The Impact of Economic and Production Changes on Educational Reforms the Swedish Case
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The impact of economic and production changes on educational reforms – the Swedish case
Ulf P. Lundgren Uppsala University
Mumbai, India 25 of February 2011; 19.30 14.00
First of all I want to express my gratitude for being invited to this conference and to the hospitality we have met.
I will take the opportunity to focus my presentation on the history of the Swedish educational system as a part of the building of a welfare society and I will end up in some reflections around the transformation of the welfare society and its consequences for education
The forming of a modern education a paradigm shift Outside the main University building in Uppsala there is a statue of the Erik Gustaf Geijer (1783 – 1847). He held the chair in History from 1817 and was from 1824 member of the Swedish Academy.1 Geijer had an important position in the academic and intellectual life in Sweden in the beginning of the nineteenth hundred century.
In 1825 a committee was given the task to form a structure for the educational system. The official name was “The Teaching Committee of 1825”. Its popular name was “The Genius Committee”, as it consisted of the most prominent and well-known intellectuals. Among those were the chemist Berzelius and the above mentioned Geijer. The crown prince, later king Oscar I, was the chairman, which indicates the status and the importance of the committee.
In the mid of the nineteenth century two perspectives dominated the discussions on what constitutes “bildung” or genuine formation. One claimed the importance of a classical formation. Within this perspective the learning of Latin had a central role in the curriculum as fostering and sharpening the intellect. The other argued for a modernisation of the curriculum by embracing natural science, mathematics and modern languages.
1 Founded as an independent institute in 1786 in order to advance the Swedish language and Swedish literature. Since 1901 the Academy has awarded The Nobel Prize in Literature. http://www.svenskaakademien.se/web/en.aspx 2
For Geijer the classical education was essential. ”It is,” he wrote, “not important what he (the young man) learns, as long as he learns, as long as his mind is sharpened and fostered in the school of academia.”2 The society, he argued, is divided into two classes. One class was the educated class that cherished the basic duties in society, took care of laws and moral, academic sciences and art. For the members of this class higher education was important. The other class was the working and non-educated class whose members worked in the production; that was in farming, crafts and business. For the members of this class it was enough with practical oriented education combined with the Christian teaching given by the Church. And, he argued, how important it was that the higher class not forced on the lower class more education than was necessary and needed. It could be dangerous with “an unblessed reform- and teacher-disease”.3
The committee did not reach any clear conclusions. The gap in opinions was too large.
The 21st of October 1837 the new Archbishop Johan Olof Wallin (1779 – 1839) inaugurated the new Cathedral School in Uppsala. Wallin had been one of the opponents to a public school reform. In the audience were king, Carl XIV Johan, and the Crown prince Oscar.
Geijer reviewed the speech in the journal Litteratur-Bladet (in February 1838). In his article Geijer took a liberal standpoint. He had now turned from a conservative view on education to a liberal view. He wrote: “It is over twenty years since I started to think and write about these questions. After careful considerations have I cottoned up my stock of arguments in this matter on one nail – the difference between one so called public class and one industrial class – and from this deduced difference between public education, which should be the duty of the state, and private education, that should continue as a private duty. The nail, I suspect, seems to have hit a superfluous wall.”4
He argued now for an education to all. His defection to liberalism was sensational. The medical authority at Uppsala University claimed that he was insane due to a softened brain.
Geijer’s defection marks a shift to the modern Swedish society5 and a modern view on education and curricula.
The point with this historical case is teach us how intensive the belief in a way of defining the goals and the content of education and the belief in specific knowledge areas make us blind for new possibilities. In that context and at that time another way of seeing education was a sign of insanity. What are the boundaries for our thinking today?
2 Aquilonius, K. (1942) Det svenska folkundervisningsväsendet 1809 – 1860.” I Fredriksson, V: Svenska folkskolans historia. Andra delen. Stockholm: Albert Bonniers förlag. P. 26. My translation. 3 Op.cit. P. 27. My translation. 4 Geijer, E. G. (1838). Tal vid invigning af nya Katedral-Skole-huset i Upsala d. 21 Okt. 1837 - Uti H. M. Konungens och H.K.H. Kronprinsens höga öfvervaro af J. O. Wallin Erke-Biskop. Litteratur-bladet. http://art-bin.com/art/ogeijer.html 5 Landquist, J. (1924). Erik Gustav Geijer, hans levnad och verk. Stockholm: Norstedt. 3
The 18 of June 1842 the decision was taken in the Swedish parliament that “In each city parish and in each country parish there should be at least one, preferable permanent, school with duly approved teacher.” With that decision a public school system was established.
Public education had earlier been the task of the church. Sweden changed en the sixteenth century from Catholism to Lutheranism. In the Parliament 1527 the king was given the power to suspend the church property and church appointments had to be approved by the king. The clergy had to follow the civil law and the pure word of God was to be preached in churches and taught in schools.
The church law of 1686 it regulated that the minister of the parish had to take notes of the religious progress in his parish. These protocols, hence, told how well the members of the parish could read and understand the catechesis of Luther. The law also regulated the duties of the sexton. He had to teach the children of the parish. In 1723 the demands on literacy was strengthened by regulation of the teaching duty of the households. According to this regulation the head of the household had to see to that members could read and pass the examination of the Minister. Failing led to fines.
