Table Of ContentINTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN EDUCATION AND
SOCIAL CHANGE
General Editor: Professor Ε J King
Other Titles in the Series
Baron, G.
The Politics of School Government
Mallinson, V.
The Western European Idea in Education
Zajda, J.
Education in the USSR
NOTICE TO READERS
Dear Reader
An Invitation to Publish in and Recommend the Placing of a
Standing Order to Volumes Published in this Valuable Series.
If your library is not already a standing/continuation order
customer to this series, may we recommend that you place a
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volumes no longer serve your needs, your order can be
cancelled at any time without notice.
The Editors and the Publisher will be glad to receive
suggestions or outlines of suitable titles, reviews or symposia
for editorial consideration: if found acceptable, rapid
publication is guaranteed.
ROBERT MAXWELL
Publisher at Pergamon Press
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES IN EDUCATION AND
SOCIAL CHANGE
General Editor: Professor Ε J King
Other Titles in the Series
Baron, G.
The Politics of School Government
Mallinson, V.
The Western European Idea in Education
Zajda, J.
Education in the USSR
NOTICE TO READERS
Dear Reader
An Invitation to Publish in and Recommend the Placing of a
Standing Order to Volumes Published in this Valuable Series.
If your library is not already a standing/continuation order
customer to this series, may we recommend that you place a
standing/continuation order to receive immediately upon
publication all new volumes. Should you find that these
volumes no longer serve your needs, your order can be
cancelled at any time without notice.
The Editors and the Publisher will be glad to receive
suggestions or outlines of suitable titles, reviews or symposia
for editorial consideration: if found acceptable, rapid
publication is guaranteed.
ROBERT MAXWELL
Publisher at Pergamon Press
Tradition and
Change
in
Swedish Education
by
LEON BOUCHER
Chester College
PERGAMON PRESS
OXFORD · NEW YORK · TORONTO · SYDNEY · PARIS · FRANKFURT
U.K. Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall,
Oxford OX3 OBW, England
U.S.A. Pergamon Press Inc., Maxwell House, Fairview Park,
Elmsford, New York 10523, U.S.A.
CANADA Pergamon Press Canada Ltd., Suite 104,
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AUSTRALIA Pergamon Press (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., P.O. Box 544,
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FEDERAL REPUBLIC Pergamon Press GmbH, 6242 Kronberg-Taunus,
OF GERMANY Hammerweg 6, Federal Republic of Germany
Copyright © 1982 Leon Boucher
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in
tany form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic
tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
First edition 1982
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Boucher, Leon.
Tradition and change in Swedish education.
(International studies in education and social change)
Bibliography: p.
1. Education—Sweden. I. Title. II. Series.
LA902.B68 370\9485 81-19948
AACR2
ISBN 0-08-025240-0
In order to make this volume available as economically and as
rapidly as possible the author's typescript has been reproduced
in its original form. This method unfortunately has its
typographical limitations but it is hoped that they in no way
distract the reader.
Acknowledgments
This book seeks to give to those interested in education in
Sweden sufficient description and analysis to help them
understand current trends and developments.
I first visited Sweden as a student in the summer of 1948, to
teach at a Summer School in Stockholm for Folkunivevsitet.
My wife teaches 10-13 year olds in Mellanstadiet; my daughters
have been educated there, both at school and university; and
as a family we commute, every month or so, between our homes
in England and Sweden.
Over the years, I have inevitably followed the press, radio
and television in Sweden, and have talked with people from all
walks of life; politicians, academics, administrators; those
in public service, business, industry, agriculture, the
professions; hundreds of teachers and pupils in schools.
They are far too numerous to name. I am sincerely grateful
to them for the insights they have given me. Errors of fact
and interpretation are, of course, my own responsibility.
In particular, however, I do want to thank Mrs Frankie Clark
for her care in preparing the text for the press. And most
of all, I am indebted to my wife, Ingegerd, and my daughters,
Karin and Louise, for their encouragement and their patience.
