| 1. |
- Baek, Chanwoong, et al.
(författare)
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Understanding implicit reference societies in education policy
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of education policy. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0268-0939 .- 1464-5106. ; , s. 1-19
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study examines the reference societies of Norway and Sweden embedded in their education policy documents. We examined 4,260 bibliographic references in 19 white papers and green papers prepared for the 2016/2020 renewal of the Knowledge Promotion Reform in Norway and the 2015/2018 Knowledge Achievement Reform in Sweden. In addition, we interviewed 10 policy experts who participated in the preparation of the analyzed policy docu-ments. The results show that the reference societies overall reflect the existing knowledge production and dissemination mechanisms in education policy; however, they significantly differed between Norway and Sweden regarding whether and to what extent they reference knowledge produced in other Nordic countries. Specifically, while Norway drew extensively on knowledge from its neighbors, particularly Sweden, Sweden seldom referenced knowl-edge produced in other Nordic countries. Policy actors identified similarity, relevance, accessibility, reform contexts, and institutional arrangements as reasons for (not) referencing neighbors. This study calls for further consideration of the political, social, and cultural embeddedness of the ‘socio-logic’ to understand implicit reference societies.
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| 2. |
- Bunar, Nihad, et al.
(författare)
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'Not (yet) ready for the mainstream' - newly arrived migrant students in a separate educational program
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of education policy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0268-0939 .- 1464-5106. ; 37:6, s. 986-1008
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this article is to describe and analyze how school leaders as key actors in policy enactment understand, talk about and act in relation to Newly Arrived Migrant Students (NAMSs) enrolled in a separate Language Introduction Program in Sweden. Drawing on the work of Stephen J. Ball and colleagues, we argue that a particular discursive formation of NAMSs, operating within constrains of various contextual factors, has a decisive impact on how policy as text is interpreted and enacted. Discursively formulating NAMSs as having multiple challenges, beyond Swedish language and insufficient grades, introduces various barriers. Policy flexibility in combination with power disparities thus allows school leaders, framed within legitimacy of ‘rational explanations’ and ‘affirmative intentions’, to negotiate policy meanings which are not always working in the students’ best interests. Our empirically grounded and theoretically informed discussions showcase why there can be no inclusive education if NAMSs, during a protracted period, are physically, pedagogically and socially separated from mainstream structures. Consequently, and with the support in international research, we call for the overhaul of organizational approaches that allocate Newly Arrived Migrant Students to separate educational forms.
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| 3. |
- Freier, Ronny, et al.
(författare)
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Juridification and regulative failures. The complicated implementation of international law into national schools
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of education policy. - 0268-0939 .- 1464-5106. ; 39:1, s. 83-104
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper starts with the increasing discussions on juridification in education. Concerning theorizing on such processes, we examine the poor implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, CRPD (2008) in the school sector of Germany. The paper considers the reasons for this failed endeavor by analyzing the complex, multilevel relations between policy and law in different national and historical contexts. With this, aspects of juridification as a process in education policy can be illuminated. In this regard, we suggest crucial aspects regarding juridification in public education: a focus on regulative failures in juridification processes, juridification's contexts, the mandate for putting it into action, the allocation of resources, and finally, its objective and subjective rights dimensions, i.e. how an individual can claim rights within the machinery of public education.
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| 4. |
- Högberg, Björn, et al.
(författare)
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Consequences of school grading systems on adolescent health : evidence from a Swedish school reform
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of education policy. - : Routledge. - 0268-0939 .- 1464-5106. ; 36:1, s. 84-106
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Education reforms that entail increased emphasis on high-stakes testing, assessment and grading have spread across education systems in recent decades. Critics have argued that these policies could have consequences for stress, identity, self-esteem and the overall health of pupils. However, these potentially negative consequences have rarely been investigated in a systematic and rigorous way. In this study we use a major education reform in Sweden, which introduced grades and increased the use of testing for pupils in the 6th and 7th school year (aged 12 to 13 years), to study the consequences of grading and assessment for health outcomes. Using data from the Health Behaviours of School-Aged Children Survey, we find that the reform increased school-related stress and reduced the academic self-esteem of pupils in the 7th school year. This, in turn, had an indirect effect on psychosomatic symptoms and life satisfaction for these pupils. Moreover, the negative effects of the reform were generally stronger for girls, thereby widening the already troubling gender differences in health. We conclude that accountability reforms aimed at increased use of testing, assessment and grading can potentially have negative side effects on pupils’ health.
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| 5. |
- Jobér, Anna, 1975-
(författare)
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Private actors in policy processes. entrepreneurs, edupreneurs and policyneurs
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of education policy. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0268-0939 .- 1464-5106. ; 39:1, s. 20-39
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As the privatisation of the public sector has grown rapidly in Sweden in the last decade, private companies have become an imperative part of education. Private companies sell and deliver consultancy, hardware, software, services, etc. to schools and municipalities. This study examines a growing rate of activities from companies and businesses working within public sectors. It also examines consequences of cooperation between private and public actors. Findings show that multiple actors meet in different forms and with different functions, in multiple ways and with diverse agendas. What can be discerned is strong Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), where actors and networks are linked together, directly or indirectly, in fluid and flexible relations and partnerships. Private actors on educational markets not only becomes edupreneurs but policyneurs, a new concept introduced. As private actors engage in the policy making and the public sphere, a complex and disorganised landscape with new formations of strong actors emerge, entailing a number of consequences. One implication is the establishment of lobbyism in the Swedish educational landscape, with potentially negative consequences for democracy. One conclusion is that new formations of power dissolve the roles and functions of private and public actors within education, with implications on decision-making, transparency, and democracy.
