Research topic

In 2024, the Swedish Ministry of Education has introduced a course on AI in upper secondary and adult education (Komvux). In response, several universities across the country have organized professional development courses aimed at improving teachers’ competence in the field of AI. This study aims to explore the hopes and fears attached to AI in political and academic discourses on the teaching profession in Sweden.

Theoretical framework  

We draw on the notion of policy assemblage (Savage, 2019) to examine how different political imaginaries, rationalities, technologies, infrastructures, and actors collectively shape certain perspectives on AI and its role in education. By focusing on 1) policy rationalities and 2) academic discourses as expressed in the literature of newly established AI courses for teachers, as parts of the policy assemblage, we explore how they construct the kinds of teachers (cf. Hacking, 2006) in response to different problematizations (Foucault, 1994) of AI and education.

Methodology 

Two sets of data were collected to examine and contrast two parts of the policy assemblage described above. These are (1) Swedish and international policy documents on AI in education in general and in relation to the teaching profession in particular, (2) syllabi and reading lists for courses on AI for teachers.  

In analyzing the empirical sources, we focused on (a) whether AI is presented as a threat or a blessing for teachers, (b) what visions of desirable futures are embedded in different discourses on AI and the teaching profession, (c) what kinds of teachers are envisioned by different discourses. Special attention was paid to the visuals accompanying some of the selected texts, as they often carry important messages that may not be explicit in the text itself.  

Findings 

Preliminary findings suggest that discourses about AI produce specific kinds of teachers-those who are adaptable, digitally literate, and data-oriented. We also find that discourses about AI in education are shifting from framing it as a salvation for educational problems to framing it as a potential threat to the teaching profession. The polarized visions of AI as either a silicon savior or an iron-fisted digital dictator are also reflected in the accompanying imagery, which depicts a world in which AI is seamlessly integrated into classrooms, symbolizing hopes for efficiency, as well as fears of overly mechanistic teaching and learning and reduced human connections.

Relevance to Nordic educational research  

In the Nordic countries, education has historically been rooted in values such as equity, inclusivity, and democracy - principles that prioritize humanistic, student-centered teaching. By exploring different discourses on AI and the teaching profession in Sweden, the study contributes to an understanding of how AI might affect or even challenge these values in the Nordic context.  

In recent years, Swedish teacher education has come under scrutiny as policymakers seek to raise the status of the profession. Since 2021, universities have been authorized to set specific admission criteria for teacher education programs, including recent proposals to require a minimum grade of C in Swedish (SOU 2024:81). These changes reflect broader concerns about declining teacher competence and societal anxieties about the profession’s ability to meet its demands. At the same time, they raise questions about how the concept of teacher suitability is constructed, governed, and tied to societal desires.  

This paper addresses these questions by providing a genealogy of teacher suitability discourses in Sweden from 1842 to 2024. Drawing on the theories of Foucault (1991) and Hacking (2002), it examines how selection requirements have historically regulated teacher subjectivities, producing individuals who are both docile to institutional norms and desirable to societal aspirations. Through an analysis of policy documents, government reports, teacher guidelines, the study traces how moral, professional, and meritocratic discourses have shaped the processes of defining and assessing teacher suitability in Sweden. 

Preliminary results show that when Sweden’s compulsory school system was introduced in 1842, teacher suitability was grounded in religiously inspired moral values. Suitability was articulated through religiously inspired notions of virtue and sin. The teacher, as a figure of ‘moral purity’, was tasked with embodying Christian ideals (Dahm, 1846). This moral regime sought not only to discipline teachers but also to use them as tools for disciplining society, positioning them as mediators of the state’s moral aspirations. 

By the mid-20th century, teacher suitability shifted towards professionalization and meritocratic ideals. Suitability became tied to the teacher’s observable performance and professional behavior as assessed by entrance examinations, interviews, and pre-practice requirements (SOU 1952:33; SOU 1975:67). These techniques also fabricated a specific kind of teacher subjectivity – one that embodied the dual imperatives of individual merit and professional conformity. The discourse of suitability thus shifted from explicit moral authority to the subtler forms of conformity to professional norms and institutional practices. Teachers were no longer seen as just moral figures but as technicians, expected to meet the societal demands for expertise. 

The most recent proposal to require a minimum grade of C in Swedish (SOU 2024:81) exemplifies how meritocratic ideals are reinscribed into suitability discourses, constructing a ‘floor’ beneath which one cannot fall. Hidden behind meritocratic arguments, language requirements are presented as an important yet neutral criterion of teacher competence. At the same time, this form of ‘linguistic meritocracy’ exemplifies how teachers are increasingly governed through performance metrics, which are believed to be objective. 

Overall, our analysis demonstrates how institutional and societal desires are inscribed in the very processes that make up the people who are meant to serve them. The teacher, as a subject of both discipline and desire, is shaped through societal fears and desires and the intersecting discourses of morality, expertise and effectiveness. 

