PEDAGOGISK FORSKNING I UPPSALA 158

OKTOBER 2010

EDITOR ULLA RIIS

Four Essays on Educational Systems and Reforms

in Modern Times
The Case of the Swedish Educational System
The Case of the Swedish Teacher Training System
The Case of the Turkish Teacher Training System
The Turkish and the Swedish Primary Teacher Training
System Compared

Pedagogiska institutionen
Box 2136
750 02 Uppsala
 EDITOR ULLA RIIS

Four Essays on Educational Systems and Reforms

in Modern Times

The Case of the Swedish Educational System

The Case of the Swedish Teacher Training System
The Case of the Turkish Teacher Training System
The Turkish and the Swedish Primary Teacher Training
System Compared
UPPSALA UNIVERSITET
UNIVERSITETSTRYCKERIET
UPPSALA 2010

ISBN 978-91-506-2150-1
ISSN 0348-3630
Contents
CONTENTS ............................................................................................................... 1
PREFACE.................................................................................................................. 3
THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN SWEDEN – FROM A UNIFORM
TOWARDS A DUAL MODEL ............................................................................... 5
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 5
THE CONTEXT OF THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ....................................................... 5
THE ORIGINS OF THE SWEDISH SCHOOL SYSTEM .................................................... 8
THE PRESENT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM .................................................................. 11
THE SYSTEM ......................................................................................................... 13
INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS AND THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE ONE’S SCHOOL .................. 15
TOWARDS A UNIFORM MODEL .............................................................................. 16
THE POST WAR REFORMS IN SWEDEN................................................................... 17
REFORMS WITHIN THE HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM ............................................ 21
RECENT CHANGES IN THE STRUCTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION ............................ 24
REFORMS WITHIN ADULT EDUCATION .................................................................. 26
THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIBERAL ADULT EDUCATION ........................................... 27
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILD CARE IN SWEDEN .................................................. 27
CENTRAL ISSUES IN THE SWEDISH EDUCATIONAL DISCUSSION............................. 30
PRESENT ISSUES .................................................................................................... 35
REFLECTIONS ON THE FUTURE .............................................................................. 37
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 39
RECENT INNOVATIONS IN THE TEACHER TRAINING IN SWEDEN.... 43
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 43
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN SWEDEN ............................. 44
PRESENT TEACHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IN SWEDEN ............................................ 48
THE BOLOGNA PROCESS ....................................................................................... 51
CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS AND TENDENCIES UNDER DISCUSSION IN SWEDEN:
ANOTHER REFORM UPCOMING ............................................................................. 52
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: CRITICISM OF THE REPORT SUSTAINABLE
TEACHER EDUCATION ............................................................................................ 55
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 58
RECENT INNOVATIONS IN TEACHER EDUCATION IN TURKEY ......... 60
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 60
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN TURKEY ............................. 61
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION .................................... 63
THE PRESENT TEACHER EDUCATION SYSTEM IN TURKEY .................................... 65
THE BOLOGNA PROCESS ....................................................................................... 71
CURRENT REFORMS IN TURKISH EDUCATION SYSTEM .......................................... 72

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 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ............................................................................. 73
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 76
HIGHER EDUCATION IN TURKEY AND IN SWEDEN: A COMPARISON
OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER TRAINING IN SWEDEN AND
TURKEY................................................................................................................. 78
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 78
TEACHER TRAINING UNDER SCRUTINY ................................................................. 78
THE BOLOGNA PROCESS AS A BACKGROUND ........................................................ 79
TEACHER TRAINING IN SWEDEN: OVERALL STRUCTURE....................................... 80
TEACHER TRAINING IN TURKEY: OVERALL STRUCTURE ....................................... 81
ADMISSION & SELECTION IN THE SWEDISH HIGHER EDUCATION .......................... 82
ADMISSION & SELECTION IN THE TURKISH HIGHER EDUCATION .......................... 83
GOALS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER TRAINING IN SWEDEN ............................. 84
GOALS OF PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER TRAINING IN TURKEY ............................. 85
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN TEACHER TRAINING GOALS IN TURKEY AND
SWEDEN ................................................................................................................ 85
CURRICULUM, SPECIAL SKILLS AND SPECIALISATION IN THE SWEDISH TEACHER
TRAINING .............................................................................................................. 87
CURRICULUM, SPECIAL SKILLS AND SPECIALISATION IN THE TURKISH TEACHER
TRAINING .............................................................................................................. 88
EVALUATION AND CERTIFICATES IN THE SWEDISH TEACHER TRAINING ............... 89
EVALUATION AND CERTIFICATES IN THE TURKISH TEACHER TRAINING ............... 90
RECENT AND FUTURE CHANGES IN THE SWEDISH TEACHER TRAINING ................ 91
NEW TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMME ............................................................. 92
RECENT AND FUTURE CHANGES IN THE TURKISH TEACHER TRAINING ................. 93
INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING COURSES IN SWEDEN ............................................... 94
INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING COURSES IN TURKEY................................................ 96
TEACHER APPOINTMENTS IN SWEDEN ................................................................. 100
TEACHER APPOINTMENTS IN TURKEY ................................................................. 100
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ........................................................................... 101
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 103
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ 104
APPENDIX 1......................................................................................................... 105
APPENDIX 2......................................................................................................... 108
AUTHOR NOTES ................................................................................................ 109

2
Preface
This report contains four essays with a common theme – a presentation of a
national educational system for the sake of comparison – in this report or at a
later stage. The aim of comparison has been the rationale for the four essays
and they are to appear in international publications on comparative education.
They are also the responses to assignments for such publications. The editor
of one of these publications, e.g., wrote in a mail conversation:
“I proposed to you to write an article about the educational system of
Sweden, for a special issue, edited by myself, of the Italian journal “I
Problemi della Pedagogia” . . . at present probably the best known and most
prestigeous educational journal in Italy. . . The article should be a ‘classical’
description of the educational system of the country, with: a brief historical
introduction; a more in-depth treatment of the trends and policies of the last
ten-fifteen years; a description of the present structure of the system (from
pre-school to tertiary level, including teacher training) with some quan-
titative data; a discussion of the main problems and trends towards the
future.”

The editor asks for a “classical” description – but what is meant by that? And
why is this what she wants? To the comparatist the answer is the same to
both questions: Comparative educational research needs this type of
descriptions (1) as contexts for more specific phenomena to be described and
interpreted, and (2) for comparisons as such. In both cases that which is
described must not be interpreted, biased or angled. This is hard to
accomplish and the method is normally to adhere to a structure agreed upon
by most comparatists. This structure is motivated by still another circum-
stance, the fact that the descriptions dealt with by the comparative
educational researchers are ephemeral in nature. The day a publication
reaches its auditorium it is partly obsolete and needs to be supplemented with
information on the latest changes.
The article by Lennart Wikander will appear in the Italian journal I
Problemi della Pedagogia in 2010. The first two contributions by Songül
Kilimci (and Ulla Riis) are to be published in a report in Greek in 2010. The
last article by Songül Kilimci may appear in this report only. Few, if any, of
our colleagues and students read Italian or Greek – nor do we – and this is our
reason for issuing this publication in English.

Uppsala and Adana in September 2010

Songül Kilimci Ulla Riis Lennart Wikander

3
4
THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN SWEDEN – FROM
A UNIFORM TOWARDS A DUAL MODEL

Lennart Wikander

Introduction
This essay is the result of several years of lecturing about the Swedish
educational system to international exchange students at Uppsala University.
The aim of the course programme is for the students to familiarize themselves
with the Swedish educational system in a context of its history and social
reforms. The lecture notes have been revised but traces of them may still be
found in the text. Moreover, the intention is that the text in this form could
be used for the students in some years to come.
For parts of the text I have relied upon information and facts found on the
websites of the Swedish Institute and on a number of Swedish national
authorities on education. Normally these texts contain no interpretation, nor
are they deliberately tendentious, and I have therefore often used them
verbatim or close to verbatim. It is my ambition that the reader should easily
be able to distinguish such information and facts from interpretations and
commentaries added by me.

The Context of the Educational System

Sweden is one of the Nordic countries in Europe with a population of a little
more than 9 million. The population is concentrated in some areas in the
south, south west and in the south middle east of Sweden. 86 percent of the
population lives in the southern parts of Sweden. Also throughout the coast in
the northern part of the country there are some concentrations of the
population in smaller cities. Rural areas in the northwest mostly consist of
small towns and villages. Sweden spreads over a relatively large area of
450,000 km2. Overall, the country is relatively sparsely populated with

5
20 inhabitants per square kilometre. This demographic situation has created
special demands for the development of a model for organising a school with
equal educational opportunities all over the country and for all groups in
society.
Traditionally, Sweden has had a relatively homogenous population, but
nowadays the population is becoming more and more heterogeneous. Today,
approximately one million of Sweden’s total population are immigrants or
have at least one immigrant parent. The immigrant population includes
citizens from other Nordic countries, foremost Finland, but the immigrants
from e.g. Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Chile are many and their arrival in the
country reflects directly the occurence of wars and great social problems in
their respective country of origin. Sweden has two minority groups of native
inhabitants, the Finnish speaking people who live mainly in the northeast of
Sweden and the Sami people in the north and the northwest.
The Swedish industries have for a long time been distributed relatively
evenly over the countryside, thanks to mines, forests and power supplying
rivers. Starting in the mid 19th century Sweden rapidly transformed into an
advanced industrialised society. This industrialisation brought up an increased
internal migration from the inland towards the coasts and to the three largest
cities: Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö and their metropolitan areas.
Sweden has been well known for its welfare system, developed after the
Second World War but with its roots in the 1920s. The development of this
Swedish model was strongly connected with the concurrent formation of the
new democratic and industrialized society. This system was characterized by
centralism, universalism and consensus. Social problems were to be solved by
standardized measures implemented by central decisions.
The industry in Sweden has for more than a hundred years been well
known for its advanced technology and well developed products resting on
high technology. After the Second World War Sweden had an advantage
compared with most countries in Europe. The country had not been to war
(neither WWI nor WWII) and it had undestroyed factories and an industry
well prepared for a civilian production and hence good conditions to relatively
quickly develop a welfare society. The political stability and the well
developed industry created a situation were Sweden could focus on the
development of a welfare system including the school. This has been known
as the Swedish way of social engineering. The Swedish Model goes back to the
late 1930s when a historical agreement was made between the state and the
parties of the labour market. The basic function of the agreement was to
create stability in the labour market and by this stability in the society.
Central negotiations in the labour market and open insight in decisions were

6
expected to yield peace in the labour market between periods of negotiations
(Elvander, 1988). Such a line of development prevailed for long but was
broken in the middle of the seventies, and we will come back to this later in
the article.
Sweden is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary form of
government. The King has only ceremonial functions. The Parliament
(Riksdag) is the highest decision-making body. Since 1971, it has one chamber
with 349 members, chosen by indirect elections, every fourth year. The
political system was stable with a majority for the Social Democratic party (a
left wing party) throughout a long period. With an exception of six years of
non-socialist rule (1976-82) the Social Democrats were in power from 1932
to 1991, either alone or in coalitions. In the 1991 election, the non-socialist
parties won a majority and ruled for a period. Following the 1994 elections
the Social Democrats returned to government but were replaced in 2006 by a
conservative/liberal four-party alliance. In the last election in September 2010
this right-wing alliance was re-elected and an internationally unusually long
period of Social Democratic hegemony definitely came to an end.
Sweden has had an official Lutheran State Church that can be dated from
1527 until 2000 when the church was separated from the state. Around 95
percent of the population belonged to the official Lutheran State Church in
the end of the 1990s. The number of member in the reorganised Lutheran
Church is now decreasing.
Swedish industry based on steel and forests and high developed products
as cars, telephones and other high-tech products has been strong. The changes
of world economy and crisis in some areas in the seventies, like the
shipbuilding industry and the textile industry, affected the industrial
structure. Added to this the oil crisis in the seventies started a process of
diminishing the competitive advantages of Sweden after the war. Since the
mid-seventies the situation for Sweden has changed dramatically as a
consequence of the international development of industry, the extended use
of the information technology and the movement towards a global market.
This has circumscribed the opportunities for Sweden and the Swedes to hold
on to the ‘Swedish Model’.
Sweden had a long period of a centralised system in the governing of
societal development and of the relations between state and market. Due to
the changes in the seventies and the eighties this situation changed a lot and
started a process in the late eighties of decentralisation and market
orientation. As a consequence some, but far from all, traditional state
responsibilities were privatised, such as the post, the telecom and the
railways. The direct state control was weakened as the steering systems were

7
changed from steering by rules, with strong state regulation of e.g. the school
and other social institutions, to a system of steering by objectives. The
responsibility for the school and the social affairs in general were transferred
from the state to the municipalities. One consequence of this was a
transformation in 1989 of the school teachers from being state employed to
being employed by the municipality.
All these changes affected the situation in school and had strong effects on
the development of the modern adaptation of a uniform system of the
Swedish educational system in the beginning of the 1990s.
The present educational system is based on a curriculum reform for
compulsory and upper secondary school in 1994. The prolongation of the
compulsory school is going on with a reform of preschool with an
introduction of a curriculum for the preschool 1998 and the transfer of the
preschool from the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs to the Ministry of
Education in 1996. Higher education was reformed in 1993 and in 2007
After the entrance of a right-wing political alliance to government in the
autumn of 2006 the focus on changing the school system has been very
strong. The focus has changed towards developing a more dual system and
leaving the strict uniform model developed in Sweden since the 1940s. Some
arguments for this are the shortcomings of Sweden in e.g. the PISA-studies
and the increasing proportion of students within the system who fail to pass
the upper secondary level. This has started a debate about what kind of
knowledge should be in focus in schools.

The Origins of the Swedish School System

The 1842 Ordinance for Education (1842 års folkskolestadga) can be seen as
the start of the development of a system of school for all in Sweden. Before
1842 popular education goes back to the beginning of the 16th century when
Gustav Vasa, the king, unified Sweden into a national state. He was also the
one to introduce the reformation of the Catholic church into the Swedish
Lutheran State Church. The traditional education within the church came
under the head of the state. At the time, the school was still a matter for the
church (Richardson, 2010). The church had become a state institution and
with it the school which used to belong to the catholic church organisation.
These schools were for the church’s own officials. Other educational
functions in the church organisation or educational functions within the
nobility were copied from other countries in Europe. In this sense the
education was very international (Richardson, 2010).

8
A degree of ordinance for the school or popular education was confirmed
already in 1567. This, however, was a question for the church only and for
teaching basic knowledge in Lutheran Christianity. In early 17th century the
1611 year ordinance for schools was confirmed, but a practical importance of
this ordinance was hardly seen. In the 17th century Sweden was undergoing a
strong development and Sweden actually was one of the leading nations in
Europe. Strong agencies for different state affairs separated from the
ministries were needed. Taken together these and other changes created a
need for educated state civil servants to run and represent Sweden in different
situations (Richardson, 2010) and the need for organised education increased.
To meet these needs the small and rudimentary university system was
expanded during the 17th century and grammar schools were established as a
complement to the universities.
The development of different schools for different institutional purposes
created a situation which was rather unclear during this period, and some kind
of unification of the educational system was asked for. This was the
background for inviting the educational philosopher Amos Comenius and
commissioning him to organise a Swedish educational system (Richardson,
2010). One result was an ordinance for schools in 1649 reflecting the work of
Comenius in that there should be a connection between schools on different
levels, named a “unified” school. This ordinance mentioned three different
schools; “Trivialskolor” (“trivial schools”, the word “trivial” alluding to the
three subjects taught – grammar, rhetoric and dialectics), “Gymnasier”
(grammar schools) and “Akademier“ (academies). This development of
schools was an organisation for serving the different state institutions; the
church, the state administration, other agencies and the emergent
merchandizing life. The task for popular education remained the
responsibility for the church and was restricted to education for Lutheran
Christian values.
The societal changes in the 18th century built on the trends of the 17th
century. The strong scientific development in the 18th century affected the
debate of the organisation of education. The growing secularisation and the
accelerating social problems arising from e.g. urbanization also started
educational debates. New ideological ideas of reform eagerness were
important for the development of education. To this there was a strong
resistance from the church and from the nobility. On the other hand many
private initiatives arose during this period, partly a result of pressures from a
growing middle class.
In the middle of the 19th century the popular education began to be
institutionalised, building, i.a., upon the idea of a school for all. When this

9
process started there were already different kinds of schools, serving as models
for how the new school could be developed. During most of the 19th century
there was a debate about the popular education, its content and dimensions.
In 1842 the decision was taken that the municipalities had to establish
stationary schools. From the beginning there was neither support nor much
steering from the state until the 1860s. A reform in 1862 strengthened the
interdependence between the state and the municipalities by way of a school
inspectorate. In 1886 the constitutional representations in the Parliament was
changed and parallel with this the discussion about expanding the popular
education intensified. In the end of the 19th century the grammar schools had
changed to meet new needs. They were not only educating civil servants, but
also administrators and engineers for the industry. Through private initiatives
schools for girls had been formed during the 19th century and in the 1870s
they gained economic support from the state authorities.
By the end of the 19th century the Swedish educational system had
developed into a parallel one; children of the wealthy groups entered
grammar schools, often private ones, and children of the workers were
directed to the public elementary school and later eventually to vocational
schools. In the very extensive period, politically and industrially, in the early
20th century there was a strong development of both these two parts of a
parallel school system. In a report of the school commission of 1918 it was
concluded that a strong dualism had developed within the educational system.
The question was raised, however, whether there was a need for a basic
school common to all. There should be a period, some argued, when children
of all groups meet in school, both for pedagogical reasons and for reasons of
equality. Fridtjuv Berg, liberal Minister of Education (1905-06 and 1911-14)
introduced such a proposal already in 1883 (Richardson, 2010; Lindensjö &
Lundgren, 2000).
The idea about a basic school for all met resistance from the conservative
parties. Nevertheless, a first step was taken 1894 when it was decided that the
requirements for entrance to the grammar school were to be based on three
years in elementary school or something equal to this. Still the more
privileged groups could prepare their children for the grammar school in
other ways than through the elementary school.
The controversy between the more conservative groups on one hand, and
the liberals and the social democrats on the other was strong. There was a
proposal for a six year basic school as a start for all pupils and that this should
be the base for the grammar school. However, other groups wanted to have a
double connection between the elementary school and the grammar school
with the meaning that there should be a possibility to enter the grammar

10
school after either the third or the sixth year in elementary school. At the
time of the onset of the Second World War the double connection was still in
operation but the problems had become too many and in 1940 an official
school commission of experts, not politicians, was appointed; the School
Investigation.
There was a consensus that there must be no simple or partial solution but
that an overall solution had to be sought. The decision was made also to
scrutinise the educational system from the school start through the upper
secondary level (Lindensjö & Lundgren, 2000). There were disagreements
within the commission as well as in the society receiving and debating the
report of the commission, presented in 1945. The dividing question was that
of differentiation – when and how should a selection take place? The majority
of the commission recommended differentiation of the pupils at the age of 11,
while the minority wanted a differentiation at the age of 13 or later. The
minority, as well as its supporters claimed that an early choice disfavoured
many, especially the workers’ children.
The ending compromise yielded very few practical consequences from the
report at start (Lindensjö & Lundgren, 2000). Alva Myrdal (a front-rank
Social Democrat with an interest in social and educational issues) created a
solution: Some problems were not to be regarded as political issues but rather
as scientific ones. This worked for many years as a method to solve political
disagreements and conflicts at hand.
The coalition government of the war time resigned in July 1945 and was
succeeded by a Social Democratic government which quickly appointed a
new school commission, this time with a political constellation. The reason to
appoint the School Commission of 1946 was a political, mainly the Social
Democrats’, dissatisfaction with the work of the expert commission for not
delivering an unanimous solution to the differentiation question and for not
delivering a solution radical enough. We will soon see how the situation
evolved during the 1950s and 1960s.

