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In this paper we explore datafication through a specific kind of evaluative practice in Swedish early childhood education and care (ECEC): the creation of quality reports by individual preschools. A theoretical framework is developed based on Dahler-Larsen's descriptions of three ‘evaluation imaginaries’ (the modern, reflexive modernity and audit society), with elaboration of their respective characteristics and complementary notions from other sources. We then apply the framework, and a qualitative text analytical approach, to analyse eight quality reports from diverse Swedish preschools, purposefully selected to represent preschools that vary in terms of ownership, geographical location, size and pedagogical profile. We find that the reflexive modernity imaginary is most clearly influential in the ECEC quality reports, but there are emerging indications of the audit society imaginary's influence. We also find variations in prioritised focus in the reports among ECEC providers, underscoring the need for further exploration. The study calls for future research to delve into provider-specific nuances, expand the investigation to other kinds of evaluations and scrutinise the broader implications for ECEC operations and practices.

National policies aiming at marketisation and privatisation in welfare sectors such as Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) require governance and organisation to be realised. In Sweden, the municipalities are key but largely under-researched organisers for preschool quasi-market infrastructures. This study explores the different ways in which Swedish municipalities act as quasi-market organisers in the preschool setting. Following organisational theory, we analyse their market shaping activities in translating national regulations in efforts to influence, support and control their local preschool quasi-market. Documents, websites, and interviews with public officials from 30 municipalities characterised as having either a large (N = 10), medium (N = 10), or small (N = 10) private ECEC sector are analysed. The analysis highlights large variations on how municipalities act as market makers, which is further discussed in the form of three ideal types: the Frontier, the Keeper, and the Endorser. We conclude that municipalities' varying and hybridised market shaping activities and local characteristics are important to understand the implications that emerge in terms of different rules of the game, stakeholder interdependencies and relationships, composition of market actors etc. Attentiveness to the sub-national/local actors are essential in understanding different welfare quasi-markets within national policy frameworks of marketisation and privatisation., Published online: 18 Jul 2023

Collaboration between universities and schools has been emphasised byboth governments and within educational development research in the Nordic countries. However, educational research has tended to focus onthe practitioners’ perspectives and experiences, i.e., researchers andteachers. Our intention is to contribute to the field with research from another perspective; that of organising for collaboration. This is done by focusing on the experiences of university representatives responsible for the organisation of collaboration within a Swedish nation-wide initiative,the ULF project. Our theoretical framework draws on the literature of partial organisation. The results indicate that the different approaches and solutions used by universities could not only potentially strengthen schools’ opportunities to participate in educational collaboration with universities but also lead to different opportunities, reinforcing previously existing differences between school organisers. The results are discussed in relation to governmental intentions and guidelines.

National policies aiming at marketisation and privatisation in welfare sectors such as Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) require governance and organisation to be realised. In Sweden, the municipalities are key but largely under-researched organisers for preschool quasi-market infrastructures. This study explores the different ways in which Swedish municipalities act as quasi-market organisers in the preschool setting. Following organisational theory, we analyse their market shaping activities in translating national regulations in efforts to influence, support and control their local preschool quasi-market. Documents, websites, and interviews with public officials from 30 municipalities characterised as having either a large (N = 10), medium (N = 10), or small (N = 10) private ECEC sector are analysed. The analysis highlights large variations on how municipalities act as market makers, which is further discussed in the form of three ideal types: the Frontier, the Keeper, and the Endorser. We conclude that municipalities’ varying and hybridised market shaping activities and local characteristics are important to understand the implications that emerge in terms of different rules of the game, stakeholder interdependencies and relationships, composition of market actors etc. Attentiveness to the sub-national/local actors are essential in understanding different welfare quasi-markets within national policy frameworks of marketisation and privatisation.