The law of 1842 was not a literacy reform. The Swedes were literate. The demands of being able to read came with the Lutheran reformation in the 1600 century and the control over literacy was established in a church law of 1686 and strengthened by regulation of the teaching duty of the household in 1723. Literacy was not the problem. The reasons behind the school reform are to be found in ideas from the enlightenment and in the fact that people could read. People read what they should not read. The printing techniques gave access to texts. New political and religious ideas were spread. The consequences of agrarian reforms changed the social structure of the villages and stimulated the economy and the growing industry. All these societal and economic changes created social and political upheaval. The social order had to be stabilised. The reform is, hence, to be understood as both an active and a reactive reform. The code behind establishing a public school system can be formulated as “God and the Fatherland”.6
The second wave of industrialisation came rather late in Sweden. It was an agrarian society and the risk capital necessary for the development of the industry came first in the late nineteenth century. But when it came the industrialisation was fast. The educational level of the population, that is, the human capital in combination with risk capital explains the pace and volume of the second industrial revolution.7
With a growing industrialisation new demands on education were formed. Engineer schools were established together with various types of vocational oriented institutes. And now the modern idea of education; the one the earlier mentioned Geijer converted to was taken over the educational discourse.
6 Tingsten, H. (1969). Gud och fosterlandet. Studier i hundra års skolpropaganda. Stockholm: P.A. Norstedts & söners förlag. 7 Ljungberg, J & Nilsson, A. (2009). Human capital and economic growth: Sweden 1870–2000. Cliometrica, 3(2). 4
Vocational education in Sweden has as in most European countries its roots in the craftsmen education. With the forming of industrial production the need for a more organised vocational education was accentuated. At the end of th19th century schools for vocational education were organised as Evening schools and Sunday schools. In the beginning of the 20th century specific industrial schools were established by the municipalities. These schools were in comparison with Evening and Sunday schools full-time schools.8 With a growing labour market and work differentiation education became essential for a position on the labour market and level of salary. The political role of education as an instrument for social, cultural and economic change was focused. Demands on one common school for all were articulated.
At the teacher union annual meeting 1903 Fridtjuv Berg (1851 – 1916)9 spoke to the participants. The title was: “The Swedish public school system in the beginning of twentieth century”. In this speech Berg points at a coming society with new needs for education of all citizens. “…the new century”, he said, “will be the century of industrialism, not only will industries take over more and more of labour, but also other areas will be industrialised. But this will demand the highest possible of assimilation of human intelligence, not only from the inventor and the supervisor but also from the worker and in doing that the public school has an important role”.
In order to form such a public school it was important to build further education on the public school system. In the beginning of the twentieth century there were two parallel school systems. One was the public and the other the academic. The politics of education during the first half of century was centred on the question of ability grouping and the length of it, what was called “the differentiation question. That is at for how long could there be homogenous classes and no differentiation according to ability?
A solution came in the thirties when the school system was organised in such a way that the children after grade four could go over to a five year long academic line (realskola) or after grade six to a four year long academic line. After these five or six years there was a three or four year long upper secondary education (Gymnasium), which gave entrance to university studies. The fundamental discussion concerning vocational education was the legal regulation of apprenticeship. The employers union was against such a regulation as they were afraid of the economic burden. The consequence was that no legal regulations were formed. In 1938 the employers union and the labours union signed a contract agreeing on certain actions on the labour market. This contract10 confirmed a consensus, an agreement that had an important not to say a decisive impact for the development of the economy and the labour market. In line with this contract a committee for vocational education was established.
8 Olofsson J.:. Svensk yrkesutbildning. Vägval i internationell belysning./Swedish vocational education. Options in international comparison/. Stockholm: SNS Förlag. 2005. Page. 58. My translation. 9 Ecclesiastical minister 1905 – 1906, 1911 – 1914. 10 This contract was signed at Saltsjöbaden outside Stockholm and is named after the place. The ideal of the contract is called the spirit of Saltsjöbaden (Saltsjöbadsandan) that existed into the sixties. 5
The forming of the Welfare state and a new educational paradigm After the recession the Swedish developed as an industrial nation. Since around 1890 the industrialisation had accelerated. New inventions and a new industry had been established. There was a potential in raw material and in human capital. Education was seen as a political instrument for change and for the individual education was a way into the labour market and a way to change social, cultural conditions; giving the conditions for a career.
And now new demands on curricula were articulated. These demands placed mathematics and natural sciences in focus for the curriculum. The curriculum credo in this new modern world was pragmatic knowledge and child orientation. In the year of 1900 the Swedish educationalist and author Ellen Key published her famous book “The Century of Childhood”.
The right to vote was given to men in 1909 and to women in 1919. The first time all citizens over 23 years could vote was in the 1921 election.
