Kunskapssamhällets excellenssatsningar – Försök och tystnader i tysk och svensk utbildningsvetenskap

• Although different forms of excellence initiatives have become a part of the Swedish educational landscape, educational research on this trend is rare in Sweden. The present article examines this silence by contrasting it against edu- cational elite research from Germany. Departing from Michel Foucault's con- cept of critique I examine the knowledge and unspoken truths that these re- search fields are based on and identify some of their omissions. While excel- lence initiatives are conceptualized as forms of segregation in the Swedish ex- ample, the German example examines excellence as the result of selection processes. In both cases excellence initiatives are problematized as an effect of the so-called knowledge society, but in two different ways. The Swedish exam- ple criticizes a social climate in which knowledge has become a competitive factor, displacing the idea of A School for All. The German example questions whether knowledge really determines success in the ”knowledge-based” socie- ty and emphasizes meritocracy as a goal that remains to be fulfilled. The pur- pose of this article is not to highlight one of these examples as more appropri- ate as every presentation of a superior position would entail new categorical boundaries. The critique presented here is limited to revealing two ways of researching excellence initiatives.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

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

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Filosofi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- Philosophy (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

elite

excellens initiative

critique

segregation

selection

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)