scholarly journals ‘Post-truth’ schooling and marketized education: explaining the decline in Sweden's school quality

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 897-914 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Henrekson ◽  
Johan Wennström
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructivism ◽  
School System ◽  
School Quality ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Grade Inflation ◽  
Small Extent ◽  
School Reforms ◽  
Child Centered ◽  
Constructivist Practices ◽  
Swedish School

AbstractThe Swedish school system suffers from profound problems with teacher recruitment and retention, knowledge decline, and grade inflation. Absenteeism is high, and psychiatric disorders have risen sharply among Swedish pupils. In this pioneering analysis of the consequences of combining institutionalized social constructivism with an extensive marketization of education, we suggest that these problems are to no small extent a result of an unlikely combination of a postmodern view of truth and knowledge, the ensuing pedagogy of child-centered discovery, and market principles. We show how the stipulated view of truth and knowledge and the design of the system impacts on the incentives for the various agents involved: pupils, parents, teachers, principals, school owners, the municipality, the central government, and, ultimately, the general public. Our study implies that caution is necessary for countries that have a tradition of social-constructivist practices in their education systems and are considering implementing or expanding market-based school reforms.

scholarly journals Swedish School Reforms and Teacher Professionalism

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margareta Nilsson Lindström
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
School System ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Teacher Professionalism ◽  
School Reforms ◽  
Academic Training ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Teachers Attitudes ◽  
And Control ◽  
Swedish School

The education policy of the last few decades has significantly changed the Swedish school system. Municipalization and deregulation reforms were implemented in parallel with an internationally prescribed professionalization of teachers. This seemingly contradictory combination has reshaped not only teachers’ attitudes and actions but also those of principals and students as managers and consumers. In light of these changes, the professionalization of teachers and the strategic importance of a teacher-specific knowledge base, multi-year academic training, certification and career steps are analysed. Based on Freidson's three competing work organization and control logics, this article focuses on how the mix of logics has changed at the expense of professionalism in favour of bureaucracy and the market. The professionalization reforms have in some respects benefited teachers, especially with regard to their positions in the labour market. In other respects, the actions of managers and consumers have resulted in restrictions on teachers' autonomy as professionals.  

scholarly journals From Teacher Improvement to Teacher Turnover: Unintended Consequences of School Reform in Quincy, Massachusetts, 1872–1893

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Jeremy T. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
School Reform ◽  
School System ◽  
Teacher Turnover ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
School Reforms ◽  
Teacher Improvement ◽  
Teacher Labor Market ◽  
Child Centered

Abstract The “Quincy Method” is widely considered a successful nineteenth-century school reform. Pioneered by Francis Parker in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1875, it fostered broad pedagogic change in an ordinary school system, transforming Quincy into a renowned hub of child-centered instruction. This article revisits the reform and explores its interaction with the Massachusetts teacher labor market. In a market characterized by low wages and an oversupply of teachers but few experienced, well-trained ones, teachers used Quincy's reform to obtain higher-paying, higher-status positions while municipalities used it to recruit competent applicants. Both practices jeopardized Quincy's cohesive system. Though the ensuing turnover may have brought progressive pedagogies to the mainstream, departing teachers frequently assumed positions outside public schools or in systems ill-structured to maintain their expertise. Accordingly, the article probes a celebrated reform's unintended consequences and contributes to scholarship on nineteenth-century progressive school reforms and women teachers.

scholarly journals Governance of Swedish school mathematics — where and how did it happen? A study of different modes of governance in Swedish school mathematics, 1910-1980

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Johan Prytz
Keyword(s):  
School System ◽  
School Mathematics ◽  
Drivers Of Change ◽  
Teaching Literature ◽  
Short Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Modes Of Governance ◽  
Swedish School

The aim of this paper is to revise a standard narrative about governance of the Swedish school system in the period of 1910-1908. According to this narrative, the Swedish school system was centralized during this period. However, this narrative does not fit the history of Swedish mathematics education (years 7-9). The research questions are: where in the school system was change initiated and how was change enforced? On the basis of studies of syllabi, textbooks, teaching literature, teacher journals and reports from investigations and development projects, different modes of governance of school mathematics are identified. The main results are that textbook producers rather than national syllabi and exams were drivers of change in the period 1910-1960. Moreover, the centralized attempts to change school mathematics, prepared in the 1960s, were soon abandoned in the early 1970s. Thus, centralized governance of Swedish school mathematics, with the ambition to achieve change, was something that took effect relatively late and during a very short period of time.

How to Create Sustainable Nonviolence Curriculum in Public Schools in Sweden

2021 ◽  
pp. 743-762
Author(s):  
Giuseppina Wright
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public School ◽  
School System ◽  
Public School Systems ◽  
School Settings ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Swedish School ◽  
And Training

Author argues the urgent need for nonviolence training and the contemporary challenges of implementing such plans. Furthermore, chapter briefly discusses the eruptions of violence and experienced in Europe, along with innovative ways to educate all stakeholders. In addition, the chapter includes a case study of a Swedish school, with research of contemporary nonviolence training and curriculum. The chapter will benefit a variety of entities and organizations, such as educators in public school systems and governmental organizations. Findings suggest a growing concern amongst educators, students and parents due to escalating threats and acts of violence in school settings. Moreover, findings indicate partial integration of sustainable nonviolence curriculum into some Swedish schools. Author proposes to integrate and implement nonviolence training into the Swedish public school system as nationally mandated integrated subjects. Further research suggests additional research conducted to measure qualitative and quantitative results nonviolence curriculum and training.

scholarly journals Between-School Ability Tracking and Ethnic Segregation in Secondary Schooling

Social Forces ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanno Kruse
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
School System ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
Unique Feature ◽  
School Reforms ◽  
School Systems ◽  
Ethnic Segregation ◽  
Secondary Schooling ◽  
Spatial Sorting ◽  
Prior Achievement

Abstract Between-school ability tracking—the assignment of students to different school types based on their prior achievement—is usually associated with increased ethnic segregation across schools. This article argues that stronger between-school ability tracking is not only associated with stronger ethnic sorting into school types, thus increasing segregation. At the same time, it hampers majority flight, majority members’ avoidance of exposure to minority members, thus decreasing segregation. To identify the two-fold effect of tracking the article exploits a unique feature of the German secondary school system: regional variation in the strength of between-school ability tracking. Analyses rely on administrative data entailing geocoded information on all secondary schools in Germany in 2008/2009. Results corroborate expectations of a two-fold effect: there is indication that between-school ability tracking increases segregation via more sorting into tracks while at the same time decreasing it via less school sorting within each track and via less spatial sorting. This suggests that school reforms changing tracked school systems into more comprehensive school systems may have a weaker desegregating impact than expected.

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