Reorganising teacher education in Sweden. : Paradoxes of ‘diversity’.

Abstract

In most contemporary states, citizens have views on, and opinions about, formal education, since the average citizen has knowledge about, and direct or indirect experience of, formal schooling. Education has become the concern of all, and in this public scrutiny the faults of society are commonly laid at its door. With ‘better’ or ‘more suitable’ education, many argue, unemployment, drug abuse, lack of social cohesion and a myriad of other social, political and economic problems and ills could be solved. Before elections, promises to make education ‘better’ (typically to enhance national development) are commonly used by politicians to appeal to the public at large. Education, including teacher-training education, can thus be studied and analysed as a field with strong symbolic value, and a field where political competitors express their views. Educational reforms can also be understood as a symbolic battlefield, where both social conflicts and social cooperation can be traced and discerned.