This study is part of the comparative project Who governs the Swedish school? (Roman et.al 2013, 2014), which started out in 2014 and is funded by the Swedish Research Council. Departing from a modified curriculum theory perspective, we explore the dynamics between local, national and transnational education policy from a historical point of view, mainly by studying local school policy actions in relation to school practice. The project aim is to compare over-time variations in balance between municipal and national school governing in a number of Swedish municipalities, thereby contributing to a more complex understanding of the concepts re/nationalization and municipalization, which generally are used quite hasty in the contemporary Swedish school debate (Jarl 2012, Hallsén et.al 2014). Our approach also provides historical and local context insights to the issues of decentralization and school marketization as well as globalization and transition. The Swedish comprehensive school reforms of the 1960s were promoted as a means to increase equality, i.e. decrease differences in educational opportunities between students (Hadenius, 1990). The comprehensive school reforms aimed to diminish differences due to gender, socio-economic and educational conditions, and geographical belonging (living in urban or rural areas). In the 1990s another reform bundle was launched, also purporting to promote increased equality but now through decentralization, which implied an opposite approach compared to the previous reforms, coined in the term equity replacing equality (Englund & Quennerstedt 2008).

Our study is relevant from a European perspective: it sheds new light on the Swedish school (often portrayed as nationally uniform) and highlights the local-national school policy interplay, which mirrors the international-national policy exchanges. Theoretically, it draws on the curriculum theory tradition developed by Dahllöf (1967, 1971), Lundgren (1977, 1979, 1984) and Englund (1986, 2005), focusing on the societal and political prerequisites for understanding education and educational change. It also relates to international research on decentralization and globalization (Ball et al 2007; Hopmann 2008; Grek et al 2009; Lundahl 2007). Combining the national gaze of the curriculum theory tradition with the global perspective on educational development constitutes an analytical framework where the historical comparison of local school policy in three Swedish municipalities is related to three arenas, the local, the national and the transnational. These arenas are understood as intertwined, constituting the societal and political context in which local policy makers has to navigate. Relating historical comparisons to different policy arenas thus enables a more complex analysis of school governing in the tension-field between centralization and decentralization, exceeding the simplified logic of implementation.

The comparisons comprises the following three Swedish municipalities: Stockholm (a large capital city with strong educational resources), Växjö (a middle town with fairly strong educational resources), and Tierp (a rural region with fairly weak educational resources).

The study includes five parts. 1) A theoretically informed introduction is followed by 2) a comparison of the starting points for the three municipalities in the late 1950s, in terms of general conditions (geography, demography, socio-economic and political conditions, level of education) and educational infrastructure (types and numbers of schools and other educational institutions).

Then two empirical themes are displayed:

• 3.  Political actions, including national policy exchange and local administrative development

• 4. Educational efforts, including communication technology investments and transnational exchange

Finally (5) we analyze and discuss how the policy actions and education efforts have affected the general conditions and educational infrastructure of the three municipalities, i.e. the geographical distribution of educational opportunities (within each municipality and in comparison to one another)? This will be discussed as a matter of geographical justice, a concept intended to cover and analyze the different policy efforts taken to standardize and/or individualize Swedish education (equality/equity). 

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