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Skola utan nationell timplan (SKUT)

Teacher policies and the working condition of teachers have been paid attention to in several recent international inquiries and research projects. For example, the OECD project Attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers (OECD 2005) aimed at identifying "innovative and successful policy initiatives and practices" by analysing recruitment and working condition of teachers in 25 countries. In a recent Eurydice project (2003, 2004) the attractiveness, distinctive features and occupational content of the teaching profession in 30 European countries were studied. Also a Nordic research project on restructuring of education and teacher professionalism (Carlgren et.al. 2002) may be mentioned here. Such research clearly shows that global changes of teacher work have taken place during the 1990s and early 2000s, changes which are closely related to new demands on education - the demands of global economy for mobile, flexible and highly qualified workforce, and national, regional and local endeavours to promote economic growth and competetiveness. In the educational sphere the responsebility to realise such aims to a high extent is deployed to schools, principals and teachers, which are supposed to act autonomously and efficiently in order to attain the educational objectives. The "new teacher role" includes teamwork, individualisation, pupil-active teaching methods, and, increasingly, activities outside the classroom such as planning, documentation and evaluation. Teacher work seems to be characterised by less distinct boundaries between subject categories and teacher/staff categories. The matter of power and control over teachers´ working time is however rather complex. On the one hand, a gradual deregulation and decentralisation of decisions concerning school hours and teachers´ working time has taken place, e.g. in Sweden, allowing for increased local autonomy. Here, both politicians, the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and teacher unions have been i

Försöksverksamheten med utbildning utan timplan i grundskolan startade läsåret 2000/01. Timplanedelegationen har haft det övergripande ansvaret för att leda, stödja och utvärdera försöket. Vi har också haft i uppgift att lämna underlag till regeringen inför dess ställningstagande till om och i så fall hur timplanen i grundskolan kan avskaffas. Delegationen redovisade nyligen sina slutsatser och förslag i slutbetänkandet Utan timplan – för målinriktat lärande (SOU 2005:101). Av slutbetänkandet framgår att delegationen föreslår att den nationella timplanen skall avskaffas. Erfarenheterna av försöket visar sammantaget att en avveckling av timplanen på sikt kan bidra till en ökad måluppfyllelse genom att stimulera utvecklingen i skolorna. Enligt vår uppfattning bör dock en avveckling av timplanen kompletteras med andra åtgärder, bl.a. vad gäller den minsta garantera undervisningstiden, målsystemet samt utbildning och kompetensutveckling av lärare och rektorer. En avveckling behöver dessutom stödjas av en effektiv implementering. För de deltagande skolorna innebär försöksverksamheten en fullständig befrielse från den nationella timplanens uppdelning i tid per ämne eller ämnesgrupp. Skolor som deltar i försöksverksamheten omfattas av övriga bestämmelser som gäller för grundskolan. Det innebär bl.a. att de skall följa läroplanen (Lpo 94) och arbeta enligt de kursplaner som finns för grundskolans ämnen och ämnesgrupper, att bestämmelsen om antalet garanterade timmar för grundskolans nio år (6 665 timmar) gäller samt att eleverna skall få såväl en väl avvägd skoltid som väl avvägda läsår och skoldagar. Hur tiden skall disponeras bestäms dock av skolorna. Försöksverksamheten omfattar knappt 900 kommunala grundskolor i 79 kommuner. Försöket var från början tänkt att avlutas den 30 juni 2005, men har förlängts till den 30 juni 2007, i avvaktan på beredningen av delegationens förslag., Kapiteltitel på engelska: When the Governance of time becomes the issue of the schools and teachersBokens undertitel på engelska: An anthology from the Time table delegation

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.

In a short time Sweden has changed from having one of the most centralised education systems to one of far-going decentralisation and management by objectives and results. Accordingly, state regulation of teaching hours in comprehensive education has gradually become weakened. The paper addresses questions related to time governance and school development, mainly at the municipal and school level. How do local directors of education and headteachers reason about the national time table and other factors governing and constraining time allocation? What and who are defined as driving forces and obstacles in this respect?

