• Corpus ID: 15030850

The Swedish Free Schools: Do they work?

@inproceedings{Wiborg2010TheSF,
  title={The Swedish Free Schools: Do they work?},
  author={Susanne Wiborg},
  year={2010}
}
This paper is a contribution to the debate in England about the new Coalition Government’s plans to encourage interested parties to set up so-called Free Schools. In developing this policy, the new Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, has said he was influenced by the introduction of Charter Schools in the USA and Free Schools in Sweden. This paper argues that, in order to understand how free schools in Sweden operate, it is paramount to see them in the context of the Swedish school… 

Privatizing Education: Free School Policy in Sweden and England

The aim of this article is to investigate why Sweden, the epitome of social democracy, has implemented education reforms leading to an extraordinary growth in Free Schools in contrast to liberal

The Development of the Academies Programme: ‘Privatising’ School-Based Education in England 1986–2013

ABSTRACT The secondary school system in England has undergone a radical transformation since 2010 with the rapid expansion of independent academies run by private companies (‘academy trusts’) and

Educational marketization the Swedish way

Sweden has commonly been regarded as a striking example of a social democratic welfare-state regime (Esping-Andersen 1996), characterized by strong state governance and active involvement in welfare

A Social Democratic Response to Market-Led Education Policies: Concession or Rejection?

This chapter analyses market-led policy on education in Scandinavia over the last 30 years. Even though Denmark, Norway and Sweden still maintain a comprehensive school system, they have,

Lessons from Elsewhere? The Evolution of the Labour Academy School Concept, 1997–2010

In the past 25 years, the English education system has experienced a substantial growth in alternative provision, that is, publicly funded schools that accept students from the general population

Exploring the Intersection of Marketisation and Central State Control through Swedish National School Inspection

This article focuses on the role of the state in the context of an increasing market orientation in Swedish education policy. It asks if and how a market orientation and privatisation can be

Neo-liberalism and universal state education: the cases of Denmark, Norway and Sweden 1980–2011

This article investigates neo-liberal policy on education in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Traditionally, the edifice of the education system in these Scandinavian countries has been built on

Evolution in Freedom? The Meanings of ‘Free School’ in Chile

ABSTRACT This article examines the background in which enterprises called free schools, as well as complementary educational activities, have taken root in Chile. Two kinds of recently burgeoning

The moral frontiers of English education policy: governmentality and ethics within an alternative provision free school

Abstract This article is a critical poststructuralist analysis of Conservative led free school policy in England focussing on claims made by the New Schools Network and in the 2010 White Paper that

The use and abuse of research in the public domain

  • A. Reid
  • Education
    The Australian Educational Researcher
  • 2015
In Australia, education think tanks have become increasingly influential in policy circles through ‘reports’ to government, and in public debate through the mainstream media. Invariably think-tanks

A Matter of Self-Governance and Control The Reconstruction of Swedish Education Policy: 1980-2003

This article critically examines the role of the State in the decentralized Swedish education system. In the last two decades, Swedish schools have become more autonomous than in most other

From Centralisation to Decentralisation: Governance of Education in Sweden

This article draws on interviews with Swedish system actors, at national and local levels, to consider the impact of changes in the governance of education in Sweden, which have been characterised as

The Choice Revolution: Privatization of Swedish Welfare Services in the 1990s

During the 1990s, the Swedish welfare state was declared by some to be in a “crisis”, due to both financial strain and loss of political support. Others have argued that the spending cuts and reforms

Still Social and Democratic? Inclusive Education Policies in the Nordic Welfare States

In this article, education policy is analysed from a welfare state perspective. The aim is to analyse the significance attributed to social‐inclusive aspects of education in contemporary education

On the Consequences of the Marketisation of Public Education in Sweden: For-Profit Charter Schools and the Emergence of the ‘market-oriented Teacher’

The entrance of for-profit charter schools into the public educational system is one of the most recent manifestations of market-based reforms in public education. Previous studies raise concerns

Sweden: decentralization, deregulation, quasi-markets - and then what?

The aims of this article are (1) to describe features of Swedish education politics over a 25 year period, with a focus on the 1990s and the first years of the 21st Century, and (2) to discuss how

Choosing for quality or inequality: current perspectives on the implementation of school choice policy in Sweden

A policy of school choice has, in various shapes, been implemented in educational systems across the world during the last decades. Drawing on various empirical and theoretical sources, the aim of

The Free Schools “Riddle”: Between traditional social democratic, neo‐liberal and multicultural tenets

The question of what role free schools should perform in the Swedish educational system has been a contested subject between three ideological, theoretical, political and policy tenets. The first,

Education and State Formation: The Rise of Education Systems in England, France, and the U.S.A.

Introduction - The Uneven Development of National Education Systems - The Social Origins of National Education Systems - Education and State Formation - Education and Statism in Continental Europe -

Does School Privatization Improve Educational Achievement? Evidence from Sweden's Voucher Reform

This paper evaluates general achievement effects of choice and competition between private and public schools at the nine-year school level by assessing a radical voucher reform that was implemented