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The objective of this article is to explore differentiation of education through juridification. We examine changes in school governing, including trends towards globalization and marketization, as well as increased regulatory intervention in addressing complex social problems. Drawing on Luhmann’s theory of functional differentiation and Teubner’s problematization of juridification, we scrutinize three sets of distinct legislative regulations in a Swedish context. We uncover a multifaceted juridification alongside a multifunctional school organization nested in a complex web of differentiated and interconnected subsystems. Traditional forms of differentiation persist, albeit with juridification as a lever, thus sparking renewed tensions.

Swedish compulsory schools are committed to work for equality andsocial cohesion. Increasing school segregation, however, challenges thiscommitment. Based on survey data from Swedish municipalities, thisarticle maps and analyses local initiatives that counteract schoolsegregation. We identify three main types of initiatives—reinforcement,dispersal, and merging—and the exogenous (school external) andendogenous (school internal) drivers involved in each of them. Theanalysis reveals several gaps between the national level, the municipallevel and local schools that hamper local efforts to counter schoolsegregation. This article contributes to increased knowledge on howlocal initiatives of counteracting segregation are constrained by nationalpolicies about school choice and independent versus municipal schools,but also how local initiatives tend to focus on organizational dynamicsrather than on social and pedagogical processes.

The aim of this article is to shed light on teachers’ actions to counter racism expressed by their colleagues. Based on qualitative interviews with teachers in Swedish upper secondary schools, the article presents a narrative analysis of three teachers. The article highlights the complexity of what it means to be a colleague in anti-racist work and argues that this brings different risks and possibilities for White teachers and for teachers of colour. By relating the narratives to research on racism and teacher professionalism, the article contributes to a better understanding of the prevalence and character of racism expressed by colleagues, and points at the need for further research.

This paper analyses and discusses the possibilities and challenges ofcollegial mutual deliberation among teachers as a way of counteractingracism. It takes its starting point in research on teacher collaborationthat emphasises the importance of creating conditions locally forcritical discussions, building on knowledge from different perspectivesand going beyond simple solutions. With a focus on the practical, theidea of deliberative communication serves as a theoretical lens toanalyse discussions among eight teachers on their responses to racism.The study provides theoretical and empirical knowledge about thepotential contribution of collegial deliberation to developinga communicative teacher community that counteracts racism.