The Present Educational System

The sign of the Swedish school system was long the uniform model of the
system as a whole. From 1962 until recently, no clear distinction has been
made between general education and vocational education and training. These
have been provided in a uniform system at both the primary and secondary
school level and at the tertiary level. Presently, in 2010, a change in the upper
secondary education is proposed and is expected to come into effect in 2011;

11
the upper secondary level will be differentiated into a theoretical one and a
vocational one, with small but some opportunities for the students of the
latter to enter higher education. I will come back to this. Regarding higher
education all forms of post-secondary education were merged into an
organisationally uniform system in 1977. It remained so until 2009 when the
vocational higher education was established as an autonomous educational
form (more about this later on). Throughout the societal and political changes
during the past 50 years adaptations of the Swedish uniform educational
model have been made, whatever other kind of changes have occurred in the
surrounding societal environment. Now structural changes are in the making.
At this point we will have a look at some statistics regarding the Swedish
educational system: In the Fall of 2009 between 50 and 97 percent of children
1-5 years old were enrolled in the daycare and preschool (the older the
children, the higher the percentage). At the same time 905,000 pupils
attended the compulsory nine-year school and some 100,000 6 years olds
were enrolled in preschool class. 404,000 young people attended upper
secondary school and around 1 million persons were enrolled in adult
education programmes, including liberal adult education (The National
Agency for Education, 2010a). Sweden has 14 state universities with research
and doctoral programmes and three privately run higher education
institutions with the same right to issue exams. In 2010 there are 21 other
higher education institutions and nine private institutions with the right to
issue undergraduate exams. In 2009 over 360,000 students were enrolled in
undergraduate programmes and some 17,000 in PhD programmes. The
higher education system employed close to 30,000 teachers and researchers
(The National Agency for Higher Education, 2010a). Approximately 950,000
people received some form of study grant during 2007 (The Ministry of
Education, 2008).
Two basic principles of the Swedish educational system have long been
that everybody should have; (1) the right to equivalent education, regardless
of sex, ethnic and social background and of place of residence, and (2) the
access to such education. Compulsory school and upper secondary school are
comprehensive which means that these school forms are functioning within
the state organisation with a wide spectre and that they have looked the same
all over Sweden.
Starting in 2011 each university and other higher education institution are
free to organise themselves as they see fit, as long as there is a university
board, at least one faculty board and a rector/president (Government
proposition 2009/10:149).

12
The System
The educational system in Sweden has long been characterized by being fairly
uniform. The organisation of the system has been the same for all groups of
pupils/students in all parts of Sweden.
The National Agency for Schools describes the Swedish educational
system as follows (2010b): The Swedish education system comprises a
number of types of schooling and education, deigned for individuals of
different ages and with differing needs and abilities. The Swedish public
school system is made up of compulsory and non-compulsory schooling.
Compulsory schooling includes regular compulsory school, Sami school,
special school, and programmes for pupils with learning disabilities. Non-
compulsory schooling includes the preschool class, upper secondary school,
upper secondary school for pupils with learning disabilities, municipal adult
education, and adult education for adults with learning disabilities and higher
education.
All education throughout the public school system has long been free of
tuition. There is usually no charge to school pupils or their parents for
teaching materials, school meals, health services or transport in compulsory
school and in upper secondary school. Adult education is also free of charge,
as has higher education been so far. Beginning in 2011 students from outside
the EU will be charged with tuition fees for higher education studies.
According to the Swedish Education Act all children and youths, as said,
shall have equal access to education. All children shall enjoy this right,
regardless of gender, where they live, or social or economic factors. The
Education Act states that the education shall “provide the pupils with
knowledge and, in co-operation with the homes, promote their harmonious
development into responsible human beings and members of the community.”
(Swedish Education Act 1985), Consideration shall also be given to students
with special needs. The Education Act also extends the right of education to
adults.
The curriculum, national objectives and guidelines for the public
education system are laid down by Parliament and the government. The
federal budget provides municipalities with a sum of money to carry out the
various municipal activities, among them practically all education (except
higher education which is state run).
Within the objectives and framework established by government and
Parliament, the individual municipality may determine how its schools are to
be run. However, a local school plan describing the funding, organization,
development and evaluation of school activities must be adopted. Using the
approved curriculum, national objectives and the local school plan, the

13
principal of each school draws up a local work plan. This shall be done in
consultation with the school’s teachers and other personnel.
The National Agency for Education shall follow up and supervise the
public school system and every three years; the Agency presents a current
overview of the school system to government and Parliament. This forms the
basis of a national development plan for schools. The Swedish School
Inspectorate has a supervisory role to ensure that the provisions of the
Education Act are being complied with and that the rights of the individual
student are respected.
The school (academic) year normally begins at the end of August and runs
to the beginning of June the following year, comprising a total of about 40
weeks. The regular school week is five days long, Monday through Friday. A
longer holiday of just over two weeks is taken from around the 20th December
to the beginning of January.
Municipalities are obligated to provide a place in a preschool class for
children beginning the year the child turns 6, if the parents request so. The
preschool class programme shall comprise a minimum of 525 hours per year
and stimulate the learning and development of each child, as well as lay the
foundations for continued schooling. How the preschool class is arranged may
differ between municipalities. Most often, it is organized and located in
connection to a compulsory school, a leisure-time centre and/or a preschool.
The 9-year compulsory school programme is for all children between the
ages of 7-16 years. Included in compulsory schooling are the regular
compulsory school, the Sami school, the special school, and programmes for
pupils with learning disabilities. Sami children can receive education in Sami
School that covers grades 1-6 of compulsory school. Special schools offer a
10-year programme for the deaf and hard of hearing. Programmes for pupils
with learning disabilities include compulsory school and training school for
pupils with severe learning disabilities.
Almost all compulsory school students continue on directly to upper
secondary school and the majority of these complete their upper secondary
education in three years. In 2009, upper secondary education was divided into
17 national 3-year programmes, all of them offering a broad general education
and basic eligibility to continue studies at the post-secondary level. Alongside
the national programmes are also a number of specially designed and
individual study programmes. As mentioned, a change is planned with the
intention to make some vocational programmes the endpoint of education for
the individual, since these programmes will not lead to eligibility for higher
education.

14
Upper secondary education for the learning disabled offers vocational training
in the form of national-, specially designed- or individual programmes, similar
to those of regular upper secondary ones. The national programmes for the
learning disabled are however fewer in number and specially oriented to
vocational training. Upper secondary programmes for the learning disabled are
four years in length.
A person has the right to begin an upper secondary education in a regular
upper secondary school up until the year he/she turns 20. After that, there are
different types of municipally run adult education programmes. Among these
are municipal adult education (Komvux) and education for adults with
learning disabilities (Särvux). Komvux and Särvux are basic education,
corresponding to compulsory school and programmes for pupils with learning
disabilities, respectively, and non-compulsory education, corresponding to
regular upper secondary and upper secondary courses for pupils with learning
disabilities, respectively. Komvux also offers continuing education
programmes, which give specialized skills in particular occupational fields.
Swedish for immigrants (SFI) is designed to provide newcomers to the
country with knowledge of the Swedish language and Swedish society.
Municipalities have an obligation to offer SFI to new adult immigrants. SFI
programmes may be organized in different ways depending on the
municipality.
In 2009 more than one third (45 %) of students continued to study at the
post-secondary level within three years of completing upper secondary school.
In the 1990s and the following seven years the political goal for the Swedish
tertiary education was that 50 percent of a cohort should take part in some
kind of post-secondary education before the age of 24. This goal was dropped
in 2006/07. However, in some geographical areas with a good supply of
higher educations institutions, the proportions are higher. This means that in
some, usually more rural areas, the proportion of students in higher education
is much lower.

Independent Schools and the Right to Choose One’s

School
Most children attend a municipal school close to their home. However,
students and their parents have the right to choose another school, run by the
municipal or a privately run – independent – school. The number of
independent schools has increased a lot during the last years. On the
compulsory school level the expansion of independent schools has tripled in

15
15 years, from 238 schools in 1995/96 to 709 in 2009/10 (The National
Agency for Education, 2010a).
There are independent schools in some 60 percent of the municipalities in
Sweden. Almost ten percent of the schools are located in the municipality of
Stockholm. Almost 70 percent of the pupils in independent schools live in
one of the three greater city regions (The National Agency for Education
2008). A similar development has taken place regarding upper secondary
schools. Most of these independent schools are located in large city areas.
Among of students in the upper secondary school 22 percent attended an
independent school in 2009/10. In 2009/10 the number of students in
independent upper secondary schools in Stockholm exceeded the number of
students in the corresponding municipal school (The National Agency for
Education, 2010a).
Independent schools are open to everyone and must be approved by the
National Agency for Education. The municipality in which the student resides
pays the school a per student/per year grant. The education of independent
schools shall have the same basic objectives as municipal schools, but may
have a profile to distinguishes it. For example, schools may have a particular
religious character or use a special educational approach such as Montessori or
Waldorf. If an independent school does not comply with applicable
regulations, its approval may be withdrawn.
Independent schools above the compulsory school level can be one of two
kinds: those that correspond to municipal upper secondary, i.e., those that
offer upper secondary programmes and receive municipal grants, or those that
offer supplementary programmes. Among the latter are schools with
programmes in fine arts and handicraft. From 2011 the vocational
programmes will also include a ‘stream’ of apprenticeship programmes where
the student is trained in working life, e.g. in a factory or by a craftsman or an
artisan.
In addition to the types of schools mentioned, there are also a number of
international schools in Sweden that receive partial government funding.
These schools are intended primarily for the children of foreign nationals
whose stay in Sweden is temporary. Finally there are schools abroad for
children to parents working abroad for limited periods of time.

Towards a Uniform Model

As mentioned, in the late 1940s initiatives were taken to start developing a
comprehensive school system based on the previous debates and the findings

16
made by the researchers at the time. This was the starting point of the
formation of a unified and uniform model of the Swedish educational system.
As already said, Alva Myrdal pointed out a way for problem solving by
engaging researchers in Educational sciences, Sociology etc. in the reform
work which was about to start. The period just after the Second World War
and up until around 1970 can be considered as the period of the giant school
reforms in Sweden. The educational system underwent a tremendous change
and the participation of different interested parties was very strong, all in line
with the Swedish Model. After about two decades the new educational model
was established, and it has later been successively revised as new conditions
have arisen (Lindensjö & Lundgren, 2000). In the reconstruction of the
educational system of the late 1980s, we can see a return to steering by
political arguments rather than by scientific ones (Lindensjö & Lundgren,
2000).

The Post War Reforms in Sweden

The most prominent force behind the reforms of the Swedish comprehensive
school and the upper secondary school was the rapid increase of the parental
demand for secondary education for their children. In 22 years the transition
to lower secondary education raised from 20 percent of a birth cohort in 1940
to 80 percent in 1962 (Dahllöf, 1986). Before, the three disadvantaged groups
usually did not take efforts to apply for secondary schooling.
As stated before, the compulsory school system up until the late 1930s
contained many selection moments, resulting in a slow flow of students
through the educational system. This problem was aggravated by the
upcoming lack of educated people in the mid 1940s. The rate of transition
from lower education to lower secondary school was relatively low, and the
demand for education from parents increased. It was evident that the old
school system was not sufficient anymore. In 1946 the discussion started
about the demands on the education system concerning the need for the
future. Educational research at that time had pointed out the lack of equal
opportunities for pupils of different backgrounds within the educational
system. Next to that, new ideologies gave rise to the idea of more freedom of
choice for individuals. In 1948 these developments together led to a proposal
from the School Commission of 1946 to create a 9-year comprehensive
school system.
“Social Equality”, “freedom” and “efficiency” can be regarded as key words
and main motives through the educational reforms in Sweden after the war.

17
The concept of the reforms was how school ought to be organized in the
future to accommodate the ideas of equal opportunities and freedom. In order
to ensure social equality and integration, educational research contributed to
the identification of a “reserve of talents”: working class children, girls and
children from rural areas. Groups underrepresented in the educational system
ought to be mobilized in order to strengthen the Swedish industrial
competence and efficiency in the international competition; it was argued
(Husén & Härnqvist, 2000). Several studies were made, described in e.g.
Husén & Härnqvist (2000), most of which influenced the political debate.
The proposal of the School Commission of 1946 gave rise to a lot of
discussion. The Social Democrats were in favour of the idea to delay the
selection in order to minimize the effects of the background variables. The
right-wing parties, on the contrary, feared a degrading of the general school
level. During the period 1950-60, right-wings kept pointing out the need for
ability grouping. The Social Democrats, however, did not agree and
maintained that ability grouping did not strike with the idea of equality in the
sense of equal treatment. It has also to be noticed that the agrarian party
(Bondeförbundet) supported the Social Democrats since the proposed
solution would increase the educational opportunities for children from rural
areas.
In 1950 the Parliament decided to start experiments with a comprehensive
school system and to evaluate which system would prove most efficient, the
traditional one or the comprehensive one. The educational-ideological line of
thought, emphasizing equality and unity, finally affected the introduction of
the comprehensive school through the Compulsory School Curriculum of
1962. Thereby the former parallel school system was replaced. In the
planning of the new comprehensive school systematic efforts aimed at
examining the problems of the organization of the upper section, years 7-9.
Lower secondary school was integrated in the new compulsory comprehensive
school system, forming its three last years, but upper secondary school was
still separated from compulsory school. From an ideological point of view, the
reform was driven by two principles: (1) The promotion of equal
opportunities, irrespective of social or economical background, (2) The
adoption of a system of student’s choice to be made in accordance with the
needs, interests and capacities of the students, especially with regard to intra-
individual differences (Härnqvist, 1960).
The reformation of the upper secondary school was implemented in 1971.
This reform was based on research findings regarding both student attitudes
and curricular matters. Structural changes of the upper secondary school
system were made in the middle of the 1960s. Until then, upper secondary

18
education had consisted of three independent parts: (1) a general upper
secondary school, preparing for university entrance; (2) a two-year
programme oriented towards economics and trade with limited opportunities
for university entrance; (3) a three-year technical training programme for
engineers at a middle level competence. The general secondary schools were
concentrated within 125 towns in Sweden, the technical ones in only 30
towns. The following changes were to be made in the reform of 1971:
1) The economic and technical programmes were prolonged by one
year.
2) Their competence was broadened by more general education
contents, so that students taking these programmes had the same
university entrance competence as those who had followed the
general programme.
3) The economic and technical study programmes were administratively
integrated as tracks within the new upper secondary education. This
meant a great increase in the accessibility of these programmes, since
they now were offered in approximately 130 towns, instead of 30.
4) Finally, the curriculum of the general tracks was revised, partly as a
consequence of the curricula in the new 9-year comprehensive
school. (Dahllöf, 1986:19)
In March 2008 a committee for the future of the upper secondary school
presented a report on a reform of the upper secondary school (SOU 2008:27).
There will be 19 national programmes of which 14 vocational ones and 5 to
prepare for entrance to higher education. The school form will end by the
student receiving one of two degrees, one relevant for the labour market and
one for higher education. This is an interruption of a 60-year long ideological
principle, laid down in political consensus – that every educational level could
be a step towards the next one. The reform will be implemented in 2011.
The radical element of the reform is the division of the formerly uniform
upper secondary school. For the vocational programmes employability is
emphasized. Some such programmes are to be offered as school-based
education and some are to take the form of apprenticeship education. For
school-based vocational education, at least 15 weeks of workplace-based
training must be offered. The same rules on eligibility and qualification
requirements apply for apprenticeship training as apply for school-based
vocational education. The same upper secondary school subjects and the same
end assignment requirements apply to apprenticeship training. The structure
is to be governed by a national education plan, and a local education plan is to
be produced in cooperation with local partners. Apprentices are to have a

19
qualified instructor at the workplace, and the vocational teacher at school is
responsible for ensuring that the training goals are met and followed up.
In all programmes eight common subjects are proposed: Swedish/Swedish
as second language, English, Mathematics, History, religious studies, social
studies, Science and finally sport and health but they may vary in scope and
content. All programmes allow time for in-depth studies to provide pupils
with an opportunity to choose a profile within the programme.
Another idea of the reform is that education requires collaboration
between municipalities and independent actors what means there should be a
regional perspective. The task of upper secondary school is to provide society
with skills. This requires collaboration with both the world of work and the
higher education sector. There should be equal conditions for municipal and
independent upper secondary schools to secure greater clarity, thus
strengthening countrywide equivalence.
By expanding the upper secondary school the school system – as said – was
rather unified in the 1970s but it was still a centralized system. Demands for
decentralization increased in the 1980s because of the volume of the
educational system along with problems of steering and financing. Detailed
rules were successively replaced by framework rules which allowed a greater
autonomy and independence for the local level. This trend of decentralization
culminated in 1990 when the state’s responsibility for steering the schools was
transferred to the local level (Berg, 1992). As said, the right-wing parties
came into power in 1991, the decentralization process was speeded up and a
great many decisions were made, many of them in line with a ‘marketization’
idea.
“The 1991 election resulted in a new government which became a starting
point for a new rhetoric and speeding up of the restructuring of the
educational system. In the name of steering by objectives, decentralization,
professional responsibilities and freedom of choice, state intervention is
subordinated to market mechanisms.”
(Carlgren, 1994:2)

In this context the importance of privatization and competition between

schools was stressed in order to increase quality and efficiency of education.
Schools were given the possibility to develop their own profiles and parents
and pupils had the freedom of choice of school as informed customers. As an
effect, the number of independent schools increased as did the competition
for pupils and school vouchers between schools (Weyler, 1993). In 1993 new
guidelines for National Curricula were presented which contained new syllabi
with attainment targets and a new absolute marking system instead of the
former relative marking system (Carlgren, 1994). The Social Democrats, who

20
had criticized the conservative educational policy, came back into power in
the autumn of 1994. Contrary to their promise to abandon the voucher
system, they only lowered the voucher from 85 to 75 percent of the average
cost for the student. As tasks for education they stressed equity, equivalence
and social integration in a bill 1994/1995, and they stated as an ambition to
revise the rules for independent schools (Lindblad 1995).

Reforms within the Higher Education System

It goes without saying that the large increase in students attaining upper
secondary school in the 1940s and 50s would successively lead to a
comparable expansion in student demand for higher education in the 1960s.
Thus, the higher education system needed expansion in capacity. The motives
behind the reform of the higher education system consisted of the same basic
aims that had guided the reforms at the upper secondary level earlier.
Discussion had started about the nature of ‘useful knowledge’, the desirable
aims of higher education and how higher education should prepare its
students for their future. Two goals of higher education were distinguished:
(1) to provide general academic education – in order to prepare professionals
in the scientific field, and (2) to provide professional academic education – in
order to prepare practitioners.
Practically all post-secondary education, i.e. all university-type education
as well as non-academic colleges for different kinds of professional education
and training, e.g. the training of nurses and primary school teachers, was
incorporated into one single system in 1977. Swedish post-secondary
education at that time contained a strong element of national planning and
regulation; the aims and length as well as the location and financing of most
study programmes were laid down by the Parliament and/or the government
up until 1989. The curricula for general study programmes were also
established on a central and national level. The reform of 1977 also
introduced a numerus clausus system for all higher education, including
Liberal Arts and Social Science. Restricted entrance and scheduled study
programmes had then been in operation for many years regarding studies in
e.g. Medicine, Dentistry, Agriculture and Engineering.
In 1993 a major reform and a new Higher Education Act were adopted,
aiming at a deregulation of the higher education system, greater autonomy for
each institution of higher education and a wider scope of individual choice for
students. In the new system the sizes of different programmes and the
allocation of grants between institutions was to be determined by students’

21
demands and the achievements of each institution in terms of quality and
quantity. The organisation of studies and range of courses on offer were to be
determined locally. Students were given increased freedom of choice
regarding study courses within the framework of a new internationally valid
Degree Ordinance.
The ideals of social equality and freedom to the individual led to a demand
for a second chance for those who had not chosen an academic study
programme from the beginning. In the late 1960s, this principle gave rise to
the creation of two new components in the rules for university entrance from
1977 and onwards: (1) Under certain conditions students from the two years
upper-secondary programmes could gain entry to the universities and
university colleges, (2) Up to a certain level working-life experience could be
counted as a merit for university entrance.
In the 1960s, in order to expand the capacity of the Swedish higher
education system, university-colleges were founded and scattered over the
country, often erected upon an existing teacher training school. Until the late
1990s the university-colleges offered only undergraduate programmes. In
order to increase the effectiveness of the open entry faculties (before 1977)
the amount of scheduled teaching was increased quite heavily already in the
1950s and put in the hands of a new category of university teachers, called
university lecturers, who should hold a doctoral degree. In the late 1960s the
studies in the open entry faculties were further regulated with respect to the
types of courses that could be combined for a degree. The basic principle was
that the composition of courses should have a relatively broad occupational
orientation.
As a result of the above mentioned changes in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, a
great number of new students were enrolled. Soon, as a consequence of the
rapid change and large number of students, the costs for the system began to
rise dramatically. As a reaction to these new problems, the 1977 structural
reform was carried through:
1) Entry was restricted to all types of faculties and programmes.
2) A fundamental distinction was made between on one hand
programmes leading to a full degree and on the other so-called single
courses, mainly intended for the further education of adults already at
the labour market.
3) Entry to full-degree programmes was regulated through a comput-
erized point system based on school marks and working life
experience.
4) Entry to single courses should be decided locally and was based on a
less formalized system, allowing the universities and colleges to

22
 accept those who were assessed to have the greatest need and
capacity for a particular course.
5) The post-secondary institutes without research organization became
an important part of the new integrated system of universities and
colleges. Undergraduate studies with a research connection were
offered at more than 20 towns in Sweden outside the old university
cities.
6) As a response to demands for an increased codetermination by
different unions, staff associations and student groups, the decision
making systems were revised to include also a number of external
members of the university board and the faculty boards.
7) In order to coordinate a balanced allocation of resources to full
universities and district colleges without a research organization of
their own, six regions were created, containing a full university and a
number of local colleges.
The structural changes now mentioned were accompanied by an expansion in
quantitative terms not only of local colleges but also of new professional
faculties (Dahllöf, 1986:23f).
In Sweden, like in most other countries in Europe, the goals and objectives
of higher education have been most debated the last three or four decades. As
said, the Swedish reform of higher education 1977 was unification, organising
all post-secondary school into one organisation of higher education
(Högskolan). The reform aimed to provide better access to higher education
both geographic and socially.
The growing competition and changing economies in Europe started a
process of decentralisation within all public organisations in the second part of
the 1980s. The growing worldwide competition set off a reaction against the
organisation of Swedish higher education and the strong focus on vocational
goals with many non-disciplinary programmes and integrated courses. The lost
of ”basic academic knowledge” and the diminishing training of problem
solving abilities within academic disciplines was considered a disadvantage.
This reaction ended with a reorganisation of Swedish higher education and a
reform took place 1993. Some of the more important principal changes in this
reform were the decentralised and more autonomous universities and
university colleges. Competition between universities became a new word in
the vocabulary in Swedish higher education. The decentralisation of the
organisation of higher education was made official policy and the roles and
responsibilities of different levels within the system were changed. The focus
on vocational goals in undergraduate programmes was substituted by a focus
on academic, subject oriented goals. The comparatively short study time for

23
an academic degree in Sweden in 1993 was complemented with a new
degree, the Degree of Master to be reached after one year of study.
Decentralization necessitated a system for quality assessment and the trend of
quality assurance included new dimensions of steering on all levels within the
system (Wikander, 2000). Until the early 1990s the steering of the higher
educational system was centralised and the ”heads” on different levels in the
system had mainly an administrative role (Wikander, 2000).

