The aim of this article is to synthesise and advance current knowledge on the conditions and challenges of rural education in contemporary Sweden, with particular attention to how processes of digitalisation and globalisation shape educational practices and possibilities in rural communities. Drawing on qualitative data material, the study shows how place functions as an active force shaping educational opportunities: organisational closeness creates cohesion but also dependence, social embeddedness provides continuity yet limits aspirations, and geographical distance both constrains and stimulates innovation. Digitalisation appears as a pragmatic tool, a generational condition, and a structural response to isolation, offering new opportunities but also reinforcing inequalities when infrastructures fail. Culture is revealed as contested, oscillating between municipal strategies of high culture and families’ everyday practices that shape children’s belonging and place-based forms of belonging and recognition (Massey, 1994, 2017). Structural inequalities – of resources, geography, and technology – emerge as decisive conditions rather than temporary barriers. Using Massey’s relational notion of place, including her concepts of power-geometry and spatial divisions of labour (Massey, 1994), the study concludes that rural schools must be understood as situated arenas where local and global processes intersect.

This study aims to contribute to the ongoing scholarly conversation about education throughthe lenses of the German philosophy of Bildung and the American philosophy of pragmatism. Moreconcretely, in this article, the two philosophies are represented by the traditions of critical-constructiveDidaktik, based on Wolfgang Klafki’s work, and transactional realism, based on John Dewey’s. Againstthe background of the widespread outcomes-based modes of education today, the authors seek to shedlight on the necessary reconceptualization of schooling and teaching and to explore the possibilitiesfor constructive routes forward for curriculum theorizing. They outline the aspects of knowledgeand the learning concepts that the two philosophies share and those about which they differ. Theauthors also analyze the consequences that these similarities and differences have for the educationalapproaches of critical-constructive Didaktik and transactional realism. Finally, the authors present anempirical example from a Swedish year-eight classroom, drawing conclusions based on their findingsand considering corresponding implications about the two traditions’ potential to contribute to anunderstanding of teaching as a pedagogical responsibility.

En lärare ska kunna undervisa, men hur lär man sig det? Några menar att praktiska erfarenheter har störst betydelse, medan andra lägger tonvikt på akademiska kunskaper. Även om vägen till att lära sig att bli lärare är omtvistad är målet tydligt: med hjälp av sin utbildning ska en lärare kunna undervisa på ett funktionellt sätt. En lärares professionella kunskap kan sammanfattas med begreppet didaktik. Didaktiken binder samman analysen av innehållet, planeringen av undervisningen, det konkreta genomförandet och den uppföljande reflektionen. I bokens nya upplaga om didaktik som konsten att undervisa har det tillkommit ett nytt kapitel om lärares didaktiska ledarskap i barngrupp och klassrum. Som grund för lärares ledarskap betonas den pedagogiska relationen och det nära sambandet mellan ledarskap och kollegialt lärande.Författaren introducerar den didaktiska analysen för undervisningen, liksom didaktikens relation till läroplanen samt lärandets didaktiska aspekter. I boken betonas undervisningssituationers allmängiltiga och överskridande karaktär. Vidare diskuteras hur didaktikens frågor om vad, hur och varför ges olika svar beroende på de didaktiska val som läraren gör. Lärarens betydelse för hur barn och ungdomar inbjuds att delta i undervisningssamtal är ett annat exempel från bokens teman.  

The availability of skilled professionals is a challenge in many rural areas. At the same time, rural youth often view their prospects as limited and pursue higher education less frequently than urban youth. Students’ future study and career choices are influenced by social or cultural background, geographic location, and community resources. Consequently, rural schools may face the challenge of providing opportunities for students to develop skills that enable them to contribute to their personal growth as well as the development of their community. This project, involving three rural municipalities and three elementary schools, focuses on the possibilities for rural schools to promote entrepreneurship in a digitized world. Here, entrepreneurship is based on the idea of relationships and mutual concerns as starting points for developing and acting on opportunities in diverse contexts. Analyses of documents, field notes, and interviews reveal that municipal officials, principals, and teachers, are interested in using digital tools in education to enhance the connections between school, working life, and the surrounding community, which are limited by long distances. For instance, digital field trips to private and municipal enterprises and institutions have been tested as a method. The goal is to provide future-oriented education that highlights opportunities for digital location-independent occupations while also strengthening students’ sense of connection to their local community. However, promoting entrepreneurship by fostering students’ development of creativity and innovation remains a challenge for some schools.

I denna rapport kommer EU:s nyckelkompetenser, som reviderades av EU 2018, att stå i centrum för diskussionen. Den övergripande frågan handlar om vilka konsekvenser revideringen potentiellt kan få för de svenska läroplanerna, framför allt vad gäller läroplanernas inledande delar. De läroplaner som är aktuella i denna rapport är Lgr 22, Lgy 11 och Lvux 12. 

The aim of this article is to explore the interrelationships between a national government andthe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in terms of the powerand legitimization of education reforms, here based on the reciprocal dependence of the twoactors. Although the current case study only analyses the shifting relationships betweenSweden and the OECD, the assumption is that the case is quite representative of theambiguities of power in the relationships between the OECD and its smaller membercountries and the Nordic countries in particular. To explore the relationship between theSwedish national government and OECD, we make use of discursive institutionalism asa general framework. For a closer understanding of the standpoints of the OECD andSweden on different matters and at different times, two explanation logics are used. Thediscourses we found characterizing the different kinds of relationships over time area discourse of opposition, a discourse of mentorship and a discourse of subordination. Weargue that there are both ideational and institutional reasons affecting the conditions forcooperation on educational policy. Although institutional reasons strengthen the maintenanceof the cooperation, ideational reasons both challenge and develop the nature of thecollaboration between the OECD and Sweden.

How could the technicality arising from eleven percent of students beingexcluded from a PISA test in Sweden trigger a polarized debate followedby investigations by both the OECD and national authorities? Thisquestion is explored in the study by drawing on discursiveinstitutionalism, especially the concept of normative background ideas,communicative discourse, and the “power in ideas”. Communicativediscourses can be referred to as discourses explained by logics ofposition and logics of ideas. The normative background ideas arerelated to a critique or acceptance of receiving a high number ofimmigrants during a short period of time a few years before the 2018PISA test was conducted. The concluding reflection poses the questionsof at what point it is reasonable for newly arrived students toparticipate in the PISA test and whether the PISA test really measuresthe quality of the school system, as suggested by the OECD.

The refugee situation in the fall of 2015 was unique, as Sweden had never before received so many asylum seekers. In total, just over 163,000 people sought refuge in Sweden, most of them within a few months when more than 1 million people crossed the Mediterranean See to seek asylum in the European Union. A comparison between the Nordic countries, calculated per 10,000 inhabitants, shows that during the years 2015-2016, Sweden approved 70 asylum applications, Norway 25, and Denmark and Finland about 12 (Örstadius, 2021). This situation would result in an unexpected aftermath in connection with the report of the Swedish results of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey in 2018 which was published by the end of 2019. At the same time the results were published, national newspapers and the largest opposition party, the Moderates, noted that 11% of students were excluded from participation in the survey—the highest figure among the participating countries—due to deficiencies in the Swedish language. The debate that followed revealed a deep disagreement regarding the Swedish PISA result of 2018 and whether the result implicated an improvement or not. This paper focuses on how a transnational cooperation initiates national communicative discourses. The paper explores what main actors and normative background ideas that becomes important as well as the implications of the arguments that are made.