Session Information
23 SES 04 B, Market Ideas and Practices (Part 2)
Paper Session
Contribution
Traditionally ‘the Swedish model’ referred to consensual relations at the labour market and a commitment to goals of full employment and social equality (Fulcher 1991; Lundahl 1997). Recently, however, another model, the far-going marketisation of the educational system in Sweden in the last twenty years, has attracted considerable international attention and even admiration, e.g. by the British Conservatives (Conservatives 2007). Today Swedish public and tax-funded independent (‘free’) schools compete over students and teachers, often by offering a motley supply of programs and courses, using a variety of marketing channels (Erixon Arreman & Holm, forthcoming). The aim of this paper is to synthesise and discuss the major outcomes of the research project ‘Upper secondary education as a market’ (2008-2011). This project has analysed consequences and effects of this radical transformation at local level and in particular in schools – aspects that are still sparsely researched on the whole (c.f. Ball 2007), even if several Swedish studies on different aspects of the school market have been published recently (e.g. Bunar 2010; Fredriksson 2009¸ Lund 2008). Municipalities and schools in two regions were studied both extensively and in an in-depth study in eight upper secondary schools in municipalities exposed to competition to varying extent. Central research questions were: (a) which expressions does the market situation take, which are the actors at the market, and what characterises their strategies in different regions, municipalities and upper secondary schools? (b) Which approaches and actions do local actors (e.g. school directors, headteachers, teachers, career guidance officers) show? (c) Which are the consequences of varying degrees of competition and other aspects of the market situation with regard to the work and pedagogic identities of headteachers, teachers, career guidance officers and students? Such questions are also central in this paper. At an overall level the State, discourse and actors are central analytical concepts (c.f. Ball 2007). Bernstein´s (2000) theoretical notion of pedagogical identities, in particular the de-centred market identity, is crucial in our analysis of schools and school actors. Freidson´s (2001) theory of different logics of the organisation and governance of professional work, the logic of the profession, the organisation and the market, serves as another point of departure.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Ball, S J (2007). Education Plc : understanding private sector participation in public sector. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, N.Y. : Routledge. Bernstein, B (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity : theory, research, critique. London : Taylor & Francis. Bunar, N (2010). Choosing for quality or inequality: current perspectives on the implementation of school choice policy in Sweden. Journal of Education Policy, 25 (1), 1-18. Conservatives (2007). Raising the bar, closing the gap. An action plan for schools to raise standards, create more good school places and make opportunity more real. Policy Green Paper No. 1. http://image.guardian.co.uk/sysfiles/Education/documents/2007/11/20/newopps.pdf Erixon Arreman, I. & Holm, A.-S. (forthcoming). Privatisation of public education? The emergence of independent upper secondary schools in Sweden. Accepted for publication in Journal of Education Policy. Fredriksson, A (2009). On the consequences of the marketisation of public education in Sweden: for profit-charter schools and the emergence of the ‘market-oriented teacher’. European Educational Research Journal 8(2), 299-310. Freidson, E (2001) Professionalism, the Third Logic. On the practice of knowledge. Cambridge: Polity Press Fulcher, J. (1991). Labour movements, employers and the state. Conflict and cooperation in Britain and Sweden. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Lund, Stefan(2008). Choice paths in the Swedish upper secondary education - a critical discourse analysis of recent reforms, Journal of Education Policy, 23: 6, 633 — 648. Lundahl, L. (1997b). A common denominator? Swedish employers, trade unions and vocational education in the postwar years. International Journal of Training and Development, 1 (2), 91-102.
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