Upper Secondary Education in the Nordic Countries: Governance and Choice

Education policies globally have seen shifts from ‘state control’ or ‘big government’ of the welfare state towards ‘governance’ and ‘efficient free markets’, where citizens become clients of the state and consumers of education. Reforms of upper secondary school in the Nordic countries widely adhere to such policies which have decentralised the governance of the schools. However, schools are also subject to general objectives and legislation. The changes lay the foundation for a new welfare model where the boundaries between the public and private sectors are blurred. As a vehicle for understanding the workings of education policies aiming to introduce market-oriented education, the Nordic countries serve in this volume as exemplary cases. They retain some features of the traditional universal welfare states and are often highlighted as model societies with high levels of happiness, social equality and democratic commitment as low levels of corruption, free education and health care for all. The key concern is to investigate and compare how the complex relationship between universal welfare policies emphasising educational access and market policies emphasising choice is handled in different local upper secondary education practices in the five Nordic countries.