Abstract:
What happens when a central government launches one of the biggest funding schemes there has been globally with the purpose of improving equity and provides full autonomy for local authorities to use the money at their discretion? This study analyses one such case, funding for equity, where the Swedish government annually provide over 600 million euros to improve equity among the one million pupils in primary and secondary school. Increasing resources and autonomy on the local level are often presented as solutions to challenges regarding equity and efficiency, as sociocultural variations and socioeconomic context mediates the measures needed to improve equity in specific contexts (Ainscow et al. 2012). By analysing local decisions on the use of the unique Swedish funding scheme, the study deepens the understanding of governance relations between actors on different levels as well as how the technique of governance through funding mediated by these relations impact on educational equity and equality.
Adopting an approach of Critical Policy Sociology (Ozga 2021) with a vantage point in curriculum theory and governance of school development (Kridel 2010), nine local education authorities (LEAs) use national funding for equity is examined based on interviews with heads of LEAs and principals of schools, as well as analysis of local plans and documents specifying the use of the money.
The presentation at the AARE Conference will discuss not yet published results showing that funding is used mostly for general purposes, with limited initiatives for educational change and equity-improving efforts. Dynamics of governance that mitigate equity and educational change as outcome of the funding scheme are related to the multi-layered governing in the educational system. LEAs take advantage of their position as receivers and distributors of the funding to local schools and control resources by deciding what equity is and how the money should be used to improve it, bypassing both the local principals’ and the central governments’ intentions of allocating resources for local responses to lacking educational equity.
References
Ainscow M, Dyson A, Goldrick S and West M (2012) Making schools effective for all: rethinking the task. School Leadership & Management 32(3): 197–213
Kridel C (2010) Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies. California.
Ozga, J. (2021). Problematising policy: The development of (critical) policy sociology. Critical Studies in Education 62(3): 290–305
Adopting an approach of Critical Policy Sociology (Ozga 2021) with a vantage point in curriculum theory and governance of school development (Kridel 2010), nine local education authorities (LEAs) use national funding for equity is examined based on interviews with heads of LEAs and principals of schools, as well as analysis of local plans and documents specifying the use of the money.
The presentation at the AARE Conference will discuss not yet published results showing that funding is used mostly for general purposes, with limited initiatives for educational change and equity-improving efforts. Dynamics of governance that mitigate equity and educational change as outcome of the funding scheme are related to the multi-layered governing in the educational system. LEAs take advantage of their position as receivers and distributors of the funding to local schools and control resources by deciding what equity is and how the money should be used to improve it, bypassing both the local principals’ and the central governments’ intentions of allocating resources for local responses to lacking educational equity.
References
Ainscow M, Dyson A, Goldrick S and West M (2012) Making schools effective for all: rethinking the task. School Leadership & Management 32(3): 197–213
Kridel C (2010) Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies. California.
Ozga, J. (2021). Problematising policy: The development of (critical) policy sociology. Critical Studies in Education 62(3): 290–305