Swedish free school companies going global: Spatial imaginaries and movable pedagogical ideas

Enabled by market-oriented policies implemented in the early 1990s, a nation-wide for-profit education industry has emerged and flourished in Sweden. As a more recent expansion strategy, Swedish school companies have begun exporting their school and early childhood education and care services internationally. In this article, three such companies and a selection of the foreign operations they have set up are studied to analyse how they describe the education services they are establishing in the new national settings. The findings show that the companies have developed and followed different edu-business models, using and transforming particular pedagogical ideas and connecting them to different spatial imaginaries. These include the Swedish/Scandinavian as both places and idealized spaces, infused with borderless global transformative spatial imaginaries on the creation of autonomous learners and futuristic education visions for global futures. Educational profiles and concepts from the Swedish context are both adjusted and marketed to the foreign settings, and entail stories on spaces and mobilities, encompassing pedagogy, teachers and students. </p

Nationell utvärderingspolicy : utformning och förändring på grundskoleområdet 1988-2014

Evaluation has grown in both volume and scope across levels and sectors in recent decades, particularly in the school sector. Despite this growth, there is insufficient knowledge about how and in what ways evaluations are formed, institutionalized and used in education governance and education reforms. This thesis addresses some of these issues by studying evaluation policy. The aim of the thesis is to explore and analyse the design and possible changes in national evaluation policy in compulsory education during two periods of extensive education reforms (1988-1994 and 2008-2014). The theoretical framework builds on evaluation research and policy studies, particularly the literature on policy design. These two strands of literature are supplemented with additional analytical tools from historical institutionalism regarding policy change. Drawing on previous research, a definition of evaluation policy that incorporates the policy context and also enables studying an implicit policy is proposed. On the empirical level, the findings are based on official policy documents, material produced by national government agencies as well as evaluations and evaluation systems. The thesis shows that during the first period (1988-1994), the evaluation policy was characterized as a means of helping to implement the extensive reforms. Evaluations were to be conducted on all levels of the school system to promote development on each executive level. The policy design reflected evaluation as a learning and capacity-building tool. Schools and municipalities were positioned as owners and co-creators of evaluation knowledge. During the second period (2008-2014), the evaluation policy was partially revised in order to come to terms with inadequate evaluations and declining school results. The policy included more sanctions and hortatory tools, and more emphasis was placed on comparisons and rankings. The evaluation policy was based on the assumption that local actors should and will act on evaluative knowledge created by the agencies and international actors, and that they could be motivated to do so by the threat of, for example sanctions or issues of ranking and comparisons. The evaluation policy design was largely stable over time. However, three more incremental but significant changes were identified: i) the policy design element “agents and implementation structures” was altered, ii) the evaluation policy expanded and iii) became more directed towards national and external control. These changes also indicated more negative implications for democracy during the second period. In relation to evaluations’ democratic function the analysis showed that the evaluation policy mainly strengthened the legitimizing and controlling function, whereas the enlightenment function was not prominent. This implies a risk that issues that may be relevant from a broader democratic and societal perspective may be overlooked and not subjected to evaluation. The thesis also acknowledges and illustrates the importance of uncovering and reconstructing evaluation policies, policies that are partly veiled, since also implicit policies will have democratic implications

Tailored workplace education for immigrants in Rural Sweden : working with resources and deficits

Incorporation into the labour market is a key endeavour, of heightened importance in recent years due to high migration flows, for both immigrants and their recipient countries. Hence, activation and employability are major themes in both transnational and national policy discussions, which have generated various programmes and policy measures. This article focuses on one type of such initiatives: collaborative agreements intended to increase the effective establishment of newly arrived migrants through work-related educational tracks in Sweden. Drawing on post-structural policy analysis techniques and theorisation of place, the author analyses documents regarding associated policies, and views expressed by interviewed actors, in three rural municipalities. In efforts to identify hindrances and possibilities for immigrants’ incorporation in rural settings, potential employers’ perspectives are included. The analysis shows that a ‘resource discourse’ and a ‘deficit discourse’ are prevalent in the construction of the agreements and the employers’ perspectives regarding immigrants in the municipalities, place and tracks. It also shows that the municipal strategies differ in terms of organisation and local goals of the tracks. The indications of how place is constructed in local rural settings highlight the importance of such a perspective in efforts to enhance immigrants’ incorporation into the labour market, address deficits and harness resources

