education at all levels should 'rest on scientific grounds and proven experience'. These requirements led to greater policy activities at the state level and enhanced the cooperation emerging between the municipality and higher education as well as between teachers and researchers at both the middle and micro levels. This study was conducted in a Swedish municipality that adopted a local strategy to meet the Education Act's scientific requirements for teaching. As part of this strategy, together with a university the municipality designed a postgraduate programme, corresponding to a one-year master's level under the Bologna Agreement, made up of four years of part-time studies and with a focus on practical research and school development. This article examines how a sample of 15 teachers participating in this postgraduate programme, and their school leaders, perceive this policy (namely, education being based on scientific grounds) within the development of the teaching profession's practice and which dilemmas they face while trying to interpret and handle the Education Act's provisions in their schools. Our overall theoretical perspectives are those of policy enactment, academic drift and activity theory. The results indicate that the teachers' participation in the postgraduate course has caused tension among their colleagues. Moreover, the teachers expressed a feeling of being 'isolated cogs' in an organisation and lacking supporting structures. For some, their participation is a step in a more individualised project that contributes primarily to their own professional development; for others, it is more of a collective project with which one can 'lift' one's school and colleagues.

  • 21.
    Helms Jørgensen, Christian
    et al.
    Roskilde University.
    Järvinen, Tero
    University of Turku.
    Lundahl, Lisbeth
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    A Nordic transition regime?: Policies for school-to-work transitions in Sweden, Denmark and Finland2019In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 18, no 3, p. 278-297Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In recent decades, a range of policy measures to support young people’s school-to-work transitions has been initiated across Europe. However, these transition policies have rarely been studied systematically, particularly from a comparative perspective. Thus, the aim of this article is to compare Swedish, Danish and Finnish policies for supporting young people’s educational and school-to-work transitions. Synthesising and analysing recent research, the article critically draws on Walther’s (2006) classification of transition regimes that recognises a Nordic universalistic regime of youth transitions characterised by emphasis on collective social responsibility, individual motivation and personal development. We conclude that significant policy changes have occurred during the last two decades. Coercive measures have been adopted and social support reduced, making young people more individually responsible for the success of their transitions. Hence, current transition policies diverge in many respects from qualities traditionally ascribed to the Nordic transition regime. We also find significant differences between the three countries’ transition policies, which in some cases indicate policy trade-offs. In addition, we conclude that transition policies are generally weakly coordinated across policy domains, which increases the risk of unintended consequences of these policies.

  • 22.
    Hjelmér, Carina
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Lappalainen, Sirpa
    Unit of Cultural and Feminist Studies, University of Helsinki.
    Rosvall, Per-Åke
    School of Education and Behavioural Sciences, University of Borås.
    Time, space and young people´s agency in vocational upper secondary education: a cross-cultural perspective2010In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 9, no 2, p. 245-256Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article is based on ethnographic studies in the context of vocational education: two in Sweden and one in Finland. The Swedish data originate from the Vehicle programme and the Child and Recreation programme; the Finnish data originate from the social and health-care sector. In this sense, the authors’ perspective is cross-cultural. The article focuses on temporal and spatial dimensions of these three educational contexts and analyzes how young people exhibit their agency when negotiating their time and constructing their own space. The authors’ analysis elucidates how time–space paths in the context of vocational education are classed and gendered. In the female-dominated fields of vocational upper secondary education, disciplinary practices related to time and space are more visible than in the male-dominated fields. Moreover, it is argued that the political atmosphere in Sweden has been more favourable for promoting equality than that in Finland. Despite this, divisions between students and pigeonholing exist in everyday school life.