Collaborative arrangements between schools and universities explored through a lens of organizing Malin Benerdal1, Anna-Karin Westman2 1Umeå university, Sweden; 2Mid university, Sweden Knowledge production in collaboration between academia and society has been put forward in governmental policies on research and development to an increasing extent over the last two decades (Jonsson et al., 2022; Skoglund, 2022) in the Nordics and beyond. This article focuses on one such effort, abbreviated ULF in Swedish, aiming at testing different models of collaboration between universities and school organizers in Sweden. It was initiated as a state-funded trial during the years 2017-2021. Drawing on an evaluation of the work at six participating universities, the aim of the paper is to analyze the organizing of the collaborative project focusing on university representative’s experienced efforts and challenges in relation to organizing the collaboration. The framework for analysis builds on literature of partial organization (Ahrne & Brunsson, 2011) and the analysis was conducted in two steps. First, we analyzed the material to determine which organizational elements were present and visible in the setup of the collaboration at the different universities. In the second step we focused on expressions and statements tied to the different elements focusing expressed efforts, solutions and difficulties in relation to the different elements of organization. The material consisted of transcripts from group interviews with 22 representatives from six universities and written responses from a survey. The results indicate a partial organization where the elements of membership, hierarchy and rules being present. Different solutions were sought in relation to the universities and school organizers different contextual conditions, and different solutions to overcome hindrances was evident. The execution of the elements of organization were partly similar, but variation in prerequisite

I denna rapport presenteras en genomlysning av Högskolan Dalarnas arbete med den nationella försöksverksamheten kring praktiknära skolforskning, ULF. Genomlysningen avser försöksperioden, åren 2017–2021. Datainsamlingen har gjorts via intervjuer och samtal med lärosätesrepresentanter och representanter för skolhuvudmän. Data har också samlats in genom enkäter till dessa grupper. En ytterligare datakälla har varit webbplatser och annat skriftligt material. Analyser har gjorts utifrån en organisationsmodell vilken fokuserar på processer i organisationen. Resultaten visar att lärosätet i utformningen dragit nytta av en tidigare etablerad samverkansstruktur med skolhuvudmän men att en stor del av det löpande arbetet har skötts internt på lärosätet. Resultaten visar också att de medverkande upplever att aktiviteterna i ULF passat in i den kultur av att driva utveckling- och forskningsprojekt som redan fanns på lärosätet. Det framkommer också utmaningar i aktiviteterna som genomförts, såsom att ge de medverkande rimliga arbetsvillkor och att få fler intresserade av utveckling- och forskningsprojekt internt på lärosätet. Aktiviteterna som genomförts inom ramen för ULF har i stor utsträckning varit sådana som redan funnits vid lärosätet men som förstärkts genom försöksverksamheten. Det framkommer också att många typer av aktiviteter har prövats men att det än så länge skett i liten skala och att det inte är helt tydligt vad som är bidrag från ULF. Slutsatsen är att det finns potential att växla upp ULF-verksamheten och att den etablerade samverkanskulturen ger förutsättningar för detta.

Hösten 2020 påbörjades en genomlysning av Umeå-nodens försöksverksamhet ULF-avtal (Utveckling, Lärande, Forskning). Genomlysningens syfte var att undersöka hur respektive lärosäte skapar förutsättningar för ULF:s försöksverksamhet med utgångspunkt från nodens gemensamma ställningstaganden som uttryck i nodens ULF-plan; samt identifiera övergripande hinder och möjligheter till samverkan mellan lärosäte och skolhuvudmän inom ramen för utgångspunkterna. I föreliggande rapport redogörs för Umeå-nodens försöksverksamhet ULF ur ett generellt perspektiv, där en samlad bild av lärosätenas arbete med ULF och generella hinder och möjligheter för samverkan synliggörs. Rapporten är en av sju rapporter som författats i genomlysningen, övriga rapporter berör respektive lärosätes ULF-verksamhet. Till Umeå-nodenärutöver Umeå universitet, fem lärosäten knutna; Luleå Tekniska Universitet (LTU), Mittuniversitetet (MIUN), Örebro Universitet (ORU), Mälardalens Högskola (MDH) och Högskolan i Dalarna (HDA). Materialinsamlingen har skett via enkäter, intervjuer och gruppintervjuer med lärosätesrepresentanter och dialogforum med skolhuvudmanna-representanter. Analysen av resultatet har utgått från en organisationsteoretisk modell där bland annat aspekter som struktur, kultur och politik lyfts fram. I Umeå-nodens ULF-plan framhålls vikten av; att testa olika samverkansmodeller, utgå från ett symmetriskt komplementärt förhållningssätt, att skolans behov ska vara vägledande, praktiknära forskning av kvalitet och i nära samverkan med verksamhetsutveckling och att lärarutbildningen involveras i försöksverksamheten. Resultatet indikerar att det finns utmaningar och möjligheter relaterade till samtliga områden i ULF-planen. ULF-arbetet i noden genomsyras att ett undersökande förhållningssätt, med låg grad av styrning och hög grad av delaktighet och inflytande. Det finns en ambition och vilja att samverka och föra dialog, där professioner, kompetenser och erfarenheter tas tillvara. Ambitionen angåe

