To Örebro University

Is the most important function of education to provide students with basic skills and useful knowledge in order to eventually become employable? In many parts of the world knowledge league tables and policy documents inform us this is the case. As the question of what should form the educational content seems to be answered, teachers can concentrate on how they should teach, and researchers can concentrate on what method is the most effective. In the current rhetoric, however, many vital pedagogical issues have been placed in the background and the aesthetic subjects are downgraded. These tendencies worried Frede V. Nielsen who stated that didactic studies and philosophical inquiries yet again are needed to explore and give substance to the content dimension. Nielsen's writings on didactics form the basis for this essay, where we highlight which perspectives and dilemmas could be placed on a critical, philosophical didactic study agenda. The starting point is the field of tension between the what and the why of education.

Det hör till det läroplansteoretiska forskningsfältet att i såväl samtida som historiska kontexter analysera förhållanden mellan samhälls- och aktörsnivåer i formering och implementering av olika slags policytexter. Under det senaste decenniet har intresset för internationella relationer och transnationella policyflöden blivit ett alltmer framträdande drag inom fältet. Bland nordiskt relaterade forskare har ambitionen i flera fall varit att visa på hur utbildningspolitiska strömningar formerats och koordinerats transnationellt såväl som i förhållande till den nationella policynivån (exv. Sivesind& Wahlström, 2016; Wahlström, 2016; Wahlström & Sundberg, 2017). Samtidigt har läroplansteorin också vidareutvecklats gällande angreppssätt för att förstå nationellt knutna policyrelationer i både historiska och samtida kontexter (exv. Roman, Hallsén, Nordin & Ringarp, 2015; Baek, Hörmann, Karseth, Pizmony-Levy, Sivesind& Steiner-Khamsi, 2018).

Föreliggande konferenspaper syftar till att bidra till det läroplansteoretiska fältet genom utifrån fallstudiens ram skissera intranationella policyflöden i relationer och konfliktytor mellan skilda praktiker.  Idag finns en utbredning av olika slags profilerade skolor och specialiserade klasser i det svenska utbildningslandskapet. Möjligheten till lokala utformningar av sådana slag förenklades i och med avreglerings- och decentraliseringsreformerna i början på 1990-talet, och kan begripas som symptom på ett mer individorienterat och marknadsanpassat skolsystem. Det finns utifrån svensk kontext rimliga argument för att betrakta det successiva inrättandet av så kallade musikklasser under 1900-talet som föregångare till den mer allmänna utbredningen av profil-/specialiserade klasser (Lilliedahl, under review; Roman et al., 2015).

I ett pågående projekt av undertecknad studeras därför musikklassernas historiska framväxt och etablering i Sverige i syfte att bringa klarhet i den politiska förskjutningen. Musikklassen initierades visserligen utifrån internationella förebilder, men den politiska legitimeringen och geografiska spridningen i Sverige kallar på en intranationell förklaringsmodell som lyckas fånga både vertikala påtryckningar ”underifrån” (från kommun till stat såväl som genom mer personrelaterad lobbying) och horisontella policyflöden (interkommunala policyflöden och förhållanden mellan olika sakpolitiska intressen). Studien handlar således om att belysa skeenden när normer och värden kolliderat, förhandlats och förenats i möten mellan viljor att inrätta/bevara musikklasser å ena sidan, och strävan att upprätta/upprätthålla enhetsskolan å den andra. I detta paper riktas fokus på händelser under 1980-talet.  I den politiska förhandlingen har relationen mellan kommun och stat varit given. Den lokala skolstyrelsens hemställan om att få inrätta musikklasser genom jämkning av timplan och regeringens beslut om att medge försöksverksamhet hör dock till de minst konfliktfyllda. Mer spänningsfyllt har det varit i ideologiska skiljelinjer på kommunal nivå såväl som mellan olika sakpolitiska områden (utbildnings-/kulturpolitik). Vidare har sådana slags konflikter förekommit mellan politik och förvaltning, mellan nivåer inom enskilda politiska partier samt inte minst knutna till enskilda personer i maktposition. Av materialet framstår även ”dolda relationer” som betydelsefulla, närmare bestämt den policyorienterad lobbying som ägt rum genom informella möten, telefonsamtal och korrespondens mellan förespråkare och politiska makthavare. Sammantaget har den formella och informella förhandlingen varit ideologiskt grundad samtidigt som ekonomiska och juridiska förutsättningar också spelat en central roll för intranationella policyflöden och därigenom etableringen av musikprofilerade klasser.  Vid presentationen kommer jag att visa på en modell för att begripa ett slags intranationellt nätverk i vilket jag placerar historiska policyflöden från min fallstudie. Min förhoppning är att på detta sätt ge förslag på hur relationerna kan begripas, med önskemål om inspel från konferensdeltagare till en diskussion om alternativa sätt att betrakta och orientera sig i det utbildningspolitiska landskapet under den aktuella perioden.