During the last twenty-five years, Sweden has turned from an education system characterised by strong central management and detailed regulation to having one of the most decentralised systems in Europe (OECD 1998). This shift has been accompanied by the introduction of market mechanisms, such as choice, vouchers and increased competition, and by considerable cuts in the budgets of municipalities and schools. Today the State prescribes the educational objectives of pre-school, primary and secondary school, and controls the extent to which educational goals have been reached. Most other decisions, however, concerning e.g. the organisation of work, choice of methods and class sizes, are delegated to the local and, in particular, to the school level. Recently, still further steps towards decentralisation and deregulation have been taken, in regards to the regulation of time use and time allocation in primary school. In this paper we critically examine the potential effects and importance of such a step, based upon an empirical study among school managers and headmasters. 1 Initially, the Swedish case is briefly presented and discussed in an international perspective.

Research on the media’s role in policy is long-established (see for example Fitzgerald & Housley 2009; Gerstl-Pepin 2007; Gewirtz et al. 2007; Wallace 2007), but there has not been so much attention to the relationship between inspectorates and media. In this chapter, we argue that inspectorates depend on the media: the capacity of the media to publicise and spread their messages about school success and failure contributes very strongly to their influence. However it also seems to be the case that as inspectorates use and exploit the media to spread their messages about school performance, and thus buttress their authority and greatly extend their reach beyond the education world, they also become vulnerable to media pressure and – to a degree – reliant on media coverage to sustain their authority. In other words, there is an interdependent relationship between inspection and the media, in which media priorities may adversely affect the image of inspection. Thus while Ofsted has become highly visible and a topic of household conversation, greatly increasing its presence in the lives of parents, pupils and teachers, this is especially the case where stories of school success and failure are presented in highly dramatic terms (as victories, defeats, struggles and disasters). There are obvious risks for Ofsted in this presentation of their work: pressure to find stories that will attract coverage undermines attention to the substantial but more mundane aspects of inspection, and creates expectations of powerful inspection effects. Indeed negative media coverage of schools ‘in crisis’ reinforces the demand for political action, and heightens the perception of inspectorates as a force for powerful, effective intervention. There is, moreover, a pre-occupation in the tabloid press with reporting ‘bad news’, so that dramatic coverage of failing schools reinforces public perception of schooling in crisis and contributes to pressure on inspectorates. Against such a backgroun

Research on the media’s role in policy is long-established (see for example Fitzgerald & Housley 2009; Gerstl-Pepin 2007; Gewirtz et al. 2007; Wallace 2007), but there has not been so much attention to the relationship between inspectorates and media. In this chapter, we argue that inspectorates depend on the media: the capacity of the media to publicise and spread their messages about school success and failure contributes very strongly to their influence. However it also seems to be the case that as inspectorates use and exploit the media to spread their messages about school performance, and thus buttress their authority and greatly extend their reach beyond the education world, they also become vulnerable to media pressure and – to a degree – reliant on media coverage to sustain their authority. In other words, there is an interdependent relationship between inspection and the media, in which media priorities may adversely affect the image of inspection. Thus while Ofsted has become highly visible and a topic of household conversation, greatly increasing its presence in the lives of parents, pupils and teachers, this is especially the case where stories of school success and failure are presented in highly dramatic terms (as victories, defeats, struggles and disasters). There are obvious risks for Ofsted in this presentation of their work: pressure to find stories that will attract coverage undermines attention to the substantial but more mundane aspects of inspection, and creates expectations of powerful inspection effects. Indeed negative media coverage of schools ‘in crisis’ reinforces the demand for political action, and heightens the perception of inspectorates as a force for powerful, effective intervention. There is, moreover, a pre-occupation in the tabloid press with reporting ‘bad news’, so that dramatic coverage of failing schools reinforces public perception of schooling in crisis and contributes to pressure on inspectorates. Against such a backgroun