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- Hanberger, Anders, 1953-, et al.
(author)
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Navigating the evaluation web : evaluation in Swedish local school governance
- 2016
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In: Education Inquiry. - : Co-Action Publishing. - 2000-4508. ; 7:3, s. 259-281
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores the use, functions and constitutive effects of evaluation systems in local school governance, and identifies how contextual factors affect various uses of evaluation in this context. This case study of three Swedish municipalities demonstrates that local evaluation systems are set up to effectively sustain local school governance and ensure compliance with the Education Act and other state demands. Local decision makers have learned to navigate the web of evaluations and developed response strategies to manage external evaluations and to take into account what can be useful and what cannot be overlooked in order to avoid sanctions. The study shows that in contexts with high issue polarisation, such as schooling, the use of evaluation differs between the political majority and opposition, and relates to how schools perform in national comparisons and school inspections. Responses to external evaluations follow the same pattern. Some key performance indicators from the National Agency of Education and the School Inspectorate affect local school governance in that they define what is important in education, and reinforce the norm that benchmarking is natural and worthwhile, indicating constitutive effects of national evaluation systems.
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- Hanberger, Anders, 1953-, et al.
(author)
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School evaluation in Sweden in a local perspective : a synthesis
- 2016
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In: Education Inquiry. - : Co-Action Publishing. - 2000-4508. ; 7:3, s. 349-371
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article synthesises the role of evaluation at the municipal, school, classroom and parental levels of governance, and discusses the results of the articles appearing in this special issue. The discussion concerns the role of evaluation in school governance, the value of evaluation for local school development, the constitutive effects of evaluation, what explains the present results, how knowledge produced by evaluation can be used, and methodological issues. The results indicate that evaluation systems legitimise and support governance by objectives and results, parental school choice, and accountability for fairness and performance. Evaluation systems emphasise measurable aspects of curricula and foster a performance-oriented school culture. The most important evaluations for improving teaching and schools are teachers' own evaluations. The article suggests two explanations for the actual roles of evaluation in local school governance. First, both the governance structure and applied governance model delimit and partly shape the role of evaluation at local governance levels. Second, how local school actors use their discretion and interpret their role in the education system, including how they respond to accountability pressure, explains how their roles are realised and the fact that actors at the same level of governance can develop partly different roles.
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- Lindgren, Lena, 1954, et al.
(author)
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Evaluation Systems in a Crowded Policy Space : Implications for Local School Governance
- 2016
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In: Education Inquiry. - : Taylor & Francis. - 2000-4508. ; 7:3, s. 237-258
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Evaluation systems of various types are an integral part of a country’s education policy space, within which they are supposed to have the basic functions of enhancing accountability and supporting school development. Here we argue that in a crowded policy space evaluation systems may interfere with each other in a way that can have unintended consequences and create new ‘policies by the way’ that are not the result of intentional policy decisions. To shed light on this argument, we examine five of approximately 30 evaluation systems operating in the Swedish education system. Our analysis examines a situation in which many evaluation systems are doing almost the same thing, i.e. collecting a similar and limited set of quantitative data, and addressing the same local governance actors with the primary goal of supporting school development in the same direction. By doing so, these evaluation systems could thus give rise to several unintended consequences, including a scaling down of the school law and curriculum, multiple accountability problems, increased administration and new intermediary job functions at the level of local education governance.
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- Montin, Stig, 1954, et al.
(author)
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The Institutionalization of Performance Scrutiny Regimes and Beyond: The Case of Education and Elderly Care in Sweden
- 2017
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In: Koprić I., Wollman H., Marcou G. (Eds.) Evaluating reforms of local public and social services in Europe. - Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave macmillan. - 9783319610900 ; , s. 97-114
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The chapter provides an overview of the institutionalisation of performance scrutiny regimes related to local government level in Sweden. The most important driving forces behind the development is analysed, and some effects with special focus on primary education and elderly care are highlighted. The intended effects can be observed, as well as a number of unintended effects such as less democratic control, de-professionalisation, and bureaucratisation, and even decreased trust. Some observed negative effects of performance scrutiny within education and elder care have recently been put on the central government’s agenda. However, it is an open question whether this new policy orientation will affect and change the performance scrutiny regime.
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