The Swedish School market, Space and School Premises.

• During the last decades Sweden has undergone a remarkable change from having a highly state-regulated school system to developing one of the most liberal and deregulated systems in the world. Not least, the transformation is apparent in the education sector, where reforms such as the implementation of free school choice, a generous voucher system and publically funded free-schools have paved the way for a highly competitive school market (Erixon Arreman & Holm, 2011a, 2011b). These have often been referred to as policies for ‘edu-busi¬ness’ (Ball 2007, p. 67). The development is particularly apparent at the upper secondary school level, where a “boom” of new independent schools, so called free-schools has occurred. During the school year 2012/13, more than one fourth (26%) of all upper secondary education students attended free-schools. The role of education within society has always been important but the function of the school architecture in that process is less obvious. Cold (2002b) points out that the school building or rather school facilities is more than a school. However, according to Björklid (2005), the physical environment is scarcely regulated in the Swedish Education Act, curricula and other ordinances. The aim of this paper is to shed light on how the school architecture is redesigned to match the overall school reorganisation within the ‘boom’ of new independent schools. A comparison with the former conventional architecture is also made. In the current paper, we discuss the educational environment in terms of (i) locations, (ii) common areas such as assembly halls and canteens (iii) premises as classrooms and (iv) external recreation spaces and surroundings. The data of the paper is assembled in Bay City by means of observations and interviews at open houses and upper secondary fairs. In addition text-analysis were carried out by reading upper secondary schools’ different marketing materials with focus on their descriptions of their premises. Our first tentative findings show a wide difference between the locations and the architecture among the schools. A conspicuous pattern is that a large number of independent schools use premises that are not built for education, such as former offices etc. The architecture allows certain kinds of pedagogical activities. The lack of access to common areas has reduced in-school opportunities for physical activity and healthful eating in favour of fast-food restaurants.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

school-market

space

competition

inclusion

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)