The aim of this paper is to explore the relation between education policy and education researchers in a few Swedish examples, directing our attention to national committees investigating and preparing national reforms. European and national policies on evaluation and quality assurance/assessment in education (e.a. PISA, TIMMS, and European indicators in different educational areas like life long learning), are contemporary examples of the close interaction between education researchers and policy-making (Journal of Education Policy, special issue forthcoming 2009). Swedish education research and researchers it can be argued, to a large extent have been influenced by national educational reforms and the development of the education system from the 1940s and onwards (Lundgren 2002, Nilsson & Segerholm 2008). Some attempts have been made to study this in more detail (e.g. Wallin 2001), but in general there are few enquiries that problematise this relationship and the role of education researchers in policy-making in Sweden. A general framework based on theory-oriented evaluation will be employed (Franke-Wikberg & Lundgren 1980), but in a rather restricted sense, since it will concentrate on the role and impact of education researchers in the production of public reports. (see further below)

We are in the beginning of this project but will select five examples i.e. publications from national committees. Our sample is based on the principle of diversity when it comes to part of the education system and time. In the selection will be included reports concerning pre-school, mandatory school, upper secondary school, university education and teacher education. These policy documents are analysed using the theory-oriented evaluation approach as a heuristic devise, meaning that the analysis is structured around the components pre-conditions, process and results. The results may be discussed in relation to the concepts like ‘policy elites’, ‘the rational reform paradigm’ and ‘evidence based policy’.

As indicated by Wallin (2001) we expect some preliminary conclusions to be concerned with the change over time in the instructions given to the committees. We also anticipate education researchers to be more involved in suggesting solutions to the perceived political problems laid out in the instructions to the committees and by that taking a more active role in directing policy.