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Comprehensive schoolcurriculum reform: theSwedish experienceGunilla SvingbyPublished online: 24 May 2006.

To cite this article: Gunilla Svingby (1990) Comprehensive school curriculumreform: the Swedish experience, The Curriculum Journal, 1:3, 323-331, DOI:10.1080/0958517900010310

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THE CURRICULUM JOURNAL Vol. 1 No. 3

Comprehensive schoolcurriculum reform: the Swedish

experienceGUNILLA SVINGBY

In 1989 a parliamentary proposition was passed which said that from now onteachers would be hired by one of the 276 local governments instead of by thestate. The proposition was passed in spite of an extensive teacher protest againstit. Teachers walked out of their classrooms, leaving their pupils, and demon-strated on the streets, rattling their classroom keys. The proposition was,however, only another step in an ongoing process of transforming theorganization of the comprehensive school in Sweden from a system character-ized by central direction and control to a more decentralized system.

The proposition was therefore part of a package that also contained other moreor less controversial components. The whole both signalled a possible directionfor the 1990s and summarized the tendencies of the 1980s.

I shall try to describe the characteristic aspects of the last decade's changes,starting with a short description of the historical background, and also discusspossible future lines of development.

The process of decentralization started more than ten years ago. In 1978 vitalparts of the, until then, strictly centralized steering system for the control ofresources and administration was replaced by a system of local control over theseframe factors for teaching.

THE F O U N D I N G O F THE COMPREHENSIVE S C H O O L

The highly centralized system was temporary, having been instituted with thefounding of the comprehensive school system in 1962. Before that time

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schooling had been characterized by a relatively low level of central direction.Comprehensive schools educate all children in Sweden from the age of seven tothe age of sixteen. They replaced three earlier types of school: the elite schools forboys and girls respectively and the schools for ordinary people.

The comprehensive system was not welcomed by everybody. Many teachersworking in the elite schools in 1962 were opposed to the idea of a school forstudents of all abilities, aspirations and backgrounds. They expected a rapid fall instandards. More than ten thousand teachers signed a formal protest. Actualresearch also showed that the goals of the teachers varied significantly, dependingupon the form of school in which they had been teaching (Bromsjö, 1965).

Their protest mirrored a similar conflict in the political arena. The comprehen-sive school was promoted by the Social Democrats as a means of ensuringequality, whereas the right-wing politicians outlined other solutions to theproblem of supporting a growing economy with a greater quantity of qualifiedyouth. The protest was also an expression of the tension between two differentand rival educational philosophies, that is, between the essentialism that hadcharacterized the elite schools and the progressivism of the schools for themasses. In the Swedish setting this was often reduced to a conflict between(subject) knowledge and pupil needs. Since then this conflict has been a constantsource of frustration and irritation.

SYSTEMS FOR STEERING

In this situation the government felt the need for a strict system of regulationsand directions for the schools. The system for central steering had three

Economic Social Politicalstructure

I Administrative JudicialCurriculum apparatus apparatus

I I IGoal Frame Formal rule

system system system

I I IGoverning Constraining Regulating

Educational process

Psychological conceptual apparatus

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SWEDISH COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL REFORM 325

components, as described by Lundgren (1977). The goal system, the framesystem and the formal rule system govern, constrain and regulate the work of theschool. The substance of all three systems results from decisions taken at levelsabove the educational process itself.

Of the three systems, the goal system was the weakest. There were noexaminations, no examination boards and no specified objectives.

THE CURRICULUM GUIDELINES

The goal system consisted mainly of following the first paragraph of the SchoolLaw and the Curriculum Guidelines. The guidelines are, in a way, a veryimportant document. Their importance is illustrated by the procedure fordeveloping new guidelines. The initiative comes from the government. Theactual development work is done by the National Board of Education with thehelp of experts and a broad range of groups representing the major organizationsof Sweden. (This description applies to the latest revision of the guidelines,whereas the earlier ones were produced in slightly different ways.) After havingbeen circulated for comments they are discussed and finally passed byparliament. So far the guidelines have been accepted by all political parties. Theversion passed by parliament will obviously be a compromise between differentinterests and ideologies, so the guidelines tend to be quite general and notspecified in any detail.