  • 23.
    Holmgren, Carina
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Education.
    From, Jörgen
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Education.
    Taylorism of the Mind. Entrepreneurship education from a perspective of educational research2005In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 4, no 4, p. 382-390Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The aim of this article is to explore and discuss entrepreneurship education, and to raise some critical questions inspired by the work of Basil Bernstein. The discussion is based on writings on entrepreneurship education and thereby gives one picture of the intellectual debate on entrepreneurship education. In contrast to traditional education, viewed as transformation of knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship education is said to be about changing attitudes and motives. There is a consensus in the field that students can be successfully endowed with an entrepreneurial culture, when their attitudes are changed in the desired way. The focus on fostering a certain identity in entrepreneurship education might be seen as a part of the ongoing neo-liberal oriented educational restructuring process, which is sweeping through Europe.

  • 24.
    Hudson, Brian
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Interactive Media and Learning.
    Comparing different traditions of teaching and learning: what can we learn about teaching and learning?2007In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 6, no 2, p. 135-146Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article explores differences between traditions in relation to teaching and learning and aims to highlight the ways in which the study of the Central European and Northern European traditions of Didaktik has offered new dimensions to and fresh insights on the notion of reflective practice. In particular these traditions are seen to offer tools and ways of thinking that help to recognise and hold the complexity of teaching-studying-learning processes. A key tool for the analysis of the complex relations between teacher, student and content is the Didaktik triad. This provides a relational framework which places teaching and associated design issues at the heart of teaching-studying-learning processes. Furthermore, it provides a means for teachers' thinking about the most basic how, what and why questions around their work. Another key aspect of such traditions is the emphasis that is placed upon meaning and intentionality from the outset of the process of preparation for teaching. Connections are also made with current thinking in the field of scholarship in teaching and learning. Finally, the article aims to highlights ways in which such tools and ways of thinking can help to inform approaches to development in the didactical, pedagogical and technological uses of information and communications technology for student-centred learning.

  • 25.
    Hudson, Brian
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Interactive Media and Learning.
    Schneuwl, Bernard
    Intorduction2007In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 6, no 2, p. 106-108Article in journal (Refereed)
  • 26.
    Lange, Bettina
    et al.
    Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom .
    Alexiadou, Nafsika
    School of Criminology, Education, Sociology and Social Work, Keele University, Keele, United Kingdom.
    New forms of European Union governance in the education sector?: A preliminary analysis of the Open Method of Coordination2007In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 6, no 4, p. 321-335Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article critically explores how a new form of European Union (EU) governance - the open method of coordination (OMC) - impinges on education policies. The first part discusses three key characteristics of the OMC, in particular its flexibility, reflexivity and reliance on the techniques of new public management. It also outlines briefly why the OMC is being applied to EU education policy. The second and main part of the article develops a critical analysis of the OMC in education by questioning to what extent it can be considered as a new form of EU governance and with what vision of Social Europe it is associated. Most importantly, the second part argues that there may be significant potential for the politicization of mutual policy learning in the context of OMC education measures.

  • 27.
    Lappalainen, Sirpa
    et al.
    Department of Social Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Finland.
    Nylund, Mattias
    Department of Education and Special Education, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
    Rosvall, Per-Åke
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Imagining societies through discourses on educational equality: a cross-cultural analysis of Finnish and Swedish upper secondary curricula from 1970 to the 2010s2019In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 18, no 3, p. 335-354Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Educational equality has been a central tenet framing educational policy in Nordic welfare states and stimulating school reforms in the 1960s and 1970s. However, the conceptualisation of equality has fluctuated, reflecting the changing economic and political climate within which policy statements have been made. In this article, we analyse policy and curriculum documents relating to upper secondary education from the 1970s to the 2010s in two Nordic countries. Drawing on Nancy Fraser’s theorisation of different forms of injustice, we focus on the aims and goals that are attached to the concept of educational equality, analysing how ideas about society and educational equality have changed over these decades. Our analysis suggests that over this period there have been quite dramatic shifts in how equality is conceptualised, inter alia shifting from a focus on economic inequalities to questions of sexuality and ethnicity. Furthermore, ambitions about tackling economic inequality have largely been replaced with ambitions about promoting employability, which is particularly visible in the curriculum of vocational upper secondary education. The Finnish general upper secondary education (GUS) curriculum has gone against the tide. In the 1970s the GUS curriculum had the most conservative tone in terms of equality, whereas the current curriculum requires an agentic stance against discrimination and a critical stance towards marketisation.

