Conflicting thought styles? – Responsibility and accountability in the education of Swedish police officers

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses how Swedish police education actors navigate the act of introducing new police officers to tasks in an organisation permeated by a new public management ideology. This study’s empirical data derive from four studies on intra-professional police educators and police probationers. By interpreting and analysing these data using a theoretical framework based on styles of thought and reflexivity, a picture of how Swedish police organisations contain two somewhat contradictory thought styles emerges. The findings indicate that a reflexive awareness of this situation is crucial for educators to properly prepare new police officers for complex and important tasks. This paper contributes to current vocational training and education methods by offering new perspectives on how professional development can be enhanced in law enforcement and similar occupations.

KEYWORDS:

• Meaning making
• new public management
• police education
• organisational change
• professional development
• reflexivity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Fleck’s theory can be easily compared with H.C. Andersen’s tale ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’. The emperor’s ministers symbolise the inner circle, and the little boy who says, ‘But he has nothing on!’ represents the outer circle of common sense.

Additional information

Funding

The empirical data used in this article were a) collected for a doctoral project funded by the Department of Education at Stockholm University, the Department of Education at Umeå University, the Umeå School of Education at Umeå University and the Swedish Police Authority and b) collected for a research project supported by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare [grant number 2014-1980].]