Today, one out of five Swedish children attend a privately operated preschool. Even if there are national policies targeting for instance parental choice and right for private actors to provide pre-primary education, municipalities in Sweden have extensive local autonomy in organizing and governing their ‘local preschool markets’ or, rather, quasi markets. As Brunsson and Jutterström (2018 p. 8) put it; “markets are formed by processes of organization. They are the objects of decisions. There are people and organizations that decide not only on their own actions in markets, but also on the actions of others”. Swedish municipalities are such key organizations that create market infrastructures via market shaping activities (c.f. Flaig et al 2021) including for instance to facilitate, support and police the market actors. The aim of this paper is to explore the different ways in which Swedish municipalities create their local preschool markets to analyse how they act as market organizers in the pre-primary education setting. We do this through analysing documents, websites and interviews with municipal officers from 30 municipalities characterized as having either a large (N=10), medium (N=10) or small (N=10) private pre-primary sector. Theoretically, we turn to literature on organizations, governing and public-private relations. Our preliminary findings show that there are large variations on how municipalities act as local preschool market organizers and the paper elaborates three (ideal typical) modes: Endorsers are municipalities that actively promote, support and sponsor market actors. Frontiers denotes municipal territories that are unattractive or not yet fully explored by private preschool actors. Keepers are municipalities that strive to maintain balance or status quo between public and private providers, using various strategies and tools to this end. In sum, this paper seeks to contribute to the discussion on how public actors work to organize, enable or l

Although there is a growing body of literature addressing different aspects of implementation and translation of market-oriented policies, privatisation and choice reforms in both Nordic and European educational research, such processes in pre-primary education have received limited scholarly attention. Indeed, as in other sectors of education, European pre-primary education systems display great variation with regards to, for instance, the extent to which public and private for-profit and/or not-for-profit actors are responsible for preschool provision. In addition, funding policies and regulation varies extensively as well (c.f. Eurydice 2019; Loyd & Penn 2014; Ruutiainen et al 2020; Trætteberg et al 2021). This paper focuses on the Swedish pre-primary education case and is part of an ongoing research project entitled The Preschool as a market (Carlbaum, 2020). Today, one out of five Swedish children attend a privately operated preschool. Even if there are national policies targeting for instance parental choice and right for private actors to provide pre-primary education, municipalities in Sweden have extensive local autonomy in organising and governing their ‘local preschool markets’ or, rather, quasi markets. By creating a market infrastructure via market shaping activities (c.f. Flaig et al 2021) including for instance to facilitate, support and police the market actors, the 290 municipalities have extensive discretion on how to organise the local market for private preschool provision. Thus, market freedoms do not just appear, they require institutions and rules as well as protection and maintenance from, in this case, local authorities (c.f. Wilkinson, 2013). As Brunsson and Jutterström (2018 p. 8) put it; “markets are formed by processes of organization. They are the objects of decisions. There are people and organizations that decide not only on their own actions in markets, but also on the actions of others”. In the Swedish pre-primary education sect