  • 28.
    Leffler, Eva
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Teacher Education in Swedish and Social Sciences.
    The many faces of entrepreneurship: a discursive battle for the school arena2009In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 8, no 1, p. 104-116Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Entrepreneurship and enterprise in schools are concepts that are appearing more andmore frequently in local curricula for the compulsory nine-year school system in Sweden. Themeanings of the concepts of entrepreneurship and enterprise in schools vary, however. Over the lastfew years, the concept of entrepreneurship has started to appear in contexts other than economic ones,and economic authorities are now expressing a need for a widening of the concept of entrepreneurshipto include all sectors of society. This article further problematizes entrepreneurship and enterprise bydiscussing the following issues: the broader application of the perspective of entrepreneurship, theentrepreneurial perspective that focuses on a business orientation, and the enterprise perspectiveconcerning the development of an individual’s inherent abilities. The results show that teachers are stillwrestling with the contribution of entrepreneurship in school activities.

  • 29.
    Leffler, Eva
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Teacher Education in Swedish and Social Sciences.
    Svedberg, Gudrun
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Teacher Education in Swedish and Social Sciences.
    Enterprise Learning: a challenge to education?2005In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 4, no 3, p. 219-227Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The northern part of Sweden is characterised by depopulation and relatively high levels of unemployment among young people. As a consequence, a number of projects have been established for the purpose of strengthening young people’s creativity and spirit of enterprise. The aim of this article is to problematise the concept of ‘enterprise education’ as understood in Swedish schools. This is done by visualising the rhetoric that surrounds the effort of introducing Enterprise in Schools (‘Företagsamhet i skolan’) and by trying to understand what the concept means in practice from the perspective of apprenticeship theory. The authors’ research involves classroom observations and interviews with teachers and students from different schools. The results show that the discourse about Enterprise in Schools is based on catchwords such as cooperation, power of initiative, creativity and activity. The authors’ studies of the organisation and implementation of the teaching have visualised the collaborative aim and emphasis on learning through schoolwork.

  • 30.
    Lindgren, Joakim
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Education.
    Lundahl, Lisbeth
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science, Child and Youth education, Special Education and Counselling.
    Mobilities of youth: Social and spatial trajectories in a segregated Sweden2010In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 9, no 2, p. 192-207Article in journal (Other academic)
    Abstract [en]

    This article explores youth mobilities in three geographic and socioeconomic diverseSwedish contexts. The concept of mobility has become an important feature ofindividualistic discourses of responsibility relating to inclusion, lifelong learning andself-regulating entrepreneurial behaviour. This article draws attention to the fact thatgeographical mobility, as a form of human agency, is closely related to social mobilityand hence to both spacial and social ineqalities. Using life history interviews andstatistical data, the paper explores how space, class and ethnicity are related to educationand social inclusion and exclusion as young people are spatially situated yet move, desireto move, dream about moving, seek to move and fail to move, as they migrate through,in and out of social communities. The analysis displays how these mobilities are framedby local traditions and circumstances that both enable and restrict. Such mobility mightinvolve processes of personal development and learning, and be the calculatedconsequence of each individual’s chosen life-career. However, mobility might also ariseas flight from a stigmatized place. In these cases, refusal to move can also be seen as aform of resistance.

  • 31.
    Lundahl, Lisbeth
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Child and Youth education, Special Education and Counselling.
    From centralisation to decentralisation: governance of education in Sweden2002In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 1, no 4, p. 625-636Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article draws on interviews with Swedish system actors, at national and local levels, to consider the impact of changes in the governance of education in Sweden, which have been characterised as a shift from centralisation to decentralisation. The respondents discuss their explanations of change, putting emphasis on social and economic developments, and consider alterations in the relationships between the centre, the localities and the institutions. Change is mostly seen as both inevitable and positive: only a minority raise concerns about the impact of deregulation on inequalities.

