This article employs Social Representations Theory as a theoretical instrument to analyse the right of children to an equitable education. It analyses how social representations of students and students’ performances can be used by political actors as an interpretation system to manage contradictions in the equity education policies implemented in Sweden. A textual analysis of website propaganda of eight political parties produced for the Swedish electoral campaign in 2010 is used as research methodology. It is suggested that social representations of students and student performance in the Swedish 2010 electoral campaign function as an interpretation system that enables political parties to deal with the contradiction between the goal of equitable education for all children and the goal of developing diversity and free choice. The absence of a critical perspective about the negative impacts of market-oriented strategies on children’s right to equity characterised the analysed texts. Further, the dominance of representations of students as individuals with a right to an individualised education according to their own capacities, interests, learning times and styles makes it difficult to critically question the neoliberal model based on the vision of "one school for each student".
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This article analyses the conflicts between the National Agency for Education and fourteen municipalities in regard the practices for approval of the establishment of independent school in Sweden. Nineteen records from the National Agency for Education were use for text analysis concerning these practices during the period 2002-2003. These records include the pronouncements with regard to these establishments from the municipalities, the National Agnecy for Education, the national courts and the involved independent schools. The analysis of these conflicts exemplifies the redistribution-recognition dilemma present in the concepts of equity, social justice and equivalence. For some actors the opening of independent is an instrument to develop diversity and cultural justice. For others, the growth of indepedent schools can be seen as the gradual disappearance o public shools as a common sphere to all citizens. By closing or reducting common public spaces, there is a risk to have higher segregation and inequality in Sweden. The analysis of the redistribution-recognition dilemma is necessary in order to become aware of how much we are ready to lose of the right to equality in order to obtain an increase of educational diversity.
This proposal discusses the dilemma between the claim for an equal education standard and the claim for free choice and the difference involved in the equitable education Swedish Compulsory School's goals. This article also emphasizes the difficulties to study the impact of educational reforms on the children's right to equity in education because this right is renegotiated time and time again in school practice. Educational reforms are never static packages of measures that can guarantee equity in a consistent way. In the Swedish Education Reforms of the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's the children's right to equity was aimed at reducing educational differences among the various social classes, as well as between sexes. Paradoxically, these reforms hampered the progress of ethnic minorities because they were based on a hegemonic vision of educational equality that sees the pupils belonging to the minorities and diversity in education as a problem. Instead, the Education Reform of the 1990's was aimed at assuring children’s right to equitable education by increasing individuals' rights to free choice and diversity. However, during the 1990's and the 2000's the implementation of the compulsory goals of free choice and respect for diversity has sometimes threatened the compulsory goals of equal education standard for all pupils. To discuss and exemplify the complexity to integrate the distribution of social justice and equality and cultural recognition, this proposal analyses the impacts of different kinds of decentralisation strategies in the implementation of Children’s right to an equitable education. This analysis should be considered a discussion about the dilemma between equality and free choice that is present in the concept of equity. If we wish to promote equality of choice we sometimes put the equality of standards, resources, and result in jeopardy. This article proposes to reflect how much we are willing to lose the right to equality in standards, resources and results to obtain an increase in free choice. Perhaps, we should find an alternative way that avoids both uncontrollable free choice and hegemonic equality to assure the implementation of the right to equity in education for all children in the Swedish Compulsory School.
This article proposes intertextuality as a conceptual instrument for the deeper understanding of the phenomenon of equity in educational Reform in times of decentralization. This analysis starts from a dynamic vision of education reforms as interactions of texts. To illustrate the use of intertextual analysis of equity in education, this article introduces and discusses the analyzed examples of the educational national policy and of educational practice in the educational reform implemented in the 90’s and currently in force in the compulsory school in Sweden. It is argued that the meaning of equity is never a fixed one; it varies according to the interactions between political texts at a national level and texts of educational practice at communal and school levels.
Francia Guadalupe (2007), Religiösa friskolor, en fråga om rättvisa. I & Göran Larsson Religiösa friskolor i Sverige: historiska och nutida perspektiv. Lund: Studentlitteratur
The present article has as its aim to illustrate and discuss the impacts of individualization strategies on equity educational policies through the analysis of individualized teaching strategies applied within the framework of educational priority policies in Sweden. The methodology used in our research work includes: (a) the study of research literature about the individualization of teaching implemented in the Swedish comprehensive compulsory school; and (b) the study of research literature about educational priority policies aimed at children from socially and ethnically segregated areas. Comparative research of educational policies considers the individualization of teaching carried out in the Swedish comprehensive compulsory school as a relevant explanation for the successful application of equitable educational policies in that country. However, research studies published during the 2000s in Sweden show a more complex perspective regarding the effects of individualized teaching strategies. This contribution reviews European comparative research studies on individualization strategies followed in the context of equity policies. It raises questions about the lack of analyses referring to the impacts of individualization on schools located in socially and ethnically segregated areas. It argues that this ideology tends to reduce the issue of school failure to ethnic segregation and individualized teacher support. This article claims that individualization strategies based on differentiated curricula for students run the risk of increasing the discrimination of students for reasons of language or ethnic background. Even though the present study focuses on the Swedish experience, it can lead to a better understanding of the impacts caused by individualization strategies on equity in other European countries.
