Learning in the Free Market: A Critical Study of Neoliberal Influences on Sweden's Education System (original) (raw)

Towards a New Education Regime: The Neo-liberal Turn in Swedish Education Policy

Ålund, Aleksandra et al. (eds) Reimagineering the Nation: Essays on 21 Century Sweden

The focus of this paper is on the developments in Swedish education policy in the last two decades, following the lines of a neo-liberal economic re-orientation in Sweden, and its consequences for the democratic visions and realities of the education system. Focusing on the relationships between the goals of equality and equivalence, and the neo-liberal turn in Swedish education, we argue that the changes in the Swedish education system in the last two decades illustrate the effects of the priorities of the market principles that, when normalized in education, have created the foundation of the present divisions of school, educational options and outcomes for different students, along ethno-cultural/racial, gender, and class lines.

The Deinstitutionalization and Fragmentation of the Swedish School System

Dumbing Down, 2022

The chapter shows how the educational trend of “post-truth” schooling continued in Sweden into the twenty-first century. It offers a close reading of the national curriculum that was in force at the time of writing (in 2021). The chapter also discusses how the Swedish school system in just a few years went from being very strictly regulated to being the polar opposite. These changes included a radical marketization of primary and secondary schooling that is unparalleled in any wealthy Western country. The chapter analyzes the school choice market in Sweden and describes how it interacts with postmodern social constructivist ideas, to the detriment of the teaching of knowledge in a classical sense.

‘Post-truth’ schooling and marketized education: explaining the decline in Sweden's school quality

Journal of Institutional Economics, 2019

The Swedish school system suffers from profound problems with teacher recruitment and retention, knowledge decline, and grade inflation. Absenteeism is high, and psychiatric disorders have risen sharply among Swedish pupils. In this pioneering analysis of the consequences of combining institutionalized social constructivism with an extensive marketization of education, we suggest that these problems are to no small extent a result of an unlikely combination of a postmodern view of truth and knowledge, the ensuing pedagogy of child-centered discovery, and market principles. We show how the stipulated view of truth and knowledge and the design of the system impacts on the incentives for the various agents involved: pupils, parents, teachers, principals, school owners, the municipality, the central government, and, ultimately, the general public. Our study implies that caution is necessary for countries that have a tradition of social-constructivist practices in their education systems...

Introduction: The Rise and Puzzling Fall of the Swedish Educational System

Dumbing Down, 2022

Foreign observers of Sweden have attributed the country’s socially inclusive economic growth, which was sustained during nearly one hundred years, to the expansion of the Social Democratic welfare state. However, this analysis overlooks the fundamental causes of Sweden’s economic takeoff. The crucial feature that Sweden exhibited was its uniquely large and evenly distributed stock of human capital. A widespread appreciation for learning and the development of education from the 1600s onwards were the key drivers of the strong development. Against this background, the decline of the Swedish educational system should be cause for serious concern about the country’s future. The chapter provides a summary of the problems regarding schooling in Sweden and presents our view of their causes. The origin of Sweden’s academic decline is mainly attributable to a phenomenon that we refer to as “post-truth” schooling—education based on a postmodern social constructivist view of knowledge.

Educational marketization the Swedish way

Education Inquiry, 2013

Sweden has commonly been regarded as a striking example of a social democratic welfare-state regime , characterized by strong state governance and active involvement in welfare matters. In the last two decades, however, the Swedish public sector and education system have been radically and extensively transformed in a neo-liberal direction, a move that was preceded by extensive decentralization of decision-making from the state to municipalities and schools. In this article the scope, character and some of the consequences of internal and external marketization of Swedish education in the early 2000s are summarized, and the impact of competition on the internal workings of upper secondary schools is highlighted in particular. We conclude that the external marketization of education has proceeded a long way and Sweden also fully embraces new public management, i.e. 'inner marketization', of education in most respects. However, aspects of the older social democratic policy paradigm are still visible with regard to the assigned functions, values and governance of education.

Twelve years of upper-secondary education in Sweden: the beginnings of a neo-liberal policy hegemony?

Educational Review, 2011

In this article we discuss data produced about learning practices and learner identities during the past 12 years of upper-secondary school development in Sweden based on ethnographic fieldwork that has examined these issues with respect to two sets of pupils from these schools: one successful, one unsuccessful. Two things are considered in particular. One is how these pupils and their school activities are described and positioned by teachers. Another is how pupils describe their own activities and position themselves. Some policy changes have been noted across the researched period. Questions relating to participation are considered in relation to them and there is also an attempt to make a connection to a possible social-class relationship. Our main concern however, is for how recent policy changes have been enacted in schools and classrooms and what effects this enactment seems to have had on learner subjectivity and learner identities.

Even in Sweden? Excluding the Included: Some Reflections on the Consequences of New Policies on Educational Processes and Outcomes, and Equity in Education

International Journal of Special Education, 2010

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the effects of educational reforms (which are guided by a neoliberal political agenda) on educational processes, outcomes, and inclusive education in Sweden. It is focused in particular on the increasing marginalisation and exclusion of students with special educational needs, immigrant students, and socially disadvantaged segments of the population. It sheds light on the mechanism in which the changes are framed: neoliberal philosophies that place greater emphasis on devolution, marketization (driven by principles of cost containment and efficiency), competition, standardization, individual choices and rights, development of new profiles within particular school units, and other factors that potentially work against the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I argue here that marginalisation and segregation of socially disadvantaged and ethnic minority groups has increased as a consequence of this new wave of policy measures. Resultant resource differences have widened among schools and municipalities and among pupils. Swedish efforts in the past to promote equity through a variety of educational policies have been fascinating. Those early educational policies, including the macro-political agenda focused on the social welfare model, have helped to diminish the effects of differential social, cultural, and economic background on outcomes. This has come under threat. There is still some hope, however, of mitigating the situation through varied social and educational measures combined with an effective monitoring system and a stronger partnership and transparent working relationship between the central and local government systems. Research and follow-up are crucial in this process.

Swedish education reform: High ambitions and troubling results

Revue internationale d'éducation de Sèvres

Her research interests concern education politics, youth politics and the school-to-work transitions of young people. She is the leader of the research programme "Education policy and young people's transitions" at Umeå University, and one of the team leaders of the Nordic Centre Social Justice through Education. Lisbeth Lundahl was the Secretary

Setting Things Right? Swedish Upper Secondary School Reform in a 40Year Perspective

European Journal of Education, 2010

This article analyses reforms addressing and affecting the curriculum and organisation of Swedish upper secondary education over 40 years, up to an initiative by the present non-socialist government. The aim is to analyse the current reform of upper secondary education and relate it to previous reforms during a 40-year period in terms of continuity and breaks, mainly with regard to major functions of the reforms and the structuring and control of educational contents. Aiming to create a sharper division of students into three separate streams (academic and vocational education, and apprenticeship training), the reform constitutes a major break with the previously dominant trend towards greater integration. It is argued that it will result in a restriction and reformulation of the knowledge which is regarded as desirable. Similar moves are evident in relation to teacher education, which, if enacted, would involve moving from a model of high flexibility and a common core of knowledge to substantially stronger divisions between contents and programmes.