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The documentation of pupils in Swedish schools is extensive and a documentation culture has come to characterize the schools in recent years. In the context of decentralization and changing governance, focus has increasingly been directed towards assessment, follow-up and evaluation of pupils' learning and social development. This article examines the Individual Educational Plans (hereafter IEP) used for pupils with special educational needs in Swedish compulsory schools from the perspective of text analyses based on discourse theory. The aim of this study is to shed light on how pupils are constructed in the school's documentation. The study examines how these IEPs are used as a pedagogical technique for new ways of governing in order to impose self-regulation, individual responsibility and social control.The documents, which comprise the empirical material in this article, are gathered from 14 different schools and consist of documents for a total of 136 pupils with special educational needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the public and academic debate, the liberalization of Swedish school policy is often equated with privatization and--to a lesser degree--differentiation. The first is associated with the rapid growth of a semi-private free school sector, driven by slogans such as freedom of choice, cost-efficiency, parental influence and market competition. The second is associated with the decentralization of power and goal-oriented governance, aiming to achieve a variegated and flexible school system that is better equipped to meet individual needs, interests and preferences. The article examines this widespread conception of the liberalization of Swedish school policy. More precisely, the objective is to position central school policy developments over the last two decades in the liberal field through a tripartite typology. I argue that the mainstream conception exaggerates the privatization type of liberalization, while neglecting another, less visible but very influential type--namely universalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contains results from a study based on locally produced planning and evaluation texts from 10 preschool settings in a Swedish middle-sized town. The texts were mainly from 1999 to 2005, a period during which Swedish preschools were implementing their first curriculum and were subject to several changes including decentralisation, marketisation and competition which taken together brought new demands on visibility. The overarching aim is to investigate and describe the meaning of content and formulations in the texts in relation to the teachers' professionalism in this era of performativity. The texts were analysed as institutional narratives that underline what the preschool is and ought to be and we thereby regard the texts as governing. Analyses based on the theoretical concepts of technologies and positioning not only show how the teachers are simultaneously controlled and control themselves by the descriptions in the texts, but also how they position themselves as highly professional and present resistance to the control. One conclusion drawn from the analyses is that the profession of the teacher is changing and a new way of being professional might be to be good at positioning oneself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the results of a longitudinal study of 35 Swedish comprehensive schools involving interviews with teachers, school leaders, students, and parents carried out in 1980, 1982, 1985, and 2001. During the 35-year period covered by the study, the schools experienced significant reforms. The most important of these reforms involved a shift from a system of highly centralized control of school activities to a system where a large degree of control over schools was devolved to local municipalities-kommuns-and to the schools themselves. These reforms are such that today, for example, local kommuns are responsible for school budgets where previously the state was in charge of them. This study makes a strong argument for the need for a process of progressive decentralization that puts the emphasis on local democracy as opposed to the alternative that tends to emphasize greater state control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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During the last three decades Swedish education has undergone radical decentralisation involving increased school autonomy. One aspect of this change is the gradual weakening of the state regulation of teaching time. Thus, Sweden is somewhat of an extreme in the EU. This is accentuated by a five-year experiment, where 900 compulsory schools were allowed more freedom in the allocation of school hours. Thirty teachers from three compulsory schools participating in the experiment were interviewed and team meetings observed during a two-year period. The article explores and analyses changes in time-distribution, classification and framing of the curricula and teachers' work in the three teams and their classes, and analyses teachers' experiences of the changes. A major trend towards weakened classification and framing was found. A majority of the teachers were positive to more flexible time use, teamwork and cross-disciplinary studies. However, despite the experiment a majority still felt inhibited by the national time schedule and too little time for development work. Variations between the three cases are discussed in terms of different team cultures. The school characterised by development-oriented culture had changed their work and teaching most. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching is a moral endeavour. It transmits moral messages based on values and expectations. This paper explores the relationship between school practice and the democratic values endorsed in the Swedish national curriculum. A lunch‐time episode illustrates the discrepancy between the national curriculum’s ethical values and their realization in practice. This discrepancy problematizes the decentralization process in Swedish schooling. Furthermore, it suggests that episodes at the margins of school practice may be just as important to the moral curriculum of school as the knowledge‐related elements conventionally deemed to be the core of the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education and assessment in Swedish schools have been affected by several reforms during the last two decades. The educational system has moved from centralization to decentralization and a goal-oriented approach has been introduced on all educational levels. This paper provides an historical overview of the Swedish educational system, educational and assessment policies and principles, to explain why and how the reforms have been carried out. This is followed by a discussion on the effects and consequences of recent reforms, based on findings in recent education and assessment research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 were characterized as a shift from centralization to decentralization. Analysis of relationships between the center, the localities and the institutions; Concerns of major education reforms during the post-war period; Background on the interview study; Information on the narratives of educational change; Factors that contribute to increased social differences.

Examines the role of teachers in improving the quality of education in Sweden. Implementation of a comprehensive school system; Effects of decentralization on education; Need for reforms in several school curriculums.