This work discusses how the complex relationship between welfare policies of equity and market efficiencies/deficiencies of education policies is handled in local practices. It offers contributions from the five Nordic countries - Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland - and pays special attention to questions about access and diversity in upper secondary education. The book draws on a wide range of theoretical frameworks and research projects and provides multiple perspectives of how upper secondary staff and students have experienced reforms of education governance during the last two or three decades. The research projects range from in-depth case studies to the analysis of large-scale data sets and inform practitioners, policy makers and researchers about practices of education policy that are highly influenced by market forces.

Brings together leading researchers in the field of school choice and education policy Contributes significantly to the understanding of the impact of market forces within education Considers the application of theoretical approaches in various contexts

Autorentext

Annette Rasmussen is an associate professor at Aalborg University since 2010. Her main research interests are in ethnographic approaches to education policies and practices, which she has studied in several school and learning contexts. In her recent research, focus is on policy issues of employability, performativity and talent, especially in relation to social background and inequality. Her latest publication on this includes Cultivating Excellence in Education. A Critical Policy Study on Talent, which is published in the series of Educational Governance Research and co-authored by professor Christian Ydesen.

Marianne Dovemark is a senior researcher and professor emerita of Education at the University of Gothenburg. Her main research interests are in sociology of education concerning policy and politics related to marketization of education and personalization of learning. Theoretically, she belongs to a critical tradition, methodologically in critical ethnography. She is a member of the board of the international research journal Ethnography and Education. She has undertaken research and published extensively in the field of personalized learning and marketization of education. One of her latest contribution, co-authored with professor Dennis Beach, is a chapter in the edited volume Neoliberalism and Market Forces in Education. Lessons from Sweden.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Education in the Nordic Countries: Governance and Choice.- Part 1. Access and Governance.- Chapter 2. Governing Students' Access to Knowledge: A Critical Discourse Analysis of General Subjects in the Swedish Upper Secondary School Reforms between 1990 and 2011.- Chapter 3. Social Inclusion and Equality in Access: Comparing Vocational Education in Sweden and Denmark .- Chapter 4. Governing School Choice in Norway Why Local Educational Government Capacity Matters.- Chapter 5. Upper-Secondary School Choices in Reykjavík and Helsinki: The Selected Few in the Urban.- Part 2. Segregation and Fairness.- Chapter 6. The Janus Face of 'Freedom of Choice' in Upper-Secondary School Markets.- Chapter 7. Revisiting Just Education for Students Last in Line - a Norwegian Perspective.- Chapter 8. Choice and Competition in the Governance of the Danish Gymnasium School.- Chapter 9. It is not all about studying. General Upper Secondary Schools' Institutional Habitus Shaping Students' Educational Choice Making.- Chapter 10. Selection for Whom? Upper Secondary School Choice in the Light of Social Justice .- Chapter 11. Comparing Governance and Choice of Upper Secondary School in the Nordic Countries.