The Curriculum Guidelines are the official political expression of aims for thecomprehensive school. They are of importance as a political document, but theyhave also been treated as a potent instrument for change. In reality, in everydayschool life, the guidelines play an unimportant role, except for one thing. Theydo specify the subjects that have to be taught to all pupils and the amount of timethat has to be spent on every subject over the nine years of schooling. This issomething that is not open to local decisions. In the secondary stage (14—16)students study the same specified subjects, for the required amount of time,shown in the table below (p. 326).

The timetable thus frames the teaching in an important way while playing aninsignificant role in the practicalities of teaching. What is to be studied and how isexpressed in terms of general principles in the guidelines. Under a specific subjectheading, the content is described in broad terms only.

TEXTBOOKS

Most teachers do not seem to relate their teaching specifically to the guidelines.Textbooks and discussions with colleagues play the major role in decisions aboutactual teaching. Teachers obviously treat textbooks as if they were concretedeductions from the guidelines, although this is hardly true for most textbooks.

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326 THE CURRICULUM JOURNAL Vol. 1 No. 3

Subjects Hours per week perstage''

Child study 1Arts 5English 9Home economics 4Sport 9Mathematics 12Music 2Orientation subjects** 32

Social education (17)Natural sciences (15)

Handicrafts 5Swedish 10Free choice*** 11

Total 100

Source: Ldroplan for Grundskolan, Allman del (1980) (The Curriculum Guide-lines). Stockholm: Skoloverstyrelsen (The National Board of Education).

* For each subject the total number of weekly hours is prescribed. Thedistribution of these hours is not described. This means that all student in a schoolmust spend a total amount of four hours a week on Home Economics, but theschool can choose to teach the subject, for instance, as two hours a week in gradeseight and nine or as four hours a week in grade seven.** Social Education and the Natural Sciences are treated in the guidelines as oneintegrated whole but are also specified as History, Civics, Geography andReligion, and Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Technology respectively.»»* These hours are free for students to choose between various courses on offer.

Curiously enough, Swedish textbooks have been largely uninfluenced by thestate (although there is a National Board for controlling the objectivity oftextbooks in the Social Sciences). Textbooks are produced for the market by thetextbook industry.

The effect of this has been a gap between the aims stated in the guidelines andthe actual teaching, with a similar gap between the guidelines and textbooks. Astate committee has been working on the problem and, in 1989, allocatedmoney for more in-depth analysis of the textbook market and for thedevelopment of alternative textbooks in line with the guidelines. A strongerinterest and perhaps some state intervention in the textbook market maycharacterize the coming decade, although the overriding tendency is towardsless central government.

From what has been said above, it could be construed that whereas theframework of teaching may be controlled by the state, the teaching itself has been

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left largely independent. Studies show that teachers have gone on teaching as theywere doing in the old types of school (Lundgren, 1972; Svingby, 1978). In orderto change this situation a variety of central direction has been tried, but with littlesuccess.

DECENTRALIZATION

Decentralization was the growing trend during the 1980s, as the centralgovernment of schools was shown to be ineffective. Decentralizing theorganization of the school parallels a tendency in society at large, and means thatthe traditionally 'strong state' is loosening its grip and allowing for local, and tosome extent even for private initiatives in the social and welfare sectors. (Privateschools are allowed in Sweden, but they work under economic pressure. Only asmall percentage of children attend them.) Behind this shift lie economic as wellas political factors. The expenses of the public sector have grown, whereas publicwillingness to pay taxes has dwindled. The political space for state interventionseems likely to be reduced still more in the years to come.

EFFICIENCY

Removing some of the responsibilities for the school sector from central to localgovernment can also thus be seen as a way of reducing state costs for thecomprehensive school.

There is a growing interest in the efficiency of the school system. During theyears of economic expansion the comprehensive school in Sweden also increasedits costs. In the less profitable 1980s and 1990s these costs will be scrutinized.Swedish schools are said to be among the most expensive in the world.