  • 32.
    Lundahl, Lisbeth
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Paving the way to the future? Education and young European´s paths to work and independence.2011In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 10, no 2, p. 168-179Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article discusses young people's transitions from school to work at a time when educational systems have become more closely connected to the economy than ever before. The serious situation of high unemployment, unstable employment conditions and poverty among young people and young adults in Europe is highlighted. Using Sweden as an illuminative example, it is argued that the increasing commercialisation and competition within the education sector add to the risks connected to school-to-work transitions. The associated shift to outcome-based curricula and focus on narrow competences and skills rather than a broad education including social, cultural and democratic elements, will provide young people with poor navigation instruments in this process. The need to analyse the long-term impact of the market-oriented culture on young people's self-understanding, orientations and choices is emphasized.

  • 33.
    Lundahl, Lisbeth
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Simmons, Maarten
    University of Leuven.
    Serpieri, Roberto
    University of Naples Federico II.
    The governing of education in Europe: commercial actors, partnerships and strategies2013In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 12, no 4, p. 416-424Article in journal (Other academic)
  • 34.
    Nylund, Mattias
    et al.
    Göteborgs universitet.
    Rosvall, Per-Åke
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Vocational education, transitions, marginalisation and social justice in the Nordic countries2019In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 18, no 3, p. 271-277Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The five articles in this special issue present studies focusing on two key aspects of vocational education and transitions in the Nordic countries in relation to social justice: (a) impacts of policies and reforms on transitions and (b) content, practices, curriculum and equality. Collectively, the articles outline important similarities and differences between the countries and contribute, inter alia, to our understanding of the ‘academic–vocational divide’, the impact of neo-liberal steering on vocational education and transitions. They also develop bridges between different empirical contexts and theoretical ‘languages’ that may help efforts to understand and contextualise the current development of vocational education and transitions in the Nordic countries.

  • 35.
    Nyroos, Mikaela
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Child and Youth education, Special Education and Counselling. Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Education.
    Rönnberg, Linda
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Child and Youth education, Special Education and Counselling.
    Lundahl, Lisbeth
    Umeå University, Faculty of Teacher Education, Department of Child and Youth education, Special Education and Counselling.
    A matter of timing: Time use, freedom and influence in school from a pupil perspective2004In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 3, no 4, p. 743-758Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    A weakening of central time regulation has constituted one aspect of the process of decentralisation and deregulation of Swedish education in the last two decades. In 1999 the Parliament decided on an experiment period permitting schools in 79 municipalities to allocate school hours more freely. The article aims at exploring and analysing pupils' experiences of the structuring of contents and work in schools without a national time schedule. Pupils' influence over schoolwork, and their individual responsibility and freedom to plan and use time are focused on. Thirty-one pupils, aged 14-15 years, were interviewed. They come from three comprehensive schools ranging from a strongly classified curriculum and teacher work to a curriculum characterised by a high degree of crossdisciplinary  teaching and teacher teamwork. All three schools, to varying extent, have scheduled 'open lessons', when pupils choose content and activity. The majority of pupils appreciate having a responsibility and freedom to plan their own learning, but argue that they are generally not allowed to participate in decisions about teaching and learning. This is particularly the case in subject lessons, which are still mainly controlled by the teachers. The pupils prefer varied forms of teaching and learning and express a need for freedom as well as guidance and structure.

