‘Measurable but not quantifiable’: The Swedish Schools Inspectorate on construing “quality” as “auditable”

Abstract

ABSTRACT ‘Quality’ in education has become a global phenomenon, and is frequently discussed in transnational and national policy. In such discussions, ‘quality’ seems to be both worthwhile and demanded, but at the same time, the concept has also been criticised in previous research as it seems to have attained a ‘common sense’ status. In this context, the role of the Swedish Schools Inspectorate (SSI) is raised, as the SSI is commissioned by the Swedish Government to audit and review ‘quality’ in education. However, as the concept of ‘quality’ is left undefined in policy, the SSI has to enact national policy to review ‘quality’ in its quality audits. Hence, the SSI plays an active part in construing ‘quality’, as it makes it auditable through the indicators and systems it uses when conducting quality audits. Thus, this paper has critically scrutinised underlying assumptions and the discursive effects of how the SSI construes ‘quality’ in different policy proposals. To access and analyse such constructs, this article draws on Bacchi’s (2009) post-structural, Foucault-influenced ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ (WPR) approach. The results indicate that ‘quality’ is presupposed to be both measurable and elusive at the same time. Hence, the SSI operates in a field of tension, targeting something more elusive than just figures and numbers when it comes to ‘quality’. The discursive effects of these presuppositions have implications for what can be said and thought about ‘quality’ at both national and local levels, as well as for students and school staff who are involved in the educational system.