Chester, 1981 LEON BOUCHER
ν
List of Figures
1. The Swedish Educational System, Pre 1950 and 21
Post 1977
2. Development of the School System 1945-75 26
3. Organisational Structure of the National Board 49
of Education
f
4. Curriculum Schedule, 7-10s 81
T
5. Curriculum Schedule, 10-13s 84
f
6. Curriculum Schedule, 13-16s, Lgr 69 89
T
7. Curriculum Schedule, 13-16s, Lgr 80 92
8. Curriculum Schedule, 16-19's, Lgr 70 107
9. Gymnasieskolarij Availability and Demand for 113
Places 1979/80
10. The Structure of Higher Educational Provision 137
11. The Organisation of a Unit of Higher Education 139
12. Folk High School Students 1960-1978 156
13. Class and Subject Teacher Programmes, Gôteborg, 171
1979
14. The LUT Teacher Education Reform Proposals 1979 176
15. The One-Year Courses in Special Education, 178
Gôteborg, 1979
16. Teacher Salary Scales, Dexcie mber 1980 187
17. Study of Teacher Stress, Enkoping, 1976 189
List of Tables
1. Employment 1960-1980 40
2. Expenditure on Schools 1950-1980 43
3. Pre-school Provision for Mothers in Employment 65
1955-1974
4. Proposed Pre-school Expansion 1975-80 66
5. Day-home Registrations at Pre-schools 1971-1978 69
6. Play-school Registrations 1971-1978 70
7. Pupil Choices at 13-16 Stage 1980 91
8. Integrated Special Educational Provision 1976/7 99
9. School Leaving at Class 9 1979 105
10. Gymnasieskolan Enrolment 1976-78 by Years 109
of Study
11. Gymnasieskolan Enrolment 1976-78 by Fields 1 1 1
of Study
12. Gymnasieskolan Enrolment 1976-78 by Lines 112
of Study
13. University Student Enrolment 1940/1-1977/8 131
14. Newly Enrolled Students in Higher Education 145
1977/8
15. Entrants to Higher Education Lines 1979
145
16. Applications to Different Lines of Higher 146
Education 1979
xiii
xiv List of Tables
17. Applications and Acceptances for Subject 147
Teaching, Geography/Biology Lines 1979
18. Age Distribution of Students in Higher 150
Education 1979
19. Age Distribution in Higher Education by Fields 150
of Study 1979
20. Teacher Deployment 1980 164
21. Teacher Training and Teaching Service 1981 166
22. Attitudes to Teaching 1965 170
23. Teacher Education Proposals 1967 170
CHAPTER 1
National Sentiment and Educational
Tradition
Education in Sweden is a massive enterprise which engages
directly some 40% of the total population of 8.3 million.
There are about half a million 2-7 year olds in various forms
of pre-school; over a million 7-16 year olds in the compulsory
basic school, Grundskola; a quarter of a million 16-19 year
olds in the integrated upper secondary school, Gymnasieskola;
150,000 in an integrated system of higher education, with an
annual entry of about 35,000; 270,000 adults are taking school-
level courses run by the local authorities ; 1 100,000 are taking
job retraining courses; 15,000 students aged from 18 attend
every year residential courses of at least 15 weeks at the folk
high schools; and nearly two million adults enrol in study
circles run by various adult education associations, in addition
to the courses run by trade unions and employers. To staff all
these courses, there are about 150,000 teachers - understandably,
some of the teachers in the formal school and higher education
systems also staff the adult courses; and about 100,000
administrators, clerks, school nurses, school meals staffs,
caretakers. The total enterprise costs over 7% of the GNP, a
little over half of the money coming from central government
and the rest from the local authorities. For the pupil, tuition
is free within the formal school and higher education systems,
and at minimal cost for all other courses.
This scale of educational provision is a relatively modern
phenomenon, and clearly relates to the affluence of the country.
With a wealth per head of population which places it among a
very select group at the top of the international league table
in terms of GNP, Sweden certainly presents a picture of well-
being, of a people who have "never had it so good". It is a
picture in sharp contrast to the poverty and harshness of life
which encouraged large-scale emigration to the USA between
1850 and 1920, or the social unrest of the world-wide economic
depression of the 1930s. It is in sharp contrast, too, to
1
2 Tradition and Change in Swedish Education
the caricature of Sweden as a land ridden with discontent, of
social licence where illegitimacy and divorce are the norm,
where there is ready access to pornography and narcotics, and
where people have pronounced tendencies to suicide all brought
about by too ready access to liberal social welfare services in
a secular half-socialist paradise or hell.
Such an image is no more true than that of Paris as the sin
capital of the "naughty nineties", or that of an 18 year old
English boy who, on being introduced for the first time to a
Swedish lady, was heard to remark "I thought all Swedes were
blonde and sexy". There are indeed many human tragedies in
Sweden behind the social security statistics of drunkenness,
drug addiction, broken families, and social inadequacy in a
modern complex society. Many Swedes deplore the sight of young-
sters, raggare, in their leather jackets riding round the town
square in large cars or on noisy motor cycles. Many dislike
the high level of taxation which finances the extensive network
of social services. Many no doubt feel they are over-governed
by a bureaucratic, computer-controlled, machine. Many find it
hard to understand, let alone to sympathise with, that 10-15-20%
of an age-group who are tired of school, who play truant or
vandalise the facilities, who treat so casually and wastefully
opportunities of which their parents and grandparents could only
have dreamed.
The visitor to Sweden, however, can hardly fail to see a quiet,
calm, clean, modern, well-ordered country. There is, inevitably,
noise and bustle in the centre of large conurbations such as
Stockholm, Gôteborg and Malmo; about a third of the population
now lives in the major towns. But Sweden is still essentially
a country of small towns and scattered communities. Half the
population still live in local authority areas of less than
30,000, and a "populated area", tatort, is defined as one where
there are more than a mere 200 people. In the built-up areas,
even in the largest cities, the apartment blocks and houses are
likely to stand in green lawns with well kept shrubs and
borders; an extensive, and expensive, system of housing grants
and very long loans make for a social mix which is quite
different from the usual western European or American scene
where the social class composition of an area is clearly visible
in the type of housing available: by and large, Sweden has no
slums. In the relatively sparsely populated countryside the
red wooden farmhouses and barns with their white framed windows
make idyllic pictures against the background of yellow corn-
fields, green conifer forests, copses of silver birch, and
