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Scientists, Engineers and the Society of Free Choice: Enrollment as Policy and Practice in Swedish Science and Technology Education 1960–1990

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Abstract

This article portrays the formation of a new problem area within Swedish educational policy in the 1960s, namely the need of scientific manpower and the demands to entice more individuals into studies in science and technology. As a consequence school science was given the mission to be interesting, fun and to change young people’s attitudes towards these subjects. In the 1970s and 1980s many initiatives were taken to increase the numbers of applicants at high school and university levels, both within curricular frames and out-of-school activities such as science clubs. Through an approach inspired by governmentality studies, I describe the strategies deployed to remedy the problem as rationalities of liberal governmentality. The actions taken were executed in a way to make school children choose science or technology out of their free will. It was an exercise of power that was not meant to restrain but instead to enable action.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support for this research was provided by the Swedish Research Council. The author wishes to thank Professor John L. Rudolph and his graduate seminar at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Madison-Wisconsin for comments on an earlier version. Helpful comments were also given by participants at seminars in Department of History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University and Department of Education, Stockholm University. Finally I would like to thank the anonymous referees for their comments on the text.

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    Daniel Lövheim

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Lövheim, D. Scientists, Engineers and the Society of Free Choice: Enrollment as Policy and Practice in Swedish Science and Technology Education 1960–1990. Sci & Educ 23, 1763–1784 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-014-9693-y

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