Chapitre 9. L'équité dans les pays nordiques : une réflexion sur la notion d'équivalence dans le système éducatif suédois

Abstract

This chapter looks at the shift in education politics within the Swedish context and analysis the concept of equivalence in the school practice. The structure and discourses within an educational system has largely been associated to the specific social concerns and cultural particularities of different societies. Today’s discussions within the educational systems in Scandinavia, and in this specific case Sweden, indeed confirm this regularity. For a long period the socio-economic development of Sweden was associated to a “third way” with differences to what was regarded before 1989 as, (a) the patterns of totalitarian society and (b) the capitalist free market model of development. Long periods of social-democratic governance and welfare driven policies shaped specific characteristics of the Swedish educational system which are recognizable even today despite the big changes in the political and social international landscape. Sweden and its educational system could not be, and is not, isolated from the constrains of current international phenomena such as the impacts of globalization, neo-liberal and market driven policies and the discussions about the relationship between collective and general social well-being on the one side, and individuality and freedom of choice on the other side.Equivalence is in the Swedish educational context further discussed as (a) the claim of certain equality in results, and (b) a claim of accepting differences and free choice. Finally concluding remarks are derived from the analysis presented where the notion of equivalence in the Swedish educational system is suggested to be a hybrid product. This issue, i.e., equivalence, is currently a subject of research and live debate in the Swedish educational context; there is not intention here to make overall generalizations but rather to present what we perceive as central notions which might underpin present discourses in the Swedish context.