Politics and Educational Change

An International Survey

Patricia Broadfoot, Colin Brock, Witold Tulasiewicz

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429960796
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Published in 1981. Throughout the world, education is a highly contentious political issue. Politicians are involved in educational decision making at all levels and very often educational reform is as much motivated by political ideology as by educational considerations.

This book, which draws together the work of many leading authorities, examines the current state of educational politics in many parts of the world. The book looks at the problem from a theoretical and a comparative perspective, and then analyses the problem in particular areas which include North America, Western Europe and Third World countries.

THE ROLES OF POLITICIANS, BUREAUCRATS AND EXPERTS IN EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN SWEDEN

Robin Burns

In 1970, the Swedish Prime Minister, Olof Palme, declared: ‘We want to internationalise the Swedish society. This is one of the most important tasks of the seventies. Therefore we have to internationalise our educational system’.¹ In so saying, Palme was both stating his vision of Sweden’s position in world society and specifying the role of education in moving towards the realisation of that vision.

Sweden is the only country that has formally adopted an ‘internationalised approach’ to all aspects of education. It is the intention of this paper to examine both the context in which the process of Swedish internationalisation of education has taken place, and the ways in which it has been implemented. It will be argued that the internationalisation programme is an example of the legitimation process of new educational knowledge. Both the socio-historical and cultural context within which an education system develops and changes, as well as the particular features of an educational system and their inter-relationships, are relevant to an analysis of the ways in which knowledge becomes incorporated into formal curricula. This in turn makes it possible to predict both the content of, and the form in which, that knowledge will be legitimated in a particular system. Further predictive aspects would explore the likelihood of certain knowledge being legitimated within formal education.

As a first step in the specification of variables which might be related to the internationalisation programme in Sweden, a basic distinction is made between external and internal variables. While the literature on comparative education provides scant guidelines for the process of determining variables which affect educational policies and practices, the challenge to do so has been issued inter alia by Cowen, Young, Scotford-Archer and Vaughan.² Thus, the social basis and the social distribution of knowledge can be examined in relationship to the various agencies involved in the transmission of knowledge, as well as the structure of power within and between those agencies in a given political and legal unit. The locus of the generation of knowledge, and the socio-cultural, political and economic effects of a particular system of knowledge production and dissemination, can be studied. The research reported here is based on a threefold approach to the specification and inter-relationship of variables and processes in the legitimation of educational knowledge: (1) an historical/documentary study of major trends and themes; (2) participant observation and interviews for the inter-subjective checking of information; and (3) analyses made by the researcher.

Contextual Variables

Domestic policy

Sweden today is a modern, industrialised nation, characterised by a high degree of ethnic, economic, religious, even political homogeneity. The standard of living is one of the highest in the world, and has been forged in this century, which saw late and rapid movement from a predominantly rural economy to an urbanised, industrialised one.

Politically the country is a constitutional monarchy with a unicameral parliament. Political power rests with the Cabinet, whose members need not be members of parliament. The Ministries are small in number (12-15) and size; their officials are appointed by the government and the Under Secretary of each is directly responsible to the relevant Minister. In addition to the Ministries, there are a number of larger central administrative agencies.

A large amount of the business of government is carried out through Commissions of Inquiry which consist of members of parliament (both government and opposition), representatives of labour and employer organisations, and other groups involved in the particular subject of an inquiry, while individuals and groups may make submissions to them. Parliament decides on the recommendations made by these Commissions, but most of the debate takes place prior to the presentation of a report. The central administrative agencies co-operatively implement the legislation. Despite the devolution of some power to the municipalities, Swedish government is heavily centralised. Characteristic of government activity in all fields is a style of decision-making incorporating both representative and expert advice, research, co-operation across the political spectrum and a general openness.

The economy is a capitalist one, with 92% of industrial employment being in the private sector. The service industries account for 56% of GNP, and despite the institution of an ombudsman, Swedes today often express some discontent about the level of bureaucratisation in many spheres of life. Swedish industry has undergone structural changes in recent years, including modernisation and automation of plant and equipment. The Social Democratic Party attempted, through an expansionary economic policy in the 1970s coupled with labour market protective legislation and price controls on certain basic commodities, to protect the workforce from structural unemployment and inflation. However, the rising costs of production, together with greater expansion of Swedish firms and investment abroad than at home, has created problems similar to those in other advanced capitalist countries, including high annual inflation rates (up to 20%) and increasing unemployment.