Referenser

Baek, C., Hörmann, B., Karseth, B., Pizmony-Levy, O., Sivesind, K, & Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2018). Policy learning in Norwegian school reform: a social network analysis of the 2020 incremental reform. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 4(1), 24-37.

Roman, H., Hallsén, S., Nordin, A., Ringarp, J. (2015). Who governs the Swedish school? Local school policy research from a historical and transnational curriculum theory perspective. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 2015(1), 81-94.

Sivesind, K., &Wahlström, N. (2016). Curriculum on the European policy agenda: Global transitions and learning outcomes from transnational and national points of view. European Educational Research Journal, 15(3), 271-278.

Wahlström, N. (2016). A third wave of European education policy: Transnational and national conceptions of knowledge in Swedish curricula. European Educational Research Journal, 15(3), 298-313.

Wahlström, N., & Sundberg, D. (2017). Discursive institutionalism towards a framework for analysing the relation between policy and curriculum. Journal ofEducation Policy, 33(1), 163-183.

Educational research has shown the importance of adopting a multimodal approach to pedagogy by combining, integrating, and organizing diverse semiotic resources for learning. As aesthetic content and forms are significant aspects of multimodality, arts integration is crucial to achieve multimodal knowledge practices. In this paper, we develop a conceptual framework for analysing, discussing, and designing arts-integrated processes of teaching and learning. The framework integrates a social semiotic theory of multimodality and the Legitimation Code Theory of Semantics as a methodology through which teachers may avoid segmental learning practices in favour of an arts-integrated cumulative pedagogy. In this way, multimodal approaches to text and context relate to a social realist view on knowledge building, where boundaries between knowledge practices are weakened and meaning is condensed through processes of cumulative learning.

This study examines parental involvement in urban public schools, focusing on how parents in organised school-centred networks support, navigate, and negotiate from their different social positions. The multiple case study of specialised music programmes provides insights into parent strategies and behaviours in intermediate practices between school-based socialisation and extracurricular activities largely run by the parents associations.

The paper draws on data from in-depth focus group interviews with members of parents associations in socially, culturally, and historically different schools. Findings demonstrate that parent approaches to specialised education and their modes of involvement vary according to social class, resources, and school culture. There are class-based differences in parent strategies and the way their collective symbolic capital is used in policy negotiation. However, relationships between a parents association and the school administration are generally regulated by the social and cultural history of a particular school.

This paper explores the notion of visibility as a recontextualising principle, especially in the era of the political New Right. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Bernstein, Legitimation Code Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis, the paper aims to illuminate the relationship of visibility – invisibility as a dialectical, relative (+/-C, +/-F) and explanatory concept additional to theories of Legitimation, Specialisation and Autonomy. More specifically, it can be argued that the most significant principle of recontextualisation and legitimation – i.e. when the recontextualising processes are regulated by the New Right – is a highly classified and strongly framed visibility (+C, +F) of epistemic–social–pragmatic relations.