Recent Changes in the Structure of Higher Education

The organisation and the structure of higher education, in Sweden as in the
rest of Europe, have been most affected by the discourse introduced within
the Bologna process. Although this process in Sweden was slow to begin with,
the changes in the organisation of higher education soon took on a pace
comparable to that of other regions in Europe. Processes connected to the
Bologna process have been dealt with in Sweden as elsewhere, like the
ratification of the Lisbon convention, the introduction of the Diploma
Supplement and the introduction of a new structure of higher education
organisation and degrees. Three levels of higher education were introduced in
2007: The undergraduate level, the advanced level and the doctoral level.
Arguments accompanying the Swedish Bologna discourse were i.a. that
Sweden should be a leading knowledge nation characterised by high quality
education and lifelong learning for growth and justice. The knowledge society
should be open to everyone, regardless of social background, gender, ethnic
origin, religion or other belief, sexual orientation, disability or place of
residence. These ambitions were expressed in amendments to the Higher
Education Act (1992:1434) and the Higher Education Ordinance (1993:100)
in spring 2006.
Sweden also introduced new requirements for entrance to higher
education. This was done by a step by step strategy; some new rules apply
from the autumn 2008 and some from the autumn 2010. The legibility for
access to an undergraduate programme has been more equalised in the sence
everyone must have a full degree from upper secondary school. Access to
programmes on the doctoral level now requires a degree from the advanced
level (or the equivalent, e.g. studies abroad). The general degrees for the
different levels are the following. Besides general degrees there are also several
professional degrees:
Undergraduate level: University diploma (120 ECTS)
Degree of Bachelor (180 ECTS)

24
 Advanced level: Degree of Master (One Year; 60 ECTS); Degree of
Master (Two Years; 120 ECTS)
Research level: Degree of Doctor (240 ECTS).
In 2009 the the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education
(Yrkehögskolan) was established. The agency describes itself and its
responsibilities thus:
Higher Vocational Education Courses, HVECs, cover a wide range of
vocational areas, but they have one goal in common, namely the provision of
advanced vocational education, tailored to the needs of the labour market. In
HVECs a modern approach is taken where theoretical learning is integrated
and blended with vocational practice at the workplace.
HVECs are needed as they are intended to serve the needs of job seekers
and industries where competence and labour are in demand. For this reason
companies and the business sector partner in the design and construction right
from the very start. Content is jointly determined. / . . . / Blending allows
participants to get an insight into their chosen professions early in their
training. And working life is also able to become familiar with the
competence and skills of their potential co-workers of the future.
HVECs last for at least six months and participant progress and outcomes
are assessed and recognized by a certificate/diploma that validates their skills
for employment.
The role of the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education
is to set up a common framework agreed on and followed by vocational
education and training providers. (National Agency for Higher Vocational
Education, 2010)
As seen, the Higher Vocational Education represents a brake with the
reform in 1977 to unite all post-secondary education into one organisational
structure. This development parallels the division in 2011 of the upper
secondary level into one school form for the theoretical programmes and
another school form for the vocational ones. The opportunities for the
individual to move horizontally in the system are restricted, even if the
Komvux will still, at least in theory, offer a second chance to the individual
wishing to take up theoretical studies. To a certain degree, the Higher
Vocational Education can be regarded as part of the system for adult
education. We will now turn to that.

25
Reforms within Adult Education
Since the 1960s Sweden has ranked high among western countries in terms of
its commitment to adult learning. With the introduction of the national adult
education system, the development of labour market training schemes and the
student welfare reforms of the mid-1970s, the tradition established through
liberal adult study and education initiatives have been continued.
Together with the reform of higher education, the adult education system,
too, has been the subject to far-reaching educational reforms. The increased
educational opportunities for the younger generation made it necessary to
increase and systematize similar opportunities for adults, especially for those
who could not gain access to more than limited education in their youth.
Legislation in 1968 made municipal authorities responsible for enabling adults
wishing to do so to study and qualify in subjects taught at the senior level of
compulsory school, i.e. the lower secondary school, and upper secondary
school. Studies at upper secondary school conferring formal qualifications,
however, are also of interest to persons who have previously attended upper
secondary school but need to augment their qualifications for further
vocational education.
Another driving force behind the development of adult education
stemmed from considerations about the rapidly changing society, regarding
technological modernization, computerization and administration. There has
been a growing demand for an advanced form of education for adults in the
workforce and as citizens participating in the decision making processes at
various levels. Therefore a system of recurrent education has been promoted
containing study programmes adapted to the needs of qualified adults both
with respect to length, contents and forms of distribution.
Since 1982, municipal adult education has had its own curriculum. The
educational objectives set for the various teaching subjects correspond to
those at the senior level of compulsory school and at upper secondary school,
but the content and design of teaching have been modified to suit the
situation of adult students and to tie in with their previous experiences.
Studies are organized in the form of separate courses, with students attending
one or more at a time. The content of particularly lengthy courses is divided
into stages corresponding to different levels or grades of school. When a stage
has been completed, the student receives a leaving certificate. A certificate
can also be issued summarizing all the studies completed.
Post-secondary training programmes are intended to retrain adults for a
new job or for a new job level. In the early 2000s the Swedish Agency for
Flexible Learning (CFL) was created to supplement municipal adult
education by providing courses – in the form of distance education – that

26
municipalities themselves could not offer their residents. Beginning October
1, 2008 the CFL ceased as a national authority and its tasks were resumed by
the National Agency for Education.

The Development of Liberal Adult Education

There is a strong tradition of liberal adult education in Sweden. The liberal
adult education is free to set its own objectives; the Government only defines
the purpose of the grants it allocates. This includes, for example, enhancing
people’s ability to influence their own lives and foster a commitment to the
development of society. Liberal adult education also aims to strengthen and
develop democracy, to broaden the individual’s interest in the arts, to increase
participation in cultural life and to encourage experiences and individual
creativity. State driven ‘reforms’ of the liberal adult education are rare since
the idea of the “free and voluntary education” would be hampered by such
initiatives. Change is expected to be brought about by the educational form
itself.
At the same time, however, the state from time to time turns to the liberal
adult education organisations to ask for their help to implement campaigns of
different sorts, thought to be of great societal relevance. In the 1980s, for
example, these organisations were called upon to implement a programme for
adults to learn more about and to familiarize themselves with the computer
technology and its applications. At present the liberal adult education offers
study circles for adults wishing to learn about and to engage in questions of
sustainable development. The Parliament allots extra resources to the liberal
adult education organisations for implementing such campaigns, and the study
circles can thereby be offered at a very low cost or no cost at all for the
individual.

The Development of Child Care in Sweden

The Swedish Institute has described the development of the Swedish
Childcare (2001). The roots of this system can be traced back to the second
half of the 19th century. The first infant crèche was opened in 1854 for the
children of single mothers obliged to work for a living. Work shelters, which
appeared at roughly the same time, took in schoolchildren from poor families
and sought to instil in them the values of duty and diligence besides teaching
them some rudimentary handicrafts. Both the crèche and the work shelter

27
were social institutions usually run by private citizens or by charities. They
were soon joined by the kindergarten, based on the ideas of Friedrich Fröbel.
Kindergartens had purely educational aims and were attended mainly by the
children of well-to-do families where the mothers did not go out to work. In
the 1930s and 1940s the private or charitable character of crèches and work
shelters gradually came to be viewed in a new light. The public authorities, it
was felt, should assume greater responsibility for the care and training of
young children, and the stigma of poverty should be removed. In the mid-40s,
government grants were introduced for both work shelters and infant crèches.
A growing number of local authorities took over the responsibility for these
activities. The crèches were renamed day nurseries or day care centres and the
work shelters became leisure-time centres. The number of children at these
centres however was still fairly modest––they were mainly to be found in the
cities––whereas attendance at kindergartens or playschools was more
widespread.
In the 1960s demand for childcare provision increased. Female labour was
in demand and this called for a major expansion of childcare facilities. In 1968
the government appointed a special commission, the National Commission on
Childcare which was to present proposals as to how a childcare system
capable of meeting social, educational and supervisory needs might be
developed. The 1968 National Commission decisively influenced the future
direction of Swedish childcare. Its report formulated important educational
principles and ideas that made a considerable impact and still survive today.
Among other things it laid the foundations for the Swedish preschool model –
day care centres and playschools were to be combined in a preschool system
that would serve the interests of children as well as allowing parents to work
or study. The report condemned the outdated view that supervision was
something offered to the poor, while educational activities were for the
stimulation of better-off children. Care and education were to be merged in a
completely new way. As a result of the Commission’s suggestions, as said, all
six-year-olds were given the right to 525 hours’ of free attendance at a
preschool facility. Further, the commission raised the question of day care for
children of school-age and proposed rapid expansion of the leisure-time
centres. Despite rapid progress in the 1970s and early 1980s local authorities
were unable to expand facilities to such an extent that the waiting list for
places disappeared. As a result, the Swedish Parliament decided in 1985 that
all children between 18 months and school age were to have access by 1991 at
the latest to a preschool place either at a day care centre, in a part-time
preschool group or at an open preschool centre. The birth rate increased
rapidly, however, as did the number of mothers in employment, and the

28
target was not achieved. Tougher legislation was therefore imposed in 1995
whereby local authorities became duty bound to provide childcare without
undue delay for all children requiring it.
During the 1990s, the division of responsibility between central and local
government has altered. Governance by rule has been replaced by a more
target-oriented and results-oriented system. Central government now outlines
the overall goals for childcare while the local authorities are responsible for
implementing them. Central government contributes financially through
grants to the local authorities. Nowadays, these government grants are
disbursed across the board. During the period when childcare in Sweden was
expanding, central government control was firmer. To ensure consistently
high quality, the National Board of Health and Welfare, the supervisory
authority at the time, issued recommendations and guidelines on such things
as premises, staff training, frequency of staff and the size of children’s groups.
Earmarked government grants were used to stimulate the expansion of
facilities and also to move the development of the childcare system in the
required direction.
On 1 January 1998, the regulations governing childcare were transferred
from the Social Services Act to the Education Act. The National Agency for
Education became the authority to further the development of the childcare
sector and the school sector in general. The Education Act defines preschool
care and school-age care and the forms in which they operate. Today (2010),
the Swedish School Inspectorate is the central supervisory authority for both
childcare and school. Its tasks include ensuring fulfilment of the national goals
by means of inspections and supervisory work.
The aim of transferring regulations to the National Agency for Education
was to bring childcare and schooling closer together and encourage a joint
educational approach to the learning and development of children and young
people. At this time a new school form was introduced, the preschool class, to
partly substitute the 525 hours of preschooling. Preschool classes, leisure-time
centres and compulsory school are to work closely with one another. This
brings together different educational traditions. The preschool classes will also
help children to start school on an equal footing. As part of the process of
integrating childcare and schooling, two new national curricula have been
presented; the curriculum for the preschool (Lpfö 98) and the curriculum for
the compulsory school (Lpo 94). The curricula are on the whole similarly
constructed. They interlock and reflect the same fundamental attitude as to
how children and young people learn and develop. They also share the same
basic democratic values. These two curricula along with the curriculum for

29
the voluntary school forms (Lpf 94) cover the first twenty years of the
individual’s life in the Swedish educational system.

Central Issues in the Swedish Educational Discussion

Ideologies behind the Large Reforms
The ideologies that founded the large reforms in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s,
had a strong impact from the Swedish educational research (Dahllöf, 1986).
In the mid-forties, research had pointed out that socio-economical
background has a heavy influence on the level of ambition and choice of study
career among parents and pupils (Boalt, 1947; Husen, 1947). These findings
served as an eye-opener for the governmental policy makers. The existence of
many selection moments within the educational system gave rise to the
question whether or not the system offered equal opportunities for all.
(Dahllöf, 1986)
The scientific impact marked the beginning of a continued interaction
between the social and educational research community on one hand and the
policy makers on the other. Right from the start, sociological and educational
research played a critical role in demonstrating to what extent and why the
old system was not able to meet the stronger demands for equality and
educational opportunity. Next to that, the ideologists behind and the
spokesmen for the educational reforms in Sweden, were at that time quite
heavily influenced by a general American progressivism in terms of a pupil
centred attitude, a concern for the whole child, a belief in the intrinsic
rewards of learning, and a belief in cooperation and guidance rather than in
punishment. The discussion about the individual freedom of choice can be
seen against this background. (Dahllöf, 1986)
Thus, as a part of a more general welfare policy, a giant educational reform
was successively decided and (partly) implemented with the aim to even out
social and economical inequalities and to promote social equality, political
and economic democracy.
Since the war, ‘equality’ in Swedish compulsory education has remained
an important public and private issue. The benefits of ‘equality’ for the
state/society together with the individual’s right to education and freedom to
learn has also its contradictions. Societal changes in themselves provide a
changing context for applying the concept of equality to education. For
example, with increased immigration the equality value has to extend beyond
social class background, and in contemporary society gender equality has
manifested itself as a strong value. Perhaps these aspects of equality can be

30
seen in the context of what Dahllöf (1986) refers to as the post industrial
stage of development, which began in the early 1960s.

Dimensions of Equality
Lindensjö and Lundgren (2000) discuss the concept of equality and have
shown that it has had a double function both as a goal and as a basic principle
in the way it has been used in Swedish educational policy. As a general term
or value, equality might be expressed in subsets of indicators located along
two broad dimensions, and evidence of this can be found in the Swedish
educational policy discourse. First, there is equality as equal
treatment/conformity and “sameness” versus equality achieved via individual
needs and interests (Elgqvist-Saltzman & Opper, 1981). The second
dimension relates to equality of opportunity/access versus equality of
outcomes/results. These two dimensions are of course interrelated, but
separating them in this way allows for a look at the two extreme poles of each
dimension. The first set deals with individual fulfilment and liberty to choose
subjects (or schools) etc., according to individual needs, interests and
capacities (Elgqvist-Saltzman & Opper, 1981). Given that the Swedish post-
war solution to societal ills had been standardized solutions to social problems
(Lindblad, 1999), equal treatment has sometimes translated into conformity,
expressed through a highly centralized education system. Critics of the
comprehensive school reform, for example, spoke out against what they saw
as a policy that failed to account for individual differences (Elgqvist-Saltzman
& Opper, 1981).
Opportunity and outcomes or results deal more with the macro-level, or
equality measured in broad societal terms among all members of the society.
Hadenius (1990) chooses to broaden the concept to equal opportunities so
that it applies to school-start but also throughout the compulsory years, at
each stage. The justification for equal opportunities for all, she argues, lies in
the need for basic competence or skills.
Equality of outcomes (or results) in education is a more difficult to
measure and to understand than equality in terms of access or opportunities.
Many researchers struggle with the issue of what an outcome (at individual
level) is in education, and which variables are involved. Hadenius (1990)
provides one solution in her approach to equal results in education in Sweden:
due to the fact that education is “recipient-dependent”, she reasons, equal
results can only be achieved if instruction is distributed according to the
different needs, interests and abilities of students. Results then are conceived
as competence at the different levels of education.

31
Hadenius (1990) contends that post-war educational policy in Sweden began
with an emphasis on capturing and producing talent and thus access to
education for the gifted was in focus. By the 1960s when schools were more
integrated, however, energy was directed toward facilitating equal treatment,
and, as such, differentiation was strongly discouraged. The idea of equal
treatment is in its aim, similar to that of equal outcomes or results. Her
critique ends with the late 1970s and the new curriculum, which gave both
‘equality’ and ‘freedom’ a role. She contends that both equality of
opportunity (or ‘opportunities’ at all levels) and equal treatment were present
in the new reforms, but that freedom of choice in education was less of a
priority. The seeming conflict between liberalism and equality, present on a
global scale was left to be solved in later debates (Wallin, Lindblad & Berg,
1993).
The 1994 curriculum makes reference to equality in various ways, stressing
the various forms of the term. Some of the most relevant ones are:
“…equivalent education does not mean that education shall be the same
everywhere or that the resources of the school shall be allocated equally.”

“…the school has a special responsibility for those pupils who…experience

difficulties in attaining the goals…for the education.”

“…by making choices over courses and subjects through participating in the
planning and evaluation of their daily education, pupils will develop their
ability to exercise influence and take responsibility.”
(Swedish Ministry of Education, 1996:13f)

Thus, we may argue that there is a de-emphasis on conformity in that

education can be adjusted for various purposes, most importantly for the less
able. In addition, pupil influence and choice seem to give personal liberty
more of a role in self-fulfilment. Wallin, Lindblad and Berg (1993) refer to
these changes as ‘profiling’. In terms of outcomes, the system is now more
results-oriented due to the changes in steering and governance in the 1990s
(Swedish Ministry of Education and Science, 1996). Equality is treated as a
basic human right, particularly as regards education in Sweden. The Swedish
school curriculum includes ‘universal human equality’ as a value to be
communicated and established in pupils’ minds (Swedish Institute, 1996).
Vynnycky (2002) discussed and compared education from a personal
perspective and from a societal one. She remarks that equal opportunity or
access to education initially used to be seen from the state or the societal
perspective, but that gradually it has translated into education for personal or
private interests. That the individual has access to education is nowadays
regarded as the basic principle. Vynnycky’s opinion is that whether or not this

32
serves the interests of society or the state is, in a sense, not important; what
matters is that access is not denied on ‘irrelevant grounds’. Lindblad (1995)
and Englund (1998) imply that one consequence of the shift toward the
individual - and the market - in Sweden represents a conceptual change from
education as a “public good” to a “private good”.

The Idea of Freedom in the Swedish Educational System

The idea of freedom is closely connected to fundamental democratic values
which form the basis of the national school system. Individual freedom and
integrity and equality between people and solidarity with the vulnerable are
values which school should represent and impart according to the curriculum
for compulsory school. The school has the duty to prepare pupils for active
responsible participation in a democratic welfare society. (Curriculum for the
compulsory school system, the preschool class and the leisure-time centre,
Lpo 94)
Pupils’ rights are enshrined in the Educational Act but the practical
implementations have to be decided locally. This is a consequence of a
transition in terms of steering and freedom of choice within the structure of
the school since the early seventies. As already said, changes in steering have
led to a movement towards decentralization and participatory steering by
objectives. Freedom of choice as one principle of the Swedish education
system refers on the one hand to the pupils’ options of subjects and the late
selection process. This means the influence from the individual pupil should
be strengthened to be an individual pupil choice and not only under the
influence from parents. On the other hand freedom of choice refers to the
possibility and flexibility of the single school to develop an individual profile
for parents and pupils to pick when they make their choice of school.
According to the idea of participation the influence of parents and pupils over
schooling is accentuated. Teachers and head teachers shall in cooperation with
the pupils transform the objectives given at the national level in their school
by drawing up local work plans. Parents can influence the school work by
organizing themselves in parents’ or parent-teacher associations or by
consulting the National School and Home Union at the national level (Wallin,
Lindblad & Berg, 1993; Carlgren 1994; Ministry of Education and Science
1997).

