Begreppet målstyrning förknippas ofta med reformerna av statsförvaltningen i slutet av 1980-talet med dess nyliberala strömningar. Men målstyrning har använts längre än så, även i skolan. I denna bok visar tre initierade forskare hur staten genom centrala styrdokument - läroplaner, skolförordningar och skollagar - formulerat regler och visioner om skolans mål ända sedan tidigt 1900-tal.

Författarna belyser även de normer och praktiker som lärarna förknippat med olika mål. Det visar sig att lärarna bidragit till etablerandet av målstyrningen från 1920-talet och framåt, men också kritiserat statliga initiativ på området som de upplevt oförenliga med praktikens krav.  

Utvecklingen på institutionell nivå visar inte upp några radikala brott men däremot en successiv ökning av målens betydelse. Det var de progressiva idealen i mitten av 1900-talet som var drivande i framväxten, och senare just 1980-talets idéer om new public management.

Nya läroplansreformer beskrivs ofta av politikerna som radikala och banbrytande, men i denna studie blottläggs den tröghet och rätlinjighet som är mer typisk för skolans institutionella förändringar.

Teachers' implementation of and attitudes to school reforms and overriding pedagogical ideals have long been a topic of debate and research. In this article, we centre on teachers' descriptions of how progressive teaching was conducted as well as on the teachers' reasons for implementing such teaching in the 1940s. This study is based on written material consisting of 360 elementary school teachers' accounts of their teaching collected in 1946. The material was collected by a government investigation of how progressive teaching was conducted in Sweden. The accounts offer detailed descriptions of how pupils were activated and how elementary teachers at the time could use the community as a teaching resource. The article is inspired by a prosopography approach, in which the basic assumption is that it is possible to extend knowledge of social processes and societal development by studying the group profile of members of various institutions such as political or professional organisations. The analysis is based on John Dewey's and Larry Cuban's perspectives on progressivism. We found that, according to teaching the theme of pupils participation was frequently reported in 59% of the accounts, while student interaction (35%) and extended classroom (16%) were less reported. The teachers motivated their teaching on the basis of general ideals, as democracy. Also important were practical circumstances such as available teaching resources as well as physiological aspects as student's interest and development.

In this chapter Samuelsson looks at types of epistemic perspectives of history taught in Swedish elementary schools in 1920-1946. The material used consists of a large collection of 600 teachers’ descriptive accounts of teaching, as collected in 1946. The material provides a unique insight into teaching in the period, in part granting new perspectives on teaching. Even if the teachers had an objectivist perspective on history, Samuelsson argues that they also used a more constructivist perspective: Pupils worked with statistical yearbooks, collected historical artefacts and worked independently on various tasks. Samuelsson then relates these results to, among others, Klafki’s theory on teaching.