Säfström, Carl Anders and Månsson, Niclas (2022) The marketisation of education and the democratic deficit. European Educational Research Journal, 21 (1). pp. 124-137. ISSN 1474-9041

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Abstract

This article deals with the question of what has happened to ‘the public’ in the Swedish education system during the last three decades. In our search for an answer we illuminate and discuss how the process of marketisation, together with the learnification and individualisation of education, replaced ‘the public’ from public education with the logic of the market place. To shed some further light on the current discourse on Swedish education, we contrast two principles in education and teaching, the aristocratic principle and the democratic principle. According to the aristocratic principle, education is about fixating and reproducing existing power relations as the cornerstone of a well-ordered society. According to the democratic principle of education, equality is the cornerstone of a well-ordered democratic society. Considering the shift in the very infrastructure of the Swedish educational system, we arrive at the conclusion that the principles in education and teaching are characterised by the aristocratic principle, rather than those we have characterised as democratic principles. The educational message is clear: upcoming generations are to accept the rules of the market economy and play the game accordingly.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Cite as: Safstrom, C.A. & Mansson, N. 2022, "The marketisation of education and the democratic deficit", European educational research journal EERJ, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 124-137.
Keywords:	Public education; marketisation; individualisation; democratic deficit; equality;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Education
Item ID:	17538
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041211011293
Depositing User:	Carl Anders Safstrom
Date Deposited:	14 Sep 2023 14:19
Journal or Publication Title:	European Educational Research Journal
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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