I föreliggande paper behandlas estetiska ämnens formering, det vill säga hur estetiska ämnen tillskrivs mening, innehåll och form. I detta sammanhang kan sägas att ämnenas formering i betydande utsträckning är en fråga om definitioner som görs kontinuerligt av olika professionella praktiker (jfr Bernstein, 2000; Maton, 2014; Lilliedahl, 2013): i akademiska basdiscipliner (såsom musikvetenskap, konstvetenskap etc.), genom lärarutbildningen (som särskilt professionsområde), av staten och dess myndigheters preciseringar av skolämnen, inom ramen för den pedagogiska praktiken (de yrkesverksammas kollegier) samt av civilsamhällets professionella aktörer och intresseorganisationer. Dessutom påverkas ämnenas formering av samhällets övergripande intressen, historiska skeenden och inte minst kulturella sammanhang i vid bemärkelse (vardagskultur, populärkultur, teknologiska framsteg, kommersiella intressen etc. – se exv. Ericsson & Lindgren (2011) och Erixon (2014)).

I paper-presentationen fokuseras estetiska ämnens formering i ett lärarutbildningssammanhang och med följande frågeställning: Hur kan formeringen av estetiska ämnen i lärarutbildning förstås?

Svaret på frågan kommer huvudsakligen ges i form av en fältteori genom vilken estetiska ämnen i lärarutbildning förklaras som rekontextualiserad kunskap och mening inom ramen för ett professionsområde. Med detta menas att estetiska ämnen i lärarutbildning kan begripas som något unikt sammansatt utifrån principer, kunskaper och idéer från flertalet teorier och sociala praktiker (såsom akademiska discipliner, didaktiska teorier, utbildningspolitik etc.). Genom nedslag i några olika lärarutbildningar ges exempel på hur denna rekontextualisering även är en fråga om förändringar över tid och rum.

Referenser

Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique (2 uppl.), Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publ., Inc.

Ericsson, C. & Lindgren, M. (red.). (2011). Perspektiv på populärmusik och skola. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Erixson, P-O. (red.). (2014). Skolämnen i digital förändring: En medieekologisk undersökning. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Maton, K. (2014). Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a realist sociology of education. London: Routledge.

Lilliedahl, J. (2013). Musik i (ut)bildning: Gränsdragningar och inramningar i läroplans(kon)texter. Avhandling, Örebro universitet.

I denna paper presentation görs försök till en kontextuell inramning av talet om "praktiska och estetiska lärprocesser". Underliggande frågor är hur förekomsten av begreppet "praktiska och estetiska lärprocesser" kan förstås samt vilken innebörd som på policynivå lagts i "det praktiska" och "det estetiska" som innehåll och form. Den förståelse som här eftersöks förmedlas genom en förklarande referensram byggd på en läroplansteoretisk ansats med diskursanalytiska och kunskapssociologiska drag.

Presentationen kommer att fokusera på två förklaringsmodeller. I ett första läge begrips "det praktiska" och "det estetiska" som utfall av klassificeringsbehov. Praktiska och/eller estetiska ämnen, innehåll eller lär-processer blir på så vis särskilda andra typer av ämnen, innehåll eller lärprocesser. I ett andra läge kommer sådana gränsdragningar att sättas samman med de inramningar som svensk utbildningspolicy formerat sedan initiativen till allmän grund- och gymnasieskola och intill vår samtid. Presentationstiden rymmer inte mer än en skissering av några betydelsebärande drag i den pedagogiska diskursen. Därför kommer fokus att läggas på transformeringar i förhållande till reproduktiva drag, särskilt ifråga om "det estetiska".

En central poäng är att synen på "det estetiska" i hög grad styrts av en övergripande pedagogisk diskurs. Mitt sätt att beskriva en slags transformering i termer av "från estetisk fostran till estetiska lärprocesser" avser att säga något om den förändrade synen på "det estetiska", men samtidigt också bli ett innehållsfokuserat exempel på skiftningar i en mer allmän pedagogisk diskurs.

