Social changes are taking place, such as increased digitalization, globalization and different crisis which affects the vision of the democratic society. Fundamental values have in the society been taken for granted as democracy and gender equality. This also applies to the educational system’s task of conveying society’s knowledge and values ​​to children and young people. Governance of society and its institutions are perceived as difficult and challenge to handle. Governing of municipalities in rural areas has specific terms and conditions. Therefore, this study describes and analyzes the re-contextualization of values ​​in Swedish educational policy in rural areas. The question is: What values are expressed in the re-contextualization of educational policy by superintends at a municipal level?

The theoretical perspective of the study is re-contextualization of educational policy. Distance between the state level and the local level have been increased since the decentralization in the 1990s. This distance can be described as a gap that can be bridged through the changing relationships of different actors. Re-contextualization of education policy can therefore be described as a gap that cannot be rationally bridged without the relationships being affected by social, economic, and cultural factors. 

18 municipal superintendents have been studied through interviews in rural areas in 2016. The selection of municipalities was carried out as follows: (a) a rural or sparsely populated municipality, (b) a municipality in which no other school providers were active (i.e., no independent schools in the municipality) during the years 2013/2014, (c) a municipality that had a lower secondary school, and (d) a municipality that did not have its own upper secondary school (i.e. the students went to upper secondary school in another municipality). A content analyze has been carried out and by Rokeach's theory of values defined as desirable goals, and associated actions. 

The values ​​in the educational policy that have been re-contextualized by superintends in rural areas promote students' development of knowledge, inclusion for all students learning as well as – to a small extent – teaching the educating students to be democratic citizens. The lack of competence at schools is a problem related to social, economic, and cultural factors. Inclusion is expressed as a desirable value of promoting students' development of knowledge, but there is a problem in the inclusion of all students in the teaching. Values related to democratic issues ​​are expressed in terms of an increased need for dialog and strengthen human rights. The study indicates that further issues may need to be addressed in terms of which values are re-contextualized in educational policy at Nordic, national and municipal level. Girls' mental health related to high results (Kirsten, 2020), boys' choice of lifestyle (Paulgaard, 2017) and guardians' function (Rönnlund, 2019) in the current governance can be further elucidated. Municipalities in rural areas have specific challenges to deal with, not least in relation to the management of values in education and a democratic society.