The Free Schools “Riddle”: Between traditional social democratic, neo‐liberal and multicultural tenets

Abstract

The question of what role free schools should perform in the Swedish educational system has been a contested subject between three ideological, theoretical, political and policy tenets. The first, “contribution to pedagogical diversity in a controlled school market” reflects a traditional social democratic view. The second, “contribution to a better education on a competitive school market” reflects a neo‐liberal approach. The third tenet, “contribution to the maintenance of groups' and individuals' cultural and religious identity” reflects a multicultural view insisting on the thesis that a family's cultural and religious identity should be a steering motive for the school choice. The aim of this article is to take a closer look at what the three tenets that constitute the “riddle” contain—including their claims, responses to critics, arguments and empirical evidence—and to discuss some of their practical impacts on the shaping of educational policy.

Keywords:

• Free schools
• Multiculturalism
• Neo‐liberalism
• Social democracy

Notes

1. Source: Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket, 2005).

2. Ladd (2003) calls this phenomenon for “transactions costs” and “provider capture” and she criticises the perspective with the following arguments: “Provider capture occurs, according to this [new‐liberal] perspective, when well‐organised public‐interest groups, such as teachers' unions, “capture” agencies and twist public policy in their favour at the expense of the broader public interest. Transaction, or agency, costs arise in ensuring that the incentives of employees who deliver public services are aligned with legislated policy objectives. To avoid provider capture and to minimise transaction costs in the context of education, such thinking calls for minimising the role of the central government…encouraging competition among schools, giving parents and students maximum choice in determining which school to attend…weakening the power of unions…” (p. 8).

3. In the literature they are even called faith schools, confessional, denominational, sectarian or just religious schools.

4. Both Hand's article and the response were published in the journal Theory and Research in Education (SAGE) during 2003–2004.

5. A president of the teacher's union (Lärarnas riksförbund) Metta Fjelkner proposed in an article in the biggest Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (16 April, 2006) the abolition of religious schools by claiming: “The right of children to eschew political or religious indoctrination must come before the parents' desire for a certain religious school profile” (my translation).

6. The figures are more or less constant for the following years as well (source: Skolverket 2003, 2005).