This article examines a specific localisation issue concerning a municipal comprehensive school in the city of Västerås, Sweden, that was brought about by two state reforms between 1989 and 1992: a) the decentralisation of the education system, and b) the introduction of school vouchers. The municipal school in question closed for the academic year 1991/1992, then re-emerged as an independent school one year later. My case study illustrates how, in historical perspective, financial reforms can affect the provision and funding of local schools in the political landscape of public–private partnerships. Documents from city archives and local newspaper accounts of the extensive debate form the basis of the analysis. A multiple streams framework is used to conceptualise the relationship between problems, policies, and politics. Policy entrepreneurs and time-specific windows of opportunities are identified as crucial to the historical understanding of how the multiple streams were coupled in the local policy landscape for the funding of schools.

This paper explores the declining trend of fine arts education in secondary schools. We examine mechanisms that may explain this phenomenon on structural levels of policymaking and policy implementation in different areas of the education system. What will be defined as the “selection device” refers to the structurally determined selection of educational content at various policy levels of society. We argue that the choices politicians, principals, students, and parents make are regulated by “nudging” as an underlying principle of the selective device. By presenting students with “rational choice” alternatives, they are gently pressuring them away from selecting arts courses. This redirection is discursively conveyed by schools, but systematically governed by national and international guidelines in which the fine arts have a relatively low status. The declining legitimacy of arts subjects in secondary education can thus be seen as an outcome of policies embedded in the education system. By manipulating the features of the selection device, the transnational movement of the New Right exerts control over educational policy.

Föreliggande paper belyser den mening läroplansteori tillskrivits som utbildningsinnehåll i svensk lärarutbildning. Utgångspunkten för studien är examensordningens föreskrift att samtliga lärarutbildningsprogram ska inbegripa läroplansteori som innehåll i den utbildningsvetenskapliga kärnan, samtidigt som de realiserande lärosätena ofrånkomligen behöver tolka innebörden i begreppet läroplansteori och relativt självständigt inplacera innehållet i den lokala lärar-utbildningens utformning. Utifrån syftet att begripa vilken mening läroplansteorin kommit att tillskrivas, utmejslas studiens resultat genom analyser av lokalt formulerade utbildnings- och kursplaner för utbildningens utformning och genomförande. Det analytiska ramverket består av en Bernsteiniansk ansats med särskilt fokus på hur läroplansteorin klassificerats såväl som i förhållande till vad som enligt Legitimation Code Theory definieras som semantiska koder. De senare avser att beteckna innehållets teoretiska förtätning i förhållande till dess kontextuella anknytning. 

Utifrån analyser av policytexter från 20 lärosäten menas att tolkningen av läroplansteorins innebörd varierar över den spännvidd som samtliga lärosäten bidrar till att skapa. Somliga lärosäten har organiserat läroplansteori och didaktik relativt särhållet, medan andra verkar ha orienterat sig kring innehållet utifrån ett slags integrerande kod där läroplansteorins innebörd smälts samman med främst allmän utbildningshistoria, skolans organisation och styrning, didaktikens grund-läggande frågor och läraruppdraget, men i vissa fall vidare än så. Utöver variationen av uppfattningar om läroplansteorins innebörd, varierar även i vilken grad läroplansteorin tillmätts betydelse i lärarutbildningen. Vidare framkommer ur materialet skiftande förhållningssätt beträffande i vilken grad läroplansteori är att betrakta som teori relativt praktisk yrkeskunskap i beaktande av den kommande yrkespraktiken. Därav påkallas en diskussion om läroplansteorins samtida ställning i svensk lärarutbildning, dels ifråga om likvärdighet lärosäten emellan, dels vilken betydelse läroplansteori tillskrivs i förhållande till allmän- såväl som ämnesdidaktiska perspektiv.

The purpose of this dissertation is critically to illustrate discursive recontextualization between sociocultural production and reproduction, with respect to both relations within and relations to music education in Swedish upper-secondary school.

The starting point for the study is the Swedish upper-secondary school reform, Gy 2011, which has involved a marked reformulation of the agenda for music education in upper-secondary school. The general Artistic Activities disappeared, at the same time as the significance of a specialising education in the field was strengthened. This dissertation is driven by the desire to understand the results of the upper-secondary school reform by explaining the processes and principles involved. But, in a wider perspective, the dissertation deals not only with a single reform, but encompasses a search for the underlying principles that have had, and are having, a regulating effect on the design and positioning of music in publicly regulated education.

