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This article critically examines Sweden’s National Professional Programme (NPP) for principals, teachers and preschool teachers, launched in 2025, through the lens of Bacchi’s framework “What’s the problem represented to be?” From an international perspective, the Swedish case is an example of transnational policy trends carried by powerful agents such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Three main problem representations were identified in the analysed documents: governing; equity and continuous professional development (CPD). The analysis identifies various binaries, such as individual vs. collective efficacy, successful vs. unsuccessful professionals and national standardisation vs. local autonomy. The NPP has been framed as a solution to local governance inadequacies by calling for centralisation and tightening control over educational quality. This shift poses potential risks, including competition for control over professional development opportunities, marginalisation of principals’ roles as pedagogical leaders and creation of hierarchies within the school professions. Furthermore, the emphasis on CPD as a singular path to improvement may overlook collective efficacy and local contexts, favouring a one-size-fits-all approach that may exacerbate existing inequities. The findings indicate the need for further investigation into practical effects that the NPP poses and its impact on Sweden’s educational landscape.

Enlight abstract

The seminars in academia emerged as a reaction against the long-standing tradition of lectures dominated by a monologue where the university lecturer talked and the students listened. To break this tradition, the seminar was introduced with the ambition to create a forum where dialogue and discussion were at the center. The ambition was further to create a context where participants could express "scientific experimental curiosity" and "Bildung" (Öberg, 2011, p. 55). Bildung can be understood as a desire and ambition to immerse oneself in an ongoing dialogue that encompasses an investigative approach. The dialogue occurs both between teachers and participants but also among the course participants themselves (Uljens, 2021). In a Swedish context, however, the goal for students has been to develop critical thinking (Öberg, 2011). Öberg (2011) points out that there is some skepticism regarding the seminars in that it can be difficult for beginners, both teachers and students, to understand and master the form and purpose of the seminar. 

Against this backdrop we have studied the development of competencies and abilities by Swedish principals during one academic year, the last one of three in the national training program for principals. The method used was surveys on four different occasions during one academic year. Säljö (2010, 2014, 2021) argues that learning occurs in a sociocultural context where dialogue and communication are central. It happens through a reciprocal approach where one both speaks and listens in an ongoing interaction. In the study the results show two aspects: the participants state how they perceive the learning outcome during the seminars and they also reveal an interpretation of their own intellectual development during seminars. The open responses also show that the sociocultural context is of crucial importance for the principals. In the comments from the participants, the situated social practice emerges as a theme along with the sociocultural context. It is the situated social practice, which the seminar constitutes, that creates both a space and an opportunity for the course participants to test new and old ideas, to discuss, to reconsider arguments, to think again, and to think outside the box. Regardless of which ability or competence is developed, it happens together in an ongoing conversation and mutual listening, which enables the participants to achieve a dialogue that collectively leads to broadening their perspectives. According to Öberg (2011), this is the purpose of the seminar. The study shows that participants develop competencies and abilities that are general and desirable in relation to higher education during seminars (Öberg, 2011).

However, in the responses of the surveys the participants have not mentioned any of the perspectives addressed in the conference theme. In order to spark a conversation, we would therefore like to present a case, based on the study and our experience of teaching in higher education, which can be used in order to create a conversation focusing on the development of the teaching and learning during the seminars in higher education. There are two aspects we would like to discuss:

How can teaching in higher education develop in order to have a focus on playful and creative teaching methods during seminars?How can teaching in higher education develop in order to have a focus on promoting spontaneity and open-ended conversations?

Syftet med denna artikel är att diskutera hur den statliga interventionen Samverkan för bästa skola (SBS) styr rektorer i svensk grundskola. SBS är ett regeringsuppdrag till Skolverket som pågått sedan 2015 och vänder sig till skolor med låga resultat, vilka inte på egen hand förväntas kunna vända denna trend. Artikeln bygger på intervjuer med rektorer i grundskolan som deltagit i SBS. Ett resultat i studien är att rektorerna generellt är osäkra i sitt ledarskap och välkomnar det statliga stödet som handlar om att utveckla det systematiska kvalitetsarbetet. Enligt Foucault (2008) innebär detta att staten genom olika maktteknologier styr och reglerar rektorernas beteende i syfte att elevers kunskapsutveckling ska öka och ge högre resultat. Idén om effektiv intervention är en central aspekt inom den evidensbaserade praktiken, dvs. att administrera en behandling för att uppnå en viss effekt (Biesta, 2007). Denna rörelse är ett internationellt fenomen som bygger på ett tayloristiskt synsätt som vuxit fram sedan 1990-talet med sanktionssystem och offentlig rangordning av utbildning (Uljens, 2021a, 2021b). Forskning om tänkbara konsekvenser av SBS är ännu begränsad varför denna studie kan bidra genom analys av insamlat empiriskt material. 