The efficiency of the comprehensive school has been questioned from twodifferent perspectives. First, national and international studies have indicated thatstudent prowess has been less outstanding than was hoped for. The nation wasshocked by information given in the media that the knowledge of Mathematicsdisplayed by Swedish children aged 14 was comparable with children from somesmall African country. A large sum of money was immediately allocated forin-service training of teachers. A National Committee, headed by the Presidentof the Royal Swedish Academy for Science, was summoned. Their investigationresulted in a picture with many nuances, but the question of efficiency stillremains an important issue. Are schools making efficient use of all the moneythey get? Do children learn enough? Do they learn as much as we did when wewent to school?

A second challenge to the effectiveness of the comprehensive school comesfrom those groups who see the school as a means of changing society towards

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328 THE CURRICULUM JOURNAL Vol. 1 No. 3

greater equality and solidarity. When the late Olof Palme was Minister ofEducation he uttered the now famous words: 'The school has to become a speartowards the future.' There are signs, however, indicating that the effect onequality and on democratic values is much less than had been aimed for.

Both points of view question the relationship - or rather the gap - betweenactual teaching and the aims and directions of the Curriculum Guidelines.

A TEACHER FOR THE COMPREHENSIVES C H O O L

The gap between the centrally stated aims and the reality in the classroom hasgiven rise to other important changes. One such was the introduction of a newsystem for teacher education in 1989. The earlier system split the teachers alongtwo major lines, for the primary stage (grades 1-6) and for the secondary stage(grades 7-9). Their education followed different traditions and were in manyimportant ways definitively different.

These differences could be described in accordance with the traditions of theearlier school types: that is, the education of primary teachers following aprogressivist tradition and the education of secondary teachers following anessentialist tradition (Englund, 1986). In order to promote the reconstructivistintentions of the guidelines and to reduce the traditional tensions between the twogroups of teachers, a new common form of teacher education was introduced.

N A T I O N A L EVALUATION - CENTRAL C O N T R O LOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT?

A need for better information about what is learnt and what is done in schoolsarose during the second part of the 1980s. According to the Ministry ofEducation, evaluation will be the hallmark of school policy for the 1990s.

Accordingly, in 1989, the first part of a Programme for National Evaluationwas initiated. The programme aims to give a broad description and analysis ofteaching, its frame factors and its results. It is thus not restricted to assessmentsbut covers other aspects like the local school organization, the use of resources,and even the socio-economic status of the school area. The assessment partcovers the traditional subjects of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic but also theNatural Sciences, the Social Sciences, History, Music and the Arts.

The Programme has been described as a way of making teachers and schoolleaders become more professional. By taking part in the National EvaluationProgramme schools will, it is said, know their weaknesses and strengths betterand thus will have a better chance of improving their teaching.

This view has been questioned (Francke-Wikberg, 1990). Critics say that

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National Evaluation will, in fact, lead to deprofessionalization. The teachers willbe evaluated and their students assessed. The test items will specify in detail whatshall be seen as the course, thus reducing the freedom of teachers. There is amarked conflict, the critics say, between the needs of a National Evaluation andthe needs of local schools. A national programme tends to look for easilymeasurable assessment items, that can be transformed into means and profiles,whereas the local school is best suited to qualitative information which describesand explains in depth.

There is a possibility that the National Evaluation Programme will developinto a powerful instrument for direction and control. By the use of test items thatare supposed to describe the knowledge of students on a national level, theprogramme can prescribe teaching much more specifically than the CurriculumGuidelines. The programme could become comparable to examination ques-tions. The question of validity will thus be one of extreme importance.

Is it possible to assess, on a national level, a variety of goals? If not, there is arisk that the programme will reinforce some aspects and, at the same time,weaken others. It is obvious that factual knowledge and instrumental skills aremuch easier to measure than complex cognitive abilities, democratic values,empathy, potentiality to reflect and to use your skills - all qualities that are highlyfavoured by the Curriculum Guidelines. The programme may thus have an effecton teaching that is contrary to the official goals for the comprehensive school.

