Abstract
The aim of this study is to describe and analyse how municipal adult education (MAE) in Sweden is enacted at the intersection of course organisation, student selection and course content. For this analysis, the data consist of a nationwide survey sent to Swedish municipalities, interviews with school leaders from 20 municipalities and in-depth interviews with school leaders from six municipalities. The findings show that the supply of MAE courses is clearly governed by policies concerning what municipalities are obliged to offer according to the Education Act, but in many other ways, MAE policies offer a high degree of freedom for interpretation and translation. On a general level, MAE is organised in three different ways: school-based education, apprenticeships and distance education. However, the courses included are enacted in different ways in different municipalities. How the courses are enacted is governed by factors such as using external education companies, resources, the number of students and collaboration with working life. The selection of MAE courses has a clear labour market focus, where employers’ needs for labour are set higher than students’ wishes and needs. A central aspect of this focus is labour market integration of migrants.
Highlights
There is an ongoing process of marketisation of public education, which is taking place to different extents and in different ways around the world (Verger et al 2017)
A nationwide survey was distributed to adult education representatives in all Swedish municipalities (290), with 164 responses representing 201 municipalities (69%). (Some municipalities have a common organisation for municipal adult education (MAE), and here one response represents more than one municipality.) Secondly, qualitative interviews have been conducted with MAE representatives in a sample of 20 municipalities, which were selected based on information from the first step and from official statistics on Swedish municipalities, to obtain a sample covering different types of the municipality as well as different ways of organising MAE
The following sections present the findings from surveys and interviews with school leaders focussing on two main themes: how flexibility is enacted in the organisation of courses, and how MAE is enacted through the selection and prioritisation of students and contents in admission and in local curricula
Summary
There is an ongoing process of marketisation of public education, which is taking place to different extents and in different ways around the world (Verger et al 2017). Marketisation includes measures such as the procurement of private, external providers, as well as internal processes whereby public institutions are managed in a more business-like way (Lundahl et al 2013). This marketisation is extensive in Sweden, with a high number of publicly funded, independent schools owned by private companies as part of the school system.
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