Ernst Wigforss (1881 – 1977)11 an influential Social Democrat came in contact with ideas developed by the political scientist and conservative politician Rudolf Kjellén (1864 – 1922). Kjellén had developed an idea of state as an organism and thus life form. In contrary to Kjellén Wigforss saw a strong state built on democracy. A line o thought adopted by Per Albin Hansson (1885 – 1946) Prime minister four times between 1932 and 1936. Hansson coined the term “The People Home” (Folkhemmet), which was a metaphor for the nation as a home built on consensus equality exercising virtues as solidarity, justice and humanity. The strong state was a necessity in forming an equal society. In this society education was important as an instrument for development and social justice.
In this context I must mention that the brother to Ernst Wigforss, Frits Wigforss, had an important role in developing didactics of mathematics in Sweden and was the constructor of standardised testing in mathematics teaching.12
The industry developed fast in the first decades of the 20th century. This expanding economy was stimulated by the contract from 1938 between the employers union and labour unions – “The spirit of Saltsjöbaden” (Saltsjöbadsandan). In this climate the demands on human capital resulted in an expansion of education. This expansion raised demands on new school organisations. Several types of school were established. On the lower secondary level there were - in the forties - eight different forms of schools and five on the higher secondary level. On the primary level there was a parallel system with a public school - folkskolan - and the academic school - realskolan. The choice of school form was in reality a parental choice. The access to the academic school varied over the country. The coordination of exams and progressions in the system increased. Already in the forties a committee was settles down to work out a proposal for a new school system.
11 Member of Parliament. Minister of finance 1925 – 1926, 1932 – 1936, 1936 – 1949. 12 Johansson, B. & Kilpatrick, J. (1994). ”Standardized mathematics testing in Sweden: the legacy of Frits Wigforss.” Nomad 2, 6 – 30). 6
Sweden had not been actively involved in the Second World War which gave an economic head-start after the war with an increasing export industry. This gave economic space for reforms.
One motive was of administrative character; to form a unified system. Another motive was to reform and unify the educational system in order to shape a school system that gave equal opportunities. A third and fourth discernable motive was economic – education as an investment both for the individual and the society - and political – education as an instrument for creating a democratic society. In a report from the first School Committee this motive is formulated in the following way: ”With the continuous change of democratisation there is a more visible will to organise the school system in such a way, that each type and each degree of formation is possible for each young citizen, irrespective of sex, place of living, class and economic conditions.”13
During a ten-year period, between 1942 and 1952, the number of pupils in elementary schools increased in a drastic way. In its turn this expansion demanded new physical space and an increase in number of teachers. The increasing urbanisation had of course an impact on educational planning. During the last century the populations in cities were doubled from 10% to 20%. Around 1943 it had doubled again and in 1950 more than 50% lived in cities.
The economical impact of education came in focus. During the fifties several economists showed how investments in education were related to increase of GNP14. And the economic motives for reforming the educational systems became a part of the political discourse about educational reforms. Behind the arguments for reforms were also changes on the international scene. The launching of the first Sputnik marks a new area in curriculum development. The year after in 1958 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) was founded. One of the driving persons was the Swedish professor of education Torsten Husén.
One motive, as pointed out, for change was to create a democratic schools fostering a democratic citizen, which meant that schools not only had to be teach democracy, but that also the inner life of the schools prepared for democracy.
The reform movement started with an expert committee - the 1940 Committee. The 1940 Committee made a thorough investigation of the existing system resulting in 20 published reports containing over 10 000 printed pages. The expert could, however, not present a model for how to organise the school system. The basic obstacle was the question of ability grouping. A new and parliamentary committee was established - 1946 School Commission - already in 1946, one year before the 1940 Committee had finished its work.
The 1946 School Commission came to have a long lasting impact on educational policy and school development. In the Commission experts were engaged, among others teachers that earlier had worked in the progressive movement. Progressive
13 SOU 1944:23: Skolan i samhällets tjänst. Stockholm: Ecklesiastikdepartementet. 1944. P. 41. (My translation). 14 Cf M.: Economics of Education. London: Pergamon Press. 1966. 7 education and the work and ideas of John Dewey had been introduced in Sweden in the beginning of the century15. The influence was visible first already in the 1919 Curriculum for the public schools. Ester Hermansson and Elsa Köhler, the latter from Austria, became central figures for the within the development of activity pedagogy. Hermansson was one of the experts engaged by the Commission. Köhler held series of seminars for Swedish and Norwegian teachers and published in 1936 the book ”Activity Pedagogy”16 in which the basic ideas and methods were presented. Documentation, observation and evaluation were central themes. The political development in Europe, however, erased the progressive movement. Elsa Köhler disappeared during the Nazi terror.
With the school reforms after the Second World War the progressive ideas returned but this time not only among teachers. It was incorporated in the state commissions and adopted by the state. Students to Köhler published in 1947 the book ”Vårt arbetssätt” (our Way of Working)17 which had an impact on teacher education. Alva and Gunnar Myrdal18 published already in 1941 the book ”Kontakt med Amerika” (Encounter America)19 in which one chapter was entitled ”Uppfostran i samhällets mitt” (Education in the centre of society). Alva Myrdal had an important influence in the work of the Commission. One idea that is visible here is the idea of using evaluation to govern educational development and to build up knowledge from practice. The long influence from German education and philosophers as Humboldt was broken and the influence now came from West.