33
Efficiency as a Consequence of Decentralization and
Marketization
The developments of the Swedish educational system and the educational
reforms have to be seen in relation to their social and political contexts. As
shown, Sweden rapidly transformed from a traditional, agricultural society
into an advanced industrialized society. This affected the development of
specific model of social welfare since the 1920s in which the two ideas of
inclusion and centralization were combined. Until the middle of the 1970s
Sweden as a welfare state was especially built on political decisions made on
consensus. Concepts such as centralism, universalism and consensus were the
basis on which a number of reforms were carried out. After that increasing
demands on decentralization of decisions and for more direct influence led to
a “late modern welfare state in which efficiency is rather stressed than
democracy” (Lindblad, 1999). Public policies were increasingly determined by
tendencies such as decentralization, particularisation and polarization
(Lindblad, 1995, 1999).
The “new” strategies, tendencies of “restructuration” in forms of
decentralization and marketization, “can be regarded as a world movement in
economy as well as in education” (Lindblad, 1995, p 1). According to a state
commission on economy initiated in 1992 the economic crisis in the
beginning of 1990s could be characterized as a crisis of social welfare
institutions which were lacking in efficiency. The social needs demanded an
organization built on “active citizens”, “personal responsibility”, “free market”
and “distinct and close relationships between efforts and results”.
Marketization was to become a measure together with reductions in the
public sector to overcome this crisis. Whereas educational reforms were
carried out in a climate of consensus after the Second World War, criticisms
arouse in the 1970s and 80s regarding comprehensive school for being
inefficient and not sensitive enough for steering “from above”. Students and
parents demanded more influence on school and the public trust in education
decreased. Inefficiency of the educational system was to be be solved by the
market concept: Solutions to modernize a malfunctioning educational system
were seen in ideas such as freedoms of choice and competition between
different alternatives combined with privatization (Lindblad, 1995).
One of the problems with the new steering model is pointed out by e.g.
Berg (1992). According to Berg the steering of school is always a question of
state legality as well as of social legitimacy, and activities in schools therefore
must be described from both perspectives. In his critique of the
implementation of the comprehensive school reform Berg maintains that the
main problem was that the reform efforts resulted in “changes in the school as

34
an organization, but not in the school as an institution” since the institution
was built up around values which differed completely from those which
formed the basis of the reform (Berg, 1992:338ff). Here lays an explanation
regarding the lack of efficiency. The ideas of the system introduced in 1994,
like management by goals, local plans for work in the school and in the
classrooms, a grading system partly in the hands of the teachers, etc., aimed at
restoring a responsibility to the teachers which had partly been taken from
them when the large reforms of the 1960s and 70s were made. However, the
teachers did not realize nor acknowledge this restoration and this led to a
conflict between the teachers and the reformers’ intentions. This is a classical
middle management problem for the head of the school.

Present Issues
The Compulsory School
On December 10, 2008 the government presented a proposal to Parliament
concerning goals and knowledge requirements in the compulsory school. The
bill contains proposals for a new structure for curricula and syllabi, including
“goals to be attained” at the end of years 3, 6 and 9 (pupils 10, 13 and 16
years old, respectively). The subjects to define these goals are Swedish,
Swedish as a second language, Mathematics, Natural sciences orientation and
Social sciences orientation. A statement from the Minister of Education was:
“If we are to boost results in Swedish schools we need clearer and earlier
knowledge requirements, to ensure that students can receive the support they
need.”

This quote mirrors the large political and public interest in international
comparative studies like PISA and TIMSS. International surveys like PISA
(OECD Programme for International Student Assessment) and TIMSS
(Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) have lead to new
expectations from what outcomes a school shall produce concerning the
knowledge held by the students. In most participating countries, including
Sweden, these results have created an abundance of political debate and have
attracted much attention in the media. Even if the social oriented objectives
in the national curriculum have not been in question, more focus has been on
subject oriented knowledge, literacy and numeracy. With such surveys
quantitative criteria have often been referred to in the national debate the
past decade. Another consequence is an increased interest in identifying
illiteracy early through a test oriented approach. This also has the

35
consequences to separate different objectives and strategies into a more
parallel discourse.

The Upper Secondary School

The upper secondary school is included in the research driven study TIMSS.
Most probably the policy driven PISA study will eventually include one
cohort from the upper secondary school too, but this remains to be seen. In
one way or the other the accountability idea and the measurement movement
will continue to affect the upper secondary school as well as the compulsory
school.
As shown, the division of the upper secondary school into two parallel
streams will be a fact in 2011. The effects of this are also unknown so far, but
some questions stand before others: Will the means for ‘a second chance’, i.e.
the municipal adult education (Komvux), be utilized and will it work for the
individual – or is this reform the end of the idea of ‘seamless’ education? Will
the division lead to larger social distances between groups of people in the
population? Will the gains in equality and freedom be lost and if so, with
what consequences?

A New Grading Scale

When these lines are being formulated, two governmental propositions are
pending on a new grading system and on grading in year 6 of the compulsory
school, instead of in grade 8 (Ds 2008:13, Ds 2010:15). A more differentiated
grading scale is proposed with six levels (A-F) instead of four. According to
the right-wing government, a more differentiated scale will provide greater
clarity in the information given to pupils and their parents/custodians by
making the development of pupils’ knowledge more visible. It will enable
teachers to be more precise in their assessments of pupils’ knowledge, it is
said, and the extent to which the latter have attained the goals. By providing
more grade levels between the highest and lowest grade for a pass result, the
government also considers that the new grading scale will encourage pupils to
make greater efforts. The line of reasoning for early grading is the same. The
debate regarding early grading was intense (e.g. Lundahl, Román & Riis,
2010). The issue of earlier grading even turned into one of the most salient
questions of the election campaign preceding the national elections in mid-
September 2010. The right-wing alliance won the election with a very thin
margin over the left-wing coalition. For the first time a racist party with its
roots in a Swedish nazi-movement took seats in the Swedish Parliament.

36
When this is formulated – five days after the election – the impacts of this can
only be speculated about. This leads us to some more general reflections
regarding the future for education in Sweden.

Reflections on the Future

Changes in society will generally have a direct impact on the educational
system. Changed values, cultural and social conditions as well as new
technology create new demands on the educational system. The international
trend the last decade has been very obvious in this respect. The competitive
advantages for a nation with a high educational level of the population is well
known. This has started processes in Sweden, as well as in other countries, to
meet the new challenges. The trend to prolong compulsory school can also be
noticed in Sweden, although this change is more noticed as a process going
on. The introduction of the preschool year at the age of six, the transferring of
the responsibility from the National Board of Health to the National Agency
for Education are visible actions in this direction. This will probably and
eventually lead to a ten year compulsory school in Sweden with a start at the
age of six.
What we have shown in this article are different political views on how to
meet the future with the school as an instrument for societal change. The
former social democratic government in 2000 appointed a committee to
propose a future organisation of the upper secondary school. The analysis of
the committee on a new structure for secondary school (SOU 2002:120)
stressed the importance of ensuring that all young people stay on in upper
secondary school and finish with a degree according to their ability.
Suggestions were made about e.g. reducing the number of programmes and
improving the support to the individual. This would be in line, it was argued,
with the aim to increase the standard of the educational level in the nation.
The organisation of changing the upper secondary school system was already
prepared and schools had made the necessary arrangements when the right-
wing government as one of its first decisions in 2006 stopped the process
already decided upon. The process of building the future system was started
anew, based on the idea of a knowledge based society with the definition of
more literacy based knowledge in school. The programmes are more fixed
than the former ones and are more steered according to the level of details in
steering documents as well as the organisation. There is a stronger separation
between vocational programmes and theoretically based programmes.

37
In tertiary education Sweden has adapted the Bologna process. One focus at
present is directed towards the proportion of a cohort to attend some kind of
higher education. Like in many other countries in Europe Sweden today has a
problem of financing these new strategies in higher education. The
expectations on the state to finance an expanding higher education area has
increased a lot during the past 10-15 years, and this has taken place in a
situation when the pressure for reductions of public expenditures. As said,
from 2011 tuition fees for students in higher education from non-EU
countries will be introduced in Sweden.
The Swedish adaptation of the Bologna process differs from that of many
other countries. The debate in Sweden was how to keep a strong research
approach on the advanced level. The compromise was to keep, on the
advanced level, the former Degree of Master (One year) and to add to this the
Degree of Master after two years, with the necessary postfix (Two Years). The
doctoral programme was kept a four year one, instead of turning it into a
three year one in accordance with the Bologna model. Now the road to a
doctoral degree is eight years, instead of the former seven. This is an example
of a Swedish way to keep the old system and, at the same time, satisfying
external expectations like, e.g. those of the Bologna agreements.
After the first years of confusion in the Swedish organisation, eventually
assimilation of the Bologna process took over. For Sweden this was a quite
large reform, contrary to that of some other European countries. Among
other things it generated a prolongation of the Swedish higher education
under the terms of the official length of study programmes for different
degrees taken.
OECD (1995) in its evaluation of the Swedish educational system some
15 years ago raised the question: To what extend should “all” education be
part of one and the same system? In the changes of the educational system,
which is processing towards more individual choices and for more students,
the state control is obviously still quite strong, either through strong
regulations and evaluation systems or by steering the organisation within the
same equalised framework, a uniform model, the OECD stated. But, as has
been demonstrated in this article, the uniform model can also be split in
different strands. What is now seen is a Swedish strategy of segregation of
different knowledge areas into theoretical ones and vocational ones. This is a
more dually oriented way of organising an educational system, and the dual
approach also gives rise to the question: Where to find the links between the
new orientation of the system and other more social oriented objectives in the
national curricula and in society?

38
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42
RECENT INNOVATIONS IN THE TEACHER
TRAINING IN SWEDEN

Songül Kilimci and Ulla Riis

Introduction
Many educational reforms have been done on teacher education and much
research has been carried out almost all over the world. However, there is still
much to be done to give it more shape and coherence as Houston et al.
(1990,pp. IXff) argued almost 20 years ago: “the conceptual and research base
for decisions about teacher education has never been as strong as it is today”.
They added that “there has been notable recent progress, but the research
basis for such important work as education the nation teacher is still
extremely thin”. This assertion is still valid.
OECD, for instance, has recently broadcasted a research on the issue
seeking the reasons for reforms in education in its member countries. The
reasons for reforms were grouped into 9 broad themes: Ageing; global
challenges; a new economic landscape; changing the world of work and jobs; a
learning society; ICT: the next generation; citizenship and the state; social
connections and values; sustainable affluence. According to the research it is
stated that there are major demographic trends. These trends lead on to global
developments not just of population levels and movements but also on living
conditions and the environment. Second, there are economic trends relating
both to the nature of economies and to the kinds of work and jobs people do.
Third, the digital (and learning) society makes its own important contribution
to education. Fourth, there are the political and social factors to do with the
role of the state, the social environment and families, and trends concerning
sustainability (OECD, 2008).
With the intervention of the European Union, many countries, including
Sweden, have now gone under a restructuring process. The educational
reforms have affected the structure, distribution and content of education and
the governance and control of education in Sweden (Forsberg & Lundgren,

43
2004). To develop a stimulus for thinking about trends influencing teacher
education, with this chapter we hope to raise some illustrative and suggestive
topics on teacher education in Sweden.
The objectives of this chapter are:
• To give a very brief historical overview of teacher education.
• To describe the present teacher education system.
• To analyze current developments and tendencies under discussion.
The changes in teacher education are usually related to the changes in the
education sector itself, as well as to changes in society and culture. We will
restrict our exposition to accounts of the transformations within the
educational sector.
In Sweden, the Riksdag (Parliament) and government have overall
responsibility for primary and secondary education (pupils 6-16 and 16-19
years of age, respectively) as well as for higher education and research. They
set out the overriding goals and guidelines and allocate resources. The primary
and secondary education is carried out by the municipalities and the higher
education by the state universities. Municipalities enjoy certain freedoms as to
the means of education, but the system of regulations poses many restrictions
on them. The universities and university colleges, on the other hand, have
relatively great freedoms of movement within the regulatory framework set
out by the government and the Riksdag. Since teacher education is part of
higher education a governing paradox arises: teachers need to be educated in
accordance with the relatively strict goals laid down in the national
curriculum for the school, but responsible for this education are the
universities who enjoy a relative freedom of implementing the education they
give. For teacher education this freedom is circumscribed, and this creates a
challenge to the tradition of academic freedom of the universities.

Historical Overview of Teacher Education in Sweden

In medieval times, the church was in charge of the little amount of popular
education there was. The conditions of the peasant population were static and
the need for formal education was almost non-existing. However, Sweden,
being a Catholic country, in 1527 adopted Protestantism. The Latin language
was abandoned from the church sermons in favour of the Swedish language,
the bible was translated into Swedish and every parishioner was expected to
be able to read it (even though “read” would often mean to know certain
passages by heart). The clergy was expected to help the head of each

44
household teach the young ones to read. In the late 17th century the clergy
was formally imposed the task of arranging yearly catechetical meetings,
“husförhör”, to control the reading skills of each individual in the parish.
The 18th century saw the rise of secular education not only of priests, but
also of merchants and of the growing bourgeoisie. Not until the late 18th
century and the early 19th century were there forces to create a popular
education for everyone. The national compulsory school was formally
established in 1842 and every town and parish was obliged to provide a
school, “folkskola”, with an approved teacher, “folkskollärare”. This
compulsory school was originally four years – on an every-other-day basis
(later, it was gradually extended and in the 1950s it had reached seven years).
The subjects taught were originally reading, writing, arithmetic and religion. It
was assumed that the child did actually have some reading skills when
entering school, since the church and clergy had been responsible for this for
more than a century.
1842 is also the year when 13 seminars for teacher training were opened or
being planned. The length of training was 8-9 months and the seminars were
open only for men (Berglind, 2002, p. 214). In 1860, state inspectors were
appointed to control the parishes/towns, but also the teachers and the
children, in order to secure that the intended curriculum was actually
implemented. This was also the time when female teachers, “småskollärare”,
were accepted to teach the the first two school years. The early seminars did
not align to any official standard of length. In 1865 this education was
regulated to be three years long and in 1877 a fourth year was added. In 1886
two-years’ seminars for the female teachers for the early school years were
opened. The teachers for the upper secondary school had for a long time been
trained at the universities and in 1875 an ordinance demanded that they also
carried out one year of school practice and professional studies in educational
psychology, “pedagogik”.
1956 was the year when the first college for teacher education started in
Stockholm, followed by that in Malmö/Lund, Göteborg, Umeå, Uppsala and
Linköping (Berglind, 2002, p. 214). Three categories of teachers were defined
and the corresponding educational programmes were designed for:
• primary school teachers for grades 1-3
• intermediate level teachers for grades 4-6
• subject teachers for grades 7-9 and for upper secondary school
The latter category of teachers still took their subject courses at university
departments (Askling and Jedeskog, 1994, p. 13).

45
A reform of teacher education took place in 1968, through which education
plans determined in great detail at the national level were introduced. The
three categories of teachers and programmes were left unchanged. Moreover,
one professorship in Education was established at each one of the six large
teacher training colleges.
A large general reform of higher education took place in 1977, aiming at a
unification of Swedish higher education, organizing all post-secondary school
into one organization, “Högskolan”. The teacher colleges were now
incorporated into the university system. The changes in the teacher training
structure also meant a decentralization of the decision making on curriculum
issues to new intermediate decision making bodies with representatives of
teachers, students and corresponding professional fields (Askling and
Jedeskog, 1994, p. 12). This laid down the principle of student influence on
higher education and teaching.
After the thorough reform of higher education in 1977, another reform of
teacher education took place in 1988. The preservice training programmes for
comprehensive school teachers were integrated into one single training
programme. The underlying principle was that the comprehensive school
would be regarded as a single entity; there would be no streaming of students
and no marked division of students and teachers into separated levels (Askling
and Jedeskog, 1994, p. 7). This in turn necessitated a change in the in-service
training of teachers, which was raised to a new level, both quantitatively and
qualitatively (Wallin, 1991, p. 154).
In 1991 a reform aiming at further deregulation of the higher education
system was initiated by government, giving more autonomy to each higher
education institution. A new Higher Education Act came into effect in 1993.
Students’ demands and the achievement of each institution, foremost in terms
of quantity but to some degree also in terms of quality, were to determine the
sizes of different programmes and the allocation of grants between
institutions. Students had more freedom of choice regarding study courses
within the framework of a new internationally valid Degree Ordinance (see
chapter 1).
In 2000, the government proposed (1999/2000:135) “a new, integrated
system of teacher education and sharply increased resources for research and
postgraduate studies connected with teacher education” which led to a reform
of the teacher training in 2001. The need for this reform as stated in the bill
was that augmented pedagogical responsibilities had been given to the pre-
schools, the upper secondary school system had been radically transformed
during the 1990s, and new school curricula had been introduced for primary
and secondary school in 1994. Teachers were expected to take on a new role

46
which would build on, i.a., a substantially reinforced research foundation
(Government Bill, 1999/2000:135).
The new education programme for the teaching degree covered three well-
integrated course categories. One was a general category, requiring 60 credits
(each credit corresponding to one week of full time studies). Secondly, one
course category focused on particular subjects or subject areas, comprising at
least 40 credits. Thirdly, there was a specialised course category requiring at
least 20 credits, designed to provide in-depth, broader or supplementary
knowledge or a new approach to the knowledge previously acquired by the
teacher candidate. Education for the various teaching qualifications varied in
length from a total of 120 to 220 credits, i.e. from three to 5.5 years of study.
To teach pre-school classes (pupils 6 years old) and the first year of
compulsory school (pupils 7 years old) and to provide school-age childcare
and home-language tuition, 140 credits were required. For teaching at the
higher levels of compulsory school (pupils 13-16 years old) and the upper
secondary school (pupils 16-19 years old), the requirement was 180 credits,
except for upper secondary vocational programmes, for which only 120
credits were required. The teacher training system operating in 2010 is based
on this programme, but will be replaced in 2011 (see below).
It would be possible to take a teaching degree with a certain specific
subject and qualification profile. A teaching degree of this kind confers formal
eligibility for admission to postgraduate or research education (Karlsson and
Smitt, 2001).
In December 2008, a report, entitled Sustainable teacher education was
presented by the a national commission on a new teacher education
programme. This commission was appointed in June 2007. The reason stated
for the reform proposed this time was that “in several evaluations, the
education programme has been criticized for a lack of sufficient scientific
grounding, excessive freedom of choice for students and the absence of
important areas of knowledge“ (SOU 2008:109, p. 23). The programme to be
replaced was also stated to have difficulty attracting applicants and the
percentage of students dropping out of programme was relatively high. The
Commission proposed a teacher education programme with a common core
of educational science and a number of clearly defined specializations. New
professional teacher degrees, representing four specializations, were proposed
to replace the present single degree for all teachers. The details of the
Commission report will be given in the last section of this chapter, together
with a discussion of the current developments and tendencies in Sweden
regarding teacher training.

47
Present Teacher Education System in Sweden
As stated earlier, the present teacher education system is based on the reform
of 2001. It resulted in an integrated teaching degree for all teachers, from pre-
school to upper secondary school, it is supposed to give all teachers a common
basic competence combined with a specialization for particular subjects/sub-
ject areas and/or age groups. The teaching degree programme is between
three and 5.5 years long depending on the chosen subject area and school
level. With the 2001 reform of teacher education the opportunities for
further education for teachers at an academic level have increased; all
institutions giving teacher education (26 universities and university colleges)
offer courses open to and often designed for active teachers.

Admission
Applicants must fulfil the general qualifications for eligibility to higher
education, and any additional qualifications prescribed by the university or
university college concerned. Requirements for programmes leading to a
professional degree are set out by the Swedish National Agency for Higher
Education (Högskoleverket). Higher education at all levels has two strata of
eligibility: general and specific requirements. General eligibility is normally
attained by completing an upper secondary school programme and obtaining a
pass grade or better in courses comprising at least 90 percent of the credits
(ideally) required for the programme. Specific requirement can be, e.g., a
certain level of knowledge of mathematics for future teachers of science and
mathematics or a certain level of knowledge of a foreign language for future
teachers of that language.

Requirements
According to the 2001 reform all teacher training should be based on subject
oriented studies, on didactical subject related studies and on three semesters
of studies of general education. The students make successive decisions on
how to specialize. The requirements are:
• To qualify to teach in pre-schools, the first years of the compulsory
school and school age child care as well as mother tongue tuition, 140
credits.
• Higher levels of the compulsory school and upper secondary schools,
180 credits.
• Upper secondary school vocational programmes, 120 credits.

