Evidence-Based Governing? Educational Research in the Service of the Swedish Schools Inspectorate

Abstract

The rise in the use of scientific evidence as a basis for educational policymaking has been a noticeable feature globally. In this study, we describe and discuss how educational research is used to make policy and governing evidence-based. To illustrate this, we use the Swedish Schools Inspectorate (SSI) as a case and focus on two of the processes it performs: regular supervision and quality audit. We present interviews with inspection personnel and researchers involved in these processes along with observations and documents. Our case description shows that despite the SSI’s efforts to base its work on knowledge (evidence) gained through educational research, it also had to use both embodied and enacted forms of knowledge. Research knowledge was chosen and redrafted to form a unified picture of how to act in educational practice, thus giving the work of school inspection a governing power that legitimises and sustains particular national policies.