Session Information
23 SES 02 A, Politics and Policy Making in Education (Part 2)
Paper Session continued from 23 SES 01 A, to be continued in 23 SES 03 A
Contribution
How is the question of grade appeals in public education politically revived and reinvented? This paper addresses this question by examining two episodes of political initiatives to implement grade appeal systems in Swedish compulsory and upper secondary education. In Sweden, the possibility to appeal state action has traditionally been weak (Trägårdh and Svedberg, 2013). In the area of education, the absence of appeal systems for educational measures such as promotion or non-promotion, examinations, and grades reflects a legal tradition distinct from those parts of Europe where administrative courts are much more extensive (Waldow, 2014). For example, both the German and English education systems provide systems for appeals in various ways (Waldow 2014). This paper shows the ways in which a controversial issue in education politics – the promotion of grade appeal in Swedish compulsory and upper secondary education – is being revived after a rather “latent” period of 30 years by discursively fitting it into a new political environment. It shows how government-appointed commissions of inquiry adapt to the broader political environment and tailor meanings of education to further the interests of contemporary education politics. Specifically, it shows how a reform movement that starts off with traditional democratic aims seeks accommodation within a modern state institution by aligning itself with prevailing neoliberal political values and reorienting its place in the educational policy terrain. The paper tells the story of how litigation practices are being promoted in the guise of two educational reform initiatives and entails how actors are establishing connections – not only between the private and public but also between different occurrences located at different points in time and space. Drawing on the research on social movements, we connect political actors’ discursive strategies and struggles to broader shifts in European educational politics. Applying a series of concepts from the social movement literature on “frame analysis,” the paper illuminates how political actors in Sweden strategically alter meanings in ways that resonate in their current political environments. By employing this framework, we show how the issue of grade appeal in Sweden, despite formidable obstacles, has remained viable by drawing on newly legitimate themes in transnational education politics.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
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