Within the tradition of curriculum theory, the societal arena has primarily been regarded as a national one. We would claim, however, that today international organisations such as the OECD and the EU also have to be taken into account, together with other transnational collaborations and influences, if we are to be able to interpret the societal arena for education in an adequate way and offer plausible explanations for curriculum changes (Dale & Robertson, 2009; Grek et al, 2009). Here, therefore, we will mainly discuss curriculum changes in the societal arena from an international perspective, although this does not mean that that is the whole picture. Rather, we believe that every country responds to influences from transnational arenas in its own specific way. The point is that all countries respond in some way; that is, international relations and impacts cannot be ignored. Our aim is to examine Europeanisation and cross-national collaborations and comparisons in relation to the development of the Swedish educational reform of 1991, and in particular their implications for the recently implemented curriculum reform of 2011 (National Agency for Education, 2011).

In this paper we will answer the following questions in relation to international policy flows: How can the dominant conception of education in Sweden be understood at the beginning of the 21st century? And, as a supplementary question: What implications does this conception have for the Swedish curriculum reform of 2011?

Our starting point is the Swedish educational reform of 1991 and its specific features. Drawing on a theoretical framework of curriculum theory, with its different arenas for analysis – the societal arena and the curriculum arena (cf. Lundgren 1989, Englund 2005) – we analyse the development of this reform from 1991 onwards. In the first part of the paper, the principles underlying the reform are explored and the societal context for education is examined. In the second part, the focus is on the concrete arena of governance and curriculum, and the conception of curriculum in the Swedish curriculum reform of 2011. In the third and final part, we draw a number of conclusions concerning changes in conceptions of education and curriculum arising from transnational policy pressures and dominant curriculum discourses.

The societal arena is characterised by cooperation and agreements within transnational member organisations such as the OECD and the EU in arenas which used to be, for the most part, purely national concerns (Wahlström, 2010; Young, 2008). The forms of knowledge that are selected and emphasised include both basic knowledge and key competences that students are expected to be able to develop during their schooling. Thus, the discourse of the societal arena is characterised by an internationalisation of educational policy, with a focus on competences, standards and collaborating networks (f.x. The European Commission, 2008). A central issue is how formalised standards-based reforms are translated into national curriculum constructions and content. In the case of Sweden, there has been a remarkable silence in national educational politics and policymaking concerning different valid knowledge claims in the curriculum context.

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