Session Information
23 SES 07 B, Policies & Politics of Exclusion and Inclusion (Part 1)
Paper Session to be continued in 23 SES 08 B
Contribution
The Swedish education system has taken profound changes following the encompassing reforms of the early 1990’s, shifting from a communitarian view of the purpose and means of education to a market oriented system with an individual focus where choice and private actors became the means of increasing efficiency and quality within education. Now, competition between schools for pupils and funding, is a largely unquestioned element in Swedish education as the acceptance of school choice, including the independent schools as private (but publicly funded) providers of education, is accepted among almost all political parties in Sweden and exercised by an increasing portion of pupils. This has of course had significant consequences for pupils within the system, but few studies have thoroughly studied the consequences of this for another political goal for education, namely that of inclusive education.
This paper further develops theoretical themes from my doctoral thesis (Magnússon, 2015). The aim is to contribute to the theoretical discussion on inclusive education and school choice, by shedding light upon the consequences of the conjuncture of two discourse shifts in education in Sweden – namely that from a welfare state education for the common good to a market orientation for the individual good, and that from traditional special education to inclusive education. These shifts are described as based upon tensions between different democratic ideals that differ significantly as regards how education, the individuals within education, and society are viewed. Utilising a historical and international approach to prior research and recent empirical results, the question raised is: what consequences the marketization of education in Sweden has had for the construction of inclusive education?
The Swedish education system has been noted for being very inclusive, but has at the same time taken dramatic changes as regards decentralisation and deregulation. In both cases the ideologies and politics can be seen as belonging to international discourses as regards the organisation of education. This study, being an encompassing case study of a national education system, can thus be seen as having international relevance as regards the politics of marketizing education and of incusive education.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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