| 1. |
- Jeffrey B., Hall, et al.
(författare)
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Inspectors as information-seekers
- 2019. - 1
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Ingår i: Inspectors and enforcement at the front line of government. - Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan. - 9783030040581 - 9783030040574 ; , s. 35-58
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Just as in other forms of government and areas of society, the role of the inspector is adjusting to new expectations and shifting accountability mechanisms. Acting as 'street-level bureaucrats' and enforcers of the law, inspectors collaborate with and depend on others in their quest to assemble information from multiple, complex sources. Their work is characterized by discretionary power where inspectors are entrusted to enact policy that is based on the principle of best judgment in addition to the demands put forward by legal norms and regulations. In sum, this information-seeking activity is utilized to collectively produce various documents, such as inspection reports. Furthermore, information seeking is considered a vital step in the development of their knowledge in order to make qualified judgments. Using 'visible' maps, e.g. inspection frameworks, and 'invisible' maps, e.g. inspectors' professional experiences, to navigate and execute discretionary tasks, school inspectors sometimes struggle to develop an adequate knowledge base that makes sense of the 'inspectees' worlds'. Drawing on the concepts of visible and invisible maps, this chapter examines the information-seeking practices of school inspectors based on previous comprehensive research on supervision systems in Germany (Lower Saxony), Norway and Sweden. This chapter addresses the following key questions: What type of information do inspectors look for?, How and where do they look for information?, How do inspectors handle different kinds of information, e.g., statistics, documents, and interview, observation- and survey data, and how do they decide what information is credible and useful? By studying inspectors as information-seekers, and more closely, school inspectors, this chapter demonstrates how these representatives of the state incorporate multiple visible and invisible maps, and how they make sense of the schools they are mandated to scrutinize using limited resources.
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| 2. |
- Lindgren, Joakim, Dr, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Cultivating the juridified self? : Regulation, socialisation and new forms of work against degrading treatment in schools
- 2019
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Ingår i: NERA 2019 Abstract Book 2019-03-06. ; , s. 826-827
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A popular contemporary narrative asserts that Sweden has become “the society of easily offended victims” (Eberhard, 2009; see also Berensten, 2014; Dahlstrand, 2012; Heberlein, 2005; Zaremba, 2008). Official statistics show how defamation of character claims have increased dramatically over time (The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, 2018). Such observations relates to developments in the school system where the number of complaints regarding degrading treatment (DT) have also increased (The Swedish Schools Inspectorate, 2018). Overall, schools’ work against DT is framed by increasing awareness of the role of formal obligations, trials, evidence, damages, individual rights and childrens’ subjective experiences of being offended. Plans, preventions, expanding forms of investigations and documentation are enacted in order to provide guarantees that DT do not occur; that is, that students are not exposed to any behaviour that violates their “dignity” (The Swedish Education Act SFS 2010:800, §6).The increasing legal framing when it comes to schools’ work with problems of DT has been discussed in terms of juridification (Lindgren, Carlbaum, Hult & Segerholm, in press). The overall aim of this study is to explore how new judicial forms of work against DT in Swedish schools affect young people’s socialisation and identity. In a previous study, based on interviews with students, we could not confirm any radically new patterns of socialisation (Lindgren, Hult, Carlbaum & Segerholm, 2018). The present study then, is an attempt to validate these results by including the perspective of experienced school actors who have a different overview and relation to the issues at hand. We thus analyse interviews with both school actors and students from grade five and grade eight when reasoning about problems of DT and how such problems are understood and acted on in schools.Our theoretical framework establishes a direct link between juridification and socialisation through Habermas’ ideas on the colonisation of the lifeworld by the instrumental rationality of bureaucracies and market-forces (Habermas, 1987). Juridification thus describe how intuitive forms of everyday communication, norms and values becomes reified by legal logic (Habermas, 1987). Drawing on these ideas Honneth (2014) has offered examples of social pathologies that significantly impairs the ability to take part in important forms of social cooperation.We interviewed students, teachers, head teachers, school staff and responsible officials at the municipality level at five schools in two municipalities. Both students and school staff talk about the juridified significance of DT, that it is decided by the offended person, but have ambiguous ideas ofthe juridified way that the school handle incidents. Both school staff and students claim that the word DT (kränkning) mostly is used by students jokingly, e.g. when reprimanded. Students hesitate in informing teachers of incidents because it sets in motion disproportionate investigations, e.g. informing parents. Thus, students want the teachers to see and know of incidents, but not necessarily to act upon them according to formal standards. Overall, such preliminary results indicate that increasing regulation in school may cultivate juridified selves by stressing subjective feelings and formal investigations while muting dialogue.