However, the School Commission could not deliver a definitive answer on the question on when to have ability grouping was suitable. Or expressed in another way find the answer on the question: when to divide the school system in different streams? Or in other words, how far up in the ages can we have a comprehensive system? An experimental period was decided upon in 1950. This experimental period was to be used for evaluations of the different alternatives. Any summative evaluation of the experiments was never done, but there were some critical studies of the effects of early and late differentiation. The most important of these was the so-called ”Stockholm study”20, which had an impact on the later decision on establishing a nine-year comprehensive school system. It is in connection with these committees and the experimentation period educational research in Sweden developed and established an international position, with researchers as Torsten Husén, Kjell Härnqvist and Urban Dahllöf.
One basic pedagogical idea during this time was that the teaching process could be individualised within the frames of the school class. This belief built in its turn on
15 Cf Lundgren, U.P.: ”John Dewey in Sweden. Notes on Progressivism in Swedish Education 1900-1945”. In Goodson, I. (ed.): International Perspectives in Curriculum History. London: Croom Helm. 1987. 16 Köhler, E: Aktivitetspedagogik. Stockholm: Natur och Kultur. 1936. 17 Falk, K., Glanzelius, M, Hammarstrand, A, Hermansson, E. & Skäringer-Larsson, E.: Vårt arbetssätt. Aktivitetspedagogik i praktisk utformning. Stockholm: Kooperativa förbundets förslag. 1947. 18 Both Nobel price winners. Alva Myrdal (1982) and Gunnar Myrdal in economy (1974). 19 Myrdal, A. & Myrdal, G.: Kontakt med Amerika. Stockholm: Bonniers. 1941. 20 Svensson, N-E.: Ability Grouping and Scholastic Achivement. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. 1962. Cf. Lundgren, U.P.: Frame factors and the Teaching Process. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. 1972. 8 the idea that scientific knowledge about learning could be transformed into an educational technology and materialised in educational tools. The educational technology built on a strict and simple idea about goal-governing, by specifying goals in term of behaviour and by evaluating and reinforcing each step in the learning process. By applying educational technology the educational process could be highly rationalised. The educational technology ideas were never rooted in the school system, but adopted by the central administration at the National Board of Education (NBE) and had an impact on how a national evaluation could be constructed and carried out. The ideas of an educational technology responded to the need for a reform legitimacy; a legitimacy built on science. Subjective evaluations carried out by inspectors had lost its consent. In a school system built on basic ideas about equality a new objective and rational legitimacy was to be found.21
The educational policies in the fifties and the sixties were based on what could be described educational engineering.
After the decision on a comprehensive school system in 1962 the upper secondary school was reformed and theoretical and vocational study lines were organised within a unified system (gymnasieskolan).
The societal changes came, however, to form quite another development than the one expected. The compromises that had been done around the construction of the comprehensive school meant, among other things, that a lot of individual study lines had been organised for the last three years of the comprehensive school. This construction demanded large school units that were able to offer all the alternatives. The increasing urbanisation resulted in new large school units located in dense populated areas. The school system appeared as more and more problematic, factory like and with problems to create order and a descent education. These consequences called in its turn for new reforms in the seventies.
The seventies however, was a decade of changed conditions. For the first time since the thirties the economy dropped. In 1973 the OPEC-countries (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) raised dramatically the oil prices nearly four times as a consequence of the Arabian- Israeli war. The first oil crisis was a fact. The second crisis came in 1978 with the revolution in Iran. The student revolutions focussed the educational systems and the inability to shape an equal education. The environment movement started. The political landscape was changing. In 1976 we got the first government in forty years without Social Democrats. The basic industry built on raw material came into crisis as steel industry and the shipbuilding industry. The energy crisis was the followed by an industrial crisis, a financial crisis and a political crisis. In the seventies we can see also increasing problems in the governing of the welfare state.
One important change concerned the relationship between national policy-making and the control of the national economy. Production had changed character. Capital was more and more moving from being located in tools and machinery to be a capital in human competence. To move enterprises in which the main substance was human competence was easier than moving tools and machinery.
21 Cf Habermas, J.: Toward a Rational Society. London: Heineman. 1971. 9
To finance reforms by increasing taxes, possible during the period of expansion, was limited in a more global economy. And with this increasing dependence on the international economy the possibilities of managing the national economy and the incentives for growth changed in nature.
These changes have accentuated one of the basic problems of the modern state, and have profound implications for its legitimacy. The problem of legitimating in a situation of diminished economic control became, in some instances, the impetus for moving state reforms from cost-taking initiatives to a symbolic reconstruction of existing institutions.
The transformation from a labour market structured by industrial production to a labour market structured by service production, circulation of products, reproduction, and above all the new information technology, created new demands, and reforms. It can be argued that the traditional organizations constructed to handle the economy and the political economy of modern industrialized society was no longer suited to handling a post-modern society. These organizations could not mobilize support for action. Accordingly, state institutions such as schools could not attract and build on the interests of the clients or users. Governance had to take other paths.