“It was like hacking with a machete in the beginning – now we are refining it” – A study of Collaboration for Best School as a governance technology

The purpose of this article is to discuss how the state intervention Collaboration for the Best School (CBS) governs principals in Swedish compulsory schools. CBS is a government assignment to the Swedish National Agency for Education which has been ongoing since 2015, and targets schools with low results that are not expected to be able to reverse this trend on their own. The article is based on interviews with compulsory school principals who have participated in SBS. One result of the study is that the principals are generally insecure in their leadership and welcome the government’s support, which especially focuses on developing the systematic quality work. According to Foucault (2008), this means that the state through various technologies of power controls and regulates the principals’ behavior, in order to increase students’ knowledge development and produce higher grades. The idea of effective intervention is a central aspect within evidence-based practice, i.e. administering a treatment to achieve a certain effect (Biesta, 2007). This is an international phenomenon based on a Taylorist approach that has emerged since the 1990s with sanction system and public ranking of education (Uljens, 2021a, 2021b). Research on possible consequences of CBS is still limited, therefore this study can contribute in this field through analysis of collected empirical material.

In 2023, the Swedish government submitted a policy proposal for a National Professional Program (NPP) for principals, teachers and preschool teachers. The purpose of the reform was to develop teaching quality, strengthen the attractiveness of these professions and increase equity for students in Swedish education (Prop. 2022/23:54).

The NPP follows the international trend of evidence-based practice with policy techniques, such as certification standards for teachers and teacher proficiency (Holloway & Larsen Hedegaard, 2021) which also applies for school leaders (Møller, 2009). Pettersson (2008) points to how new actors, such as transnational institutions and regimes, have come to play a central role in exerting pressure to increase the national reform agenda, and how these affect Swedish national politics. During the 21st century, international organisations such as OECD, have influenced educational systems, and PISA has taken on an increasingly prominent position as an authoritative measurement of knowledge, functioning as a regulatory mechanism (Lingard et al., 2013). The driving role of the OECD is viewed as a consequence of the neoliberal ideology rooted in the 1980s (Baltzer, 2020).      

Around the globe, a crisis discourse has emerged, which legitimises educational reforms (Nordin, 2014). Based on the declining performance of Swedish students in PISA 2012, the OECD (2015;216) recommended a comprehensive and system-wide national school improvement strategy in Sweden. One aim was to improve the attractiveness of teaching and school leadership, and professionalism was highlighted as a central concept, characteristic of high-performing countries.

The OECD (2015) also pointed to insufficient coherence in Sweden’s recent career reform efforts: There is a lack of clarity in responsibilities of education priorities at various levels of administration as well as varying capacity at local level. Further, they draw attention to an imbalance between accountability and local autonomy. OECD’s concrete policy recommendations were to design a career structure including national professional standards.

In line with the OECD:s recommendations, the Swedish government suggests introducing a national structure for professional development in Sweden, as well as a national qualification system for teachers and school leaders. This implies a continuous professional development (CPD) of teachers and school leaders, which will increasingly become a state concern (Prop. 2022/23:54, 2022/23:UbU13), contrary to the system from 1991 where local authorities have been responsible.

From an international perspective, the Swedish case is an example of transnational policy trends, carried by powerful agents such as OECD, including key elements of what Ball (2003) refers to as policy technologies and performativity. Professionals’ in-service training can be considered as part of state regulation, producing new professional roles and subjectivities.

By the NPP, professional performance and excellence, but also the life-long learning discourse, has been put high on the Swedish political agenda, as in many other countries. This can be seen as a part of an accountability regime that keeps a constant gaze on teacher performance, and also the life-long learning discourse (Heffernan, 2016; Rizvi & Lingard, 2009). 