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| 3. |
- Lindgren, Joakim, Dr, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Enacting a national reform interval in times of uncertainty : evaluation gluttony among the willing
- 2019
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Ingår i: The Governing-Evaluation-Knowledge Nexus. - Dortrecht : Springer. - 9783030211431 - 9783030211424 ; , s. 119-138
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter offers an empirical illustration of the governing-evaluation-knowledge nexus by pinpointing a particular situation, a pause between two national evaluation and quality assurance (EQA) reforms, while a new national system was being planned and prepared, but its final design was not yet decided upon. This situation – unusual in the Swedish higher education policy context – adds uncertainty to the situation and opens a potential space for policymakers and higher education institutions (HEIs) to navigate. We draw on interviews and documents collected from four HEIs during this reform interval. We analyse and discuss how the four institutions navigate, coordinate, mobilise, copy, and learn in a situation without a formal national EQA system in place but in which the wider higher education policy context is deeply infused with contemporary trends and international policies and ideas on quality assurance (QA). We found that context and institutional preconditions set their mark on the work undertaken during this interval. We also discerned tendencies of homogenisation and isomorphism. Finally, we highlight the tendency of further expansion of EQA activities.
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| 4. |
- Lindgren, Joakim, Dr, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation machinery, qualocrats and the seemingly inevitable problem of expansion
- 2019
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Ingår i: The Governing-Evaluation-Knowledge Nexus. - Dortrecht : Springer. - 9783030211431 - 9783030211424 ; , s. 181-199
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this chapter we initially discuss the relation between governing, evaluation, and knowledge. Then we go back to the ideal typical notion of increasingly institutionalised evaluation machinery and locate the important work of what we label as qualocrats and what may be termed the burden of judgements within this overall frame. We finally discuss the expansion and the increasing complexity of evaluation and quality assurance work in higher education and point to some possible implications and problems.
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| 5. |
- Lindgren, Joakim, Dr, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Hayek and the red tape : the politics of evaluation and quality assurance reform – from shortcut governing to policy rerouting
- 2019
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Ingår i: The Governing-Evaluation-Knowledge Nexus. - Dortrecht : Springer. - 9783030211431 - 9783030211424 ; , s. 83-101
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this chapter, we draw attention to the important political dimension of the governing-evaluation-knowledge nexus. The aim is to describe and analyse the processes leading up to the two most recent national evaluation and quality assurance (EQA) systems in operation from 2011 to 2014 and from 2016 onwards by analysing the formation of the respective EQA systems and the actors involved in these processes. The chapter outlines political justifications and ideological beliefs and highlights central shifts and continuities in these processes. We explore how formation of EQA systems can be understood within a wider context of the work of governing by contrasting the fast, competitive "shortcut governing" from the 2011–2014 EQA system with the more dialogue- and consensus-oriented process implying a "policy rerouting" later, as manifested in the process leading up to the 2016 EQA system. We also discuss quality assurance expansion in the context of higher education policymaking.
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| 6. |
- Lindgren, Joakim, Dr, 1971-, et al.