The financing of reforms now faced a dilemma. The development of production--- in the now emerging knowledge society---demanded more of education. Increasing resources had been the circumstance for the expansion of education, but increasingly resources became limited, and in a more global economy, as said earlier, new resources are not that easy to mobilize by increasing taxation. Further expansion had to be financed in new ways and by higher productivity.
The expectations of increased efficiency and productivity called for concrete well- articulated goals and a steady direction. But in the 1970s and 1980s, that the governing subject - the government and administration - became weaker and fragmented. One explanation for this is the splitting up of mass parties into smaller political factions, thereby forcing the creation of fragile governing coalitions. It has been argued that the classical ability of a government to be strong, to be able to reject demands, was lost in the 1970s22 This, in turn, created an increasing sensitivity to lobbying and political pressure, which led to an overload of demands on decision-makers.
The political authority of a government and its administration is derived from two elements: its effectiveness and public consent. Effectiveness and consent are related, but they can be in conflict. In order to guarantee the consent of the electors more and more interest groups and associations have been formed. This has in its turn created new problems. As more organizations are formed, the more negotiations become necessary to gain support for one or another line of action, or for a reform. A co-operative negotiating context is formed. But such a context can result in indifference with respect to participation: citizens become de-motivated.23
22 Grozier, M.: The Governability of West European Society. University of Essex 1977. 23 Compare Rose, R.: “The nature of challenge.” In Rose, R. (ed.): Challenge to governance: Studies in Overloaded Politics. London: Sage. 1980. Pp. 9–10. 10
These problems have resulted in governing documents, like curricula, becoming more abstract; to allow for various interpretations. Thus, these political contexts created forces which lead to actions which contradict what seems necessary for the reforms that meet the needs of a new political context, i.e. well-articulated goals and a steady direction.
At the same time, many of the changes were only part of more complex changes in the conditions of political leadership.
It became more and more evident during the 1980s and later in the1990s that earlier planning models could not be used. During the expansion, specialization of the administration was a practical solution. But faced with the need to take new types of decisions in a different societal context, the existing/older organization seemed unable to act rationally. With limited resources various sectors were forced to compete with each other. A consequence of this competition was, in some places, that goals for education were broadened in order to make the educational sector look as important or more important as other sectors. This broadening of goals was reinforced by the necessity to satisfy various and often different demands. And once again we can see the contradiction between what was produced and what was needed. Goals became more abstract when more clearly stated goals were needed.
Many political scientists in the 1970s pointed out24 that the governing subject---the political leadership---was having problems taking the initiative for an active reform policy. We see examples of a fragmentation of the educational administration, thereby creating problems concerning overall planning and the ability to master complex groups of interrelated problems. We can also see tendencies towards more policy-making being carried out by the administration itself.
The vanishing Welfare society – the fourth paradigm It is here we can scent the sign of a turning point. The welfare society came into attack. At the end of the decade Margret Thatcher became Prime Minister in Great Britain and stayed up to 1990. In The U.S. Ronald Reagan President in 1981 and was in office to 1989. The new-liberal ideas changed the discourse about the relation between state and society.
Time changes, public education had been both a part of the Swedish welfare state and a prominent example of it, now string voices were raised for more of private education. By the 1970s, the public debate focussed effectiveness of public education. It had not delivered what it promised. The goal of social equality through equal educational opportunity was still unfilled; differences between students of different backgrounds remained and, in some cases, increased. In addition, students seemed to learn subordination rather than democratic citizenship. Education, as an instrument for social change, seemed to be a fairly blunt instrument and difficult to control from the centre. While the reforms did succeed in increasing access to education, socially and geographically, social
24 Compare Wildavsky, A.: Speaking Truth to Power: The Art and Craft of Policy analysis. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1976. 11 background remained the best predictor of educational attainment. 25 In the mid- 1980s and the early 1990s, two National Commissions recommended major changes in the governance of the welfare system.26 As a result, in the 1980s, Swedish education policy underwent a shift from a central organised system to decentralised system with tendencies to market orientation.27 This trend was consistent with those of many other countries at the time, and incorporated elements of local development, school improvement projects, school based evaluation and role changes for school leaders. Social Democrats as well as non- socialist parties contributed to these changes, which the Social Democrats introduced and the other parties developed. There were, however, different motives for the changes. While the Social Democrats, at least initially, considered the new form of governance as a way to reach equality and inform local school development through evaluation, the non-socialist parties wished to introduce both new goals and new instruments that would promote individual choice.28
The criticism of the welfare state focused on difficulties in governance, inefficiencies, and an overload of administrative tasks. Government bureaucracies appeared inflexible, increasing in size, and costly, “leaving civil society with small possibilities for intervention and participation”. In addition, better educated citizens called for more influence over their own lives and in social affairs. The Swedish model, with its strong public sector, was now under attack and considered more as a problem than as an effective instrument for the distribution of benefits and the instrument of social change.