The aim of the present study is to visualise the discourses underlying the proposed policy. We will critically examine the intentions and the effects of the NPP policy. The study is inspired by Bacchi’s (2009) Foucault-influenced analytic strategy. Drawing on Bacchi’s methodological framework, ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR), the following research questions guide our study:

- What problem representations can be identified in the policy proposal of a National Professional Program?

- What presuppositions or assumptions underpin these problem representations and how have they come about?

- What effects for Swedish school leaders are produced by problematizing the policy proposal of a Swedish National Professional Program for principals, teachers and preschool teachers?

Method

Based on our research questions, the study is designed as a text analysis. A selection of official education policy documents constitutes the empirical data and includes a total of four documents in the policy process that led to the proposal for the NPP. The first document is the 2015 School Commission's report with proposals for a national strategy for knowledge and equality (SOU 2017:35). That proposal led to the appointment of a special investigator to prepare a framework for the professional development of teachers and principals (SOU 2018:17). The proposal culminated in the government's proposal for a national professional program for principals, teachers and preschool teachers (Prop. 2022/23:54). The following parliamentary committee report (2022/23:UbU13) of the bill is also included in the empirical material. To give perspective on the context, another report has been used, however without per se being included in the analysis; on the municipalization of the Swedish school (SOU 2014:5). Following Ringarp and Waldow (2016), we argue that reports by government committees, such as Swedish Government Official Reports (SOU), constitute the indicators for education policy-making discourse. In the analysis, a selection of Bacchi’s WPR-questions have been applied, as part of an integrated analysis (Bacchi, 2015). Bacchi’s Foucault-influenced poststructural analytic strategy makes it possible to open up policy proposals for critical scrutiny. According to Bacchi, policy proposals can be considered as prescriptive texts, setting out practices based on specific problematisations, having governing effects (Bacchi, 2012). By a close analysis of policy documents, the identified problem representations may reveal discourses on what can be talked about ‘as possible or desirable, or as impossible and undesirable’ (Bacchi, 2016, p.1). The problem representations will not only have discursive effects, but also subjectification and material effects (Bacchi, 2009). The preliminary analysis of the documents started with a screening followed by an identification of the problem representations. Thirdly, the underlying discourses and possible effects were analysed. The analysis is in progress and a more in-depth analysis will be presented at the conference.Expected OutcomesA number of problem representations have been identified in the initial analysis of the documents. The most prominent are the NPP as a governance problem, a profession problem, an equity problem as well as a quality problem. Formulations regarding the profession problem are teacher deficiency, low status of the teaching profession, and difficulty in recruiting teachers. The NPP proposal can be viewed as an answer to rectify previous career reforms that have not been as successful as anticipated, for example the career teacher reform. Various examples claim that the state must take a clearer responsibility pointing to a steering problem. It is argued that there are system weaknesses, including the failing capacity and responsibility of many local governing bodies. Problems associated with students' results and equity are most palpable as narratives of a crisis discourse. The documents highlight that teaching is not of sufficiently high quality in all classrooms, and the quality of education varies within and between preschools and schools. Across the documents, overlapping discourses of neoliberalism, lifelong learning and the equity discourse can be seen underpinning these problem representations. For teachers and principals to be "really successful in their profession, continuous competence development is required throughout their professional life" (SOU 2018:17, p. 22). Through "standards", the professional skills need to be strengthened as well as the status of the profession itself. By increasing the attractiveness of the profession, the student results will improve. Many of the problem representations and underpinnings, found in documents stem from the OECD (2015) recommendations, point to the policy influence by international actors. The effects produced by the NPP proposal for Swedish local school actors are both an undermining of the school leaders’ local decision making regarding professional development, and a responsibilisation of the local actors for what can be perceived as system failures.

References 

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Education faces major challenges and teachers’ unions have a major role to play. We discuss how unions reacted to Swedish educational reforms and which career path they advocate for their members. We particularly examine the 2011 initial teacher certification reform, when the teachers’ unions pushed to strengthen the professional legitimacy of their members. Arguments for reform are examined as an expression of an ideological process. We analyse ideas and ideologies to see how policy is shaped in the relationship between union representatives and politicians and how messages are formulated and addressed among stakeholders. This article is based on the authors’ research.