48
 • Teaching Swedish and civics in the compulsory school requires 60
credits and at upper secondary school level 80 credits in the subject at
hand.
The universities and university colleges should be responsible for organizing
teacher education so as to achieve the goals set, meet demands for broad
recruitment and opportunities for students to make choices during their
period of study (Government Bill, 1999/2000:135).
Beyond the common basic competence, combined with a specialization in
particular subject areas or for certain age groups, the educational programme
is made up of three integrated areas of education:
• A general field of education, 60 credits, of which at least 10 tied to
practical experience in schools. The educational field, common for all
students, should cover areas of knowledge central to the teaching
profession, such as teaching, special needs education, child and youth
development as well as interdisciplinary subject studies.
• Particular subject or subject that trainee teachers intend to teach, 40
credits, of which at least 10 credits tied to practical experience in
schools.
• Specialization complementing earlier acquired knowledge with at
least 20 credits (Government Bill, 1999/2000:135).
To achieve teaching qualification, students are also required to complete an
independent degree thesis worth at least 10 credits within the framework of
one these three educational areas.
The importance of competence in special needs education, enabling the
teacher to identify frequently recurring problematic situations in the school
and to assist pupils are emphasized in the teacher education programme.
Irrespective of category, all teachers are considered to need education within
the general education area. Teachers can also deepen their knowledge in this
area by studying orientations and specializations within special needs
education. The present school system requires teachers to be qualified in
several subject areas.
Another important part of the reform of 2001 concerns the gender
equality in relation to teacher education and teacher work. Such issues must
be included in the general field education, just as issues on democracy and
equality are. According to the Government Bill (1999/2000:135) universities
and university colleges should develop student teachers’ awareness and
knowledge of the importance of gender equality among children and in
society at large.

49
Practice
Earlier the responsibilities for the practice part of teacher education rested
with Methods departments within the teacher colleges. Today’s programme
requires an involvement from all departments responsible for subject oriented
studies. All areas of the teacher education should include periods located
within the schools.
All categories of teacher educators are expected to be involved in the
training located to schools. The school based parts of teacher education
involves testing experience, theory and research findings. Thus these parts of
teacher education may be regarded as important both in the education of
reflective practitioners and in the development of reflective teacher educators.

Evaluation
Evaluation could be written and verbal examinations. The student should
have acquired the knowledge and skills required to realize the objectives of
pre-school and school and to contribute to development of these activities in
accordance with their applicable regulations and guidelines. The latter is the
so called development goal of teaching:
“To be awarded a diploma as a teacher in the Swedish public school system,
the student should be able to: demonstrate the ability to, independently as
well as with others, plan, execute, evaluate and develop teaching and other
relevant school activities and take part in the monitoring of this.”
(The Higher Education Ordinance on professional diplomas)

When the programme is completed, the student receives a Teacher Diploma

(Lärarexamen) from the higher education institution.

Research
Strengthening the link to research was one of the main reasons for
incorporating teacher training into higher education in 1977. However, the
subsequent development did not live up to the expectations. To promote
research in the field of teacher education, the Government Bill in 2000
(1999/2000:135) proposed that a new agency for research funding should be
established within the National Science Council. Moreover, the commission
report preceding the bill had suggested that Education Science be established
as an autonomous scientific area of its own (alongside with Medicine, Science
and Humanities & Social Sciences). The Government in its bill followed the
former suggestion but not the latter. With the conditions proposed in the bill,

50
research and postgraduate education relevant to school, to the teaching
profession and to the training of teachers were expected to grow in quantity
and quality.
Beginning in 2001 all programmes should include research preparation and
the submitting of an exam paper (of at least 10 credits). The aim is that
students, after completion of the programme, will have eligibility for doctoral
studies in the area of educational work. All teacher education students should,
ideally, have the right to choose between different research orientations
and/or doctoral programmes after having received their Teacher Diploma.
Teacher education is thus expected to qualify for post-graduate studies, in
practice however, there have been difficulties in its implementation. In the
bill it is also stated that all university departments taking part in teacher
education should strive to carry out research and (if located at universities)
also have PhD programmes directly related to teacher education and teacher
work. This would mean a broadening of the research base of teacher
education and teacher work.

The Bologna Process

Like in all other European countries the Swedish university system has been
preoccupied with the Bologna process over the past ten years. July 1st 2007
the system of three cycles was introduced in the Swedish higher education
system. The two-tier part of undergraduate education of the Bologna
structure (3+2 years) did pose problems to several professional programmes,
in Sweden as in many other countries: It does not make sense to introduce a
three-year diploma into an education that has to be more or less well
integrated over four, five or six years, such as e.g. the education of engineers
or medical doctors. To fit the longer teacher programmes into the 3+2
structure also posed this kind of problems, and the solution for these
programmes was submitted to the National Commission of 2007 and the
decisions postponed until this commission in 2008 presented a way out.
It deserves to be noted that only the two-tier structure of the Bologna
process is considered a problem in Swedish higher education. The rationale
for this process – increased mobility, increased employability, increased com-
parability and strengthening of the European dimension – are all well
accepted goals, in Swedish higher education in general, as well as in its
teacher education. Contrary to the situation in some other European educa-
tional systems, there has been no need for diversion of students, since already
in 1977 numerus clausus was introduced for all Swedish higher education.

51
Current Developments and Tendencies under
Discussion in Sweden: Another Reform Upcoming
A New National Commission on Teacher Training: Sustainable
Teacher Education
The National Commission of 2007, as seen, chose to entitle its report
Sustainable teacher education (SOU 2008:109). It did so, it says, to imply:
• that teacher education will not need to be subjected to radical
makeovers every ten years,
• that teacher education will give future teachers a solid knowledge
base and effective tools that enable them to exercise the profession in
a professional and secure manner,
• that teacher education will give knowledge of subjects that builds on
a scientific basis and proceeds form the perspective of subject
didactics,
• that up-to-date contact with the practical field is guaranteed through
relevant practical school-based training at quality-assured field schools
and temporary appointments for education teachers from the school
system,
• that only those higher education institutions that meet the
requirements when their right to award qualifications is reviewed will
be entrusted with conducting teacher education in one or more
specializations,
• that professionally active teachers receive continuous in-service
training and skills development (p. 31)
A couple of guiding ideas can be distinguished in the report: First the
Commission stressed that teacher education should be more academic in
character and that the integration of the teacher programmes with the rest of
the education given at the universities and university colleges should increase.
This contained a critique toward the institutions of higher education for
having left the teacher programmes to develop more according to historical
traditions than to the academic organisational context. Secondly, the
Commission hoped that an “academisation” of teacher training would help
raise the attractiveness of the teacher education, since such an education might
open up for alternative careers. Third, the Commission also emphasised
“effectiveness” and “high quality”, maybe for being obliged to do so, maybe for
underlining its more substantial suggestions.

52
The Structure of the Teacher Training Suggested by the
National Commission of 2007
As already said, a number of new professional degrees were proposed by the
National Commission of 2007 to replace the present single degree (SOU
2008:109). Further, the Commission proposed a common core of educational
science and a number of clearly defined specializations. In the following we
quote the Commission’s reasoning on the characteristics of each teacher
group:
Primary school teachers lay the absolutely essential foundation, the
Commission says, primarily in reading, writing and arithmetic skills, but also
in other areas. These teachers, qualified to teach a broad range of subjects,
work in pre-school, pre-school class, years 1-6 of compulsory school and
leisure time centers.1
The secondary school teachers will be responsible for deepening pupils’
knowledge in years 7-9 of compulsory school, upper secondary school and
adult education. They will therefore be qualified to teach a narrower range of
subjects.
Teachers in practical and artistic subjects are required to take a four-year
programme and qualify to teach one general subject in addition to practical
subjects in compulsory school, while teachers of physical education at upper
secondary school will study in-depth in their subject area. For secondary school
teachers in vocational subjects, the Committee proposed a 1.5 year programme
with relevant previous vocational experience or academic studies as the
specific entrance requirement.
The new teacher education system as proposed by the Commission of
2007, length of time and specializations are summarized in the table 1.

1 Compulsory age to begin at school in Sweden is 7. Pre-school class is a mandatory school year

for children 6 years of age. Leisure time centers receive young school children after school hours
on a mandatory base.

53
Table 1. Length of time, subjects and levels of specializations for the teacher
nominee.
Period of education for pre-school and primary Degrees to teach & specialization
school teacher
3 years programme Pre-school

3 +1 years programme Pre-school + 1-3 years of compulsory school

4 years programme + leisure time centre Years 4-6 compulsory school
specialization
Period of education for secondary school Degrees to teach & specialization
teacher
4 years programme, general subject General subjects, years 7-9 compulsory
school
5 years programme, general subjects General subjects, upper secondary school,
adult education
1.5 year programme, vocational subject Vocational subjects, upper secondary school,
adult education
4 years programme Practical and artistic subjects

The adjustment to the Bologna structure is done simply according to the

length of the educational programme; a three-year programme leads to a
Degree of Bachelor, the five-year programme to a Degree of Master (Two
Years) and the four-year programmes to a local Swedish intermediate Degree
of Master (One Year).
For subject teachers in general subjects, combinations of subjects are
recommended with the dual purpose of increasing employability and making
it more feasible to gather teacher students taking the secondary school teacher
programme into larger cohesive groups. The students can decide whether they
would like to qualify at 7-9 years or upper secondary school at their third year
of education.
All specializations will lead to a general degree in addition to a professional
degree, which is expected to be attractive to many potential students of
education. Four overall perspectives have been stated to be essential to run
through all teacher education:
• A scientific and critical approach
• A historical perspective
• An international perspective
• Information and communication technology (ICT) as an educational
resource.
The Committee states the need that all teachers have a certain set of
knowledge and skills regardless of their specialization and of the organization
of the school. The knowledge and skills that prospective teachers need to
acquire are stated as: the organization of education and its conditions,

54
foundations of democracy; curriculum theory and didactics; theory of science,
research methods and statistics; development and learning; special needs
education; social relations, conflict management and leadership; assessment
and grading; evaluation and development work.
The Committee also attached great weight to the importance of subject
didactics and proposes that all students write at least one piece of indepen-
dent project work, which, it is maintained, will raise the scientific level.
The Committee proposed that practical school-based training should
constitute an independent component of the teacher education programme,
worth 30 higher education credits (equivalent to one term, or 20 weeks, of
full time study).2 Practical school-based training should take place at “field
schools” with which teacher education programmes should sign formal
agreements. These field schools should be available, supervisors be appointed
and examination of students’ work be clear.

Discussion and Conclusions: Criticism of the Report

Sustainable Teacher Education
The proposals of the Commission have given rise to much discussion. They
have been applauded in some quarters and severely criticized in others. The
points under debate can be collected in two groups – or seen as two sides of a
coin – one dealing with epistemological issues and one with research issues.
The critics maintain that ever since the early 20th century progressive
ideals have guided the reform process: The child has been placed in the center
of the school work, learning has been stressed rather than teaching, and
motivation theories of reward rather than punishment have been ascribed an
important role in teacher work. In teacher training an ability as a pedagogical
generalist has successively gained room, as has also pedagogical content
knowledge. This process has taken place at the expense of what Shulman
(1986) has characterised as subject matter content knowledge. The critics of
the Commission hold forth that there is a risk of a swing back to historical
times and that a process of continuous improvement is being broken. They
also mean that this improvement process has accelerated during the years
passing since the last teacher training reform in 2001. Whether or not they are
right is probably too early to say with any exactitude.

2 With the introduction of the Bologna structure in 2007 the former ”credits”, equalling one week
of full time study, were replaced by the ECTS-system in which 1.5 credits equals one week of full
time study.

55
Part of the critique deals with the fact that ideological considerations have
played too large a part of the work of the Commission. It is said that the
Commission has presented the answers to a neo-liberal government’s wishes,
and that there will be a re-centralisation of power over the teacher training in
order to secure the implementation of the changes proposed. Of course, most
traditional university leaders are ambivalent, welcoming the back-to-basics of
the proposal, but hesitating to see that the cost will be even less autonomy
over the teacher training.
The research issue is closely related to the issue of epistemology. As said,
already in 1968 professorship in Education were established at the largest
teacher training colleges (in its time an abnormality, since these colleges were
not part of the university system). In 1977 the ties to research were to be
strengthened by incorporating the colleges into the universities and to make
the planning of teacher training a matter of academic steering. The hopes of
these reforms were not met, however. The reasons were many: The research
traditions of the teacher training field were weak and the professors tied on to
more well established academic working modes. The recruitment of
researchers from the population of school teachers worked well, but the main
beneficiaries of this research and this new group of researchers – the
municipalities being the employers of the teachers – showed very little
interest in the additional competence that these teachers/doctors would bring
to the school. A large proportion of these teachers educated in the craft of
research remained within the universities and university colleges.
As we have seen, the Committee for Educational Science, a new agency
for research funding of research relevant to teaching and learning, was created
in 2001. Its yearly distribution of funds amounts to ca € 15 mill., amounting
to some 130 full time equivalents, FTE.3 The Commission proposed that the
Committee for Educational Science be reorganized into an autonomous
science council, at par with the councils for Medicine, Science and
Humanities & Social Sciences.
Again, the expectations on this school- and teacher relevant research have
been high. The advocates of the Committee for Educational Science believe
that money will accomplish what six professorships in 1968 and an
organisational connection in 1977 did not. Nevertheless, the critics of the
Commission of 2007 also hold against it that it (1) did not suggest basic
funding to the universities and university colleges for research on school
teaching and learning, (2) did not even try to evaluate the research carried out
since 2001, less make use of this research for its own work. Had the

3This number could be compared with e.g. the population of Sweden of 9 mill., or the number
of teachers in the Swedish school, some 150,000 persons.

56
Commission systematically assessed the research done in 2001-2008, and for
that matter in the preceding years, it would have reached other conclusions,
according to the critics, and it would have managed to stand up against a neo-
liberal political ordering. As we have seen, Houston et al. (1990) argued
already twenty years ago that the knowledge produced about teacher training
seems to be under-used.
During 2009 the report of the Commission was circulated for comments
by several national and municipal bodies as well as by other stakeholders like
teachers’ unions, students’ unions, parent and teacher associations, etc.
Despite severe critique practically all suggestions of the Committee were
adopted and decided upon by Parliament. The changes can be summarised
thus:
• The structure proposed by the Commission was adopted by Parlia-
ment: There will be four parallel teacher training programmes and
four different degrees.
• The Committee for Educational Science remains as it has been since
it was established in 2001, a committee beside the traditional re-
search councils.
• The universities and the university colleges are all to apply at the
national authorities for the right to give teacher training and to issue
degrees regarding teacher training. This condition – motivated as
quality assurance – came as a surprise to the university institutions.
The reformed teacher training starts in the Autumn of 2011.

57
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Proposition 1999/2000:135 En förnyad lärarutbildning. [Government Bill. A
new system of teacher education. In Swedish].
Shulman, L. S. 1986. Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching.
Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4-14.
SFS 1993:100 [The Swedish Code of Statutes] Högskoleförordning: Bilaga 2:
Examensordning [Higher Education Ordinance, Appendix 2: Diplomas].
SOU 2000:109 En hållbar lärarutbildning [A sustainable teacher education.
[In Swedish with a summary in English].

58
Wallin, E. 1991. The Comprehensive School: The Swedish Case. European
Journal of Education, Vol. 26, No. 2. pp. 143-154.
Wikander, L. 2010. The Educational System in Sweden – From a Uniform
towards a Dual Model. Preliminary version for the Italian Journal “I
Problemi della Pedagogia”.

59
RECENT INNOVATIONS IN TEACHER EDUCATION
IN TURKEY

Songül Kilimci

Introduction
There have mainly been two trends influencing educational reforms in the world for
the last few decades. The first was apparently the economic and social conditions
and the second namely globalization. Teacher training has been on the agenda of
Turkey since the foundation of the Republic. Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of
Turkey, was also the leader, who introduced many radical reforms in many areas
including modernization of the education system.
The reforms and trends, which led to fundamental changes in teacher education
system in Turkey, will be highlighted in this chapter. Since the changes in teacher
education are usually related to the changes in the education sector itself,
some reforms affecting the teacher education system will also be mentioned.
The objectives of this chapter are:
• To cover a brief historical overview of teacher education in Turkey.
• To describe the present teacher education system in Turkey
• To analyze current developments and tendencies under discussion in
Turkey.
The basic structure of the Turkish national education system is outlined in
Basic Law No.1739 on National Education. In accordance with the Law No.
2547 of 1981, The Council of Higher Education (Yüksek Öğretim Kurulu,
YOK) is a 22-member corporate public body responsible for the planning,
coordination and supervision of higher education within the provisions set forth in
the Higher Education Law. In this respect, the most important Supreme
Council in the governance of higher education is the Council of Higher
Education (YOK).
The Ministry of National Education ( Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı, MEB ) is
responsible for all educational services in the country excluding the higher

60
education. The Minister of National Education represents higher education at the
Turkish Grand National Assembly and can chair the meetings of the Council without
voting rights. Neither decisions of the Council nor those of the universities are
subject to ratification by the Ministry. The main duty of Ministry of National
Education related with higher education is to ensure that higher education is carried
out in accordance with national education policies.
Higher education covers all post-secondary programmes with duration of
at least two years. Each university consists of faculties and four-year schools,
offering bachelor's level programs, the latter with a vocational emphasis, and
two year vocational schools offering pre-bachelor's (associate's) level
programs of a strictly vocational nature.

Historical Overview of Teacher Education in Turkey

The Ministry of General Schools in Turkey was founded in 1846, was
incorporated in 1857 to the Ministry of General Education and thus, for the
first time in the history of the Ottoman Empire, education had official
representation. The ministry had responsibility for setting up and inspecting
educational institutions. The first teacher training school “Darülmuallimin”
was opened in Istanbul In 1848, which can be taken the start of teacher
education institutions in Turkey (Akyüz, 2005, 162). “Darülmuallimin” was
opened for educating the Rushdiya teachers. In 1858, high schools for girls
were founded where girls could continue their education after primary school.
A teacher training school for girls, or “Muallimat,” was opened in 1870 and a
higher teacher training institution, “Kebir-i Muallimin,” followed in 1874
(Sevinç, 2006).
With the establishment of the Republic, in 1923, there were reform
movements in many areas. One of the most important reforms was the
unification of education law, by which all schools and foundations related to
education were unified under the Ministry of National Education. It was then
the “medreses”, which were religious in character, were abolished and
elementary education became compulsory (Koçer 1967, p.67). In 1924, the
levels of primary teachers’ schools were a combination of middle and
secondary schools (Dilaver 1994, p. 32). In fact the French secular education
model has been the most influential model in Turkey since the founding of
the Turkish Republic (Şimşek & Yıldırım 2004, p.155)
In 1924, John Dewey was invited to visit Turkey by Atatürk. Dewey spent
three months making observations, ultimately offering recommendations for
setting up a system of education for 15 million people who were mostly

61
illiterate. Dewey saw the main aim to be “the development of Turkey as a
vital, free, independent and lay republic in full membership in the circle of
civilized states”. Dewey urged “the need to abandon old habits of
memorization and mechanical obedience” and proposed “an educative role of
greater pupil participation in school affairs” (Dewey 1924, p. 275, cited in
Sevinç, 2006).
Primary education in Turkey following Dewey's recommendations was
taken under the jurisdiction of the state and made compulsory for boys and
girls and free to every citizen. With the need to educate people in rural areas
and villages, the village schools for teacher training were opened with a three-
year instruction period after elementary school graduation (Koçer 1967,
p. 91). In 1938, the period of elementary teachers’ schools was reorganized
changing the period of education to three years after graduation from a
middle school. However, the problem of sending the urban teachers to rural
areas had not yet been solved. Based on the need to educate people in rural
areas, a different elementary teacher school to train the village population as
well as disseminate the principles of Turkish Revolution and Republic (Akyuz
2005, p. 339), village institutes came to life in 1940 (Dilaver 1994,
p. 34).The graduate of village institutes were obliged to work in villages for at
least 20 years after graduation and help to improve agriculture as well. In
1953, the curricula of primary teacher school were converged under one
curriculum as female and male primary teacher schools and village institutes.
The period of primary school years was extended from five to six years. In
1954 the village institutions were closed and converted to primary teacher
schools (Basaran, 1994). The nation-wide training period for primary teachers
was six years after primary education or three years after junior high school
until 1971 when it was extended to seven years after elementary school. 1973
was the year when the National Education Basic Law mandated higher
education for all teachers and since then all teacher education has been at the
higher education level in Turkey. In 1974, there were boarding high schools
called two-year education institutes for elementary school teachers. However,
these institutions did not function properly although the number of them was
50, and in 1981 their numbers were decreased to 17. These education
institutions were also converted to education high schools and united under
the university system (Akyüz 2005, p. 332).
Since 1981, with the higher education reform and the establishment of
Higher Education Council (YOK) in 1982, all four year teacher training
institutions and three year faculties of education were transformed into four
year faculties of education given at universities (YOK 2007, p. 37).

