This article investigates the underlying themes and principles that inform curriculum debate and how they are articulated in current school policy discussions. This topic is approached with the help of a case study covering the debate on which subjects should be mandatory for students at the upper secondary school curriculum in Sweden. The focus…

Internationalisation of higher education is a strategic theme in current research on higher education and policy debate. Both at national and institutional levels, in many countries, internationalisation is stated to be an educational goal. However, the dominant discourse on internationalisation of higher education in research and research-based…

This response article written from "outside" the Swedish-Danish contexts of this special issue considers how we might highlight and make additional ecocentric meaning of some of the terms most frequently used in this collection. In the first instance my focus is on "meaning" but this is expanded to include other terms such as…

This article analyses reforms addressing and affecting the curriculum and organisation of Swedish upper secondary education over 40 years, up to an initiative by the present non-socialist government. The aim is to analyse the current reform of upper secondary education and relate it to previous reforms during a 40-year period in terms of…

This article presents a brief analysis of teacher education in five European countries: Italy, Germany, England, Sweden and Finland. In the post-industrial world, the sense of teaching has profoundly changed, influenced by a rapidly evolving socio-economic context. The responses given by each country are different, but two tendencies emerge: on…

This contribution provides an "outside" commentary on several of the articles provided in this special issue on environmental education and education in the context of sustainability in Denmark and Sweden. Although there is no uniform position or shared single outlook expressed in the articles in this special issue, there are some…

Background: In this paper a study of both subject "content" and governing "processes" in Swedish physical education is presented. The reason why an analysis of both content and processes is of special interest is that it makes it possible to understand the encounter between the institutional level and the practice of education.…

A Swedish conception of didactics is proposed; its crucial elements are the what and how of teaching and the common base of values and knowledge that determines the what, the how, and their relation. This base is the rationale of the content and form of teaching, and is the object of didactics as a field within educational research. (SLD)

A study of teachers' views and the educational philosophy of Swedish comprehensive schools showed that pupil-centered schools that attract teachers with a socialist ideology. Teachers with a negative attitude toward the comprehensive schools believe that a pupil-centered school reduces their power. (Author/RM)

Forty teachers were surveyed in order to determine their level of support for the official curriculum of Sweden, Laroplan 69. Laroplan 69 puts the student at the center of schooling and promotes an egalitarian view of social relationships. Teachers who favored the official curriculum shared socialist beliefs; those who were least sympathetic held…

Provides an overview and an examination of educational didactics in Sweden. In this context, didactics refers to the study of what content is chosen and how it is taught. Some theorists have extended this to include how students conceptualize what they are taught. Discusses the conflicting schools of thought. (MJP)