The process of juridification of school inspection in Sweden

Abstract

Since 2008, Swedish school inspection has leaned heavily on the Education Act and Ordinance. The increasing importance of the legal framework is in this study understood as a juridification process. This study explores the shift to a more legally oriented inspection and governing and highlights the inspectorate’s processes leading up to new assessment areas closely related to the Education Act, how these areas are practiced by the inspectors and how head teachers may react to them. Interviews with legal experts, managers, inspectors and head teachers as well as observations of the inspectors’ school visits are used. The results indicate that within the new inspection agency in 2008, the process started with a review of research on successful schools before turning to the Education Act, and that the inspection process is sometimes perceived as more legalistic than pedagogic by head teachers. The consequences of the juridification of Swedish school inspection is discussed in relation to constitutive effects.