62
In 1981, new provisions were made for higher education in Turkey. Foremost
among these was the establishment of the Council of Higher Education
(YOK) to steer important activities of higher education institutions, i.e.,
planning, organization, governance, instruction and research. Secondly,
provision was made for non-profit foundations to establish higher education
law went into effect in 1981, and institutions were radically reorganized. One
significant aspect of this restructuring was the elimination of institutional and
functional fragmentation in the system. State academies were merged to form
new universities, all vocational schools were affiliated with universities, and
teachers’ colleges were converted into faculties of education under various
universities. In other words, higher education was completely unified under
the Council of Higher Education, constitutionally autonomous body, without
any room for possible political affiliation (MEB 2006, p. 11).
After 15 years of unification of teacher training institutions to the
university, YOK went into a new restructuring period on teacher training
system in 1997-98 academic year when the duration of compulsory (primary)
education was extended from five years to eight years. The Primary education
curricula (1-8 classes) were redesigned in line with a cognitive and
constructivist approach and education materials were developed accordingly.
The constructivist program of learning calls for teaching methods to be
adjusted to students' learning styles and potential learning capacities by
implementing flexible instructional methods. Student teachers need to be
trained to use educational technology, such as computers, videos, and
overhead projectors, as teaching aids. Experienced teachers should be given
in-service training to catch up with contemporary learning and instruction
methods. In addition, children need to be taught computer literacy and given
instruction for using the Internet (Sevinç, 2006). The National Teacher
Training Committee was also founded in 1997 (Öğretmen Yetiştirme Millî
Komitesi - ÖYMK), whose some of the main responsibilities were to update,
improve, assess and develop strategies regarding teacher training programmes
(YOK 2007, pp. 48-49).

Historical Review of Access to Higher Education

Before the 1950’s, the graduation examinations carried by the individual high
schools, a matriculation examination, under the auspices of The Ministry of
National Education. When the number of applicants to a given program
exceeded the capacity, the grades of the matriculation examination were
generally used as the criterion for selection. From 1950 onwards, with the

63
growth in the student population, prevailing admission procedures proved to
be difficult to administrate and some of the higher education institutions
began to implement their own independent student selection examinations.
These, too, were inadequate because the entrance examinations were
generally of the essay type and difficult to assess objectively. Consequently,
the higher education institutions began to search for a less subjective method
and they finally began to use objective tests for selection and placement.
The constant rise in the number of applicants to institutions of higher
education made it increasingly difficult for the temporary commission, under
the direction of one of the universities, to prepare and administer the entrance
examinations. In 1974, with a view to establishing a high degree of continuity
and uniformity in the administration of the entrance examination, the
Interuniversity Board set up The Interuniversity Student Selection and
Placement Center. In accordance with The Higher Education Law, which
went into effect in 1981, this Center was attached to The Higher Education
Council (YOK) and its name changed to The Student Selection and
Placement Center (ÖSYM).
The student selection and placement system between 1981 and 1998 was
similar to the present one. The only notable difference was that the earlier
system consisted of two stages: The Student Selection Examination (ÖSS) and
The Student Placement Examination (ÖYS). The second stage was
administered approximately two months after the first. Until 1998, the
entrance examination was carried out in two stages. The first stage of the
examination, the Student Selection Examination (ÖSS), consisted of verbal
and quantitative parts. Candidates with scores between 105 and 120 points
were offered a restricted choice of higher education programs. Those with a
minimum score of 120 were qualified for the second stage of the examination,
the Student Placement Examination (ÖYS), which consisted of five parts:
natural sciences, mathematics, Turkish, social sciences and foreign languages.
Placement of candidates was based upon their composite scores. These scores
were calculated by taking into account the scores of the first and the second
stages of the entrance examination as well as the high school grade-point
averages, with different weights. Starting from the 1998-99 academic year,
the second stage of the examination has been abolished (YOK, 2006a). There
were some minor but important changes in the programmes of teacher
training institutions in 2007. This new programme is currently implemented
in Turkey.

64
The Present Teacher Education System in Turkey
Students graduating from different types of high schools (general /vocational)
have to pass the “University Selection and Placement Examination” if they
wish to be accepted to higher education institutions. Depending on their
choices and the points they earn on this examination, they are placed in
different departments of universities. The following chart shows the process
in teacher education system in Turkey.

MASTER AND PhD

KPSS TO BE APPOINTED
ALES TO GO ON ACADEMIC STUDIES

TEACHER

DIPLOMA

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

STUDENT SELECTION AND PLACEMENT EXAMINATION

GENERAL /VOCATIONAL/ ANATOLIAN HIGH SCHOOL

Figure 1. The process to become a teacher in Turkey

The goals of Teacher Training Curriculum have been highlighted as: high
qualification in teacher education, students’ individual development, and
students’ gaining scientific and technological skills. The significance of content
comes to the fore while teaching the subject based courses in Turkey. Yet, in
pedagogy based courses, the school based programmes are taken into
consideration. During the pedagogical courses, class activities are arranged in
line with the teaching practice period of the student teachers.
Since the introduction of eight-year compulsory education, teacher
training programmes have been reorganised in cooperation with Ministry of
National Education (Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı-MEB) and Higher Education
Council (Yükseköğretim Kurulu-YOK), in order to meet the short- and long-
term demand for teachers in primary and secondary education. The system of
teacher training implemented in the 1998/99 academic year was based on:

65
 • training pre-primary and primary school teachers with Bachelor's
degrees (four years);
• training secondary school teachers who hold either Bachelor's degrees
(four years) for teaching foreign languages, music, arts, physical
education, special education or computer teaching technologies, or
Master’s degrees (five or five-and-a-half years) for science,
mathematics and social subjects.
The system implemented above takes place in Faculty Education line of
Figure 1.
No thesis or final dissertation is required in this case. Furthermore, in
order to employ a teacher in several fields of education, a compulsory second
subject has been introduced in teacher training programmes for secondary
schools, in addition to the main subject specialisation. While students who
have graduated from Anatolian teacher high schools still have to attend a
university teacher training programme to qualify as teachers, their educational
background entitles them to an additional score for their university entrance
exam. However, if they decide to embark on other fields of study (e.g.
engineering, medicine, law), they are not awarded this bonus. The courses of
the above mentioned teacher training programs were revised in 2007
(Eurybase, 2008).
In 2007, an update in the programmes of teacher training was
implemented. The change was mainly on the inclusion and exclusion of some
courses, course hours and practice period. According to the Council of Higher
Education, the need for this change was some problems arisen from
application of 1998 program and also some necessary updates had to be done
after the eight years. Some of the main changes in the restructuring process
can be listed as follows:
• Teacher-training programs implemented in education faculties has
been distributed more flexibly; (i.e. 50-60% special subject areas, 20-
30% pedagogical studies and 15-20% general culture)
• The percentage of elective courses has been increased.
• The most specific feature of the new programme is its meeting the
standards of EU teacher training programmes.
• Some changes in the courses, the number of the credit hours and also
practice hours have also been introduced.
• Additionally, each student is involved in student teaching at nearby
schools. After graduation, these students become apprentice
teachers for one or two years. They attend courses designed by the

66
 National Education Department of In-Service Training (YOK2007,
pp. 63-65).
All teachers receive education at higher education level. The promotion
system for teachers was outlined by a law issued in 2004, which underlines
competition; encourages teachers to refresh their knowledge in their fields;
raises the status of the teaching profession. Within this arrangement, teachers
can acquire titles as expert teachers or head teachers according to their length
of service, educational background, activities performed and official records,
on condition that they succeed on a central examination designed for the
purpose. Teachers holding master or PhD can become expert teachers and
head teachers respectively without taking the exam if they meet the
requirements regarding the length of service and official records. In addition,
General Teaching Profession Competencies was defined in order to be used
to:
• Determine teacher training policies,
• Organize pre-service and in-service training,
• Evaluate teacher performances,
• Help self assessment and the development of teachers.
Also some measures have been taken to ensure the expansion and use of new
technologies at all grades of education and special weight has been given to
integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into
education. As of the beginning of 2006-2007 academic year, the following
goals were stated as to:
• apply computer based education,
• provide access of computers for all schools,
• produce software in accordance with the curricula,
• ensure that teachers and students gain computer literacy skills
through various projects,
• establish “Educational Portal” in order to ensure that stakeholders in
education can access information without any limitations of time and
place.
ICT courses which were introduced into the teacher training curriculum
starting in 1989 have further been developed with these goals.
In private and some public schools, the new standards are already being
met. The result is less crowded classrooms, with boys and girls studying
together; students actively participating in project work; and parents,
students, and teachers cooperating in developing students' performance
evaluations. Vocational guidance and counselling has been introduced, as
well. Attention should be given to making a smooth transition to primary

67
education from preschool and kindergarten, and to allowing children to
develop at their individual pace. A petition to make kindergarten compulsory
has been taken into consideration by the Ministry. Presently, only 16 percent
of children who are eligible to attend preschool actually go (MEB, 2006).
The Turkish teacher education system is presently supported by various
academic organizations that provide a forum called Educational Reform
Initiatives, whereby practitioners present their innovative projects and
methods and demonstrate a constructivist curriculum effectively. Most of
these projects are science experiments, dramatization, construction,
environmental research, and nature expeditions, as well as lessons drawn from
field trips to museums.

Access
Diplomas issued by a high school or any of its equivalent institutions make a
student eligible to enter a university. Students are admitted into institutions of
higher education after passing a nationwide examination administered every
year by the Student Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM).
As mentioned before admission to higher education is centralized and
based on nation-wide examination administrated by the Student Selection and
Placement Center (ÖSYM) every year. The center was established in 1974
and affiliated with the council of Higher Education in 1981.
Beginning with the 1999 administration, the entrance examination system
was essentially based on a one-stage examination, namely the ÖSS of the
previous system. The ÖSS is the general examination and there is also YDS,
the foreign language examination. In the ÖSS examination, there are two
groups of tests. The first one is about general areas, which are about common
subject matters, and the second one is about the specialization areas. In the
general tests the students are expected to answer the questions related to:
• Social Sciences,
• Turkish,
• Mathematics I,
• Sciences I.
The students require answering the test based on specialization areas related
to their specific choice they want to attend at university.
− Social Sciences II,
− Literature II,
Maths II,
Sciences II.

68
The exam scores are calculated according to the scores the students get from
the exam, the success score based on the performance of the students in their
own school, and the overall success of the school in the university entrance
examination.
The objectives of ÖSS have been put forward as:
• To assure a balance between the demand for higher education and
the places available in higher education institutions.
• To select and place students with the highest probability of success in
all the available higher education programs, taking into consideration
their preferences, and performance on ÖSS.
The basic structure and principles of The Student Selection Examination
today are:
• Higher education in Turkey is essentially conducted at universities.
Anyone wishing to enrol in any four or more year undergraduate
program of the universities must take ÖSS either as a complete or
partial prerequisite for placement.
• The main rules of ÖSS are set out in The Higher Education Law. Its
details are decided by The Higher Education Council (YOK) upon
the recommendations of the ÖSYM. The legal status and the
functions of the Center are also defined in the same law (ÖSYM,
2006).
Since 2007, Turkey made significant progress and developed its implement-
ations in each topic of the Bologna Process. Regarding institutional structure,
as of March 2006, there were totally 93 universities (68 state and 25 non-
profit foundations) in Turkey. In 2007, this number has risen to 115
universities (85 state and 30 non-profit foundations). As of 2008, there are
totally 130 universities (94 state and 36 non-profit foundations) in Turkish.
The number of education faculties is 71 at present (National Report, 2008).
The growth of education faculties, where teacher education is given is
presented below.

69
Table 1. The number of education faculties over the years
Institutions 1983-84 1991-92 1992-93 2005-06 2009

Education High Schools* 17 24 - -

Education State 17 17 32 64 64
Faculties**

Non- - - - 5 7
profit

Total 34 41 32 69 71

* The period of education was extended to four from two years in 1989-1990 academic year.
From the 1992-1993 academic year they were transferred to Education Faculties and
Departments of Initial Teacher Training were established.
** Including Science of Educational Faculties.

Assessment
In Turkey the students are assessed according to the rules of their own
university assessment and evaluation conditions. They are assessed by the
course teachers. The teacher candidates attend to a four-year initial teacher
training program (which is to be finished within 7 years). Prospective teachers
first attend the classes and observe the teacher. After attending to the classes
as observers for a certain period, the student teachers can teach in the classes
under the guidance of the class teacher or the lecturer from the university.
When they successfully complete their education they get a Primary Teacher
Diploma. After the students graduate, they have to pass the Examination for
the Selection and Placement of Students (KPSS) in Higher Education in
Turkey and get a certain grade in order to be appointed as teachers. Those
who are appointed have to work for a year and are assessed again before they
are called professional teacher.

70
Research
Most of the research work in Turkey is conducted in Higher Education
Institutions. Until now, two criteria have been used in general in evaluating
higher education's research functions. First are the number of Doctoral
students and post-doctoral researchers, the second are the numbers of articles
published in journals covered by Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Science
Citation Index (SSCI), and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) of
ISI. According to 2007 statistics, Turkey is on the 19th row in world ranking
according to publications in scientific journals. Furthermore, the number of
scientific publications of Turkey has increased to 21273 in 2007, while it was
15347 in 2005 (National Report, 2008).

The Bologna Process

The Council of Higher Education (YOK), the Turkish University Rectors'
Committee (TURC) and the Interuniversity Council (UAK) are involved in
the implementation of the Bologna process as stakeholders. The activities
concerning the ECTS and Diploma Supplement implementations in Turkey
have been carried out by the universities under the supervision of the Council
of Higher Education (YOK). Universities have been participating the mobility
schemes within the context of EU education, training and youth programmes
with the coordination of the National Agency.
The Bologna Process has been the top priority on the agenda of the
Council of Higher Education since Turkey's involvement in the process in the
year of 2001 and since then the Council has continuously enacted several
regulations and set up commissions/ working groups to see to it that the
implementation of the action lines set forth within the Bologna Process has
been well in place.
The two-cycle degree structure had been fully implemented in Turkish
higher education system before Bologna. The structure of Turkish higher
education degrees is a two-tier system as undergraduate and graduate level of
study, for Education faculties. According to Article 2.a of the regulation on
graduate education, students are admitted to master’s programmes taking into
account their undergraduate level of achievement. Regulations passed by the
senate of each university stipulates: the manner in which scores on subject-
specific entrance examinations and on the Graduate Education Entrance
Examination (ALES) centrally administered by the Student Selection and
Placement Centre (ÖSYM) as well as undergraduate grades are evaluated;
whether a foreign language examination is required, and if so, the required

71
level of foreign language proficiency. In the overall evaluation of candidates,
scores on the Graduate Education Entrance Examination (ALES) are allotted
a minimum weight of 20 %. The holders of first cycle degrees have right to
apply for a second cycle programme. However, Turkish universities are free to
decide whether to apply or not, any special requirements for access to a
second cycle programme (National Report, 2008).

Current Reforms in Turkish Education System

Medium term educational policies of Turkey under the SPO Ninth
Development Planning Medium Term Program (2007-2009) covering the period
of 2007-2013 have been determined as follows:
• Pre-primary education will be expanded.
• Changes in curriculum based on innovativeness, research, team
working, authentic and entrepreneurial thinking in order to increase
the quality of primary and secondary education are expected to
continue.
• An efficient guidance and orientation system contributing to
individual and social life of peoples will be developed.
• A structure based on curriculum diversity rather than school diversity
will be applied in the secondary education. The secondary education
will be converted into a flexible structure to enable vertical and
horizontal transfer within scope of curriculum integrity and
continuation;
• In service training for the teachers and administrators required for
restructuring of education will be provided within the shortest time.
• Use of information technologies in education will be made more
effective and more disseminated.
• Need of buildings, equipment and teacher will be satisfied at any
stage so as to decrease disparities between regions.
• Local administrations will be promoted in order to take initiative to
increase quality of education and to supply physical environment and
equipment in shorter time.
• An efficient aid, scholarship and loan system will be developed for
the students in need.
• Higher Education Council will be restructured so as to conduct long-
term planning and coordination function.

72
 • Administrative, financial and scientific autonomy of higher education
institutions will be enforced, thus higher education institutions will
have a competitive structure based on specialization.
• Activities for resource creation by rendering service will be supported
in higher education institutions and students will be made more
participated in financing of the education.
• The Medium term educational policies of Turkey covering the period
of 2007-2013 are not directly related to teacher education but
education in general.

Discussion and Conclusion

Turkey has been in constant effort to rehabilitate its teacher education
system. Almost in every ten years, there were changes on the duration, the
curriculum or names and hours of courses. A research implemented by
Grossman and Sands (2004) on “how teacher educators regarded reforms”
showed that the reforms were successful in increasing the number of teachers
in the field, in the perception of the improved quality, in the implementation
of the master’s degree requirement for high school teachers and their
centrality as a responsibility of teacher training institutions and in terms of
enhancing the relationship between faculties of education and local schools. It
was stated in the discussion part of the survey that the effective
communication and coordination with the Ministry of National Education and
in the provision of adequate technology for instructional purposes, the
restructuring reform was less strong. However, as Şimşek & Yıldırım (2001)
noted the restructuring reform will effectively be in place with the help of
master and doctoral level trainees, full functioning and adaptation of the new
ICT equipments in to the new curriculum.
The problems encountered in Turkish primary education today may be
traced to certain factors, such as curriculum development and the need for
improvement in teacher training (Palut & Sevinc, 2005). Educators need to
adopt appropriate instruction methodologies that are based on new research
findings and evaluation methods. These can be implemented while student
teachers do their practicum work one day a week in primary schools
throughout their training, beginning from the first year of study. To avoid
academic studies going separately from the active teaching, more collaborative
workshops should be organized.
Thematic studies, based on modules, are designed for in-depth study,
whereby students' construction of knowledge is the primary goal. Assessment

73
and evaluation of students' learning can no longer be realized by multiple
choice and standardized tests, or by classifying children in relation to their
academic achievement within this system. Instead, students' learning and
thinking processes need to be assessed by individual and group projects, which
will demonstrate their ability to use cooperative skills, innovations, and fresh
approaches to solving problems.
To be admitted to the university, in spite of the emphasis on individual
differences and development within the new policy, students are still being
evaluated by national-level standardized tests. These tests are critical for any
placements in further education or state employment. This seems to be a
universal problem, in which students who do poorly on such tests have little
or no chance of realizing their capabilities and creative talents (Sternberg,
1997).
On the other hand, a study related with Bologna process has brought
international quality assurance into the fore. Turkey has long, since 1959,
been trying to be the member of European Union (EU). Attaching great
importance to developing its relations with other European countries, Turkey
has closely aligned itself with the West and has become a founding member of
the United Nations, a member of NATO, the Council of Europe, the OECD
an associate member of the Western European Union. The steps taken in
Turkey concerning improvements in the economic, social and cultural areas,
training carried out in the human rights and other issues are worthwhile. The
positive improvements in these areas and the effect of globalization inevitably
affect the education system as well. The goals of the major structural changes
in education system are to bring Turkey into a modern and dynamic country;
to meet the challenges of European integration and globalization; and to bring
higher quality to education. However, there seems to be no end to look for
change.
The influence of Ministry of National Education is very little on the
teacher education although it has a comprehensive authority over certain
teaching aspects such as the primary school curriculum and educational
materials. However, it has no influence on the selection of prospective
teachers into the education faculties or academic studies. The universities and
Higher Education Council have the responsibility. More collaborative work
would enhance to reach the goals specified by the education faculties,
specifically the quality in education.
In short, Turkey has implemented many restructuring reforms in its
teacher education and a great deal has been accomplished so far. The current
efforts and work on standards and accreditation, both to assure quality, and to
lead to improvement, build on all these changes. The implementation of

74
national standards and the setting up of a system of accreditation for faculties
of education help to ensure that national standards are met by all teachers, all
programs, and students (YOK, 2006b). However, it seems that the
restructuring reform of teacher education is incomplete yet. With the
economic, social and educational improvement in the world, mainly with the
globalization, research based regulations should be implemented to improve
the quality of faculty of educations and teachers.