The problems also were related to external changes: greater dependence on the global economy and international co-operation and agreements; the development of new communication technologies, with consequences for the labour market; and the transition from an industrial to a service and knowledge society. Increasing taxes to finance reforms, a feasible strategy during the earlier period of expansion, became a more limited option in a more global economy. At the same time, the transformation from an industrial to a service and knowledge marketplace, which required new information technologies, put new and increased demands on education to respond to the adult population’s need to obtain the skills required to compete in the changing job market.29
25 Härnkvist, K. (1992). Utbildningsreformer och social selection. (Educational reforms and social selection) In Åberg, R. (Ed.). (1992). Social bakgrund, utbildning, livschanser. (Social background, education, life opportunities). 26 SOU 1990:44. Demokrati och makt i Sverige: Maktutredningens huvudrapport. (Democracy and power: the main report). Stockholm: Allmänna förlaget. SOU 1993:16. Nya villkor för ekonomi och politik: Ekonomikommisionens förslag. (New conditions for economy and politics). Stockholm: Allmänna förlaget. 27 Lindensjö, B. & Lundgren, U. P. (2000). Utbildningsreformer och politisk styrning. (Educational reforms and political governing) Stockholm: HLS förlag. Telhaug, A. O. (1994). Den nye utdanningspolitiske retorikken: Bilder av internasjonal skoleutvikling. (The new rhetoric of educational policy: Pictures from the international development of education) Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. 28 Englund, T. (Ed.). (1995). Utbildningspolitiskt systemskifte? (A paradigm shift in educational policy?) Stockholm: HLS förlag. 29 Granheim, M, Kogan, M. & Lundgren U.P. (Eds.). (1990). Evaluation as policymaking. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 12
The political context also changed. During the seventies and eighties, the central government became increasingly fragmented. The longstanding Social Democratic governance struggled within fragile coalitions, sometimes under conservative, but mostly under Social Democratic, administrations. New political parties entered the Parliament, and there was, at the same time, a trend toward less coherence in the administrative organization with increasing specialization and division of labour.
The Swedish public school system is organized into compulsory schooling for children aged 7-16, a non-compulsory preschool class for six year olds, and non- compulsory upper secondary school. Also included are Sami schools for Sami children, special schools for deaf children, programs for children with learning disabilities, and adult education. In addition, children ages 1-5 have the right to attend preschool or family day care, and schoolchildren through age 12 are entitled to child care, either in leisure-time centres or family day care. There are national curricula for all these forms of education. The State also provides free higher education in universities and university colleges. The overall responsibility for education in Sweden is borne by the central government, with almost all education under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and Science.
The nineties The main changes of the 1990s involve early childhood education, compulsory school and upper secondary school, but reforms of adult, as well as higher, education, including teacher education, have also been undertaken. The restructuring of the Swedish school system occurred in three stages: (1) increasing decentralization and deregulation; (2) revising educational goals and content; and (3) increasing the consistency of the legal, financial, ideological, and evaluation systems to respond to the earlier changes.
During the 1990s, preschool, compulsory school, and school child care have gradually become more closely associated. By 1995, municipalities became obligated to provide child care for all children ages 1-12. As of today, this applies to all children with special needs, or with parents who are working, studying or on parental leave; in addition, a free pre-school class has been established.
Students, age 20 or older, may attend adult education programs. These include basic and upper secondary adult education corresponding with the content of compulsory and upper secondary school, along with Swedish for immigrants. In addition, a new form of post-secondary school vocational education is in place, which complements institutions of higher education. The vocational courses normally last for two years and are characterized by their close contact with the workplace. In addition, a new adult education initiative seeks to reduce unemployment and the growing gap in levels of education. Sweden also has a long tradition of folk high schools and study circles organized by adult education associations, designed for a wide range of the population and covering a wide variety of subjects.
During the 1990s, there was a major expansion in higher education in institutions, programs, types of examinations, and students. 13
Additional financial incentives encourage students to attend upper secondary school and then university. For example, all students’ ages 16-20 attending upper secondary school receives state study assistance. Moreover, in addition to free university education, the students’ non-repayable portion of study assistance is higher than before. A new state study assistance program also facilitates attendance for unemployed persons, ages 25-55, in higher education or adult education. The number of students in higher education has increased by more than 60 % since 1990.
In the nineties Sweden implemented a cluster of reforms.
During the nineteen's has the following reforms been implemented:
• Changed political governing towards a decentralization; • A change agency structure with The National Agency for Education; • New national curricula and syllabi for goal- and result governing; • Changed marking system; • A three-year long program- and course based upper-secondary school; • An independent school system; • A program adult education; • Pre-school education with the educational sector; • A new school form for six-years old and a curriculum for the pre-school;
In the twenty-first century, Sweden spent 8 % of its gross national product (GNP, or 174 billion Swedish crowns (SEK30), on education. The costs increased by 18 % over a five-year period. Almost 40 % of the Swedish population is enrolled in either educational programs or working schools. In this context, the Swedish population is a prime example of what I have called the “Homo Pedagogicus”.31
30 1 € is between 9 – 10 SEK 31 Lundgren, U.P. (2002). ”Homo pedagogicus?” Framtider, 3, 4-10. 14
Educational quality is a central theme in discussions about education reform in Sweden and in assessments of the specific, implemented, reforms.32 The concern about quality has been translated (as it has in many other countries) to a focus on outcome measures, program monitoring, and program evaluation. Not surprisingly, the generation of statistics has increased in recent years, due to a rising interest on the part of politicians, the media, and the public, as well as participation in international studies. Municipalities and schools now are required to review their activities and present the results in a quality report. On the basis of these reports, the national government provides support to municipalities to help them achieve national goals. Rankings for lower and upper schools, and of universities, have become a more frequent phenomenon in recent years and during 2001, the national government constructed an extensive database, containing quantitative and qualitative data, which is now available on the Internet. In addition, national school inspectors monitor the quality of education for a range of special topics. While at least some of the Swedish educational reforms have been designed to decentralize and increase flexibility, central control also has been strengthened by the focus on outcome measures as a way to improve educational quality.
