Göran Bostedt, Associate professor of Political Science, Department of Education, Mid-Sweden University. goran.bostedt@miun.se
Linda Eriksson, Assistant professor in Pedagogy, Department of Education, Mid-Sweden University. linda.eriksson@miun.se
Abstract
‘Living’ and ‘learning democracy’ through pupil influence.
Policy changes in the Swedish school system
The aim of our paper is to discuss policy changes in the Swedish school system in relation to the area of ‘living’ and ‘learning democracy’ through pupil influence. The Swedish Education Act (Skollag, 2010:800, § 4) stipulates that education in the school system should aim at pupils acquiring and developing both knowledge and values. It should also promote learning and development of pupils. Despite those statements there is an ongoing discussion in Sweden today primarily about the importance of the knowledge commission. This due to results presented in international measurements studies such as PISA. The aim about values is subordinated and issues of democracy and pupils influence have come to the fore. This is troublesome for Social studies, where the curricula states that teaching should give pupils the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills in the area of power, democracy, gender equality and human rights (Skolverket, 2019)
Our interest is to illuminate changes in policy in relation to education in schools. Earlier research in this area (Englund 1995, 2005) have focused changes in society in relation to policy. Pupil influence could be understood and discussed in different ways (Eriksson, 2019). In our paper, we analyze and discuss the policy shift in Sweden on pupils influence as a change of perspective on pupils as subjects participating in achieving the aims of the school system to pupils as only receiving objects of school activities. We do this by comparing relevant parts of the Swedish curricula for compulsory school from year 1980 to year 2019. The results are discussed in the context of power relations, perspectives on democracy, knowledge and didactical considerations. Our results questions the possibilities to fulfill of the aim of ’learning’ and ‘living’ democracy in schools today.
References:
Englund, T. (2005). Läroplanens och skolkunskapens politiska dimension. Göteborg: Daidalos.
Englund, T. (Red.). (1995). Utbildningspolitiskt systemskifte. Stockholm: HLS Förlag.
Skolverket (2019) https://www.skolverket.se/download/18.4fc05a3f164131a74181078/1535372299998/Social-studies-swedish-school.pdf
Skollag (2010:800).
2021.
XIX Nordic Political Science Association Congress 2021, NoPSA, workshop "Teaching for Citizenship and Democracy", 10-13 August 2021