75
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Istanbul.
Basaran, I. E. 1994. Türkiye Egitim Sistemi [The Educational System of
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Grossman, G. M., Sands, M.K. 2008. Restructuring reforms in teacher
education: Modernisation and development in a dynamic environment.
International Journal of Educational Development, 28, pp. 70-80.
Dilaver, H. H. 1994. Turkiye’de Ogretmen Yetistirme ve Istihdam Sartlari [The
Teacher Preparation and Employment Conditions in Turkey], Istanbul.
Eurybase 2008. The Education System in Turkey. European Commission.
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Teacher Preparation in Turkey], Ankara.
Ministry of National Education (MEB). 2006. Turkish Educational System,
Ankara.
National Reports (2008) Bologna Process Template for National Reports:
2007-2009
OSYM 2006. Selection and Placement of Students in Higher Education
Institutions in Turkey. Ankara: Higher Education Council.
Palut, B., & Sevinc, M. 2005. Thinking styles of Turkish primary school
teachers. Journal of Educational Sciences, 225.
Sevinç, M. 2006. Development of Turkish Education Policy and the
Modernization Primary Education Revisited - Childhood Education, 82, 6,
pp. 347-353).
Şimşek, H., Yıldırım, A. 2001. The reform of pre-service teacher education in
Turkey. In: Sultana, R. G. (Ed.) Challenge and Change in the Euro-
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New York: Peter Lang.
Şimşek, H., Yıldırım. A. 2004. Turkey: Innovation and Tradition. In Rothberg
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The Council of Higher Education (YOK). 2006a. The Turkish Higher
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HIGHER EDUCATION IN TURKEY AND IN SWEDEN:
A COMPARISON OF THE PRIMARY SCHOOL
TEACHER TRAINING IN SWEDEN AND TURKEY

Songül Kilimci

Introduction
This article compares the higher education systems in Sweden and Turkey
focusing on the comparison of the initial teacher training curricula in Sweden
and in Turkey. The main goal is to identify the common features that might
be observable in two systems regarding access to teacher training, goals,
courses and graduation requirements. The commonality is imperative for the
fact that the globalization raises concerns, thereby, responsibility across and
within borders since the number of international students has also been
increasing. The movement within and across borders requires cooperative
educational programs, as a result of which personal, social and cultural
developmental exchange is achieved. This comparative study could be a
source mainly useful for curriculum designers, educators, teachers, learners as
well as for anyone interested in the teacher training systems of these two
countries.

Teacher Training under Scrutiny

Teacher education is under close inspection in many countries including
Sweden and Turkey. The education and skills of teachers are among the key
factors in ensuring a successful school system. The learning outcomes of
students mostly depend on the skills of teachers. This fact forces most
countries to invest in education for the primary school teachers. The Bologna
process also has had a great impact on the changes made in the member
countries. There have recently been some changes in the teacher training

78
systems in both Sweden and Turkey. This study aims to find out the common
features in the initial teacher training in these countries.
The study investigates the following questions:
• What teacher training models exist in Turkey and Sweden?
• What are the admission requirements, goals, courses, evaluation and
graduation requirements in the initial teacher training models in the
two countries?
• What are the characteristics of these models, how do they differ, and
what consequences do they have for the quality of teachers?

The Bologna Process as a Background

The Bologna Process is named after the Bologna Declaration, which was
signed in the Italian city of Bologna on 19 June, 1999 by ministers in charge
of higher education from 29 European countries. Today, the Process unites
47 countries - all party to the European Cultural Convention and committed
to the goals of the European Higher Education Area. An important
characteristic of the Bologna Process is that it also involves the European
Commission, the Council of Europe and UNESCO-CEPES, as well as
representatives of higher education institutions, students, staff, employers and
quality assurance agencies (Bologna Process, 2010).
The aim of the Bologna Process is to create a European Higher Education
Area (EHEA) based on international cooperation and academic exchange that
is attractive to European students and staff as well as to students and staff
from other parts of the world. The goal of this is to:
• facilitate mobility of students, graduates and higher education staff,
• prepare students for their future careers and for life as active citizens
in democratic societies, and support their personal development,
• offer broad access to high-quality higher education, based on
democratic principles and academic freedom (Eurydice, 2010).
To reach these goals the following objectives were designated:
• Easily readable and comparable degrees organised in a three-cycle
structure (e.g. bachelor-master-doctorate),
• Greater use is also to be made of the Diploma Supplement, a
standardized description of each program and its position in the
university system,
• A uniform system of credits,

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 • Increased mobility for students, teachers, researchers and
administrators,
• Promotion of European co-operation in quality assurance,
• Promotion of the necessary European dimensions in higher education
(The Swedish Institute, 2007) .
The main lines of action in the Bologna Process are the Qualifications
Frameworks (QF), Quality Assurance (QA), Recognition and the European
Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and Diploma Supplement
(DS) implementations, Mobility, Lifelong Learning Program (LLLP), Joint
Degrees and the Social Dimension.
Sweden has taken part in the Bologna Process since its very beginning in
1999. Today Sweden has adopted practically all features of the Bologna
Process. However the structure of the Swedish teacher training was not easily
adopted to the process and because of difficulties in adjusting the former
structure of the teacher training to the 3+2+3 principle, the changes affecting
teacher training will not come into force until 2011.
Turkey has participated in the implementation of the Bologna Process
since 2001. Today Turkey is undertaking steps to enact various instruments of
those lines of action. The reform process on the Qualifications Framework for
Higher Education in Turkey started in 2006 and the framework was updated
on 21.01.2010 by CoHE Decision. According to the timetable prepared, “The
Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in Turkey” will start to be
implemented in all of the higher education institutions in 2012 (The Council
of Higher Education, 2010a).

Teacher Training in Sweden: Overall Structure

In Sweden, the Riksdag (Parliament) and government have overall
responsibility for teacher education. They set out the overriding goals and
guidelines and allocate resources. The universities and university colleges have
great freedoms of movement within the regulatory framework set out by the
government and the Riksdag. Since teacher education is part of higher
education, a governing paradox arises: teachers need to be educated in
accordance with the relatively strict goals laid down in the national
curriculum for the school, but responsible for this education are the
universities, who, as said, enjoy substantial freedoms.
Mainly as a result of the Bologna process, legislation for a three-cycle
structure of higher education was adopted in January 2007 and applied since
1 July 2007. The former degree system has been reformed and structured to

80
fit the new three-cycle system. As a result of the new ordinance on degrees,
the teaching qualification can be taken at first and/or second level. Teaching
qualifications requiring 3-3.5 years education are taken at the first level.
Teaching qualifications requiring at least four years education and some
additional specialisation are found at the second level. These cover
programmes that focus on teaching in the later years of the compulsory
school, and in the upper secondary school. The qualification focusing on the
earlier years of the compulsory school can be taken at the second level if it
includes a specialisation. University colleges and universities can choose the
level at which teacher training shall be offered; first level, second level or
both. The teacher education programme emphasises the importance of
competence in special needs education, enabling the teacher to identify
frequently recurring problematic situations in the school and to assist pupils.
The contents of the teacher education program are divided into three
categories:
• an overall perspective setting its stamp on all teacher education
• core knowledge and skills that all teachers need
• knowledge and skills specific to teachers teaching in a certain age
category or type of school.
Today, in 2010, there is one comprehensive Swedish teacher training
programme to be finalised by one teacher degree, albeit with specialisations.
Presently this system is being scrutinised and a change is foreseen within
another year. We will come back to this issue.

Teacher Training in Turkey: Overall Structure

In Turkey since the introduction of eight-year compulsory education, teacher
training programmes have been reorganised in cooperation with the Ministry
of National Education (Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı-MEB) and the Higher
Education Council (Yükseköğretim Kurulu-YÖK), in order to meet the short-
and long-term demand for teachers in primary and secondary education.
Initial teacher training programs for pre-primary education, primary
education, and secondary education in Turkey are carried out by the
universities. A three-cycle system already existed in the Turkey when the
Bologna model was introduced. The system of teacher training implemented
in the 1998/99 academic year was based on training pre-primary and primary
school teachers with Bachelor’s degrees (four years) and training secondary
school teachers who hold either Bachelor’s degrees (four years) for teaching

81
foreign languages, music, arts, physical education, special education or
computer teaching technologies, or Master’s degrees (five or 5.5 years) for
science, mathematics and social subjects. In 2007, an update in the
programmes of teacher training was implemented. The change was mainly on
the inclusion and exclusion of some courses, course hours and practice period.
Some of the main changes in the restructuring process can be listed as follows:
• Teacher-training programs implemented in education faculties have
been distributed more flexibly; (i.e. 50-60% special subject areas, 20-
30% pedagogical studies and 15-20% general culture)
• The percentage of elective courses has been increased.
• The most specific feature of the new programme is that it meets the
standards of EU teacher training programmes.
• Some changes in the courses, the number of the credit hours and also
practice hours have been introduced.

Admission & Selection in the Swedish Higher Education

Sweden has an unusually uniform system for admission to higher education.
The admission regulations are national and are stipulated in the provisions of
the Higher Education Act and the Higher Education Ordinance, as well as in
the regulations issued by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education.
In particular, the admission regulations for new entrants to study programmes
are specified at the national level. Admission to second and third cycle
programmes are also regulated, but to a lesser degree.
In Sweden, within a generally formulated framework, responsibility for the
admission of students rests with the institutions. Higher education at all levels
has general and specific requirements. Applicants must fulfil the general,
nationally valid qualifications for eligibility to primary teacher education, and
any additional qualifications prescribed by the university or university college
concerned. Specific requirement can be, e.g., a certain level of knowledge of
mathematics for future teachers of science and mathematics, or a certain level
of knowledge of a foreign language for future teachers of that language.
Requirements for programmes leading to a professional degree are set out by
the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education (Högskoleverket).
Students are required to have completed an upper secondary school
programme and having obtained at least a pass grade or better in courses
comprising at least 90 percent of the credits required for the programme. To
be admitted to a course or a study programme, the applicant must fulfil the
basic eligibility requirements as well as any specific qualifications prescribed

82
by the higher education institution. If the number of eligible applicants
exceeds the number of places available, a selection is made. For
undergraduate studies the selection between qualified students is normally
based upon the grade point average from upper secondary school and/or upon
the number of credit points from previous university studies and the results of
the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (Högskoleprovet) for higher education.
[Link]
In education programmes for new students at least one third of the places
are to be distributed on the basis of grades and at least one third on results
from the university aptitude test. In addition universities and university
colleges have the right to decide on selection criteria for up to one third of the
places in education programmes for new students.

Admission & Selection in the Turkish Higher Education

In Turkey diplomas issued by a high school or any of its equivalent
institutions make a student eligible to enter the university. Students are
admitted into institutions of higher education after passing a nationwide
examination (Yükseköğretime Giriş Sınavı – YGS and Lisans Yerleştirme Sınavı
– LYS) administered every year on a central basis by the Student Selection
and Placement Center (ÖSYM). Examinations are in a multiple-choice form
and intended to measure general competencies and field knowledge.
Examinations consist of questions in five basic fields (Turkish, Social Sciences,
Mathematics, Science, and Foreign Language). The exam scores are calculated
according to the scores the students get from the exam, the success score
based on the performance of the students in their upper secondary school,
and the overall success of this school in the university entrance examination.
Those most successful are allocated to higher education institutions in
accordance with their ranking and personal preferences by the Student
Selection and Placement Center (ÖSYM). Admission to graduate programs is
carried out by the higher education institutions. Admission depends on
composite scores which take into account the Graduate Education Entrance
Examination (ALES), the undergraduate grade point average, and interview
results (The Council of Higher Education, 2010b).

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Table 1. Admission and selection criteria in Swedish and Turkish Higher
Education
Admission and Selection Criteria
- a completed programme from upper secondary school (obtaining a pass
Sweden grade)
- fulfilment of the national basic eligibility requirements
- in the selection process the applicant may, or may not, refer to the
Scholastic Aptitude Test, if taken
- a completed programme from upper secondary school (high school
Turkey diploma)
- passing of a nationwide examination (University Entrance Examination)

In Sweden the students are accepted to the initial teacher training

departments if they have completed an upper secondary school programme
and if they have met the requirements of the programme they apply for. In
Turkey, the students are also expected to complete an upper secondary
school. However, after completing the upper secondary school the students
are required to take the centralised national examination.

Goals of Primary School Teacher Training in Sweden

To receive a teaching qualification, students should be able to:
• provide good, relevant knowledge in the subject or subject areas to
permit the future teacher’s students to learn and develop;
• assess and validate students’ learning and development and inform
and cooperate with parents or guardians;
• provide a foundation for the fundamental values of society and
democracy;
• analyse and determine his or her views on general human issues, the
ecological conditions, and changes in the surrounding world;
• appreciate the importance of gender differences in teaching situations
and when presenting their material;
• independently, and with others plan, carry out, evaluate and develop
teaching and other pedagogical activities and participate in the
management of these;
• make use of and systematise their own and others’ experiences, as
well as relevant research, as a basis for developing vocational
activities; and
• use information technology in pedagogical development and
appreciate the importance of the role of the mass media in this
(Swedish National Agency for Higher Education, 2008).

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In addition, the specific additional goals of the various individual universities
and university colleges may apply.

Goals of Primary School Teacher Training in Turkey

The main official aim of the Turkish education system is to increase the
welfare of Turkish citizens and the Turkish community, to support and ease
the social, financial, economical, and cultural development, and to help the
Turkish community to be an eminent, constructive, and creative member of
civilization.
The main goals of higher education in Turkey are to give every student
education according to his/her interest, capacity and talent and to encourage
them to do high class scientific research.
To receive a teaching qualification, students should be able to:
• use the Turkish language efficiently,
• have relevant knowledge in the subject areas,
• plan, assess and validate students’ learning and teaching curricula
• implement their pedagogical knowledge into the classrooms and
school environments
• use information technology efficiently,
• administer the classroom effectively and efficiently,
• guide students with different interests and capacities,
• carry out pedagogical activities and use relevant teaching methods
specific to teaching situations,
• analyse and follow the contemporary development related to the
teaching and education (The Council of Higher Education, 1998a).

Similarities and Differences in Teacher Training Goals

in Turkey and Sweden
The goals in both countries show great resemblance. Individual developments,
social development, personal quality, equal opportunity, technological skills,
guidance, contemporary development, teaching methods are the goals similar
to the two educational systems.
Both countries specify their higher education qualitative targets as
developing students’ ability to make independent and critical judgements;
recognise, formulate, and solve problems, and meet the challenges of
professional life. It is also stated that within a field of study, students must, in

85
addition to demonstrating knowledge and understanding, skills and abilities,
develop the ability to search for and evaluate information on a scholarly level;
follow developments and current research issues in their field of study;
communicate with different audiences.
Table 2: Differing Goals in Teacher Training Goals in Sweden and Turkey
Differing Goals
-appreciating the importance of gender differences in teaching situations
Sweden and in presenting material
-having acquired the ability to convey and establish basic social and
democratic values
-having the capacity to use Turkish language correctly and efficiently
-helping students understand Atatürk’s revolutions and principles
Turkey -guiding students have the willpower and spirit to strengthen the national
union and solidarity

Although Swedish is compulsory in all the initial teacher training curricula,

the ability to use the language correctly and efficiently is not stated in the
goals. Contrary to this, it is specified in Turkey that the prospective teachers
are expected to gain the ability to use the Turkish language correctly and
efficiently. They are also expected to learn the principles of Mustafa Kemal
Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish republic, and to help the students
understand these principles. The general goal of Turkish education is to raise
all individuals as citizens committed to the principles and reforms of Atatürk
and to the nationalism of Atatürk as expressed in the Constitution, who
adopt, protect and promote the national, moral, human, spiritual and cultural
values of the Turkish Nation, who love and always seek to exalt their family,
country and nation, who know their duties and responsibilities towards the
Republic of Turkey which is a democratic, secular and social state governed
by the rule of law, founded on human rights and on the tenets laid down in
the preamble to the Constitution, and who have internalized these in their
behaviour.
[Link]
Although presented under the differences section because of the
differences in the wording, the Swedish expression “having aquired the ability
to convey and establish basic social and democratic values” in its ideological
sense is an equivalent to the Turkish ideological point on “understanding
Atatürk’s principles”. These principles are: Republicanism (Cumhuriyetçilik),
Populism (Halkçılık), Secularism (Laiklik), Revolutionism (Devrimcilik),
Nationalism (Milliyetçilik), and Statism (Devletçilik).
In Turkey these principles should be adhered to in the teacher training and
in the schools. The prospective teachers should also be trained to help the
students improve the willpower and spirit to strengthen the national union
and solidarity.

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In the Swedish teacher training programme the emphasis on democratic
values likewise form an ideological basis for the teacher training and for the
teaching carried out in the school. These values are laid down in the
Education Act, which stipulates that:
“School activities shall be structured in accordance with fundamental
democratic values. Each and every person active in the school system shall
promote respect for the intrinsic value of every human being and for our
common environment . . .”
(Education Act 1985:1110)
For the teacher training this general goal is specified by stating that the
training should “connect to the future professional work and include “. . . the
value base of the school including “the basic democratic values and the human
rights” (The Degree Ordinance, Swedish National Agency for Higher
Education, 2008).

Curriculum, Special Skills and Specialisation in the

Swedish Teacher Training
The Degree ordinance states the learning outcomes should be fulfilled to
obtain a particular degree in addition to those laid down in the Higher
Education Act. The universities and university colleges may lay down
additional specific goals and decide themselves the content of their courses as
well as how to organise the education in order to reach the goals. All teachers
get a common basic competence, combined with specialisations in particular
subjects/subject areas and/or age groups.
The teacher education programme comprises a minimum of three years of
full-time studies and a maximum of 5.5 years of full-time studies depending
on the chosen subject area and age level: At least 3.5 years for teaching in
preschools, pre-school classes, the lower level of the compulsory school as
well as school age child care and mother tongue tuition.
At least 4 years for teaching at higher level of the compulsory school and
at the upper secondary school, with exception for the upper secondary
schools vocational subjects. One or two specialisations (of at least 1.5 years
each) in a subject or subject area should be included.
At least 3 years for teaching in subjects specific to vocationally oriented
programmes in upper secondary schools. Instead of emphasis and
specialisation, extensive professional experience as well as higher education in
relevant subjects (of at least 1.5 years) or other equivalent education is
required.

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Teaching in primary and middle education requires at least 210 higher
education credits.4 The educational programme must include the following
three integrated areas, which can contain courses at both first and second
level: a general area of education comprising 90 higher education credits and
including interdisciplinary studies; one or more fields comprising at least 60
higher education credits towards a subject or subject area; and a specialisation
comprising at least 30 higher education credits. At least 15 of the higher
education credits in the general area of education must be for school
placement experience, and at least 15 higher education credits in each field
must also be for school placement experience.
The general education area, common for all students, covers key topics
such as learning, special needs education, socialisation, fundamental values as
well as interdisciplinary subject studies (at least 1.5 years). In the general
education area, practical supervised training in a school should account for at
least half a term. To receive a teaching qualification, students must also
complete an independent project work corresponding to half a term’s studies.
Degree of Bachelor/Master of Education (Lärarexamen) (Ministry of
Education and Research, 2003, issued in 2007).

Curriculum, Special Skills and Specialisation in the

Turkish Teacher Training
Today, main source for training of teacher is faculties of education. Programs
regarding of the training of teachers for pre-primary and primary education
(generalist teacher and specialist teacher) are at the bachelor’s degree level (4
years), programs in respect of training teachers for secondary education is
master’s levels (5 years). Some branch teaching programs common in both
primary and secondary education (physical education, painting, music,
computer teaching) are bachelor’s degree (4 years) level. In addition, teachers
are also trained via a master’s degree for the graduates of faculties of science
and/or letters. The faculties of education bound either in public or private
universities have the same structure and programs. The basic director of the
structure and programs of teacher education is the Higher Education Council
(Yüksek Öğretim Kurulu-YÖK). In this process, it is necessary for the
Ministry of National Education (Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı-MEB) to cooperate
with the faculties of education. In the educational year of 2006-2007, all

4 Henceforth we will write ’credits’. The Swedish system of higher education credits (hp) equals

the Bologna ECTS system (European Credit Transfer System), where one week’s study equals 1.5
credits.

88
programs were revised and the courses’ contents were published in the web
site ([Link]
Higher Education Council (Yükseköğretim Kurulu-YÖK) has the final
authority to determine the pre-service teacher training programs. Education
faculties have the right to change 25% of the curriculum. Teacher training
programs for both primary and secondary education have three components
with these approximate weights:
• General culture: 15-20%
• Field practice: 50-60%
• (Pedagogic formation) Professional courses: 25-30%.
Curricula consist of compulsory and elective courses. The rate of elective
courses differs according to the program. For example, 14 percent in the
department of preschool education, 10 percent for the department of primary
school teachers education, 18 percent in the department of primary school
mathematics education. Elective courses exist primarily in the context of
general culture and branch courses dimensions. The program of professional
courses are common for all branches and consists entirely of compulsory
courses.
For the development of special skills of candidate teachers such as
knowledge of computers, foreign languages, school administration, special
education and effective communication all courses are compulsory. All
candidate teachers, with the exception of classroom teachers, are graduated as
a specialists in a certain field. Classroom teachers are “generalists”.

