Evidence in the History of School Reforms in Sweden

Abstract

This chapter addresses the question of what counts as evidence in education from a historical perspective, with a focus on how different knowledge traditions have informed policy-making and educational reforms in Sweden. Four phases are identified. In the first phase during the post-war welfare expansion from the late 1940s to the 1960s, the rational planning of education was led by values such as equality of justice, solidarity, social security, and social mobility, and it was underpinned by scientific knowledge. The educational researcher was given an expert role and an adversarial mode of policy research emerged. During the second phase from the 1970s to the 1990s, this research role was called into question when, for example, the sociology of education brought democracy and equity dimensions into the policy exchange. Alongside the interpretative, qualitative research paradigm being challenging, the practice turn with professionally-relevant knowledge took place in the third phase of restructuring reforms in the 1990s. The fourth, current, contemporary phase is characterized by a downward shift toward immanence and instrumentalization as research is increasingly becoming a means for “what works” during the present performative accountability reforms. The chapter ends with some challenges for the future of educational research in the Nordic countries.