| 1. |
- Alexiadou, Nafsika, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Learning, unlearning and redefining teachers’ agency in international private education : a Swedish education company operating in India
- 2023
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Ingår i: Educational review (Birmingham). - : Routledge. - 0013-1911 .- 1465-3397.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Private international education is on the rise, but we still have limited knowledge on how different commercial actors operate in this field and how it affects local teachers and their work in the schools abroad. Swedish school companies have been active in exporting schooling in the international arena, including “Swedish” education models. In this article, we examine one company and their operations in India. We explore the interpretations of the company education model by teachers in the Indian schools, and how this affects their professional capacity. Mixed qualitative methods of interviews, on-site school visits and documentary reviews, were used to examine the possibilities for teachers to exercise professional agency within their working environment. Our findings show that teachers operate within a highly structured pedagogical environment characterised by a given curriculum, a centralised learning platform and training programme, and a set of dominant discourses around values and teaching practices. Teachers are expected to embrace a new professional identity in a process of discarding past experiences and adopting the new professional language given by the company's particular education model. In willingly embracing the company discourses and expectations, teachers’ agency tends to be constrained.
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| 2. |
- Alexiadou, Nafsika, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Preparing Education Students for an International Future? : Connecting Students' Experience to Institutional Contexts
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Studies in International Education. - : Sage Publications. - 1028-3153 .- 1552-7808. ; 25:4, s. 443-460
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article focuses on "internationalization at home" (IaH) for education students in Swedish Universities and its significance for their professional formation and future practice. We draw on research in two large institutions and explore the perceptions and experiences of internationalization of home students in education. We find that while the "intercultural" understanding of students is well developed, the international and intercultural dimensions of experiencing IaH are limited, due to several institutional and learning environment contexts. This has consequences for the social dimensions of future teaching practice. In addition, the perception of the discipline as "national" is significant in shaping the outlook of students toward international questions and their own future personal and professional mobility. We contextualize these findings using documentary analysis and staff interviews, and argue that to achieve intercultural and international learning environments of quality, social relevance, and long-term social benefit, we need to rethink how internationalization perspectives are integrated in teacher education courses.
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| 3. |
- Alexiadou, Nafsika, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Reading the internationalisation imperative in higher education institutions : external contexts and internal positionings
- 2023
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Ingår i: Higher Education Policy. - : Springer. - 0952-8733 .- 1740-3863. ; 36:2, s. 351-369
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sweden has actively pursued internationalisation policies at national level, in parallel to the pursuit of internationalisation strategies of individual universities. Thisarticle focuses on university responses towards internationalisation, and the inter -play between external higher education environments and institutional positioning.We draw on empirical qualitative research in two of Sweden’s largest universities, toexamine institutional responses to internationalisation, expressed through documen-tary material and interviews with 32 senior leaders. Our findings suggest that theglobal research environment acts as a strong discursive driver for internationalisa-tion actions, manifested in the strategic partnerships pursued by the two institutions.An equally powerful driver, is the national higher education sector as a context ofconstant comparisons and competition but also as a source of collaborative learningand exchange. The two universities exhibit strategic autonomy in their reading ofthe internationalisation imperative, and in constructing their actions and responses,although these are significantly framed by size and geography. In the Swedish highereducation landscape, these two dimensions constitute a constraining physical anddiscursive context, underpinning the links between a global, internationalised envi-ronment, and the universities’ self-image and positioning.
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| 4. |
- Alexiadou, Nafsika, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Through the eyes of the disciplines : Student perspectives and positionings towards internationalisation-at-home
- 2024
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Ingår i: European Journal of Higher Education. - : Routledge. - 2156-8235 .- 2156-8243. ; 14:2, s. 249-266
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Debates around internationalisation-at-home (IaH) focus on the benefits accrued to students from the integration of internationalisation dimensions in their studies, curricular developments and interactions with international students, but, with scant attention to how these vary in different subject areas. In this article, we focus on the disciplinary experiences and framings of internationalisation from the perspectives of students in two Swedish universities. Drawing on 67 interviews with students sampled across different subject areas, we examine how the disciplinary definitions of study objects and pedagogic approaches filter the students’ experiences and shape their views around IaH, and their ambitions for the future. Our findings suggest first, a discipline-specific set of positionings regarding the nature of subject areas as lenses through which internationalisation is understood. Second, the students hold strong views around the contribution of IaH in strengthening the disciplines themselves. In addition, the student voices paint a dynamic picture of internationalisation positions, not always consistent with disciplinary stereotypes.