Nationell utvärderingspolicy : utformning och förändring på grundskoleområdet 1988-2014

Evaluation has grown in both volume and scope across levels and sectors in recent decades, particularly in the school sector. Despite this growth, there is insufficient knowledge about how and in what ways evaluations are formed, institutionalized and used in education governance and education reforms. This thesis addresses some of these issues by studying evaluation policy. The aim of the thesis is to explore and analyse the design and possible changes in national evaluation policy in compulsory education during two periods of extensive education reforms (1988-1994 and 2008-2014). The theoretical framework builds on evaluation research and policy studies, particularly the literature on policy design. These two strands of literature are supplemented with additional analytical tools from historical institutionalism regarding policy change. Drawing on previous research, a definition of evaluation policy that incorporates the policy context and also enables studying an implicit policy is proposed. On the empirical level, the findings are based on official policy documents, material produced by national government agencies as well as evaluations and evaluation systems. The thesis shows that during the first period (1988-1994), the evaluation policy was characterized as a means of helping to implement the extensive reforms. Evaluations were to be conducted on all levels of the school system to promote development on each executive level. The policy design reflected evaluation as a learning and capacity-building tool. Schools and municipalities were positioned as owners and co-creators of evaluation knowledge. During the second period (2008-2014), the evaluation policy was partially revised in order to come to terms with inadequate evaluations and declining school results. The policy included more sanctions and hortatory tools, and more emphasis was placed on comparisons and rankings. The evaluation policy was based on the assumption that local actors should and will act on evaluative knowledge created by the agencies and international actors, and that they could be motivated to do so by the threat of, for example sanctions or issues of ranking and comparisons. The evaluation policy design was largely stable over time. However, three more incremental but significant changes were identified: i) the policy design element “agents and implementation structures” was altered, ii) the evaluation policy expanded and iii) became more directed towards national and external control. These changes also indicated more negative implications for democracy during the second period. In relation to evaluations’ democratic function the analysis showed that the evaluation policy mainly strengthened the legitimizing and controlling function, whereas the enlightenment function was not prominent. This implies a risk that issues that may be relevant from a broader democratic and societal perspective may be overlooked and not subjected to evaluation. The thesis also acknowledges and illustrates the importance of uncovering and reconstructing evaluation policies, policies that are partly veiled, since also implicit policies will have democratic implications

Nationell utvärderingspolicy : utformning och förändring på grundskoleområdet 1988-2014

Evaluation has grown in both volume and scope across levels and sectors in recent decades, particularly in the school sector. Despite this growth, there is insufficient knowledge about how and in what ways evaluations are formed, institutionalized and used in education governance and education reforms. This thesis addresses some of these issues by studying evaluation policy. The aim of the thesis is to explore and analyse the design and possible changes in national evaluation policy in compulsory education during two periods of extensive education reforms (1988-1994 and 2008-2014). The theoretical framework builds on evaluation research and policy studies, particularly the literature on policy design. These two strands of literature are supplemented with additional analytical tools from historical institutionalism regarding policy change. Drawing on previous research, a definition of evaluation policy that incorporates the policy context and also enables studying an implicit policy is proposed. On the empirical level, the findings are based on official policy documents, material produced by national government agencies as well as evaluations and evaluation systems. The thesis shows that during the first period (1988-1994), the evaluation policy was characterized as a means of helping to implement the extensive reforms. Evaluations were to be conducted on all levels of the school system to promote development on each executive level. The policy design reflected evaluation as a learning and capacity-building tool. Schools and municipalities were positioned as owners and co-creators of evaluation knowledge. During the second period (2008-2014), the evaluation policy was partially revised in order to come to terms with inadequate evaluations and declining school results. The policy included more sanctions and hortatory tools, and more emphasis was placed on comparisons and rankings. The evaluation policy was based on the assumption that local actors should and will act on evaluative knowledge created by the agencies and international actors, and that they could be motivated to do so by the threat of, for example sanctions or issues of ranking and comparisons. The evaluation policy design was largely stable over time. However, three more incremental but significant changes were identified: i) the policy design element “agents and implementation structures” was altered, ii) the evaluation policy expanded and iii) became more directed towards national and external control. These changes also indicated more negative implications for democracy during the second period. In relation to evaluations’ democratic function the analysis showed that the evaluation policy mainly strengthened the legitimizing and controlling function, whereas the enlightenment function was not prominent. This implies a risk that issues that may be relevant from a broader democratic and societal perspective may be overlooked and not subjected to evaluation. The thesis also acknowledges and illustrates the importance of uncovering and reconstructing evaluation policies, policies that are partly veiled, since also implicit policies will have democratic implications

