En landsbygdens skolreform? Den geografiska dimensionen i bygget av en enhetsskola

Abstract in English

A fundamental organizational idea in the construction of a nine-year coherent unit school in Sweden 1928–1972, with geographical equality as a subgoal, consisted of a national uniformity in terms and content, with centralization as an overall tool (strategy area 1). At the same time, this school would be designed after local needs and conditions (strategy area 2). The main purpose and the investigation in the dissertation consist of the relationship between these two strategy areas in a smaller rural municipality.

A categorization has been made in its various aspects of national and local level: first the uniformity of the school time, second in shape (school-form and school size), as well as the third, compensatory measures to compensate for centralization’s disadvantages in the countryside.

The thesis takes its starting point in a historical micropolitical longitudinal study, in order to capture how a local school organization acted in relation to national intentions and decisions, through studies of the interaction and the conflict pattern between actors of significance, in accordance with Lipsky’s theory of Street Level Bureaucrats (here: the country road bureaucrats).

The main results of the empirical study shows that even from a rural perspective, the school’s centralization process was considered necessary in the work to achieve geographical equalization. When a conflict between the both strategy areas occur, was national uniformity prioritized in front of manifestation of local space. The cross-pressure position of the country road bureaucrats were characterized by the fact that they often ended up in a cross-pressure position between parents on one side and school inspector on the other hand. In conflict situations, the country road bureaucrats used to came to act in coalition with any other actor.