The results show that structuring of the subject of music takes place primarily through the classification and framing of social relationships in general, and of interactional relationships in particular. The focus of these relationships has shifted from time to time, and varies from context to context, but has always been in relation to something that has been regarded as sacred. In recent times, the framing within music-oriented knowledge practices has become weaker. At the same time, such knowledge practices have shown an increasing need for the drawing of boundaries in relation to other knowledge practices. The latter also has a value in explaining why general music content was removed from the upper-secondary school curriculum, whereas a special and specialising educational programme was able to gain legitimacy.

I detta paper presenteras fynd från en pågående studie av musikklassernas socialt relaterade framväxt och politiska etablering i Sverige. Efter inrättandet av sångklasser vid Adolf Fredriks folkskola 1939 kom det att dröja till 1980-talet innan så kallade musikklasser i grundskolan som koncept fick en i utbildningspolitiskt hänseende etablerad ställning. Framväxten präglades dock av politiska konflikter och administrativa problem, vilka är av betydelse att klargöra för att begripa musikklasser som en relativt utbredd företeelse i dagens utbildningslandskap. I fokus för presentationen står sålunda musikklassernas konfliktfyllda ”genombrott”. Det empiriska materialet utgörs av olika slags spår av debatt och politiska beslut, såsom sammanträdesprotokoll, skrivelser såväl som informell korrespondens samt offentlig debatt i svenska dagstidningar. Analysen har präglats av ett kritiskt diskursanalytiskt angreppssätt där dokumenten som text betraktats som sprungna ur en diskursiv praktik, vilken i sin tur varit inlemmad i en given samhällelig, historisk och kulturell kontext. Studien visar på ideologiska skiljelinjer och politiska konflikter på olika nivåer i samhället: mellan och inom enskilda partier, mellan lokal skolstyrelse och statsråd, mellan politik och förvaltning, mellan kulturpersonligheter och politiska företrädare, i relationen mellan kultur-och utbildningspolitiska intressen etc. Av materialet framkommer också att formella beslutsgångar och offentlig debatt ackompanjerats av ”dolda relationer” mellan musikklassernas förespråkare och politiska makthavare. Ideologiska positioneringar har emellertid inte varit avgörande i sig, utan musikklassernas framväxt och etablering behöver också förstås utifrån de ekonomiska och juridiska förutsättningar som varit gällande och av politiska förskjutningar förändrats under perioden. Vid presentationen kommer jag att föreslå hur musikklassernas framväxt kan begripas, med önskemål om att från konferensdeltagare få inspel till en diskussion om alternativa sätt att betrakta musikklasserna som företeelse och de politiska skeenden som omgärdat dem under den aktuella perioden.

The following article examines the emerging historical legitimacy of specialised comprehensive schools in Sweden. During the 1980s, neoliberal ideas were gaining ground in Swedish educational policy. As a result, the social democratic government began to relax the rigour of the unified, state-regulated educational system. Specialised music classes played a significant role in this context, as such programmes were increasingly considered models for specialisation and deregulation. The establishment of specialised music classes in Sweden was symptomatic of the national adoption of neoliberal principles in education policy.

The case study design uses qualitative document analyses of archive materials including public investigations, minutes of political meetings, and newspaper debates. The discursive legitimation of specialised comprehensive education is seen as dependent on three interrelated frame factors: ideology, economics, and law. Within this framework empirical knowledge of the transformative educational policy of the 1980s is analysed.

Föreliggande rapport är en utvärdering av den försöksverksamhet med lämplighetsbedömning vid antagning till lärar- och förskollärarutbildning som bedrivits vid Jönköping University på uppdrag av Universitets- och högskolerådet.