(författare)
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Relaunching national evaluation and quality assurance : governing by piloting
- 2019
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Ingår i: The Governing-Evaluation-Knowledge Nexus. - Dortrecht : Springer. - 9783030211431 - 9783030211424 ; , s. 157-180
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter seeks to explore and discuss enactments in the process of piloting a part of the 2016 national evaluation and quality assurance system, namely, the pilot of institutional reviews in which higher education institutions’ internal quality assurance systems were evaluated by the Swedish Higher Education Authority. The chapter analyses the work and experiences of the different actors that took part in these processes. It shows that the pilot includes extensive work that links people, places, policies, practices, and power in particular ways and that numerous translations are made at different stages and by different actors. The results highlight the amount and forms of work done in these processes in general and in particular by actors who we have labelled “qualocrats”. Their embodied form of expertise is mobilised as they move between and across different domains to enact and promote certain knowledge in and of evaluation and quality assurance. The chapter finally suggests that the deliberate temporal design as a pilot study opened up for mutual adjustments, learning, and dialogue but also gave rise to contradictory anticipatory governing signals.
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| 7. |
- Rönnberg, Linda, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Education governance in times of marketization : The quiet Swedish revolution
- 2019
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Ingår i: Handbuch Educational Governance Theorien. - Wiesbaden : Springer. - 9783658222369 - 9783658222376 ; , s. 711-727
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this chapter, we focus on how education governance can be conceptualized and understood in a context of far-reaching marketization and privatization. We address the challenges and limitations of (political) education governance in times of educational marketization. We argue that the Swedish case is a good starting point for such analytical exploration, since Sweden has experienced quite a far-reaching transformation in this regard, from a strongly centralist and state-led education system to a dispersed, multi-actor and marketized education system, which may be of relevance and importance for additional theorizing in this area. We show that few current political and societal challenges to the dominant policy trajectory exist and that both social democratic and non-socialist governments follow an entrenched policy path, governing largely by preservation and restoration. We argue for the need to critically discuss and unpack the complexities of governing education in a policy context in which market forces have entered, and fundamentally are affecting, education in all policy stages.
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| 8. |
- Segerholm, Christina, et al.
(författare)
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Governing by Evaluation : Setting the scene
- 2019
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Ingår i: The Governing-Evaluation-Knowledge Nexus. - Dortrecht : Springer. - 9783030211431 - 9783030211424 ; , s. 1-23
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This introductory chapter starts by outlining the aim of the book: to analyse and discuss the interplay between governing, evaluation and knowledge with an empirical focus on Swedish higher education. It then goes on to locate this aim and the intended contribution within the wider research context and in previous studies. The chapter also highlights some important national traits of the Swedish case and Swedish higher education policy development, before presenting the overall conceptual frame employed in the book and the project it builds on. Finally, an outline of the forthcoming chapters is provided.
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| 9. |
- Segerholm, Christina, et al.
(författare)
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National evaluation systems
- 2019
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Ingår i: The Governing-Evaluation-Knowledge Nexus. - Dordrecht : Springer. - 9783030211424 - 9783030211431 ; , s. 25-42
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The national reform context for evaluation and quality assurance (EQA) in Swedish higher education along with the designs of the different national EQA systems during 1995–2014 is described and analysed in this chapter. This historical account establishes the background for the coming chapters in the book. Our aim is to scrutinise the relationship between the EQA systems and governing. We used government bills, official reports, research reports, articles, and books to describe and analyse the different policy contexts and EQA systems. In the analysis, we observe shifts and continuities as institutional reproduction and change. In this chapter, we also discuss governing in terms of the different expectations raised by the national EQA systems and liken the historical expansion of the systems to an evaluation machinery.
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| 10. |
- Segerholm, Christina, et al.
