The curriculum has the last decade become a centre of policy interest and a focal point for the improvement of education and schools. The international education policy movement towards standards-based curriculum has been characterized by a top-down accountability on outcomes and a linear dissemination of new knowledge requirements (Andersson-Levitt 2008, Sivesind & Karseth 2010). However, several research studies reveal how the transformation to national cultural education traditions also implies tensions and contradictions. In this paper our aim is to address how the new Swedish curriculum Lgr 11 is contextualised and reconceptualised (Bernstein 2000, Wahlström & Sundberg 2012) as it is transformed from transnational curriculum scripts to teachers and their teaching practices.

The theory-oriented evaluation project takes its starting point in curriculum theory (Lundgren 1989, Englund, 2005, Wahlström & Sundberg 2012). Theory-oriented evaluation is characterized by an explicit theory basis for the understanding of the reform, that takes account of normative values that are embedded in the reform, its socio-political and historical context, the processes and results of the reform, and critical analyses of social forces served by the reform (Schwandt, 2003). In this paper we will answer questions on the influences, translations and impacts of transnational educational policy movements into the Swedish curriculum making, and their concrete empirical results.

1. What convergences and divergences in curriculum configurations can be identified in comparative analysis of international and national curricula constructions?

2. In what ways do teachers understand the curriculum Lgr 11 as influencing the frames of teaching and the learning activities?

3. In what ways do teachers understand the curriculum Lgr 11 as influencing the acts and practices of assessment?

The three research questions were investigated by a three-part mixed-method approach consisted of  (1) curriculum policy text analysis, (2) a teacher questionnaire conducted in 21 different Swedish municipalities (n= 1887) during October 2013 and,  (3) a follow-up teacher interview study with 18 informants (April-August 2014).

References

Andersson-Levitt, Kathryn M. (2008). Globalization and curriculum. In: Michael F. Connelly, ed.: The Sage Handbook of Curriculum and Instruction. London: Sage Publications.

Englund, Tomas (2005): Läroplanens och skolkunskapens politiska dimension [Curriculum as a Political Problem]. Göteborg: Daidalos.

Lundgren, Ulf P. (1989) Att organisera omvärlden [Organising the World Around Us]. Stockholm: Utbildningsförlaget.

Schwandt, Thomas A. (2003): Linking Evaluation and Education: Enlightment and Engagement. In: Haug, Peder & Schwandt, Thomas. A. eds. (2003): Evaluating Educational Reforms – Scandinavian Perspectives. Greenwich: Information Age Publishing Inc.

Sivesind, Kirsten & Karseth, Berit (2010): Conceptualising curriculum knowledge within and beyond the national context. European Journal of Education( 45)1

Sundberg, Daniel & Wahlström, Ninni (2012). Standards-based curricula in a denationalised conception of education – the case of Sweden. European Journal of Education Research Volume 11, Number 3, 2012