It is in the approach to the solution of economic problems, and particularly those affecting the labour force, that a typically Swedish imprimatur can be discerned. Features of this include a legislative approach to policy-making for the economy and labour market; strong, centralised, industry-wide unions (including employer organisations); collective bargaining and/or joint negotiation of time-specific and binding agreements. Recourse to the Labour Court comes only when negotiation has broken down and ultimately, direct action only when grievance procedures have been exhausted. This represents an institutionalisation of conflict and its solution in what are considered rational, peaceful ways. In short, there exists a dedication to principles of collective agreement and the right to work, despite recent cracks, such as the widespread strikes in May 1980.

The role of the long rule of the Social Democratic Party can be seen in the above mechanisms and also in the nature and extent of social welfare, despite increasingly critical comments on the latter.³ The Party was formed at the end of the nineteenth century during early industrialisation and growing rural unrest, and finally came to power in 1932, remaining in office (sometimes in coalition) until 1976. It is not merely a workers’ party, party membership being complexly related to income, occupation and attitudes to social and political issues. There are signs that the Left within and outside the Social Democratic Party is increasingly dissatisfied with its policy and performance. Since 1976 a coalition of Centre-Right parties has been in power. However, most features of contemporary Swedish life represent a Social Democratic crystallisation and institutionalisation of philosophies and policies which have roots deep within Swedish history and culture. These are unlikely to be radically changed by a different government since they represent the way in which enlightened, concerted effort can be systematically applied to improve the material conditions of social life.

The concepts of solidarity and joint effort, and the application of research and development, are important aspects of this process. While critics attempt to show the shallowness of real solidarity, the slow, bureaucratic impersonality of social steering, the problem of rising social problems and the failure, where the normal income from work is low, for social policy reforms to alter significantly that situation⁴, Swedes themselves have been increasingly content with their life. The significant exception - in Sweden as elsewhere - comprises the group with the most rapidly-rising unemployment - the under 25s.⁵

The future, however, is well under review, a Secretariat for Future Studies attached to the Cabinet Office having been established in 1973, closely followed by a Committee for Long-term Motivated Research. The former has four main working groups: (1) working life in the future; (2) resources and raw materials; (3) energy and society; (4) Sweden in the world society. Advice is given to government by these bodies, based on the well-established model of commissioned research. The first ‘think piece’ produced by Secretariat members, ‘To choose the future’ (‘Att välja framtiden’), adopts a model of the rational control of society. And although in their private capacity two staff produced a controversial document in 1975 advocating lower consumption patterns and a simpler lifestyle in the future, there is a tendency for the future to be envisioned and studied in terms of ideas and methods central to the present and the ways it has been achieved. This is seen, for example, in the issue of energy, a critical area for oil-less Sweden. The debate surrounding nuclear energy policy has been incorporated into the parliamentary system and the election process, and it has been maintained that the incorporation of energy research and policy into the State’s bureaucratic machinery ‘can be seen, with some over-simplification, as a politicisation of energy “from above”. It illustrates well the effectiveness with which the Swedish ruling groups can mobilise their resources to take on a new social problem.’⁶

Official life in Sweden can be seen to be characterised by this planning and steering from above, using in that task the leadership of. the many task-oriented groups, such as the trade unions, into which Swedes are organised. In both public and private sectors, research and development are well-established bases for decision-making and change, representing a further élite-orientation. The achievements in terms of prosperity, rationality and welfare are impressive and Sweden has many ‘firsts’ to her credit including environmental protective legislation and worker participation in management. Homogeneity and consensus is reflected not only in decision-making, but also in the relatively small differences between the five major political parties, and in cultural life as well, including the State church.

There are cracks and strains in this fabric, however. Youth, migrants and the small Sami (Lapp) minority see not only the gap between public approaches to solutions of their problems and needs and the realities of their lives, but behind this, a lack of concern for the individual. They feel there is an unacknowledged oppression at work in society. Swedes continue to be divisible into social classes despite the proclaimed egalitarian and democratic basis of the State and a relatively high degree of social mobility. Despite State subsidies for high culture and for newspapers and popular fiction, some ‘working class literature’ and experimental theatre, the effects of the State monopoly on radio and television represent imposed rather than genuine consensus and equality in cultural life. Equality is perceived in terms of opportunity rather than of outcomes.

