The organizing of "different educational needs" and "clear educational routes" for students not eligible for national programs. Analysis of varieties in Swedish upper secondary education.

• Since the early 1990s, Swedish upper secondary education has been organized in three-year national programs, with eligibility requirements from compulsory school. Students who did not fulfill these requirements attended the so-called Individual program. The program had several objectives, and included a myriad of educational arrangements and local ‘packages’ for students who for various reasons did not attend a national program. As formulated by Skott (2007) the Individual program was a concrete answer to the differentiation question concerning the upper secondary school. In 2011, a major reform of upper secondary education was launched – GY2011, including a restructuring of education for students without qualification for national programs into five introductory programs: “The introductory programmes should give students who are not eligible for a national programme an individually adapted education, which satisfies students’ different educational needs and provides clear educational routes. The introductory programmes should lead to establishment on the labour market and provide as good a foundation as possible for further education” (The National Agency for Education, 2012, p. 30). The research presented in this paper is based on a project financed by the Swedish Research Council, in which we have studied the organizing of the Individual program and followed the process of the re-organizing into the five programs of today. Theoretical framework has been organization theory as outlined by Czarniawska (2004, 2008) as a theory of action nets. This approach has methodological implications and our studies have been conducted as field studies. Although the national ambition of “clear educational routes” with the Introductory programs, the allocation of economical resources is not defined, but is up to the municipalities to decide upon. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze how the allocation of economical resources together with labeling of students have become a prominent part of the local administration of the Introductory programs. Our results show local variation, and we identify different principles for ‘labeling’. This is of import as students in Introductory programs cannot attend education outside the municipality and the questions of individual needs and clear educational routes are handled very differently by the municipalities.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

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

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