Försöksverksamheten har varit baserad på ett särskilt regeringsbeslut grundat i antaganden om lämplighetsbedömningens mening och eventuella effekter. Därför är denna utvärdering teoribaserad, det vill säga att den utgår från antaganden om lämplighetsbedömningens funktion givet en viss verksamhetslogik.

Utvärderingen är genomförd på lokal nivå av undertecknad och i nära anslutning till genomförd lämplighetsbedömning. Underlaget består främst av inblandade parters upplevelser i kombination med utfall under ansökningsförfarandet. Sammantaget kombineras processutvärderande delar med mer effektutvärderande resonemang. En mer omfattande utvärdering kommer att genomföras av ansvarig myndighet, Universitets- och högskolerådet.

Resultat talar för att krav på visad lämplighet kan ha effekter på sökandes agerande under ansöknings- och antagningsfaser. Lämplighetsbedömningen har först och främst fungerat som ett prov på sökande motivation för att bli antagen till utbildningen. Kravet som sådant – att sökande måste uppvisat lämplighet för behörighet till utbildningen – har förmodligen haft störst effekt, även om behållningen av självbedömning och andra aspekter inte bör underskattas.

Välkommen att läsa utvärderingen i sin helhet för en mer utvecklad redogörelse av ovanstående.

This article examines the relationship of curriculum and didactics through a social realist lens. Curriculum and didactics are viewed as linked and integrated by the common issue of educational content. The author argues that the selection of educational content and its organisation is a matter of recontextualising principles and that curriculum and didactics may be understood as interrelated stages of such recontextualisation. Educational policy and the organisation of pedagogic practice are considered as distinct although closely related practices of ‘curricularisation’ and ‘pedagogisation’. Neo-Bernsteinian social realism implies a sociological approach by which educational knowledge is recognised as something socially constructed, but irreducible to power struggles in policy arenas. More precisely, curriculum and didactics are not only matters of extrinsic standpoints. Recontextualising practices may also involve intrinsic features, that is, some kind of relatively generative logics that regulate curriculum design as well as pedagogic practice. In order to highlight certain implications for both curriculum and didactic theory, the author develops a typology that is analytically framed by principles of extrinsic relations to and intrinsic relations within curriculum or didactics.

Object of study: This paper aims at exploring how principles of Specialization may be investigated through systemic functional-multimodal discourse analysis. The theoretical discussion is anchored in ongoing substantial studies of arts programs in compulsory education, more precisely, various specialist and non-specialist music classes across nations. The interesting issue here is in what ways such programs are specialized in a similar manner, and differing from each other in the discursive composition of epistemic/social relations. In this paper, video recordings of official stage performances by students (concerts) are analysed. The point here is to illuminate underlying principles of specialization by analyzing instances where semiotic recourses are used, arranged, and displayed on stage.

Theory and method: The theoretical framework integrates the LCT dimension of Specialization (Maton, 2014) with Systemic Functional-Multimodal Discourse Analysis (O’Halloran, 2008). In this paper, SF-MDA contributes to Specialization by explaining how various semiotic recourses are used and combined for making meaning in relation to specialization and functionality (cf. Jewitt, Bezemer & O’Halloran, 2016; Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006; Tan, O’Halloran, Wignell, Chai & Lange, 2018). The analysis is focused on the canons of use in a particular social context, that is, the instantiation relation between the performance and the underlying system of rules (Ledin & Machin, 2018).

Data consist of video recordings of authentic concerts, uploaded on YouTube by parents/teachers/school boards. In this paper, a comparative analysis of two Swedish schools is presented. One of them is recognized as a renowned elite school with students of higher SES (Adolf Fredrik’s Music School), while the other represents low-performing schools in the area of lower SES (Alfred Dahlin).

Results and conclusions: The performances of Adolf Fredriks’ Music School (AF) demonstrate principles of an elite code where students have acquired advanced skills in musical performance, and where the students represent a homogenous social group of higher SES and well-educated parents. Alfred Dahlin, on the other hand, reflects the code where you have to be interested in music, but without requirements of special skills or a particular social background.