A further aspect of Swedish society - its worldview and ideology - shows other divisive aspects. Despite the secularisation of that society, religious motifs frequently occur in public and individual justifications and responses, including the temperance movement, compulsory teaching of comparative religion in schools, and themes in creative literature and film. The church itself has been criticised by outsiders as being too closely aligned with the establishment. In attitudes to religion, as to a number of other areas of life, there is an ambivalence. There is also a distinctive public/private split, which is at least partially explained by the shallowness of the urban experience of most Swedes, sentimentalism and longing for nature against the backdrop of the scientific control of nature and the state’s belief in the perfectability of society. Even the effects of the annual extreme contrasts of dark and light - a dominant motif in private life and art - play their part. A public litany of concern about equality, solidarity, democracy, closeness, therapy, better environment seems like both an attempt to convince the individual that that is what is most important and what the benevolent government is providing, and that despite private feelings of anxiety, alienation and dissatisfaction, he or she can and should feel otherwise.

Foreign policy

Sweden’s position in the world has been marked by periods of expansion and involvement outside followed by isolation and introspection. The cornerstone of foreign policy since the loss of power over Finland in 1809 has been neutrality in war and non-alignment in peace, coupled with an extensive defence policy including compulsory national service and active participation in the United Nations peace-keeping ventures. Sweden’s neutrality created some problems during the First and Second World Wars, economically, politically and socially, but she has maintained her non-alignment today in the face of growing pressures for European integration. Two outcomes of this non-alignment have been her role in supporting the UN’s efforts in various spheres, and a growing need to seek new trading and diplomatic partners outside Europe.

Three circles in which Sweden operates internationally can be distinguished. The first is within the Nordic countries, of which she is the biggest and, at least until Norwegian oil production peaks, the wealthiest and most technologically advanced. She has been a member of the Nordic Council since 1954 and a number of trade, cultural and labour agreements exist between these five countries.

The second is within Europe. Here she is a member of the OECD and the Council of Europe and was a founding member of EPTA in 1969. When Palme was Prime Minister, he saw Sweden as having a leadership role especially amongst those countries led by social democratic parties. He continued to stress his predecessor’s call for solidarity, peace, freedom and prosperity, and in much-publicised exchanges in the mid 1970s with West Germany’s Willy Brandt and Austria’s Bruno Kreisky, stated that:

The Social Democrats of Europe should see it as their task to rally the people around an alternative to private capitalism and a bureaucratic state capitalism of the Stalinistic type; they represent the radical, progressive tradition in Europe, a human and liberal socialism.⁷

He emphasised that Europe extends from the Atlantic to the Urals, and that although he was neither anti-American nor anti-European, as his opponents had claimed, Sweden would lose her role as a neutral, stabilising factor in Europe and her own independence and freedom in trade if she were to join the Western allies or lose sight of the need for dialogue with the Communist regimes.⁸ One newspaper critic went further and stated that ‘Western Europe’s social democratic parties and leaders do not in fact recognise the deep solidarity with poor countries that Palme himself so often talks about. If he will stand free in the world, he should not tie himself too much to Europe.’⁹

In the third circle, the world at large, three principles have become incr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• INTRODUCTION
• THE CHANGING NATURE OF EDUCATIONAL POLITICS IN THE 1970S
• EDUCATIONAL POLITICS: A MODEL FOR THEIR ANALYSIS
• THE CHANGING NATURE OF EDUCATIONAL POLITICS IN NORTH AMERICA
• NEW INFLUENCES ON EDUCATIONAL POLICIES IN WESTERN EUROPE DURING THE SEVENTIES
• THEORY AND PRACTICE: A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE ENGLISH COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL AND THE FRENCH COLLEGE UNIQUE
• POLITICAL OR EDUCATIONAL ADVANCE THROUGH SECONDARY REORGANISATION?
• THE ROLES OF POLITICIANS, BUREAUCRATS AND EXPERTS IN EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN SWEDEN
• IDEOLOGY AND POLITICS IN CHINESE EDUCATION
• THE POLITICAL CONTEXT OF EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH 1971-80
• HIGHER EDUCATION AND POLITICAL CHANGE IN THAILAND
• EDUCATION IN THE NEW HEBRIDES: A PAWN IN THE POLITICAL GAME
• POLITICS AND EDUCATIONAL CHANGE IN CHILE: 1964-1980