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| 5. |
- Alexiadou, Nafsika, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Transcending borders in higher education : Internationalisation policies in Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: European Educational Research Journal. - : Sage Publications. - 1474-9041. ; 21:3, s. 504-519
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article examines the national and European policy contexts that shaped the Swedish internationalisation agenda in higher education since 2000, the policy ideas that were mobilised to promote it, and the national priorities that steered higher education debates. The analysis highlights how domestic and European policy priorities, as well as discourses around increasing global economic reach and building solidarity across the world, have produced an internationalisation strategy that is distinctly ‘national’. Drawing on the analysis of the most recent internationalisation strategies we argue that the particular Swedish approach to internationalisation has its ideational foundations in viewing higher education as a political instrument to promote social mobility and justice, as well as a means to develop economic competitiveness and employability capacity. In addition, internationalisation has been used to legitimise national reform goals, but also as a policy objective on its own with the ambition to position Sweden as a competitive knowledge nation in a global context.
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| 6. |
- Carlbaum, Sara, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Organizing local preschool markets in sweden : municipalities as key actors
- 2022
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Today, one out of five Swedish children attend a privately operated preschool. Even if there are national policies targeting for instance parental choice and right for private actors to provide pre-primary education, municipalities in Sweden have extensive local autonomy in organizing and governing their ‘local preschool markets’ or, rather, quasi markets. As Brunsson and Jutterström (2018 p. 8) put it; “markets are formed by processes of organization. They are the objects of decisions. There are people and organizations that decide not only on their own actions in markets, but also on the actions of others”. Swedish municipalities are such key organizations that create market infrastructures via market shaping activities (c.f. Flaig et al 2021) including for instance to facilitate, support and police the market actors. The aim of this paper is to explore the different ways in which Swedish municipalities create their local preschool markets to analyse how they act as market organizers in the pre-primary education setting. We do this through analysing documents, websites and interviews with municipal officers from 30 municipalities characterized as having either a large (N=10), medium (N=10) or small (N=10) private pre-primary sector. Theoretically, we turn to literature on organizations, governing and public-private relations.Our preliminary findings show that there are large variations on how municipalities act as local preschool market organizers and the paper elaborates three (ideal typical) modes: Endorsers are municipalities that actively promote, support and sponsor market actors. Frontiers denotes municipal territories that are unattractive or not yet fully explored by private preschool actors. Keepers are municipalities that strive to maintain balance or status quo between public and private providers, using various strategies and tools to this end. In sum, this paper seeks to contribute to the discussion on how public actors work to organize, enable or limit, private actor involvement.
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| 7. |
- Carlbaum, Sara, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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The local market makers : Swedish municipalities as preschool quasi-market organisers
- 2024
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Ingår i: Education Inquiry. - : Routledge. - 2000-4508. ; 15:1, s. 63-84
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- National policies aiming at marketisation and privatisation in welfare sectors such as Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) require governance and organisation to be realised. In Sweden, the municipalities are key but largely under-researched organisers for preschool quasi-market infrastructures. This study explores the different ways in which Swedish municipalities act as quasi-market organisers in the preschool setting. Following organisational theory, we analyse their market shaping activities in translating national regulations in efforts to influence, support and control their local preschool quasi-market. Documents, websites, and interviews with public officials from 30 municipalities characterised as having either a large (N = 10), medium (N = 10), or small (N = 10) private ECEC sector are analysed. The analysis highlights large variations on how municipalities act as market makers, which is further discussed in the form of three ideal types: the Frontier, the Keeper, and the Endorser. We conclude that municipalities' varying and hybridised market shaping activities and local characteristics are important to understand the implications that emerge in terms of different rules of the game, stakeholder interdependencies and relationships, composition of market actors etc. Attentiveness to the sub-national/local actors are essential in understanding different welfare quasi-markets within national policy frameworks of marketisation and privatisation.