Sweden, however, is a more divided and polarized country today than it was 10-15 years ago, with respect to income, wealth, living conditions and housing segregation. Categories traditionally associated with exclusion, in Sweden as in other countries, are unemployment, low education and low income. In the 1990s, youth and ethnic background gradually got political attention and programs for supporting youth and students of various ethnic background to enter the labour market were implemented. Even though education has expanded significantly, societal divisions continue to be reflected in education and in some respects are enhanced. A rather large number of students cannot enter a national program at the upper secondary school, and many of those who enter do not complete their studies in upper secondary school or higher education. Also noticeable is the more frequent use of ability grouping in schools, as well as the decrease in special education within classes and the increased number of children attending special schools. Children from “marginalized” families are less likely to succeed in school; the new grading system makes this division between those who succeed and those who fail more visible than before. Moreover, a larger proportion attend special programs in upper secondary school and dropout rates are high; a relatively small proportion attends higher education at all and few of those can be found in high status programs. Differences between the educational choices of men and women are also increasing. During the last decade women tended to use education as a means to a career more frequently than men, doctoral studies expected. Today, it seems as social inclusion and exclusion are discussed more as a consequence of individual choice and action than as an expression of structural conditions
The restructuring of Swedish education provides a case study of policy change implemented by a welfare state in transition, with scarce finances, governing
32 Nytell, H. (2003). Kvalitetsvågen – några utsnitt i en dokumentstudie. (The quality wave – some parts of a document study. In Forsberg, E. : Skolan och tusenårsskiftet. En vänbok till Ulf p. Lundgren. (The School and the entrance at a new millennium. A book in honour of Ulf P. Lundgren). Studies in Educational Policy and Educational Philosophy: Research Reports, 2003:2. Uppsala: Uppsala Universitet. 135 144. 15 problems, and (at least in the perception of some of the population) a lack of legitimacy. It was hoped that decentralization, deregulation, and freedom of choice would increase democratic participation, efficiency, and professionalism. At the same time, however, greater control in the form of accountability for results occurred at every level of the education system and in fact contributed to renewed centralization. To complicate matters, the restructuring began during the economic recession of the 1990s. In short, the consequences of the changes for students and teachers, as well as for Swedish society as a whole, remain to be seen.
The educational policies during the first decade of the twenty-first century have focussed the delivery of educational outcomes. To some extent the consequences of 11th of September 2001 can symbolically and even actually be seen as triggering new forms of the forming of the controls. Sweden was no exception. The welfare state was under attack and accused as too costly and inefficient. The evaluative or controlling state was one response enhanced by the tragedy of the 11th. This is of course somewhat of an overstatement, but a way of pointing on a delicate change in where the emphasis in resource allocations is.
Since the beginning of the 1990s the Swedish administration of education at the national level has changed several times. Tasks like monitoring, inspection and development have interchangeable been managed by one, two or three agencies. In the early restructuring years the independency and accountability of the municipality level was stressed. Shortages in the school system, especially lacking abilities to handle school development and pore student performances, lead to a split of the agency. The controlling task was separated from the responsibility to support school improvement. In 2008 this was further changed. These two tasks were reunited at the same time as a new agency was formed. Now the monitoring function was divided. The national evaluations of the school system remain in the former agency. The task of examining the standards of quality and equivalence of schools, by inspection and supervision, is now dealt with by a new authority, the National Schools Inspectorate. The amount of money for inspection was at the same time doubled. In addition, the agency is responsible for authorisation and grants for independent schools.
The results from the PISA33 studies give Sweden a rather good position, but there is a tendency over time to a loss in position as well as a weakening in results even though it is not significant.34 The public discussion has, however, concentrated on crisis. Results from PISA have been mixed with earlier results from IEA studies (TIMSS and PIRLS)35 as well as results from national tests, evaluation and inspection reports. The Minister of education has used this criticism for advocating
33 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment): OECD (2007). PISA 2006: Science Competencies for Tomorrow’s World, Vol. 1. Paris: OECD. OECD (2007). PISA 2006: Science Competencies for Tomorrow’s World, Vol. 2 (datatabeller). Paris: OECD. Internationella studier under 40 år. Svenska resultat och erfarenheter (40 years of international studies. Swedish results and experiences). Stockholm: The National Agency for Education. 34 Åström, M.: Defining Integrated Science Education and Putting It to Test. Linköping: Department of Social and Welfare Studies, University of Linköping 35Studies in Science and Technology Education no 26. 2008. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA); Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS); Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). 16 change. The crisis of the Swedish educational system is a fact in the public discourse. Problems to enter the debate in for example national news paper have been problematic. Any objection and no nuance is allowed, which create democratic deficits.
