In today's classrooms, digital technologies and digital media enable an unlimited number of learning resources. Digital tools are one type of digital technology used in pedagogical settings. By digital tools we mean software that is not produced for educational purposes, but which may be used to support learning. Using theoretical concepts from…

This article examines the juridification of education in Sweden with a particular focus on changes in the legal regulation of schools' measures to combat degrading treatment. In Swedish schools, any degrading treatment must be reported to the head teacher who, in turn, has an obligation to report it to the governing body. Based on interviews with…

A global demand for excellence programs and elite education for pupils identified as specially gifted has emerged in recent decades. This article provides preliminary insights into the ongoing efforts to integrate special tracks for "the best" with the egalitarian ideal of A School for All, which remains highly influential in the Swedish…

The relationship between teaching and learning is a most central issue in education research, but it is yet to be fully understood. Variation Theory provides an explanatory account for teaching and learning and offers a specific view on what it means to learn: to discriminate and to discern critical aspects of the object of learning. This paper…

Over time international large-scale assessments have grown in terms of number of studies, cycles, and participating countries, many of which are a heterogeneous mix of economies, languages, cultures, and geography. This heterogeneity has meaningful consequences for comparably measuring both achievement and non-achievement constructs, such as…

The 1991, Swedish upper secondary school reform presents internationally an unusual case of the far-reaching integration of academic and vocational programmes. It has often been claimed that late tracking, such as characterizes this reform, helps to reduce inequalities between different social classes. This article addresses the question of how…

When using IRT models in Educational Achievement Testing, the model is as a rule too simple to catch all the relevant dimensions in the test. It is argued that a simple model may nevertheless be useful but that it can be complemented with additional analyses. Such an analysis, called profile analysis, is proposed and applied to the reading data of…

Students in Finland are obliged to apply for upper secondary education during their 9th year. The main divisions occur between general (academically oriented) and vocational upper secondary education, and within vocational education between female and male dominated sectors. In this article we discuss the tension between these options and explore…

This article addresses the changing role of the education of English as a Foreign Language by presenting results from a study aimed at problematizing and increasing the understanding of the inclusion of cultural aspects in the language classroom. The study from which this article is drawn consists of theoretical explorations into the field, linked…

In 2004, history was introduced by a Parliamentary decision as a new core subject in the Swedish upper secondary school system. This event constituted a major break--history now became a compulsory subject for all upper secondary school students after having been subject to a continually diminishing number of teaching hours ever since 1945. This…

Grades are important for admission of students in most higher education programs. Analyzing admission and student performance data at a major Norwegian business school, we find that the grading practice of teachers at regional colleges sending students to the school is affected by the average performance of the students being graded. Teachers at…

Recognising that there is now a globalised educational discourse about "failing boys" circulating in the privileged nations of the global north, this article provides a comparative perspective on educational policy responses to the "boy turn" in Australia and Iceland. Specificities of the responses to the boy turn in the two…

The voucher system in Denmark combines unrestricted generous subsidies with substantial autonomy of private schools as to schedule and teaching methods. This has produced a private school sector with a wide variety of school types. This paper uses data on eight cohorts of students (over 510,000 individuals) to compare educational attainment in…

The governance of basic schools (grades 1-10) in Iceland was transferred from state control to municipal control in 1995 with a new Basic School Act. This transfer was in line with the emphasis on school-based management that was stressed in the Act. This policy was criticised by many, including teachers and their union representatives. Research…

This article reviews ten predictive validity studies of the Swedish Scholastic Assessment Test (SweSAT). A primary result is that the predictive validity of the SweSAT seems to be highly dependent upon the study programme being examined; that is, the predictive validity is better at some programmes than others. When compared with the…