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| 8. |
- Carlbaum, Sara, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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Transforming Nordic early childhood education and care in times of marketisation, privatisation and commercialisation
- 2024
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Ingår i: Education Inquiry. - : Routledge. - 2000-4508. ; 15:1, s. 1-10
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This special issue focuses on important facets of market-oriented reforms in Nordic Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). It aims to promote discussion on interlinked dimensions of marketisation, privatisation and commercialisation in Nordic ECEC and their manifestations in policy, practice and outcomes. With contributions from authors in five Nordic countries, the articles in the special issue offer accounts of marketisation, including the organisation of ECEC quasi-markets and shifts in the use and function of parental choice. The articles also analyse privatisation by researching the delivery of private services and the nature of the non-state providers within early childhood education markets. Finally, the theme of commercialisation is addressed through research on the commodification of preschool knowledge within Nordic countries but also its export in the global education industry. This special issue highlight how a variety of market-oriented policies, parental choice and private actor involvement are evolving. Taken together, the articles illustrate connections and mutually-reinforcing mechanisms of policy and practice that contribute to the expansion of marketisation, privatisation, and commercialisation in Nordic ECEC. This special issue provides a call to continue exploration of how these processes and actors contribute to the transformation of ECEC in the Nordic countries and elsewhere.
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| 9. |
- Carlbaum, Sara, 1981-, et al.
(författare)
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"We help Germany create greater equality" : logics and rationales in exporting 'Scandinavian' early childhood education and care
- 2024
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Ingår i: Education Inquiry. - : Routledge. - 2000-4508. ; 15:1, s. 11-29
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study targets hitherto largely understudied empirical processes and activities through which certain ideas and imaginaries are being commercialised and used by corporate actors in the global Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) industry. The aim is to analyse and critically discuss representations of the Scandinavian ECEC regime in the context of ECEC export. This is achieved empirically through a case study of a Swedish education company and its expansion in Germany, as well as by devoting analytical attention to the social, political and fantasmatic logics in the processes that constitute and characterise the "Scandinavian ECEC offer" as it is being exported. The analysis draws on corporate documents, websites and interviews with top-level company representatives. The analysis highlights how the Scandinavian ECEC regime is made up of four interlinked elements; equality, the autonomous child, integration of care and learning and outdoor pedagogy, aligned and sustained by "gripping" and "sticking" forces in fantasmatic logics that hide contingencies. In summary, the powerful imaginary of the Scandinavian ECEC regime, bringing accessibility, social justice, gender equality, nature, democracy, children's rights and autonomy, serves to conceal the political and ideological dimension of the economic logic of capitalism.
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| 10. |
- Cone, Lucas, et al.
(författare)
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Pandemic Acceleration: Covid-19 and the emergency digitalization of European education
- 2022
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Ingår i: European Educational Research Journal. - : SAGE Publications. - 1474-9041. ; 21:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With schools and universities closing across Europe, the Covid-19 lockdown left actors in the field of education battling with the unprecedented challenge of finding a meaningful way to keep the wheels of education turning online. The sudden need for digital solutions across the field of education resulted in the emergence of a variety of digital networks and collaborative online platforms. In this joint article from scholars around Europe, we explore the Covid-19 lockdowns of physical education across the European region, and the different processes of emergency digitalization that followed in their wake. Spanning perspectives from Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the Nordic countries, the article’s five cases provide a glimpse of how these processes have at the same time accelerated and consolidated the involvement of various commercial and non-commercial actors in public education infrastructures. By gathering documentation, registering dynamics, and making intimations of the crisis as it unfolded, the aim of the joint paper is to provide an opportunity for considering the implications of these accelerations and consolidations for the heterogeneous futures of European education.
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