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| 6. |
- Mellén, Johanna, 1983, et al.
(författare)
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Gender and choice: Differentiating options in Upper secondary STEM programmes.
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of education policy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0268-0939 .- 1464-5106.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The extensive reforms of Sweden’s education system during the last few decades have resulted in deregulation and individualization of schools. In upper secondary education, a distinct flexible course structure with multiple options was introduced in order to enhance school effectiveness and equity. This study departs in some of the previously outlined tensions in educational research between market interests and a ‘free choice discourse’ in relation to processes of differentiation. The purpose of this article is to investigate the ways gender patterns may be reproduced in relation to the emergence of multiple options and the re-organization of subject matters within Swedish upper secondary science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Our case addresses relations between discourses of choice and gender articulated in policy incentives, and large-scale enrolment patterns. Our results show how multiple options reproduce gender orders by 1) changing the system in accordance with a general market logic emphasizing ‘freedom of choice’, and 2) distinguishing predominantly gendered subject matters. Also, our results point to the importance of studying the STEM domain at a non-aggregated level to further understand the mechanisms behind gender gaps in STEM education.
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| 7. |
- Mincu, Monica, et al.
(författare)
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The governance of a school network and implications for initial teacher education
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of education policy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0268-0939 .- 1464-5106. ; 36:3, s. 436-453
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents a case study of a local school network in England that is well established as a provider of initial teacher education (ITE). School networks are now the favoured providers of ITE in England in a 'school-led' system. Our evidence comes from participant observation and interviews conducted over a five-month period (more than 400 h of data collection). We present evidence of the strategic intent and enactment of this programme. The policy of 'school-led' ITE has been directed by statements suggesting that governance will operate through local networks. However, we also observe the impact of hierarchical and market governance. We review this evidence in terms of interactions between hierarchies, markets and networks and use this review to reflect on the discourse that has driven policy and the discourse that has resisted this policy direction in England.
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| 8. |
- Mufic, Johanna, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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‘Lack of quality’ in Swedish adult education : a policy study
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of education policy. - : Routledge. - 0268-0939 .- 1464-5106. ; 37:2, s. 269-284
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article focuses on how ‘problems’ regarding quality in adult education are constituted as particular sorts of ‘problems’. The analysis takes its point of departure in a poststructural analytic strategy called ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’. The material analysed consists of various policy documents concerning contemporary Swedish adult education. The results indicate that the concept of quality is described as being deficient and failing to address perceived challenges in adult education, namely the ‘heterogenous student group’ and ‘varying pre-conditions for the organisation of education’. Thus, the concepts of flexibility and individualisation are introduced as a ‘solution’. But at the same time, it is suggested in policy that the implementation of them has failed. In effect, representatives of the municipal authority and principals are held responsible and the need for more strict regulations and increased accountability in order to implement flexibility and individualisation in the adult education system are stressed in policy. Finally, the analysis of the policy documents leads to questions about the consequences for both school personnel and the students enrolled in adult education as the quality of the education seems to be assessed in relation to goal attainment and throughflow of students.
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| 9. |
- Natasha Glassow, Leah
(författare)
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Inequitable teacher turnover and performance-based appraisal: a global trend?
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Education Policy. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0268-0939 .- 1464-5106. ; 39:2, s. 276-302
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Student performance data is increasingly used to monitor and evaluate teachers. This study examines whether the turnover intentions – if teachers would change schools given the chance – of teachers in socioeconomically disadvantaged classrooms are moderated by teacher appraisal practices based on student academic performance data at the school system-level. Three-level hierarchical modelling in 46 education systems is conducted based on the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) from 2018. Results show that the effect of classroom socioeconomic composition on teacher turnover intentions increases as a function of performance-based teacher appraisal. However, this is only true when the appraisal is conducted by external authorities, and not so when conducted by the school management team. The models are then re-run by school consequences of appraisal such as dismissal, financial bonuses, or sanctions, and then by teacher characteristics, including gender, experience, and teaching subject. Experienced teachers in socioeconomically disadvantaged classrooms are more likely to change schools in school systems with more performance data-based teacher appraisal. These results underscore the potential pitfalls of performance data-based accountability systems for students in socioeconomically disadvantaged educational settings.
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| 10. |
- Paulsrud, David
(författare)
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Resolving dilemmas : Swedish special educators and subject teachers' perspectives on their enactment of inclusive education
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of education policy. - : Routledge. - 0268-0939 .- 1464-5106. ; 39:2, s. 303-320
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article presents the findings from an interview study with 12 subject teachers and special educators in three Swedish lower secondary schools. The purpose of the study was to explore how school professionals perceive and respond to dilemmas related to inclusive education that require prioritizations between conflicting values, principles or goals. Through the use of conceptual tools and theoretical notions of policy enactment, the article sheds light on how such dilemmas can be played out in practice. Four different dilemmas were discerned in the analysis: special vs. general education settings, external control vs. professional freedom, curricular demands vs. students' needs and individual vs. group. The analysis illustrates how actors' perceptions and responses to dilemmas can be framed by policy demands in different ways, but also by contextual factors and the actors' roles and positions in their schools. In this way, the article provides a partly new understanding of such processes in relation to previous research. Moreover, it is argued in the article that the notion of dilemmas provides an educational dimension that can be an important addition in analyses of policy enactment.
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