Between obedience and resistance: transforming the role of pupil councils and pupil organisations in Sweden (1928–1989) (original) (raw)

'Then we ready to be radicals!': school student activism in Finnish upper secondary schools in 1960–1967

Scandinavian Journal of History, 2021

In the Western countries, Scandinavia and Finland included, the legacy of the student movement of the 1960s has been extensive and established a fixed narrative of a radical movement. This article challenges the elitists and university-centred grand narrative and argues that the student movement was more multifaceted and mobilized young people of various ages and backgrounds. This is done by addressing the international student movement from the perspective of school-aged students in Finnish upper secondary schools, focusing on student activism carried out in school-sanctioned student associations. Above all, this article aims to distinguish the relatively unknown history of the Scandinavian school student movement.

Swedish progressive school politics and the disciplinary regime of the school, 1946-1962: a genealogical perspective

Paedagogica Historica - International Journal of the History of Education , 2013

This article examines the vision of the Swedish comprehensive school reform between 1946-1962 as it pertains to the ever-troubling questions of discipline and order in school. Inspired primarily by the work of Michel Foucault and his genealogical perspective, the article problematizes the notion that character formation and school discipline during this period underwent a radical democratic transformation, and that this was the successful result of a progressive political agenda. This account of school discipline is shown to be problematic since it conceals a complex and even ironic historical process, where a disciplinarian discourse in school lingered and even widened and deepened disciplinary practice during the period.

Book review: Popular education, power and democracy—Swedish experiences and contributions By Ann-Marie Laginder, Henrik Nordvall and Jim Crowther (Eds.). (Leicester, UK: NIACE, 2013). 288 pp., € 29.95, ISBN 978-1-86201-579-1

European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 2014

. (Leicester, UK: NIACE, 2013). 288 pp., ISBN 978-1-86201-579-1 Popular education-a common enough term but often misunderstood or misappliedtakes a variety of forms and is a familiar strand in many countries' approaches to nonformal adult education. With its roots lying variously in the social movements of Nineteenth Century British and Nordic countries and, more latterly, in Latin American and several Third World countries, it generally refers to the educational tradition based upon and arising from ordinary peoples' aspirations and struggles for greater democracy and freedom from exploitation and oppression. As such it is avowedly political, seeking transformation rather than acceptance of or accommodation to, the status quo. Although manifesting differently in different parts of the world, its process tends to follow several general characteristics:

Fabricating and Governing the Swedish School Pupil: The Swedish Post-War School Reform and Changing Discourses of Discipline and Behaviour

Nordic Journal Of Educational History, 2018

This article examines the dominant discourses of behaviour and discipline in the debate on schooling and the conduct of school pupils in Swedish professional teacher journals between 1946 and 1962, the formative years of the Swedish comprehensive school. Drawing from the theoretical framework of discourse, governmentality and the fabrication of the subject developed by Michel Foucault, the fabrication and governing of the school pupil is highlighted and analysed. The findings of the study are related to historical research of the period as well as Foucauldian studies where a historical shift of perspectives on discipline and behaviour in the school have been proposed. The result is a detailed analysis of the fabrication and governing of the subject within the dominant discourses of behaviour and discipline during the period, as well as a critical nuancing of the idea of this historical shift.

The Aporia of Equality: A Historico-Political Approach to Swedish Educational Politics 1946-2000

2018

In the present thesis, I analyse how the idea of equality appeared in Swedish educa- tional policy documents from 1946 to 2000. The dissertation aims to advance our understanding of equality as an educational ideal by analysing it as a politico- temporal problem. I do this by combining political thought with historiographical reflections. The material on which I draw is primarily governmental official reports (Statens offentliga utredningar) and Government bills. Utilising what I call the histo- rico-political approach, I examine the empirical material by focusing on how the idea of equality has been envisaged with regard to the past, present, and future. The chief problem is divided into five research questions, which in turn are analy- sed in four separate studies. By exploring how the relationship between teacher, pupil, and content has appeared in key policy documents, I reveal a crucial dislocation in educational poli- cies that has been overlooked to date. Whereas the idea of centring education around the individual pupil was initially popularised in the post-war period and articulated as a more efficient means for ensuring that pupils assimilated greater knowledge, this successively morphed into a democratic goal in itself, in line with the overt attempt to further the democratisation of the educational system in the 1970s. Concurrently, the role of the teacher and the content taught also underwent substantial changes. I show how these transformations can be seen as indicative of a new way of temporally charging equality, where the present is given priority at the expense of both the past and the future. Building on and yet diverging from previous research on Sweden’s educational reforms, in which the reforms around 1990 are depicted as a break from earlier educational policies, my results showcase important and seldom noted strands of continuity in educational policies from 1946 to 2000. In short, this project shows how the desire to further equalise conditions in the educational system paradoxically undermined the democratic order that it was intended to strengthen, helping to pave the way for the changes around 1990, which are often depicted as manifestations of a major, systemic shift.

Fabricating and Governing the Swedish School Pupil

Nordic Journal of Educational History

This article examines the dominant discourses of behaviour and discipline in the debate on schooling and the conduct of school pupils in Swedish professional teacher journals between 1946 and 1962, the formative years of the Swedish comprehensive school. Drawing from the theoretical framework of discourse, governmentality and the fabrication of the subject developed by Michel Foucault, the fabrication and governing of the school pupil is highlighted and analysed. The findings of the study are related to historical research of the period as well as Foucauldian studies where a historical shift of perspectives on discipline and behaviour in the school have been proposed. The result is a detailed analysis of the fabrication and governing of the subject within the dominant discourses of behaviour and discipline during the period, as well as a critical nuancing of the idea of this historical shift.

Power from Below? The Impact of Protests and Lobbying on School Closures in Sweden

In recent decades, there has been a considerable expansion of citizen participation in protests and voluntary advocacy groups. To analyze this development, the social movement literature and the interest group literature have emerged. Yet these two bodies of literature have not communicated with each other and have rarely incorporated knowledge from other fields in political science. As a result, critical questions remain unanswered regarding the political influence of advocacy groups. How do they affect politicians? To what degree do informal groups use lobbying tactics? Are socioeconomically advantaged groups more influential? This thesis endeavors to address the above shortcomings by bridging the literature on social movements, interest groups and political parties. The purpose of the thesis is to explain if and how advocacy groups affect public policy and to analyze which resources that are required to influence political decisions. The focus is on informal and loosely organized social movement organizations (informal SMOs): parental networks, staff networks, and village networks. To test my arguments, I use a unique database on protests and lobbying against school closures in Sweden. Closures of public schools have been one of the most important drivers of political activism in Sweden. The results are presented in three essays. Essay I tests new electoral mechanisms that could condition the political influence of advocacy groups. The results suggest that the political influence of informal SMOs on school closure decisions varies according to the type of voter they mobilize: swing voters or core voters. Essay II demonstrates how informal SMOs use lobbying tactics, such as presenting policy relevant information, to influence politicians. Social movement scholars often focus on protests and ignore lobbying tactics. However, the results show that SMOs that present policy-relevant information are more likely to stop school closures than SMOs that mobilize large protests. Essay III analyzes which informal SMOs exchange policy-relevant information with politicians. Previous studies on the use of lobbying tactics have ignored activist resources. My results suggest that SMOs mobilizing high-income activists and activists with analytical and civic skills are more likely to present policy-relevant information. This is problematic given normative ideals of equal access to decision-making by all members of society.