Abstract
The school law has strengthened the rights for the pupils and parents not only through the possibility to choose the school but also to test decisions taken by the law in court. The state inspection has a great number of possibilities to act against schools that don’t fulfill the law.
When the principal needed support, they gave their demands to the school owner. We call this “under-pressure”. Often the demands are about resources. These negotiations affect the relations between the principal and the school owner, as well as between principals, teachers, and parents who have often been involved.
The strong and direct state regulation of the schools, together with a separate system for the allocation of money between states and municipalities, seems to have strengthened the relation between the state and the school and weakened the relation between the schools and the municipality (Nihlfors E, Johansson O, Rektor – en stark länk i styrningen av skolan [The school principal-a strong linkage in school governing]. SNS Förlag, Stockholm, 2013).
At the same time, well-educated, dedicated board members with an interest in education work as spare-time politicians and want to make a difference. The communication with the principals is not frequent, and they heavily rely on the information from the superintendent. Also the board members look to the national level and trust the state inspection more than they trust their own evaluations.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
When National Policy meets Local Implementation Structures, SRC 2009–2013.
References
Boström, V., & Lundmark, K. (2012). Skoljuridik [School law]. Malmø: Liber.
Holmgren, M., Johansson, O., Nihlfors, E., & Scott, P. (2012). Local school governance in Sweden: Boards, parents and democracy. Journal of School Public relations, 33(1), 8–28.
Holmgren, M., Johansson, O., & Nihlfors, E. (2013). Sweden: Centralization and decentralization as implementation strategies. In L. Moos (Ed.), Transnational influences on values and practices in Nordic educational leadership—Is there a Nordic model? Dordrecht: Springer.
Hudson, C. (2007). Governing the governance of education: The state strikes back? European Educational Research Journal, 6(3), 266–282.
Lindensjö, B., & Lundgren, U. P. (2000). Utbildningsreformer och politisk styrning [Educational reforms and political governance]. Stockholm: HLS Förlag.
Lundahl, L. (2005). A matter of self-governance and control. European Education, 37(1), 10–25.
Lundquist, L. (1992). Förvaltning, Stat, Samhälle [Civil service, state, society]. Stockholm: Studentlitteratur.
Myrlund, H. (2011). Styra med mål eller medel [Governing with objectives or means]. In J. Höög & O. Johansson (Eds.), Struktur, kultur, lederskap—förutsättningar för framgångsrika skolor [Structure, culture, leadership—Preconditions for successful schools]. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Nihlfors, E. (2003). Scholchefen i skolans styrning og ledning [The superintendent in governance and leadership of the school] (Uppsala studies in education, 102). Uppsala: Uppsala University, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Nihlfors, E., & Johansson, O. (2013). Rektor—en stark länk i styrningen av skolan [The school principal—A strong linkage in school governing]. Stockholm: SNS Förlag.
Segerholm, C. (2009). We are doing well on QAE’: The case of Sweden. Journal of Education Policy, 24(2), 195–209.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Johansson, O., Nihlfors, E., Steen, L.J. (2014). School Boards in Sweden. In: Moos, L., Paulsen, J. (eds) School Boards in the Governance Process. Educational Governance Research, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05494-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05494-0_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-05493-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-05494-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)