The Swedish School Reforms: A Case Study in Policy-oriented Research

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of a case study in policy-oriented research in context with the Swedish school reforms. The Swedish academic man back in the early 1960s had little realization of how fortunate he was to find a ready listener for his studies bearing upon major topics of public policy. Some pieces of information about Sweden and the Swedish school system may serve as a framework for a story about how communication was established between policymaking bodies and researchers and how it came about that research and development is now conceived as one important function of the National Board of Education. Sweden, with a population of about 8,000,000 people, is socially, economically, and religiously a homogeneous country. Planning was for a long time carried out by ad hoc committees, so-called Royal Commissions, that constitute a unique element in Swedish policymaking. There were three major committees after the war. The first was constituted in 1946, the second in 1957, and the third in 1960. They represented three continuous steps in the reorganization of the Swedish school system.