Challenging Changes: Responses of Three Upper Secondary Schools to Sweden's Decentralization Process.

Sweden is undergoing a school decentralization process from a formerly centralized system. This report examines how school personnel are adapting to the changes. Schoolteachers, administrators, and staff members were interviewed, and, where appropriate, responses were coded for numerical assessment. Additional data include school-reform plans for each school, local newspaper articles describing school changes, and other publications related to change initiatives. Findings revealed common concerns among interviewees about increased workload and stress, and less time to accomplish new tasks in addition to preparing for classes; the lack of clarity in how to organize and implement interdisciplinary courses; the success of students with limited abilities and motivation in the uniform national courses such as mathematics, Swedish, and English; the value of team organization; and adequate state and local financial support for school reform. A major obstacle to the comprehensive change process lies in the perceived disadvantage teachers and administrators have in the reform process compared to national and local authorities. Lack of power to influence changes, lack of communication between educators and politicians, and limited resources for implementation plague collaborative work between schools and community groups. Appendices contain summaries of coding processes and coding identifications for the three schools studied. (Contains 26 references.) (RT)