THE N A T I O N A L BOARD O F E D U C A T I O N

Criticism of the school system has also produced changes at the central authoritylevel. The board employs nearly two hundred people and has done many of thetasks that are done in other countries by a Ministry of Education. It has had themandate to control, direct and supervise all comprehensive schools in Swedenand grew in importance during the period of the establishment of comprehensiveschooling. During the 1980s its status was frequently questioned. Its budget hasbeen reduced and its mandate is being scrutinized by a committee workingdirectly under the minister.

INTEGRATED COURSES OR SUBJECT COURSES?

The question of integrating subjects within the field of the Social Sciences andHistory as well as within the Natural Sciences was a recurrent source ofdisagreement throughout the 1980s. The National Board of Education has beenpromoting integration whereas interest groups like subject unions and mostpolitical parties other than the Social Democrats demand that subjects be taughtseparately. An official commentary book on the Curriculum Guidelines which is

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being published by the National Board in 1990 treats the fields as integrated ones,but in the actual teaching in the upper stages of the comprehensive school thesubjects are mostly kept apart.

WHAT WILL CHARACTERIZE T H E 1990s?

Swedish children today start school at the age of seven after having spent acompulsory pre-school year. Comprehensive schooling then takes nine years.There is pressure from the Ministry of Finance to save money by making schoolscomprehensive from the age of six. (Such a saving would be possible because ofthe fact that pre-schools use more resources than the comprehensive school.)There are other voices that want the comprehensive school to expand to take inanother two years. As about 90 per cent of students today enter the uppersecondary school, with the majority of them spending two years there, such areform would merely mean a confirmation of the actual situation. There seems tobe a majority in parliament in favour of such changes, if the necessary money canbe made available.

There is also broad political agreement on the necessity of continuing theprocess of decentralization, which means the transferring of costs and responsi-bilities to local government. But when right-wing parties suggest a situation ofopen competition between schools, including the freedom of parents to sendtheir children to whatever school they choose instead of to the school closest totheir home, that agreement comes to an end. The shift towards decentralizedpower may result in more contact between the school—its teachers and personnel— and parents. Such contact is now relatively rare and parental influence is weak.A locally governed school will evoke more direct interest from local politiciansand the local electorate — which includes parents. Local pressure on the schoolwill probably rise.

If right-wing parties takes over the government at the next election, they havepromised to reintroduce the old system of marking students. Instead of givingmarks only in the last two years of the comprehensive, which is now the rule,they want marks to be given every year from the beginning of school. Once inpower they have also promised to strengthen subjects against attacks fromprogressivists and integrationists.

The pressure on the government to save money in the public sector will nodoubt continue, which means continuous pressure on schools and on teachers tobecome more effective.

However, as there are still strong interest groups advocating the democraticpotentiality of the school, the future is in no way determined. The training of aunitary comprehensive teacher through the new kind of teacher education will,in a few years, mean a change in the traditional subject-bound identity of teachersof the upper stage (grades 7-9) of the comprehensive school to a more

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child-centred perspective. Will the old conflict between the child and the subjectthen fade and give way to other conflicts?

REFERENCES

Bromsjö, B. (1965) Samhällskunskap som skolämne (Civics as a School Subject).Stockholm: Scandinavian University Books.

Englund.T. (1986) Curriculum as a Political Problem. Changing Educational Conceptionswith Special Reference to Citizenship Education. Uppsala Studies in Education 25.

Francke-Wikberg, S. (1960) (ed.) Fern professorer tar ordet (Five Professors of EducationSpeak Out). Stockholm: Högskolan för Lärarutbildning.

Lundgren, U. P. (1972) Frame Factors and the Teaching Process. Stockholm: Almqvist &Wiksell.

Lundgren, U. P. (1977) Model Analysis of Pedagogical Processes. Stockholm: Institute ofEducation, Department of Educational Research.

Svingby, G. (1978) Läroplaner som styrmedel för svensk obligatorisk skola (CurriculumGuidelines as a Means to Control and Direct the Swedish Comprehensive School).Göteborg Studies in Educational Sciences.

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