This article explores the complex interplay between the visual, numerical and verbal elements of data visualisation and their role in shaping policy concerns. Focusing on the aesthetic and temporal dimensions of statistical graphics and drawing on the notion of diagram in the Deleuzian sense, the article emphasises the performative nature of data visualisation. More specifically, it explores how data visualisation suggests, rather than reveals, particular visions of educational pasts, presents and futures. Based on an analysis of graphs and charts selected from recent UNESCO and OECD reports, the article discusses the practices of the datafication of time and temporalisation and the beautification of data, which together produce ‘beautiful evidence’. This evidence informs education policies and practices and affects the way education can be seen, known and acted upon.

The concept of differentiation holds immense significance in education, touching upon aspects like access, inclusion, justice, and equality. However, it is also a complex and elusive notion, which acquires different meanings across historical and cultural contexts. This article explores the shifting reasoning about differentiation in the Swedish educational context. Inspired by Foucault’s account of disciplinary power, it conceptualizes differentiation as a technique for marking and addressing gaps between individuals. Drawing on an analysis of governmental and scholarly reports from 1842 to the late 1960s, the article identifies three shifts in the reasoning on differentiation: 1) from differentiation by socioeconomic class as a given factor to the search for scientific rationales for differentiation based on measurement of intellectual ability, 2) from viewing differences in intelligence as biologically conditioned and stable to viewing them as amenable to training and correction through education, and 3) from a focus on inputs to a focus on outputs. Overall, the article argues that even if the term ‘differentiation’ itself has been discursively replaced by others, the ideas underlying it—the search for gaps—continue to shape education in Sweden and beyond.

Reading is said to have a unique place in human civilization, transcending times and cultures. It is considered crucial for school performance and the development of democratic citizens (Skolverket, 2022). However, according to the Programme for International Reading Literacy Study (Skolverket, 2023) reading habits in Sweden are declining. Overall, the act of reading is perceived to be at risk – a concern that has been eloquently articulated within and beyond the Nordic context. Declining reading habits are seen as a major challenge in contemporary societies, with potential negative effects on children’s cognitive, emotional, and personal development as well as on the formation of a well-rounded, critically thinking, and informed citizens.   In examining how reading is produced as a societal, scientific and political concern (cf. Latour, 2004a), we have elsewhere introduced the concept of the ‘reading industrial complex’ (Sundström Sjödin, et al., in press). This concept posits reading as a multifaceted matter involving a wide range of actors, each holding their own view of what reading is, what it entails, and why we should care about it. The present study focuses more narrowly on the role of science in shaping perceptions of reading as a valued activity, influencing policies, and informing pedagogical practices.

Theoretically, the study is inspired by Latour’s concepts of matters of facts and matters of concern (Latour, 2004a, 2004b, 2014) to explore how scientific knowledge about reading is constructed and transformed into established ‘facts’ or ‘concerns’. This involves uncovering the desires and aspirations behind research initiatives and examining the ‘laboratory life’ (Latour et al., 2013) of reading science.  To achieve this aim, we trace the shifting epistemologies of reading research as reflected in the Journal of Literacy Research from 1969 to 2022. For that, we selected over 200 articles which we coded in accordance with our analytical interest and the purpose of the study. Of particular interest was to explore how the value of reading is constructed within selected articles.   Preliminary findings indicate significant shifts in reading research over time. These include expanded conceptions of what counts as reading and literacy, increased interest in contexts and the use of qualitative research methods. Nevertheless, reading continues to be treated as essentially one thing, albeit complex and multifaceted, that can be observed, measured, and assessed, often at the level of the individual. In Latourian terms, then, we can say that while reading is widely recognized as a political and societal concern, it still tends to be approached as a matter of fact.      

Using reading research as an example, this article aims to provide new conceptual tools for examining the production of scientific knowledge. Drawing on the metaphor of a theatre of truth, it explores how scientific knowledge is staged, dramatised and communicated within the field of reading research. It highlights the performative and public nature of knowledge production and examines the role of human and non-human actors, such as researchers, audiences, methods and visualisations, in shaping what counts as scientific truth. Focusing on the articles published in the Journal of Reading Behavior (later Journal of Literacy Research), the study traces how shifts in paradigms – such as the transition from qualitative to qualitative and interpretative approaches – reconfigure the ‘stage’ of reading science. The article also introduces the concept of a contract of intelligibility to explore how shared assumptions and conventions govern the production and reception of scientific knowledge. We also consider the techniques of dramatisation that are used to differentiate concepts and demonstrate scientific truth in an accessible and persuasive way. Ultimately, the article underlines the need to critically examine the mechanisms through which educational research constructs and communicates its truths, thereby revealing its broader societal and political implications.