Education Policy in National and International Context

The course provides a critical introduction to and analysis of education policy. It offers an overview of debates around policy at the level of international organizations, but also at the national level. It examines the relationships between policy contexts, processes and outcomes, and illustrates these through specific examples of policies in Europe and Sweden. The course presents and analyses research on policy and reflects on the connections between education policy and school practice. In particular, the course is structured around the following: understanding policy in education, how it is implemented and received in schools; what are the values that policies represent and how these values are mediated in the contexts of education institutions, and, what does policy and research on policy mean for teachers and students. The course will use case studies to explore these themes, drawing on research in the fields of: - School marketization and privatization. - Inclusion in education and in teacher education. - Changing education governance in the European Union, and the role of international organizations in education policy. The case studies will have both Swedish, international comparative elements.