Travelling concepts in national curriculum policy-making: the example of competencies

• Published in: European educational research journal EERJ Vol. 15; no. 3; pp. 314 - 328
• Main Authors: Nordin, Andreas, Sundberg, Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.05.2016
• Subjects: Comparative Education; Competence; curriculum change; Curriculum Development; curriculum theory; Discourse Analysis; discursive institutionalism; Educational Policy; Entrepreneurship; European Union; Europeanisation; Foreign Countries; Global Approach; International Cooperation; National Curriculum; Pedagogics and Educational Sciences; Pedagogik och Utbildningsvetenskap; Policy Formation; Sweden; Swedish compulsory school; European Union; Sweden; Competence; Europeanisation; curriculum theory; curriculum change; discursive institutionalism; Swedish compulsory school
• ISSN: 1474-9041; 1474-9041
• DOI: 10.1177/1474904116641697

In this paper we will address the impact of Europeanisation on national curriculum reforms with empirical reference to the Swedish compulsory school, and based on the concept of competence discuss the question of transnational curriculum convergence. The main interest is directed towards how the answers to the question of what counts as knowledge and skills are changing in national curricula. The analysis shows that the recent Swedish compulsory school reform converges to the broader European knowledge discourse on the underlying level of philosophical ideas, but also that several core concepts used in European policy texts are being reconceptualised and given a different meaning when recontextualised in the national arena.