Research topic/aim

In the era of New Public Management (NPM), there is no question about the great importance of school inspection in governing schools. The Swedish School Inspectorate has since 2008 focused on detecting failures in relation to the educational legislation, and require measures to be taken from the local school authority.

The aim of this study is to illuminate processes and phenomena that occur when schools are under heavy pressure from ‘the Inspectorate’ and how their conducts and actions can be understood.

Theoretical framework

Main themes in the educational reforms in the 1990´s and further are deregulation, decentralization, privatization and freedom of choice (Lundahl, Erixon Arreman, Holm & Lundström, 2013; Rönnberg, 2012) with enhancing foci on goal attainment, legal certainty and control (Runesdotter, 2016). The ethos of the professionals is an expressed idea in public administration, which is challenged by these changes. The assertion that there is a causal relation between school´s deficiencies in relation to the educational legislation and goal attainment for schools and students is a central aspect of the study as well.

Drawing on theories about performativity and judicalization, the institutional logics of the profession, the bureaucracy and the market (Scott, 2013) are used as analytical tools. 

Methodological design

Three case studies are tuned from a number of Swedish schools, which were inspected during 2016. These three settings were selected for being sanctioned with a fine for their deficiencies. ‘The Inspectorate’ is since 2015 obliged to use the fine sanction when a school´s “…deficiencies seriously limit the students preconditions to reach the educational goals”, as the Education Act says. The empirical data consist of interviews with principals and local heads of school authorities and politicians in charge. Method used is unstructured interviews. 

Expected conclusions/findings

The local school authority needs to handle a rather fragile situation after a fine, and their conduct has a huge impact on school level. Preliminary results show highly varied strategies on school level and both examples when the discretion of the principal is great extended because of the fine, as well as the quite contrary. Further result is about the phenomenon of governing at a distance and highlights difficulties in the division of responsibilities between national and local levels, as well as problems in the hierarchical structure of the school system.

Relevance to Nordic educational research. NPM reforms and enhanced frequency of inspection are global phenomena, not the least in Scandinavia where high trust otherwise has been significant in public administration. 

Referenser

Lundahl, L., Erixon Arreman, I., Holm, A.-S., & Lundström, U. (2013). Educational marketization the Swedish way. 2013, 4(3), 497-517. 

Runesdotter, C. (2016). Avregleringens pris? Om juridifieringen av svensk skola ur skolaktörers perspektiv. Utbildning & Demokrati: Tidskrift för Didaktik och Utbildningspolitik, 25(1), 95-112. 

Rönnberg, L. (2012). Reinstating national school inspections in Sweden: The return of the state. Nordic Studies in Education, 32(2), 69-83. 

Scott, W. R. (2013). Institutions and organizations: Ideas, interests, and identities: Sage Publications.