The ways of handling this alleged crisis have been both to reinforce market solutions with independent schools and to control students’ performances earlier and more frequent and by tests, marks and inspection. The number of independent schools has increased in the comprehensive school and still more in the upper secondary school. There is an ongoing and stressed debate on this issue in relation to questions on equity. The enhanced control is in part considered a response to the equity problem, regarded as a first step to reduce the gender, ethnicity and class gap in students’ performances. There seems to be an ongoing increase of production and circulation of information on students’ performances and schools results.
Voices for a recentralisation of the educational system are raised and the government has launched a large programme for teacher in-service training and for the possibilities for teacher to have further education on master and doctorial level as well as a new special needs teacher education. However, the financial crisis create new limits for reforms, but seems also to strengthen the feeling of a welfare state in crisis and the need of a more competitive educational system.
In sum, the relative autonomy of the municipalities, schools and teachers are challenged in several ways. Simplification of and clearness in curricula objectives and state-governed intervention through visiting development activities and inspection are examples of the reduction of the scoop of action at the local level. Several of the reforms in being are pointing in the same direction.
Some final words It is, I admit, nearly on the border to improper narration of the educational history in Sweden I have presented. But time is a strong frame.
What I have tried to outline is the interplay between ideas and material conditions that has formed changes and developments of educational policies, programs, structures and curricula in Sweden. These changes have bee based on and formed ways of thinking and understanding of the meaning of education, the purpose and its power to change society and individual life patterns. I have in tried to describe and analyse this structures and patterns of thinking from the concept of a curriculum codes.36 The concept of curriculum code is to be understood as a concept about patterns of thinking that governs the activities that form politics of education as pedagogical practice. The concept is closed “styles of thinking” as it was used by Fleck. It was
36 Lundgren, U.P. (1979) Att organisera omvärlden. (To organize the world about us). Stockholm: Liber (5th edition), 1995. Lundgren, U. P.: Between Education and Schooling. Geelong: Deakin University Press. 1991. Lundgren, U. P.: Teoria del curriculum y escolirización. Madrid: Morata. 1992. 17 central for his epistemological works. 37 There are two central concepts he uses. On is “styles of thinking” which means patterns of and for thinking and I created and developed by negotiations among scientists within a specific area. The other is the social context of this speciality that is a form of “mental-collective”. Politics of education in term of how power over education is formed38 is exercised within a “mental-collective” and the patterns of thinking or “styles of thinking” that are developed within these collective. The idea of Fleck has further developed by Kuhn using the concept paradigm corresponding to “styles of thinking” and scientific community corresponding to “mental-collective”. 39
I use the concepts curriculum code and educational communities when analysing how “styles of thinking” or paradigm are developed within educational communities.
Sweden have for long time been an agrarian country. The curriculum code was a moral one and the educational community the church.
Industrialisation came late. But due to education and a high literacy level we have had a somewhat remarkable economic, social and cultural development where education has played a central role. A new realistic curriculum code was established with the modern society.
The shift of the direction of curricula towards science and modern language had an impact. The upper secondary school system (gymnasium) was also renewed by the influences from Humboldt. From the thirties and forward the special form of welfare society was formed in which education was given a central role to shape not only competence and human capital but also the democratic person. Equality and solidarity was key concepts. What was developed was a broader citizen curriculum code40 linked to the concept of “Folkhemmet” and thus the Welfare society.
A new code is today in its genesis. The educational community is a new one economically based on service production. In this new code individuality and individual choice are of importance in its turn motivated by an economic rationality.
Today the role of education is to stimulate economic growth and formation is what is measurable by assessment. Arguments against the existing order are difficult to
37 Fleck, L.(1935). Entstehung und Entwicklung einer wissenschaftlichen Tatsache: Einführung in die Lehre von Denkstil und Denkkollektiv. 38 Bernstein, B. & Lundgren, U. P. (1983). Makt, kontroll och pedagogik. (Power, Control and Pedagogy) Lund: Liber förlag. 39 Kuhn, T. (1970). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2nd edition). 40 Englund, T.( 1980) Medborgerlig läroplanskod : för folkskola, fortsättningsskola och grundskola 1918/19-? The curriculum code of citizens).Stockholm: Högskolan för lärarutbildning. Forskningsgruppen för läroplansteori och kulturreproduktion, Högskolan för lärarutbildning i Stockholm, Institutionen för pedagogik. Englund, T.(1986) Curriculum as a political problem : changing educational conceptions, with special reference to citizenship education. Lund : Studentlitteratur. Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksell International. 18 find a place and be accepted in the public discourse. Erik Gustav Geijer was found by medical authorities to have a soft brain when he argued for an education to all and a curriculum that included the new sciences and modern languages. That judgment is not used today, but not accepting the discourse within the educational community is difficult.