  • 36.
    Papakosma, Maria
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Policy responses to diversity in early childhood education and care: setting the agenda and meeting the challenges2023In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This article examines the contemporary Swedish policy responses to increased cultural and linguistic diversity in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC). More specifically, it explores how national authorities and organizations initiate collaborations, use and produce policy knowledge and identify priorities and challenges. The analysis draws on a review of policy texts and in-depth interviews with high-level policy actors who act as an epistemic community. Using the concepts of representations and problematization, this study connects the generation of policy knowledge on diversity with the identification of solutions to address cultural and linguistic diversity. The findings suggest a consensus over the definitions of priorities for diversity policies in ECEC within this epistemic community. A core priority is emphasizing the importance of the Swedish language within a wider multilingual approach linked to increased participation in preschools, and to discourses of school readiness and societal integration. Yet, there is a tension between identifying policy priorities and structural challenges at different levels. Unequal conditions, residential segregation and lack of educated preschool staff present difficulties that require a more comprehensive approach than those taken by the official policy frames.

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  • 37.
    Rasmussen, Palle
    et al.
    Aalborg University, Denmark.
    Larson, Anne
    Aalborg University, Denmark.
    Rönnberg, Linda
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Tsatsaroni, Anna
    University of the Peloponnese, Greece.
    Policies of ‘modernisation’ in European education: Enactments and consequences2015In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 14, no 6, p. 479-486Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    The five articles in this special issue offer empirically and theoretically informed accounts from education policy research carried out in different national contexts in Europe. This special issue sheds light on how modernising approaches to educational governance and reform, grouped under the umbrella of new public management, are strongly present in European education policy, both at transnational levels and in individual countries, and points to important implications for these developments.

  • 38.
    Rosvall, Per-Åke
    et al.
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Hjelmér, Carina
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Lappalainen, Sirpa
    Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland.
    Staying in the comfort zones: low expectations in vocational education and training mathematics teaching in Sweden and Finland2017In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 16, no 4, p. 425-439Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Vocational education has a historical legacy of being low-status and aimed at producing skilled workers. Students with low marks in comprehensive school are still often guided to the vocational educational track. In this article we examine how mathematics teaching in a vocational educational context is framed (henceforth VET). Therefore, our aim with this article is to explore how teacher responses come into play in school mathematics classes, and the teacher–student interactions within those practices. The empirical material is based on educational ethnographic research, i.e. classroom observations and interviews, conducted in three upper secondary institutions, two in Sweden and one in Finland. The results indicate that both teachers and students seem to remain in what might be called their ‘comfort zones’, i.e. that pedagogic practices tend to strengthen the idea of a vocational learner as being practically oriented; using their hands instead of their heads and in need of care and surveillance. The analysis focuses on mathematics teaching rather than on the content and was chosen because it is associated with general qualifications and the notion of lifelong learning. In this respect it exemplifies the growing tension in VET between workplace and academic knowledge.

  • 39.
    Rönnberg, Linda
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science.
    A Recent Swedish Attempt to Weaken State Control and Strengthen School Autonomy: The Experiment with Local Time Schedules2007In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 6, no 3, p. 214-232Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    In 1999, after a series of far-reaching reforms aiming at decentralisation, deregulation and increased local autonomy in Swedish education, the Government decided to introduce a five-year experiment, which would develop these reform efforts even further. Even though Swedish compulsory schools already were the most autonomous in Europe with regard to decision making on school time, an experiment which allowed schools to freely decide time allocation and time management was launched. At least on paper, the experiment indicates a shift from state control to local autonomy, allowing school professionals to be free to make decisions on time distribution previously controlled by the state. The aim is to analyse and discuss whether the experiment has affected school autonomy or not and how this can be understood. The theoretical point of departure is a two-dimensional view of autonomy, where both freedom of action and capacity for action need to be taken into account. The freedom of action (the discretionary space for local actors) provided within the experiment is analysed through three properties of the experimental programme: programme clarity, division of responsibilities and control mechanisms. The schools' capacity for action concerns the extent participating schools make use of the discretion provided within the experiment. This is analysed in three schools with reference to their ability to organise themselves in a flexible way, as well as to what extent the schools have shown previous capacity for action and readiness for reform. Based on this analysis of the experiment, it is concluded that if reform efforts are made to increase school autonomy, they should not one-sidedly be focused on increasing local actors' freedom of action (such as abolishing the national time schedule). Such efforts should also be accompanied by measures to reinforce local actors' capacity for action. Unless local actors can make use of the discretion given to them by a superior (political) body, local autonomy will be far less than was intended, since freedom to act exceeds the actual capacity to act.