This paper discusses the negotiation process of Muslim Swedish girls’ right to knowledge in the name of cultural justice. The National Syllabus for The Swedish Compulsory School stipulates that all Swedish children must learn to swim before the 6th school year. However, some schools sign contracts with Muslim families that authorise Muslim girls not to take part in the compulsory swimming lessons at school. This paper aims to analyse how the National goals for the Compulsory Swedish School are shaped and reshaped at the municipality and school level in relation to the pupils’ religion and gender. It analyses also the question of how far the adaptation of the Compulsory National Goals can go without missing the right to equity of all pupils. The problems of negotiating the Muslims girls’ right to learn to swim in the name of cultural justice is also considered. The dilemma of multiculturalism and women’s right as well as the conflict between distributive justice and cultural justice are also presented. This contribution includes the analysis of the National Curriculum for the compulsory system, the Physical education and health syllabus, the National Swedish Education Act and material from the National Education Agency as well as School contracts with certain Muslim families and Muslim organisations in one Swedish Municipality. The schools’ and municipalities’ strategies to avoid responsibility in the question of Muslims girls’ swimming lessons put these pupils’ right to an equitable education at risk. Instead of creating practical solutions to allow these girls to enjoy the swimming lessons, some schools and municipalities leave the responsibility for the swimming lessons to the parents. If the schools have not possibilities to control if these pupils have learnt to swim, the right of all children to have the same access to knowledge is put in jeopardy in Sweden.
Drawing on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the article highlights various conceptions of violence at a Swedish boarding school and is based on a critical discourse analysis of different educational and media documents. The investigation indicates that ambitions to protect children from violence need to overcome the dichotomy of private and public in order to protect children affected by violence in the borderland between the private and public spheres.
The European Convention on Human Rights has been signed by both the UK and Sweden as well as other European states, providing legal justification for accommodating the educational needs of religious minorities. This legal entitlement is explored in the paper with particular reference to parental choice for separate schools based on an Islamic ethos. How the UK and Sweden have responded to accommodate the religious convictions of Muslim families is the focus of discussion, drawing on historical and policy background and the establishment of separate schooling. The paper also draws on the theoretical work of Kumashiro and the concept of ‘Education for the Other’, examining the positioning of minority groups within the broad context of a multicultural society and the challenge of accommodating religious convictions in a climate of ‘failed multiculturalism’ increasing support for cultural integration and assimilation.
The European Convention on Human Rights has been signed by both the UK and Sweden as well as other European states, providing legal justification for accommodating the educational needs of religious minorities. This legal entitlement is explored in the paper with particular reference to parental choice for schools based on an Islamic ethos. How the UK and Sweden have responded to accommodate the religious convictions of Muslim families is the focus of discussion, drawing on historical and policy backgrounds. The paper also draws on the theoretical work of Kumashiro and the concept of ‘Education for the Other’, examining the positioning of minority groups within the broad context of a multicultural society and the challenge of accommodating religious convictions in a climate of increasing support for cultural assimilation.
We present an analysis of the implementation of EU-policies for foreign language proficiency, focusing Spanish as an optional school subject at the Swedish school system. We analyse frame factors that constrain such implementation and enactment processes in local interpretation of policy. European and national education policy documents, national statistics and interviews with teachers and stakeholders are analysed. Spanish is popular among pupils, nonetheless pupil achievement is poor and dropout rates are high. The lack of qualified teachers of Spanish accounts for a large proportion of this and teacher education seems to be a decisive curricular factor for a successful implementation of EU-policies. In-service training strategies for teachers of Spanish are a low priority among local educational authorities. There is a mismatch between state responsibility for teacher education on one side and local needs of teacher supply and responsibility for in-service training on the other. Nationally created conditions constrain local action and local actors reinterpret policy decided elsewhere.
The purpose of this article is to analyze and discuss the possibilities of an equitative implementation of the European policies of language proficiency in the context of neoliberal education policies. With the EU recommendations about language proficiency policies as starting point, the main documents governing the Swedish educational policy as well as the concrete practices of the different actors involved in the teaching and learning of Spanish as a foreign language are analyzed. This is done by taking as an axis the different forms of freedom of choice. It is shown that the current neoliberal educational system in Sweden does not favor the implementation of the recommendations of equity proposed by the EU. This is explained by the increasing freedom of choice by various actors, which has created a state of instability and inequality in the conditions of implementation of European policies on multilingualism.