Girls as a group tend to be more successful in achieving high grades than boys in contemporary Swedish school, which is now one of the most deregulated education systems in the world. The aim of this chapter is to explore discourses of gender and study achievements in secondary school, and how the importance of marks and performance is communicated in various teaching settings and amongst pupils. The chapter has an ethnographic approach and involves observations and interviews in two classes in grade 9 (pupils 15-16 years old) at two different schools in Sweden. The fieldwork is elaborated as a compact form of ethnography (Jeffrey & Troman 2004). The result shows that the pupils’ everyday life in school is highly regulated by their documented performances, tests, and other measurable criteria or what we call, the ‘governance by marks’. A common opinion among the pupils is that failures and successes is a matter of a free choice. However, girls as a group seems to manage the neoliberal challenge in a more efficient way regarded handling individual responsibility. Also, they more easily than boys ‘crack the code’ and use more appropriate and fortunate strategies to balance studying and social positioning.
The increasing use of ‘the private’ as a mean of delivery of public service, including several education reforms, such as decentralization, free school choice and a liberal tax-funded voucher system have paved the way for a rapid increase of upper secondary schools in Sweden. There is a strong competition between these schools. Today, half of all schools at the post 16-level are run by municipalities, while the rest is run by private owners, mainly organized as large school concerns. About 25% of all upper secondary students study at an independent school (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2012). As Bernstein stated already in 1996, the market relevance has become the key-orientating criterion for the selection of discourses. The ‘capitalisation’, which is making public schools into commodity producing enterprises (Rikowski, 2003) is now a fact. Furthermore the education market is no longer simply a matter of choice and competition, according to Ball (2004) it is a sophisticated system of goods, services, experiences and routes. In parallel with an increasing competition there is still political consensus in Sweden regarding the education’s mission of being socially compensatory and inclusive. However recent statistics and research highlight alarming results of increased segregation between municipalities, schools and between students (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2012; Östh, Andersson and Malmberg, 2012).
This article explores the upper secondary (or post-16) school market. The study on which it is based, funded by the Swedish Research Council, was entitled 'Uppersecondary education as a market'. Empirical data include official statistics, policy documents, school publications, company reports and school visits. Printed and other news media were also scrutinised to identify how the marketisation of education is represented in public discourse. A number of themes emerged from the study which included mapping the expansion of the school market, chains of ownership and influence, marketing strategies, choice and the school market and issues raised in the media. These imply that there is a new market discourse which represents a clear break with previous social democratic education policies primarily aimed at enhancing citizenship and wider democratic values within an inclusive public school. However, critiques have also emerged including a call for strengthened regulations of and control over independent schools and concern about an education market equated more with shares and profits rather than pedagogy and student citizenship.
In the early 1990s, Sweden experienced state policy reforms, which opened the way for new, private actors to run publicly funded independent schools. In 2010 the independent schools recruited almost a quarter of the upper secondary students. More than eight of the ten schools were managed by limited companies. Against this backdrop, and drawing on Ball (2007) and Whitfield (2006) who focus on policy trends of the transfer of public education (and other public services) to the private sector, this article explores and analyses current commercial trends in Swedish upper secondary education. The aims are to identify expansion trends inside and outside Sweden, including new trends of business formations. In the study four large actors were identified on the basis of official data, company reports, school and company websites and national and international media. The study indicates that the upper secondary education in Sweden has today become “big business”, or “edu-business” (Ball 2007:67).
In recent decades, the Swedish educational system has become an expanding ‘school market’. The free school choice, the voucher system, and a rapid increase in upper secondary schools, have paved the way for strong competition between schools. Based on interviews with 77 upper secondary school students, this article aims to explore student perspectives on the increasing marketisation of education in Sweden with particular focus on their school choices and competition between schools. The findings show that market forces have an impact on the every-day student school life. Many students found it hard to navigate the ‘sea of options’ and asked for as much objective information as possible, in order to avoid inadequate or wrong decisions. In line with greater competition between schools, many students tended to choose “safe options” in order to avoid schools running the risk of bankruptcy or closing down. The analysis indicates that the students, both in their choices of schools and in their present situation as school marketers, promote segregation trends.
Gender norms emerge as more or less dominant in different contexts and indicate the simultaneous existence of various local gender regimes (Connell, 1999: 2002). The paper focuses on how secondary school boys and girls in grade 9 in Sweden define norms of popularity in relation to study achievements in school (c.f. Frosh, Phoenix & Pattman, 2002). The analysis is based on two data sets, an ethnographic study in two various school settings (including 42 pupils) and a national survey among 3500 pupils. The theoretical emphases are on the multiple definitions of masculinity and femininity constructed and their hierarchical relations to each other. The analysis of the pupils’ definitions of gender norms indicates a strong and confident individual, successful in both social relations and study attainment. Aspects connected to appearance, socially extroversion, self-confidence, sportiness and social networks are claimed as important for gaining popularity among peers. These norms seem generally applicable to boys and girls at most schools, although emphasis and combinations of norms might differ somewhat. The relation between popularity and study achievements in school seem to be more ambiguous and highly connected to the dominating norms at the local schools.
This article focuses on students' perceptions of gender relations in school over the last three decades. The analysis is based on data from three inquiry surveys in Swedish secondary schools from 1974, 1992 and 2005, and compares how young students (a) perceive the behaviour of boys and girls in a classroom situation, (b) value different aspects of family and work in their future lives, and (c) experience the power relations between girls/women and boys/men. The analysis indicates both stability and change. In some aspects, the students perceive certain classroom behaviour as highly gendered, but in parallel there is a trend that girls have taken on a more active role in the classroom and are more career-oriented than before. But even though girls seem to have expanded their positions of agency over time, they have not improved their overall status in the gender hierarchy. Rather, the results point in the opposite direction, since the general opinion is that it is more favourable to be male than female. Compared to 1974, this is expressed even more strongly in 2005.
The Swedish education system has undergone major restructuring since the early 1990s. The new policy, including e.g. decentralisation, accountability, school choice and a tax-funded voucher system, has led to an expanding “school market”. This article explores how upper secondary school principals perceive the increased competition among schools and its impact on their work and the school organisation. The data emanate from interviews with principals at eight schools in five municipalities. The presence of the market in everyday work is perceived as a reality, even if its significance varies. The principals argue that competition increases the staff’s efforts and improves school development. However, it is also perceived as problematic since it causes increased stress and uncertainty. The principals’ professional identities seem to have changed from a pedagogical role to a more economics ditto. Most principals are pragmatic and make efforts to handle the new policy context the best they can.
In recent years, the equivalence in Swedish education has decreased. The free school choice has led to homogenization of schools, which combined with peer effects and teacher expectations have widened the segregation. The competition forces schools to 'niche' their marketing to specific groups of students and to construct pedagogical identities or ‘brands’ (Dovemark & Holm, forthcoming). Some students become more desirable than others (Ball, 2004). The polarization between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ schools has made school-choice important for students´ learning outcomes and future chances (Skolverket, 2012; Östh et al, 2013). Present paper focuses on young people in two upper secondary schools in Sweden. The first is a big public school located in a deprived immigrant suburb, the second is a small independent middle class school in a city center. The schools represent different pedagogical identities (Bernstein, 2000). The study aims to examine a) students’ views of their school choice and transition from compulsory to upper secondary education, b) how current school practices prepare the students for future studies/careers. The study is based on interviews with students, principals and teachers and classroom observations, emanating from the project Inclusive and Competetive? Changing understandings and practices of social inclusion in upper secondary school´.