Although students from AD sometimes convey an ungrammatical use of music (e.g. not in tune, irregular in beat or accent), the distinguishing features are the canons of use and differing orientation to register. While the performances of upper music classes are typically formal, lower music classes make an informal arrangement of semiotic resources. For instance, AF’s performances are located in concert halls and cathedrals, while the performances of AD are located in school canteens and informal auditoriums. The differing orientations to formality and social order is perceptible just by looking at how students are lined up on stage, whether there is a use of a formal conductor, a teacher, or an informal performance by students themselves. Furthermore, there are differences in the choice of stage clothes, and not least how intended and unintended gestures are displayed through the performance. In sum, the different choices of registers signal distinctions in the definition of legitimate behaviour and significant others (class, identity etc.).

Significance: This paper show how specialization may be analysed through a multimodal discourse analysis in order to expose non-linguistic recourses in discursive communication. Although SFL has been elaborated for studying the interaction between linguistic and non-linguistic resources in multimodal meaning making, musical forms of communication have hardly been considered (in comparison to contributions on visual images and film – see e.g. Bateman, 2014; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006; O’Halloran, 2008; O’Toole, 2011). Methodological challenges include how to modelling the functionality of non-verbal semiotic recourses - a field of research in need of further development.

This article examines how specialist music secondary schools in England present themselves on their websites and social media platforms. We consider visual communication codes and how such patterns reflect cultural distinctions and social boundaries. Multimodal critical discourse analysis is used to demonstrate how the choice of semiotic resources convey the meaning of specialisation in a socially exclusive manner. Although the schools in question use different resources, similarities in function can be noted in their self-promotion. A school’s social matrix and use of classical aesthetics are conveyed through non-verbal, visual communication. An elite code associates advanced musical training with certain principles of behaviour and social values. Those, in turn, represent class-based distinctions, cultural boundaries, and characteristics of privileged education.

As a result of international neoliberal and neoconservative trends, the status of the arts has been devalued in secondary school curricula. This paper examines why the arts are not considered core educational knowledge in pedagogic discourse arising from the New Right policy agenda. In a case study analysis of Swedish educational policy debates, curriculum codes and their underlying principles of recontextualization are weighed as they bear on the arts. Discursive positionings and socio-political networking between political standpoints and stakeholders have been analysed based on official Swedish documents associated with the legislative process of curriculum revision.

Our findings show how justifications of arts education clash with coding orientations arising from a strong classification between what is presumed to be valuable and non-valuable knowledge, which in turn is due to an underlying principle of visibility. While advocates argue that artistic practices promote transversal competences and have intangible benefits, this same argument unwittingly strengthens the non-autonomous status of the arts. The illegitimacy of the arts also stems from the belief that they are only marginally related to visible market values. Taken together, the arts are not considered core knowledge because of their perceived relative unimportance for higher academic learning or vocational competence.

This article draws on a study designed to analyse parental expectations of the Swedish municipal school of arts (hereafter MSA) (in Swedish: kommunal musik- och kulturskola). The study is based on in-depth interviews conducted and informed by grounded theory. Although parental expectations are scarcely uniform, the study reveals a hope that the whole child will be nurtured, both musically and socially. It also transpires that parental expectations vary according to the activities offered by the particular school. The MSAs are administered and financed by the local authorities, and parents therefore expect them to be distinguished not only by their educational ambitions and the range of cultural choices available, but also by their democratic norms and values.

