A third wave of European education policy: Transnational and national conceptions of knowledge in Swedish curricula

• Published in: European educational research journal EERJ Vol. 15; no. 3; pp. 298 - 313
• Main Author: Wahlström, Ninni
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.05.2016
• Subjects: Comparative Education; Competency Based Education; Compulsory Education; Curriculum theory; Discourse Analysis; Education; Educational Policy; European Union; Europeanisation; Foreign Countries; International Cooperation; Leisure Time; National Curriculum; pedagogic models; Pedagogik; policy studies; Preschool Education; Program for International Student Assessment; Reading Achievement; Sweden; Teaching Methods; European Union; Sweden; pedagogic models; policy studies; Europeanisation; Curriculum theory
• ISSN: 1474-9041; 1474-9041
• DOI: 10.1177/1474904116643329

The aim of this article is to examine how transnational concepts within educational policies influence national curricula in the reconceptualisation of educational policy into concrete curriculum texts. Based on a critical discourse analysis and the concepts of recontextualisation, convergence and divergence, a third wave of European policy discourse has been identified, emphasising an increasing interest in compulsory school and curriculum. Analyses of policies and pedagogical texts show a convergence between a European and a Swedish knowledge discourse concerning standards, basic skills and a performance-based curriculum; however, there is a divergence in terms of transversal skills in transnational policy documents compared to an emphasis on school subjects in the Swedish curriculum. In the transnational arena, the concept of knowledge is mainly interpreted in terms of competencies, while in the Swedish curriculum – the Curriculum for the Compulsory School, Preschool Class and the Leisure-Time Centre 2011 – knowledge is understood in more traditional terms and includes abilities within subjects.