(författare)
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The Swedish Evaluation Machinery in Higher Education : Expansion, operation and complexity
- 2019
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Contribution: Evaluation and quality assurance (EQA) policy and practice in higher education (HE) has expanded during the last decades. It picked up speed after the Bologna agreement, and today 27 countries are members of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA). This organization promotes and disseminates EQA policy and practice through publications, workshops and meetings, etc. (ENQA n.d.). In Sweden, national EQA systems have been Implemented since the 1990s, and the most recent system has been particularly influenced by the European EQA policy.In this presentation, our aim is to analyse the different national EQA systems in Sweden from 1995 until today. We are particularly interested in the relations between governing, evaluation and knowledge and our ambition is to pinpoint the particularity of evaluation in HE as a social practice that makes knowledge work for governing. We ask: What are the main characteristics of these systems? What is the European policy influence? How do the systems operate as modes of governing, by whom, and what types of knowledge do they require?Drawing on Dahler-Larsen's metaphore "evaluation machine" (2012), we portray the Swedish systems as the development of an institutionalized evaluation machinery. We explore the evaluation machinery from a governing perspective by describing its automated technologies. We also highlight the work required to run the machinery, by highlighting its operators, who we have termed qualocrats (Lindgren, Rönnberg, Hult & Segerholm forthcoming). In understanding the quoalocrats and their EQA work, we draw on discussions on different forms of knowledge (Freeman & Sturdy 2014) and observe the “the burden of judgements” (Molander 2011) that are inevitably linked to these processes.Theoretically, governing is conceptualised as a verb, as a way to emphasise the actual work that is done of and in evaluative practices. We see governing as activities composed of assemblages of places, people, policies, practices and power (Clarke 2015). In particular, we emphasize the "complexity, contestation and translation of governing practices” (Clarke 2015, p. 12-13). We also draw on the work of Freeman and Sturdy (2014), who conceptualise knowledge as embodied; for example, through tacit and verbal experience, inscribed in different forms of texts and artefacts, and enacted, via what is actually done or carried out. We identify and describe forms and movements of knowledge that are manifested, incorporated and transformed in governing by evaluation as a social practice encompassing several arenas and groups of actors.Method: This paper synthetises several sub-studies from the research project Governing by Evaluation in Higher Education, financed by the Swedish Research Council (2012-2018). The analysis draws on a range of different materials. We used public reports, including for instance Government Bills as well as material from the Swedish Higher Education Authority (SHEA) and ENQA reports, for the analysis of the national systems characteristics and the European influence. We also carried out six case studies of HE institutions. These studies include interviews with employees at different levels of the HEIs who have different functions in relation to EQA. Local documents were also collected and analysed. These case studies contributed to our understanding of the European influence as well as the details in the evaluation processes, and on the types of knowledge that is activated and needed in the evaluation processes. Interviews with ten top-level administrative and organisational staff, called national policy brokers, were also included in our analysis of system design and European influence. Furthermore, we interviewed staff at the SHEA to get detailed information about the evaluation processes from the Agency's point of view. Altogether during the six sub-studies we performed approximately 100 interviews and analysed an enormous number of documents.Expected Outcomes: Our analysis of the Swedish case displays a general expansion of EQA within and between the different national systems, making the “machinery” analogy particularly useful. Automated technologies such as visibility, comparability, standardisation and economic incentives have been embedded in the machinery over time, but we also show how embodiment is crucial for the construction and operation of the machinery. The analysis underscore how evaluation in HE includes extensive work when it comes to preparing, making, receiving and acting on judgements on the quality of intangible phenomena such as processes, responsibilities, routines, competences, relations, and support. A comprehensive evaluation machinery, like the contemporary Swedish one, requires many activities and operators and we draw attention to a particular group of “specialists”, the qualocrats, who are embodying particular forms of EQA knowledge that are crucial to carrying out the activities tied to the machinery. We argue that evaluation constitute a certain form of epistemic governing that presupposes, uses and produces certain forms of knowledge about a present condition that is extrapolated into a desired future. In this sense, there is a utopian dimension in which evaluation is used to generate, promote and mediate certain forms of knowledge to pledge (constant) change in ways that fits well with contemporary governing ambitions. High level of formalisation in Swedish EQA, in the forms of the detailed frameworks and guidelines that are intended to increase homogeneity and comparability, requires substantial human interpretation and translation in processes of enactment. Finally, our findings on the increased complexity in the construction and operation of the evaluation machinery is discussed by drawing on Tainter's (1988) ideas on organisational complexity. We discuss the expansion and increasing complexity of EQA work in higher education and point to some possible implications and problematisations.
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