Teachers are expected to be able to work professionally in complex and differential circumstances, requiring a multidisciplinary and diversified curriculum that challenges the coherence of teacher education. Fragmentation, isolated courses, and perceived boundaries between campus and school-related studies are likely to counteract coherence and thus thequality of teacher education. On the contrary, connectedness within and between courses as well as relatively to strong relations to professional practices have been regarded as principles for improving quality (Canrinus, Bergem, Klette, and Hammerness, 2017; Hammerness, 2006; Hudson, 2017).Coherence may be conceptual and/or contextual (Muller, 2009). The former can be referred to verticality, principles of cumulative knowledge building, and how theories are combined and abstracted in critical practice. Contextual coherence, on the other hand, can be referred to horizontal connections, embedded in ongoing practices related to daily knowledge structures without any systematically expressed strategy. This paper aims at exploring how conceptual and contextualcoherence are (a) exposed in policy documents at different arenas of teacher education, and (b) perceived by teacher educators and students in practice. The governmental regulations of teacher education in Sweden, together with evaluating studies (Hansén & Wikman, 2016, 2017; Lilliedahl, 2017), constitute the empirical base of the study. In this presentation, we focus on the educational core courses common to diverse programs of teacher education in Sweden.Findings indicate that the administrative organization and universities’ different emphases concerning theoretical focus may affect conceptual coherence and the relative status of curricular content. Regarding contextual coherence, students complained that subject matter studies were weakly linked to educational themes, and the extrinsic relations to classroom practice were experienced as weak. The latter addresses a cracking issue in the design of teacher education nationally as well as in Europe.

This paper reports on a study of the recent curriculum reform of the Swedish upper-secondary school, Gy11. Although aesthetics were not made compulsory subjects by this reform, all students have a statutory entitlement to be offered a minimum of one course in an aesthetics subject. We wished to determine whether students are actually being given the opportunity of choosing such subjects.

The study is a theory-based and content-oriented evaluation. Data are based on curriculum studies and a comprehensive survey of upper-secondary school principals.

Our findings indicate that while principals have generally organized aesthetics courses, students seldom choose this kind of educational content. Instead, students’ selection is ruled by indirect methods of manipulation.

Theory-based evaluation in response to the issues of education reforms in the early 2000s

The current surge of interest in evidence based policy has re-actualised issues of research, policy and pedagogic practice. Research are expected to support the development of systematically substantiated reforms as well as evidence-based practices. At the same time, criticism has been brought against dominant evaluation models. The question is whether they really respond to an increasingly complex landscape of governance, and the varying conditions and variations that characterize today’s schools? This article examines the potential of a theory-based evaluation model in order to systematically and empirically investigate education reforms. This approach provides the ability to include analysis of how transnational, national and local discourses converge and diverge in relation to each other, to take different kinds of contexts into consideration, and how these contexts affect the recontextualisation of pedagogic discourse. In order to further develop the approach of a theory-based evaluation, the authors point to recent steps within mixed methods research in relation to the design of, and findings in an empirical case study of the Swedish curriculum reform, Curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and the recreation centre, Lgr 11. Based on policy analyses, four hypotheses are presented: (i) the hypothesis of reform; (ii) the hypothesis of teachers’ professional practice; (iii) the hypothesis of teaching repertoires; (iv) and the hypothesis of assessment practices. Each of these hypotheses has been followed up by questionnaire responses and interviews.  The sequential explanatory design in this study relates critically transnational policy arenas to national education reforms and pedagogic practice in order to test the weight of the empirical evidence obtained. On the grounds of conclusion, there are reasons to revive and further develop the tradition of theory-based evaluations. Therefore, the article put forward theoretical and methodological proposals for the continued direction.

Professional teaching requires interdisciplinary competency. In consequence, teacher education programs throughout the world generally compile a comprehensive list of disciplines and knowledge practices required for professional work and teachers’ continuing education. As student teachers need to be offered opportunities to make linkages between collected disciplines, concepts and practices have to be structurally interconnected through a coherent program. Coherence is about connecting what belongs together, that is, establishing systemic relations between the constituent parts of teacher education. In this chapter, we elaborate a conceptual framework outlining how the issue of knowledge integration in teacher education programs may be understood and investigated through the lens of coherence. Our focus is on the conceptual coherence in interdisciplinary teacher education programs, as well as on the structural coherence of organizing disciplinary knowledge in and across subject studies, subject didactic areas, and educational science. The analysis is anchored in recent research studies evaluating Swedish programs for teacher education, where relationships between national guidelines, interpretations made by institutions of higher education, and the perceptions of teacher educators and student teachers have been studied in relation to the issue of coherence.