Session Information
23 SES 07 A, Networks, Privatizations and Governance (Part 2)
Paper Session continued from 23 SES 06 A
Contribution
Elite education has become an integrant of Swedish school policy. The starting point of this presentation may irritate at first sight, as it applies to a country that has been distinguished as one of the most egalitarian and inclusive in the world. Also large parts of the Swedish educational establishment like officials at the National Agency of Education (Skolverket), educational researchers and teachers apparently assume, that the Swedish school system is supposed to offset social and cultural differences between pupils and to provide equal education for all (e.g. Lundahl et al 2013; for an analysis of Swedish research on elite education see Dodillet, forthcoming). The antagonism between political initiatives to extent elite education and excellence initiatives, and the educational adherence to the ideal of a School for All in Sweden is the subject of this presentation. I will also depict one specific form of elite education that emerges as a compromise from this confrontation.
The ambition to encourage each individual to make optimal use of her potential rather than to safeguard a shared standard and the idea to do so in a differentiated school system selecting pupils according to meritocratic principles is in line with international discourses on elite formation. Based on the growing research on The National and Global Redefinition of Educational Advantage (van Zanten et al 2015) I will outline this international discourse on meritocratic elite formation and make it the starting point for my presentation. The main question to be answered in the presentation is, to what extent and how Swedish policy makers connect to this international discourse, or world culture (Meyer et al 1997).
Theoretically this presentation draws on Meyer and Rowan (1977) who in their theory on institutionalized organizations distinguish between the formal structure and the activities of an organization. The formal structure of the Swedish educational system is purported in the proposals of the Swedish government, its bills and in the School Law. These documents provide the theory and blueprints for how and to what end the structures and activities of the educational system and its elite education should be formed and fit together. In the first part of my analysis I will focus on this formal structure to reveal some tracks of elitism in Swedish education policy.
According to Meyer and Rowan typically the official rules forming the formal structure are idealized theories (or myths), which are "decoupled" from or only ”loosely coupled” to actual activities. (Meyer & Rowan, 1977) Organizations cannot disengage from these formal policies as this would undermine their legitimacy and thus threaten their existence, but they can redefine the standards put on them. The other way round organisations can adjust their earlier objectives according to new formal guidelines in order to secure their existence. I will follow up this thesis by comparing the official aims and function of elite education with the actual implementation of this policy.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Adman, P. (2015). Vem värnar om skolans demokratiuppdrag? - En textanalys av 2009 års svenska gymnasiereform. Nordic Studies in Education, 2, 103-115. Bröckling, U. & Peter, T. (2014). Mobiliserien und Optimieren. Exzellenz und Egalität als hegemoniale Diskurse im Erziehungssystem. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaften, 17, 129-147. Carlbaum, S. (2012). Blir du anställningsbar lille/a vän? Diskursiva konstruktioner av framtida medborgare i gymnasiereformer 1971-2011. Umeå: Umeå universitet. Dodillet, S. (forthcomming). Kunskapssamhällets excellenssatsningar – Försök och tystnader i tysk och svensk utbildningsvetenskap. Educare. Helsper, W. (2009). Elite und Exzellenz – Transformationen im Feld von Bildung und Wissenschaft? Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 55, 2, 167-174. Lundahl, L. et al. (2010). Setting Things Right? Swedish Upper Secondary School Reform in a 40-Year Perspective. European Journal of Education. 45, 1, 46-59. Lundahl, L. et al (2013). Educational marketization the Swedish way. Education Inquiry, 4, 3, 497-517. Meyer, J. W. & Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 2, 340-363. van Zanten, A. et al (2015). Elites, Privilege and Excellence. The National and Global Redefinition of Educational Advantage. Yearbook of Eduation. Routledge.
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