There is a global movement of education reform in many countries informed by a neo-liberal agenda (Verger, Fontdevila, and Zancajo 2017). The large changes in education during the past decades are to a large extent linked with a growing connectedness between the state, education and the economy (Lundahl, 2021). The acceleration of the global economy, as well as technological developments and the strengthening of transnational agencies like the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the European Union have transformed nation-states into what Ball (2009) has named competition states. Krejsler (2019) has a similar label, the ‘fear of falling behind’ regime which has significant performative effects in producing a state of crisis awareness which motivates and drives education reforms.

This has also led to a shift towards a market-based educational reform agenda characterized by an emphasis on in-school factors, specifically, teacher quality and accountability, to a large extent leaving out of school factors affecting achievements out of the equation (Nolan, 2018). A discourse of continuous improvement follows this neoliberal agenda, and both national and international accountability systems put pressure on teachers and schools, individually and collectively (Watson & Michael, 2016). Schools are steered from a distance by performance measurements, surveillance and monitoring (Lingard, Seller & Lewis, 2017) which puts local school actors under a constant gaze (Holloway & Brass, 2018) and an endless pressure to perform.

In this paper I will examine the dynamic interactions of knowledge and power in the relationship between local school actors and the national agency for education in the context of a Swedish national school improvement programme called Co-operation for the Best School Possible (CBS). Foucault’s theories on power are utilized to understand how power relations and interactions between the national and local level in the Swedish education system can be understood in light of the global governance trends painted above. Power according to Foucault ‘is exercised rather than possessed’ (Foucault, 1995, p. 26) and it works in capillary manners. A framework including sovereign, disciplinary and pastoral power as well as the concept of governmentality will allow for a careful study of visible traces of subtle and intricate ways of steering in a complex multi-layered education system such as Sweden’s.

This article analyses different forms of power visible in a state-initiated school improvement programme using a Foucauldian framework. One important contribution a critical analysis can make is to question the common sensical, but furthermore Foucault gives us words to make the exercises of power recognisable. When we can recognise and assign words to the power being exercised, we also enhance our options for participating in relations of power. Thus, the aim is to is to explore the power relations between the Swedish National Agency of Education (SNAE) and the local school actors and how power operates and is exercised in a large-scale state-initiated school improvement programme. Through documents and citations from stakeholders in one municipality, these different modes of power are exemplified and highlighted in this article. By using Foucault, the formation and mode of subjection as well as techniques used to achieve them are at the foreground of the analysis (Foucault, 1982).  

The materials used in this article come from a case study in a small municipality which took part in the three-year school improvement programme. The municipality was in the final stage of the CBS programme and the schools involved were compulsory schools. The empirical material includes four kinds of data: a) documents concerning the work with the CBS programme in the municipality (n = 17 documents, including situation assessments, action plans and final reports); b) meeting observations (n = 8 and a two-day closing conference); c) semi-structured interviews with headteachers (HT), local politicians (LP) and staff at the local education authorities (LEA) (n = 10); and d) national documents concerning CBS (n = 3). As regards the method of analysis, a reflexive thematic analysis will be deployed following Braun and Clarke’s conceptualisation of the methodology (Braun & Clarke, 2019, 2021). Braun and Clarke clearly state that thematic analysis has a distinct theoretical base, and the analysis takes its departure from defined themes rather than content. I take a deductive theory-driven approach to coding with predefined themes. ‘[A] deductive approach is useful for honing in on a particular aspect of the data or a specific finding that could be best illuminated or understood in the context of a pre-existing theory or frame’ (Kiger & Varpio, 2020, p. 3). The material has initially been scanned to try to understand how the local actors perceive the relationship with the SNAE within CBS. The theoretical model based on Foucault was used to focus the analysis on how power is exercised within that relationship and in this context. In that way the analysis process resembles what Jackson and Mazzei (2023) describe as ‘thinking with theory’. The findings will be presented as (‘creative and interpretive stories about the data’ Braun & Clarke, 2019, p. 596, emphasis in original). Hence, there is no claim of investigating intentions or cognitions of the participants, but the analysis approach will enable me to focus on the entangled exercises of power within the relationship between the local and national level in the CBS-context.

In the initial analysis of the material four overarching themes have been identified: The Power of the Spectacle, the Fear of the Inspection, The Almighty Systematic Quality Assurance work, and Governing through Self-evaluation. Being chosen to participate in CBS is being part of a spectacle. The basis for the selection of schools to participate in CBS is negative. It is based on the Inspectorate’s reports and school results, which are all public documents. Thus, at the start of CBS, the municipal actors have recently been put through the disciplinary and normalising gaze of the Inspectorate. The threat of the Inspectorate is something that can be seen throughout both the interviews and the observations. Phrases like, ‘if the Inspectorate comes’ or ‘We’ll be ready when they come’, denote a certain fear of the Inspectorate. A lot of time and effort is placed on systematic quality assurance (SQA) work in CBS. It is something that permeates the doings and the everyday lives of the school actors. The SQA work has elements of both the synopticon and the panopticon as the forms used and the standards and norms to aspire for are set by external actors. Throughout the CBS programme there are reports to fill in that should be sent to the SNAE. The reports that the local school actors must fill in all revolve around the issue of self-evaluation. The preliminary analysis thus points to that that all power modes are visible in the case example, but foremost the softer modes of governing aimed at self-regulation are most palpable. By using an analytical language based on Foucault the exercise of power is made recognisable. When we can recognise and assign words to the power being exercised, we also enhance our options for participation in relations of power.

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