  • 40.
    Rönnberg, Linda
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Marketisation on export: representations of the Swedish free school model in English media2015In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 14, no 6, p. 549-565Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper explores how 'social democratic' Sweden initiated and implemented choice reforms that attracted the interest of 'liberal' England. By studying how English media framed and portrayed the Swedish free school 'export' from 2008 to 2014, this paper aims to describe and discuss how a market-oriented policy idea, the Swedish system of free schools, is represented as it travels across national contexts. Initially, the Swedish free school model was portrayed as an inspiration for both the English political left and, in particular, the right. But the national stereotypical representation of Sweden as a legitimate 'reference society' was significantly toned down after the 2010 election—often accompanied by references to Sweden’s poor PISA performances. The study shows how Swedish policy 'retailers', such as school chain representatives, use the media for further display and reach. They are not only selling policy ideas, but also their own services, curricular approaches, and teaching methods, expanding their share in the global 'edu-business'. In sum, such educational policy retailing, along with media-policy interaction that (re)interprets national stereotypes linked to political legitimation, are important sources for understanding and further exploring international flows and interpretations of market-oriented reform ideas.

  • 41.
    Rönnlund, Maria
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Student participation in activities with influential outcomes: Issues of gender, individuality and collective thinking in Swedish secondary schools.2010In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 9, no 2, p. 208-219Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    Drawing on a study in three Swedish lower secondary schools, this article examines how students engaged in the democratic processes involved in the formation of an action group intended to influence their school by making it more environmentally friendly. The aim is to acquire greater understanding of influential processes in relation to gender and both individualistically and collectively oriented ideas, including understanding of which students participate in such groups, the role gender plays in the likelihood of a student participating, how they act, and their experiences of participation. From observations of, and interviews with, four participants girls were found both to be more active participants and to have more positive experiences than boys. It is concluded that the group represents an arena for both individual and collective performance in which both individual and collective ideas are reflected. However, differences in the expectations of boys and girls concerning where and how they feel they should act and perform in school, seems to make the arena more suitable and more effective for girls than boys.  While the girls’ participation provided them with political confidence, the two participating boys did not gain this from the experience.

  • 42.
    Sundelin, Åsa
    et al.
    Stockholms University, Stockholm, Sweden.
    Lundahl, Lisbeth
    Umeå University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of applied educational science.
    Managing critical transitions: Career support to young people risking ineligibility for upper secondary education2023In: European Educational Research Journal, E-ISSN 1474-9041, Vol. 22, no 4, p. 572-591Article in journal (Refereed)
    Abstract [en]

    This paper focuses on the support given by schools to students who are likely to leave Swedish compulsory education without the grades required to enter upper secondary education (USE). The aim is to increase knowledge about career counselors’ and teachers’ strategies and work in lower secondary schools in order to facilitate this critical transition, and to examine factors influencing this support. It takes as its starting point theoretical frameworks stressing the agency of professionals in welfare organizations, and the importance of support during the educational transitions of young people at risk. The paper builds on interviews with 20 teachers and career counselors in six municipalities of varying character. Teachers’ and career counselors’ micro-choices have a major impact on the support provided to students. Their work consists of direct and indirect support, with the former referring to prescribed professional assignments. Indirect support, taking the form of advocacy, relational, and emotional work, is not officially recognized, but appears to be a necessary precondition for the direct support. The transition seems to be at risk of becoming overly fragile unless the support is characterized by sustained collaboration between school actors in compulsory school, and between compulsory and USE levels.

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