Constructions of the pupil/citizen in the Swedish Curriculum of 2011 – Displacements and Sediments in the Educational Landscape

Author(s):

Marie Carlson(presenting / submitting)Kerstin von Brömssen(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

23 SES 04 D, Curriculum Policy Reforms and Their Implications

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-24

09:00-10:30

Room:

NM-J110

Chair:

Christine Winter

Contribution

Writing or revising a curriculum is often an extremely complex and contradictory process (Young & Diem 2014) and can be viewed as a discursive battlefield (e.g. Ball 1991, Levinson et al 2009, Ozga 2000, Taylor et al 1997). Furthermore, educational policies can be seen as complex, ongoing social practices of normative cultural production constituted by diverse actors/stakeholders across diverse contexts (Taylor 2004) and thus interesting to analyse, especially in “globalizing and new times” (Ball, Goodson & Maguire 2007). Despite the discourses of globalization we also experience worldwide a tightening of control on students, educators, administrators, and the schooling process in general through national-level educational policies (Young & Diem 2014). There are interesting tensions to pay attention to between the local and global. This paper outlines various constructions of the pupil/the future citizen and discursive tensions with a particular focus on the latest curriculum in Sweden, Lgr11,Curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and the recreation centre, Läroplan för grundskolan, föreskoleklass och fritidshemmet 2011). We have been particularly interested in issues such as: How is the ‘right’ citizen presented and depicted and what values are highlighted – at both national and global level? Whose history is made visible and what voices are heard? What groups or categories are identified? In order to get a comparative perspective, we have asked the same questions to the previous curriculum, Lpo94, Curriculum for the Compulsory School System, the Pre-School Class and the Leisure-time Centre.

Theoretically our contribution primarily is informed by the discourse analytical research field (e.g. Ball 1991; Taylor, 1997; Taylor et al., 1997) and notably by critical discourse analysis (see Fairclough, 1992, 2003; Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). Critical discourse analysis examines how texts construct representations of the world and there is an emphasis on highlighting how practices and texts are ideologically shaped by relations of power. Tensions between different conceptions and positionings concern what counts as valuable knowledge also related to the local and global context, which is emphasised in our study.

Method

Empirical data for this paper has been produced within the project “Future citizens in pedagogical texts and education policies – Examples from Lebanon, Sweden and Turkey” (financed by the Swedish Research Council), where we have analyzed educational documents, such as curricula and syllabus, but also interviewed people who took part in the process in writing the current curriculum. The overarching intention for the project has been to examine how globalisation processes are expressed in educational policies and pedagogical texts by adopting a transnational perspective. In this contribution, we also use data from the Turkish sub-study as a reference point (e.g. Carlson & Kanci forthcoming 2016, Gruber & Rabo 2014) and a discussion on sediments and shifts as regards ‘multiculturalism’ in a Swedish context (e.g. Banting & Kymlicka 2012, Borevi 2012, see also Carlson 2009).

Expected Outcomes

A notable tension in Lgr11 is that the school continues to be attributed to a multicultural mission, although there is a marked strengthening of the Nordic perspective and even a nationalistic in the curriculum. Knowledge of the Nordic languages is emphasized. Likewise the Nordic and Western cultural heritage is underlined. In Lgr11 language is given greater importance than before, related to identity and learning. Knowledge of the national minorities and minority languages (Sami, Finnish, Meänkieli, Romany Chib and Yiddish) are requested – a kind of inclusion. However, nothing is said about pupils with a background other than “Swedish”; immigrant children are invisible – a kind of exclusion. Also multilingualism is absent. For religious education e.g. as regards a more global perspective, in the Lgr11 the expert group by the Swedish National Agency for Education wanted to use the concept of world religions. However, the Ministry of Education, decided that Christianity should be singled out. Various critical reactions appeared. However, in comparison with Turkey the participants in the Swedish context were more consensus-oriented. There is a clear shift in the construction of the student, the future citizen in Lgr11. A stronger focus on the individual emerges and the school should raise good workers. A social democracy project is not so heavily emphasised as earlier. The individual is expected to take more “responsibility” and invest in a future career. Entrepreneurship has become a buzzword. As regards the relationship with the EU in both Sweden and Turkey, the citizen is defined with references to national contexts. It is not possible to talk about post-national citizenship; a broader vision and a global and/or a European vision, with respect to citizenship is not available. Nationhood and citizenship is still very much the same in both countries; there is no talk about de-nationalization of citizenship.

References

Ball, S. J. (1991). Politics and policy making in education. London: Routledge. Ball, S. J. (1993) What is policy? Texts, trajectories and toolboxes. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 13:2, 10-17, DOI: 10.1080/0159630930130203 Ball, S. J., Goodson, I. F. & Maguire, M. (2007) Education, globalisation and new times. Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge. Banting, K. and W. Kymlicka. 2012. Is there really a backlash against multiculturalism policies? Working paper 2012, no. 4. Linnaeus Centre for Integration Studies, Stockholm University. Borevi, Karin (2012) Sweden: the flagship of multiculturalism, in G. Brochman (Ed.) Immigration Policy and the Scandinavian Welfare State 1945-2010. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Carlson, M. (2009) ”Flerspråkighet i lärarutbildningen – Ett perspektiv som saknas.” [Multilingualism in Teacher Education – A missing perspective.] Utbildning & Demokrati, 2009, Vol 18, NR 2, 39-66. TEMA ”Flerspråkighet”. Carlson, M. & T. Kanci (2016 forthcoming) The nationalized and gendered citizen in a global world – Examples from textbooks, policy and steering documents in Turkey and Sweden. In: Gender & Education (2016 forthcoming). Chouliaraki, L. & Fairclough, N. (1999) Discourse in late modernity. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity. Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse. Textual analyses for social research. New York: Routledge. Gruber, S., and A. Rabo. 2014. Multiculturalism Swedish style: Shifts and sediments in educational policies and textbooks. Policy futures in education 12, no. 1: 56-66. Levinson, B. A., Sutton, M. & Winstead, T. (2009). Education policy as a practice of power: Theoretical tools, ethnographic methods, democratic options. Educational Policy, 23, 767–795. Lgr 11 (2011) Curriculum for the Compulsory School, Preschool Class and the Recreation Centre 2011. http://www.skolverket.se/publikationer Lpo 94. Curriculum for the Compulsory School System, the Pre-School Class and the Leisure-time Centre. http://www.skolverket.se/om-skolverket Ozga, J. (2000) Policy Research in Educational Settings: Contested Terrain. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press. Taylor, S., Rizvi, F., Lingard, B. & Henry, M. (1997). Education policy and the politics of change. London: Routledge. Taylor, S. (2004) Researching educational policy and change in ‘new times’: using critical discourse analysis, Journal of Education Policy, 19:4, 433-451. Young, M. D. & Diem, S. (2014) Putting critical theoretical perspectives to work in educational policy, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 27:9, 1063-1067, DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2014.916015.

Author Information

Marie Carlson (presenting / submitting)

University of Gothenburg

Department of Sociology and Work Science

Gothenburg

Kerstin von Brömssen (presenting)

University West

Department of INdividual and Society

Göteborg

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