Democratic Values in Evaluation Systems – A Circle That Can Be Squared?

This paper is concerned with the interlocking of democratic values and evaluation systems. A central issue in evaluation has been adherence to democratic values by speaking truth to power or taking an inclusive approach to evaluands. In parallel with these democratic endeavours, evaluation design has increasingly moved from ad-hoc evaluations toward evaluation systems. The question we raise in this paper is how compatible the democratic endeavours of evaluation are with the rise of evaluation systems as the modus operandi. We apply this question to the case of the Swedish school system and its built-in evaluation system: systematic quality work (SQW). In order to explore the research question, school principals were asked to articulate how the democratic mission is visible in their SQW. The results indicate that prominent managing logics at different school levels seem to affect how well democratic values are incorporated into the SQW, highlighting the need to address the institutional and governing setting of evaluation systems in combination with the actors’ roles and decisions in accordance with the democratic evaluation literature

Organising for collaboration with schools : experiences from six Swedish universities

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

Globalisation in Swedish rural areas : organisation of adult education and transitions to work for immigrants in times of depopulation

This article focuses on how local institutions in three rural areas in Sweden organised education and work to assist adult immigrants’ integration. We particularly analyse how local officials in educational institutions, employment offices and local governments attempted to support adult immigrants’ education-to-work transitions, using a theoretical framework rooted in the ecology of equity concepts. The results show that national policy is oriented towards areas that have larger populations than most rural areas. However, flexible solutions such as finding suitable workplace placements to assist specific immigrants’ transitions and integration are sometimes easier in rural areas with closer interactions

Lokala aktörers arbete för integration i rurala områden

Integration och särskilt etablering på arbetsmarknaden för migranter står högt på dagordningen i den politiska debatten. I artikeln fokuseras centrala aktörers integrationsarbete i förhållande till nationella riktlinjer och lokala förutsättningar i tre rurala kommuner. Analysen visar att det huvudsakligen är det rurala i förhållande till det urbana som tycks avgörande för de tre kommunerna, samt att lokala innovativa lösningar nyttjas för att främja etablering och möjliggöra för migranter att stanna och verka på orten. Nationella riktlinjer tycks både verka som stimulerande drivkrafter och förhindrande, begränsande strukturer som är opålitliga och kortsiktiga i ett sammanhang där tidsperspektivet är centralt.Labour market integration is an urgent matter in the political debate. This article focuses on key actors’ integration work in three rural municipalities in relation tonational guidelines and local conditions. The analysis shows that it is mainly the rural in relation to the urban that seems crucial for the municipalities, and that local innovative solutions are used to promote establishment and enable migrants to stay and work in the community. The National guidelines seem to act as both stimulating drivers and preventive, limiting structures that are unreliable and short-termed in a context where the time perspective is central

Utveckling, Lärande, Forskning? : Slutrapport från genomlysningen av försöksverksamheten med ULF-avtal i Umeå-noden

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 angående symmetrisk komplementär samverkan är sympatisk, samtidigt finns det i samverkan inbyggda gränser och asymmetri där olika praktiker har skilda auktoritet. Den struktur, kultur och politiksom genomsyrar lärosätenas och skolhuvudmännens ULF-arbete får betydelse och påverkar konstruktionerna av ULF-verksamheten, samverkansgränserna och de utmaningar och möjligheter som framträder