Evaluation and Certificates in the Swedish Teacher

Training
On completion of the programme a student receives a degree from the higher
education institution, and to this is added a Diploma Supplement in
accordance with the Bologna model. The degree certificate states which
courses a student has completed and for what teaching it is intended. The
Degree Ordinance (Swedish National Agency for Higher Education, 2008),
the Higher Education Ordinance (Swedish National Agency for Higher
Education, 2008), stipulate which qualifications may be awarded in
undergraduate education. Presently a ‘teacher’s licence’ is being discussed and
proposed in Sweden. The driving force behind this is to strengthen the status
of the teacher profession and thus increase its attractiveness. To reach such a
licence the individual needs a certificate from having passed the teacher

89
training successfully and one ‘apprentice’ year under the supervision of a
mentor, an experienced teacher.
Evaluation is carried out continuously by means of written and verbal
examinations. In order to obtain a degree in Education, the student has to
acquire the knowledge and skills required/necessary to realise the objectives of
pre-school, school and adult education and to contribute to the development
of these activities in accordance with their applicable regulations and
guidelines.
For teaching in preschools, pre-schools classes and the lower levels of the
compulsory school, the student should have an in-depth knowledge of the
acquisition of reading and writing skills and the acquisition of basic
mathematical skills. For teaching at higher levels of the compulsory school
and the upper secondary schools, the student should have an in-depth
knowledge of how to analyse and assess pupils’ learning processes as well as
good knowledge of grading. Each student should also have completed an
independent project (degree project) corresponding to half a term and have
practical supervised training in a school corresponding to at least half a term.
There may be additional goals set by the institution.
Legislation: Higher Education Ordinance (Högskoleförordningen), SFS
1993:100 (Ministry of Education and Research, 2003, issued in 2007).

Evaluation and Certificates in the Turkish Teacher

Training
Students in the faculties of education are evaluated by the teaching staff and
teachers within the schools where they carry out their teaching practice.
Measurement and evaluation of the students in the courses are performed by
means of written and oral exams, assignments, portfolio evaluations,
monitoring of teaching performance, etc. Depending on the faculties, students
are obliged to have at least one midterm exam and one final exam for each
course. For graduation, the student is obliged to obtain envisaged total credits
and to succeed teaching practice course. There is not any supplementary
completion exam. Those graduated from department of pre-primary and
primary education in the faculty of education obtain the bachelor degree and
those graduated from teaching in secondary education programs obtain the
master degree. Graduates are entitled to be teacher with their diplomas. In
the diplomas, the branches (for example, classroom school teacher, history
teacher, etc.) for which they are qualified are stated. Additionally, a transcript
(list of the courses, grades and credits) and the Diploma supplement are

90
provided together with the national diploma. However, the Diploma
Supplement does not automatically entitle its holder to be recruited as a
teacher (The Council of Higher Education 2010b).
Table 3. Similarities in evaluation and certificates in the Swedish and the
Turkish Teacher Training
Similarities
-Evaluation is carried out continuously by means of written and verbal
examinations as well as by monitoring of teacher performance during
practice periods in school
Sweden -A degree certificate on completion of the programme that states which
courses a student has completed, the grade achieved and for what teaching
the course is intended
-Measurement and evaluation of the students in the courses are performed
by means of written and oral exams, assignments, portfolio evaluations,
Turkey monitoring of teaching performance, etc.
-A diploma on graduation of the department

Both educational systems provide written and verbal examinations as well as a

diploma on completion of the programme. The main difference lies in the
courses. The prospective teachers in Sweden choose the courses and they
receive a degree certificate specifying which courses they have taken, while in
Turkey the prospective teachers have to complete a standard programme.

Recent and Future Changes in the Swedish Teacher

Training
In 2008 the structure of the national agencies within the education field was
reformed; the National Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools
(Specialpedagogiska skolmyndigheten) was created as well as the Swedish
Schools Inspectorate (Statens skolinspektion). The National Agency for
Education (Skolverket) had school development added to their tasks.
In 2009 the National Agency for Higher Vocational Education (Myndig-
heten för Yrkeshögskolan) was established to develop and oversee a new form
of publicly funded vocational education at the tertiary level.
An acknowledged problem with today’s Swedish teacher training
programme system is that it not designed to meet variations in a supply-and-
demand balance. At the moment there is a shortage of teachers specialised in
Science and a severe shortage in pre-school teachers. The fact that students as
well as higher education institutions have a relatively large freedom accounts
for this problem. It is hoped that a reform expected in 2011 will partly
remedy this problem.

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New Teacher Education Programme
The bill ‘Top of the class – new teacher education programmes’ presented in
February 2010 proposes four new professional teacher degrees: one for pre-
school education, one for compulsory school education (students 6 to 12 years
old), one in subject education (students 13 to 18 years old) and one in
vocational education. Universities and higher education institutions wishing to
offer these have to apply for an entitlement to award the degrees. The
programmes are planned to start in the autumn of 2011. The most important
changes deal with the kind of teacher degrees to be achieved. There is also a
change in the balance between ‘academic’ skills and knowledge vs. social
skills. More stress will be given to the former at the expense of the latter.
Many of the changes affect all forms of schools. These are the most
important ones:
• Teachers: Senior subject teachers will be re-introduced into the entire
school system.
• A teacher or pre-school teacher who has passed a licentiate or a
doctoral degree and has demonstrated excellent quality of teaching
over a period of service of at least four years may be appointed a
senior subject teacher. Clearer and more stringent rules will be
introduced on the necessary requirements for teachers and pre-school
teachers to be employed and used in teaching.
The changes also stress on the following issues as conditions for teaching and
learning:
• Stress on basic values, security, calmness and good health
• Choice and equity to be reached in municipal as well as independent
(private) schools and a clearer role for the National School Inspec-
torat.
The outcomes of the teaching and learning processes are given much attention
in the bill:
• More emphasis on knowledge in pre-schools as the pre-school is
included in the school system
• More knowledge in compulsory school and equivalent types of school
• More emphasis on knowledge in upper secondary schools and more
emphasis on vocational programmes as alternatives to theoretical
programmes
• More emphasis on knowledge in adult education, including validation
and individual study programmes
[Link]

92
Recent and Future Changes in the Turkish Teacher
Training
The reform process on the Qualifications Framework for Higher Education in
Turkey started in 2006. With the 2006 reform, pre-primary and primary
education programmes have been reviewed. The major changes of this
arrangement can be summarised as follows (The Council of Higher
Education, 2006: 4-5):
• List of courses, courses descriptions, and credits of courses have been
re-determined.
• A flexible arrangement has been made in the composition of
education programmes; the ratios are re-arranged as general education
courses (subject and subject education courses, liberal education
courses), professional education (pedagogics) courses.
• Faculties have been given the authority to determine the courses of
25 percent ratio in overall credits and the opportunity of elective
courses has been increased.
The framework of 2006 reform was updated on 21.01.2010 by Council of
Higher Education Decision (YÖK). According to this decision, Bachelor’s,
Master’s and PhD level descriptors were revised. Further work is being
carried out on defining learning outcomes of “field based qualifications” and
“program based qualifications”. Fields in Turkish Higher Education
Qualifications Framework are defined taking the International Standard
Classification of Education (ISCED 97) as a reference point. Working groups
are established for each of the main fields. After completing this work,
program based qualifications will be defined. According to the timetable
prepared, “The Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in Turkey”
will start to be implemented in all of the higher education institutions in 2012
(The Council of Higher Education, 2010a).
These developments also accelerated the Quality Assurance (QA) studies
in higher education. The new version of a “Guide on Academic Assessment
and Quality Improvement at HEIs,” which includes an expanded list of
standards and performance indicators for the use of Higher Education
Institutions (HEIs) and QA Agencies in their internal and external quality
assurance procedures, was published by the Academic Assessment and
Quality Improvement Commission (YÖDEK) in line with the Standards and
Guidelines for QA and in the light of the views of relevant stakeholders. Also,
internal QA processes in Turkish HEIs are well in place, and since January 1,
2007, each university in Turkey prepares its annual strategic plans according

93
to the Law on Public Financial Management and Control. As for external
evaluation, some independent national quality agencies have started to work
on acquiring accreditation through external quality assurance agencies (The
Council of Higher Education 2010a).

Initial Teacher Training Courses in Sweden

Students may be awarded a diploma for teaching at primary school provided
that they complete course requirements of at least 210 credits which include
courses in basic conversational, reading and writing of 15 credits, and basic
mathematics learning of 15 credits. The program provides a degree at
undergraduate level. Every teacher has the same structure in his/her teacher
education which consists of three integrated areas. This is a description of the
major fields of study offered:
- Terms 1-2: General education studies (Basic themes: learning, special
pedagogy, socialisation, fundamental values, interdisciplinary subject
studies).
- Terms 3-4: Major field of study courses (Students broaden their
perspectives on local and global changes through basic theoretical and
teaching methodology studies in social science subjects, geography,
history, religion and social science).
- Terms 5-6: Minor specialisation courses: Swedish in primary
education and creative mathematics.
- Term 7: General education studies, including a degree project.
The programme generally starts with 60 or 30 credits in general educational
studies. Students then move on to the major subject which formed the
application grounds for their respective admission. Depending on the chosen
teaching career, the students progress to specialisations or a second major, and
finally to the final term of general education studies. Courses in literacy
acquisition and mathematical acquisition are mandatory for students who plan
to work in daycare, pre-school or primary school.
Every major comprises at least 60 credits, 15 of which are awarded for
experiential studies in school or the equivalent. Specialisations can be an
elective minor or further studies in the major. An education degree at the
advanced level must include at least 60 credits. The programme should
include three areas of courses at either of the two levels: general educational
studies (90 credits) including interdisciplinary courses, one or more Majors (at
least 60 credits), and one specialisation (at least 30 credits). The general

94
educational studies and the majors should include at least 15 credits of
experiential studies in school or equivalent.
In order to be a teacher at primary school the students can choose courses
presented in the following Table. There is a substantial local freedom in how
courses are designed and what they may be called. Therefore, one example
will be given from one HE institution (Uppsala University) offering teacher
training.
Table 4. Pedagogic Courses at Uppsala University, Sweden
Special Group processes - inclusion and exclusion 7.5
Education Supervision of educational activity 7.5
Historical perspectives on special education 7.5
Concentration ability in Special Education 7.5
Special Education in a democratic preschool and primary school 7.5
Mathematics Special Education 7.5
Language, reading and writing process in a Special Education 7.5
Intellectual disabilities 7.5
Educational Social groups, training strategies 7.5
Sociology Education and social change 7.5
Educational Sociology, Introduction 7.5
Educational Sociology, classical and modern traditions 7.5
Education system, the emergence and structure 7.5
Cultural Sociology, central problems 7.5
Educational Sociology, central problems 7.5
Didactics Educational perspectives on preschool activities 30
Educational perspectives on language and mathematics in the early 30
school years
Didactics of expertise and research in the field 7.5
Drama, Theatre and Communication 30
Film and Media 7.5
Learning Analysis 7.5
Music-aesthetic learning with children 30
School in society 7.5
Linguistic dimensions in preschool and school activities and 7.5
substance
Swedish teachers’ culture, school culture and context of the 30
international perspective
Education and Communication 7.5
Teaching conditions, content and processes 7.5

An education degree is awarded for the Bachelor or Master level depending

on the scope of accumulated credits, specialisation requirements, and
requirements for studies at advanced level: 180 or 210 credits (Bachelor’s
level).
All education is offered in the form of courses. These courses are normally
studied consecutively, with only one course being taken at a time. Each
course represents a full-time workload of approximately 40 hours per week,
including contact hours, and this is equivalent to 1.5 credits. Some of these

95
hours are spent in lectures and in other types of contact hours with teachers,
but a substantial amount of these hours is spent in individual study, reading,
researching for papers, preparing assignments, etc. The number of contact
hours varies from discipline to discipline. In many cases, courses are
combined into a programme leading to a specific degree and students are thus
admitted to a programme rather than a course. A degree programme may
consist of both mandatory, recommended and elective courses, and include
several academic disciplines. Degree programmes often allow students to
select alternatives during the latter part of their studies. Students may choose
to study for a degree or simply take a number of courses for which they will
receive certificates. However, progression is considered very important and
quality assurance measures are taken to secure that this is accomplished. Each
successive year of study, the student is expected to be able to read more
complicated texts, to meet more texts in foreign languages, to solve more
demanding tasks, etc.
The first two terms of general educational studies are on the whole
common to all students irrespective of programme variants. Depending on
their teaching career choices course content differs. The majors designed for
work in and primary school are combined with courses in literacy skills and
basic mathematical skills, with the exception of students majoring in Swedish
and mathematics in interplay, who can choose other courses, for instance,
special needs pedagogy, English, sports and health, social science
specialisation. Majors in teaching in after-school centres also have a choice of
electives, 30 + 30 credits.

Initial Teacher Training Courses in Turkey

As said, the Higher Education Council (Yükseköğretim Kurulu-YÖK) has the
final authority to determine the teacher training programs. Students may be
awarded a diploma for teaching at primary school provided that they
complete the 4-year education program. The curriculum for primary school
teacher training of an education faculty consists of courses of 240 credits.
Education faculties have been given the right to change 25 percent of the
curriculum since 2006. The flexibility was reflected with the percentages:
Field courses 50-60 percent ; pedagogic formation 25-30 percent and the
general culture 15-20 percent. Society in Service Practice course, which was
added into the curricula in 2006, requires the prospective teachers to prepare
projects, attend scientific activities such as conferences, symposiums, etc. The
elective courses, 10 percent for the department of primary school teachers

96
education, exist in the context of general culture and branch courses
dimensions.
Table 5. Pedagogic courses (field education) provided at the Education
Faculties’ curricula in Turkey
1st Semester ECTS 2nd Semester ECTS 3rd Semester ECTS 4th Semester ECTS

Introduction to 5 Educational 5 Principles 4 Instructional 5

Educational Psychology and Methods Technologies
Science of Education and Material
Development

5th Semester ECTS 6th Semester ECTS 7th Semester ECTS 8th Semester ECTS

Measurement 4 School 7 Teaching 10 Elective 3

and Assessment Experience Practice I

Classroom 4 Guidance 4 Teaching 12

Management Practice II
Turkish
Special 2 Education and 3
Education School
Administration
System

Elective Courses are generally cultural courses such as: Classical guitar, dance,
social skills, behaviour problems in children, student behaviours, effective
teaching and learning, geography of Turkish economy, problems in the world,
arts of drawing, arts of photography, cooperative learning, rhetoric
communication, art of articulation, education statistics, constitution in
Turkey, urbanization and population in Turkey, games and sports. A student
has to take two elective courses on the 8th Semester.
When we compare the main courses in Sweden and Turkey we can see
that there are a lot of similarities in the courses given. Table 6 gives the details
of the comparison.

97
Table 6. Comparison of Main Courses in the Swedish and the Turkish Initial
Teacher Training
Courses Sweden Turkey
Children and Youth Studies + +
Biology / Science / Sustainable Development + +
Didactics + +
Digital media + +
Physics + +
Geography + +
Sociology + +
Earth Science + -
History / Economic History + +
Chemistry + +
Mathematics + +
Food and Nutrition + -
Middle East Studies + -
Music + +
Religious Education + +
Civics + -
Special Education + +
Educational Sociology + +
Rhetoric + +
Linguistics + +
Foreign Languages + +
Teaching Reading and Writing + +
Education Psychology + +
Physical Education and Sport culture - +
Science and Technology + +
Environmental education + +
Material development + +
Philosophy + +
Teaching Principles and Methods + +
Child Literature - +
Scientific research techniques + +
Drama + +
Measurement and Evaluation in Teaching + +
Classroom management + +
Teaching Social Sciences + +
Early Childhood Education + +
Traffic and first aid - +
Literature + +
Effective communication skills + +
Teaching practice + +
Counselling - +
Teaching in multi-graded classrooms - +
Integrated primary teaching - +
Atatürk’s Principles and Revolution History - +
Foreign languages other than German, French and + -
English

The courses offered in the Swedish teacher training have different and specific
areas and students can choose one of these specific courses while in Turkey

98
teacher students have to take the courses given as “ready-made” programs.
Table 7 shows the differences in the courses of initial teacher training
curricula in both countries.
Table 7. Differences in the courses given in the Swedish and in the Turkish
teacher training system
Country Courses given in only one of the two systems
Sweden Earth Science
Food and Nutrition
Middle East Studies
Civics, incl. democratic values and working modes
Children and Youth Studies
Foreign Languages other than German, French and English
Turkey Physical Education and Sports Culture
Child Literature
Traffic and First Aid
Counselling
Teaching in Multi graded Classrooms
Integrated Primary Teaching

When the programmes of the two systems are compared no very pronounced
differences are found. The biggest difference lies in the Foreign Languages
other than German, French and English. In Sweden 14 different language
courses with 101 subcourses are offered.
Table 8. Language courses provided for initial teacher training in Sweden
Courses Provided Number of courses Credits
English 35 7.5-30
Italian 3 30 credits each
Finnish (1) In Finnish 7,5
French 11 7.5-30
Comparative Indo-European From India to Iceland 7.5
Language Research
Celtic language and culture 3 7.5-30
Chinese Chinese history and culture 7.5
Kurdish Introduction to South Kurdish 15
(Sorani)
Nordic Language / Literature / 23 7.5-30
Swedish / Swedish as a Second
Language
Russian 2 7.5 each
Sami Basic 30 Sami 7.5
Spanish 7 7.5-30
Turkish Language Turkey and Central Asia’s 7.5 credits
history
German 11 7.5-30

Since there are many subcourses under the name of languages, i.e. English (35
courses), only the numbers of the courses is given in Table 8. The credits vary
according to the course in question.

99
Teacher Appointments in Sweden
The municipalities/schools recruit and employ teachers for the primary school
and the two forms of secondary school. The Education Act prescribes that to
be permanently appointed as a teacher an applicant must have 1) a teaching
diploma from a university, 2) knowledge of the Swedish language 3) an
appreciation of the regulations applicable to the school system. The
municipality/school choses between the eligible applicants. The final decision
to hire a teacher is taken by the municipal school board or the principal after
negotiations with one of the local teacher unions.
The salaries and the work conditions of teachers (as of any other group of
employees) are based on discussions and agreements between two or three
parties: the Swedish Association of Local Authorities (SALA), the two large
teacher unions (the Swedish Teachers’ Union, the National Swedish
Federation of Teachers) and, in many cases, the State/Government. This is
one aspect of the classical “Swedish model” where wages and working
conditions are agreed upon by the parties of the labour market rather than by
state legislation.

Teacher Appointments in Turkey

Every school year the Education Ministry determines the need for teachers,
and the number and specialties of these teachers is announced in the mass
media. In order for the teachers to be appointed, they need to take a national
Civil Servant Selection Examination (Kamu Personeli Seçme Sınavı -KPSS).
The content of this examination is:
• 60 questions related on the general ability
• 60 questions related to the general culture
• 120 questions related to the educational sciences.
Teachers are then appointed according to the applications submitted and the
results of the exam scores.
Salaries, promotion and career structures, and teacher appraisal systems
are matters largely regulated by the State in Turkey. The wages of primary
school teachers in private schools are regulated through special agreements.

100
Discussion and Conclusion
The education period for initial teacher training has been 3.5 years in Sweden
whereas it is four years in Turkey. With the Bologna process, Sweden has
adjusted its teacher training system to the three cycle system and the initial
teacher programme encompasses one year at the advanced level. In Turkey,
the system already was organised in three cycles when the Bologna-model was
adopted. In Turkey, the consecutive model is applied while in Sweden
concurrent, modular, integrated programs have been applied. There is a
freedom of choice for prospective teachers in choosing the progressively
sequenced courses in Sweden whereas in Turkey the teacher training program
is prepared centrally. All the faculties apply the same standard program. The
2006 reform has given the faculties in Turkey a flexibility of 25 percent.
The entrance requirements is a big discussion in Turkey. The students’
future career depending on a 3-hour exam has been a subject of debate in the
society. However, since the number of the applicants to the universities is
high, some kind of selection has to be made. In order to be objective and give
equal opportunity to the candidates, such an examination is thought to be
obligatory.
The goals of initial teacher training system in Sweden and in Turkey are
quite similar. Both countries want their prospective teachers to be trained to
make independent and critical judgements, to recognise, formulate, and solve
problems, and to meet the challenges of professional life.
Courses in Sweden provide a variety of alternatives. The Swedish system
which provides many different subcourses under the specific subjects, gives
both the universities and the students great freedom of selection. In Turkey
the 25 percent flexibility has been given to the universities in forming the
courses. However, the universities still have very little freedom of changing
the courses. This centralised system limits the academic improvement of the
universities. Furthermore, the potentials of a connection between the
university’s teaching and its research is not taken full advantage of. The
Turkish educational authorities might consider to import a system of offering
different courses and let the students choose whichever course they would like to
take. One lesson learned from the Swedish case, however, is that too great
freedom for the students may lead to a shortage of teachers in certain areas.
Another important advantage of the Swedish initial teacher training
curricula over the Turkish one, is that it provides a selection of the language
courses. In Turkey the language courses are limited to three languages:
English, German and French, whereas in Sweden there are 14 different
language courses with 101 subcourses. The subcourses are not limited to

101
linguistics teaching. It also gives detailed analysis of the country and culture of
that language.
With the globalization and great flow of people across borders into
countries away from their homeland, the need to know many languages has
apparently increased. Aware of this global issue, the universities in Sweden (in
this research Uppsala University) offer 14 languages and the students
specialising in foreign languages are free to choose whichever language they
will learn. The introduction of alternative courses in foreign languages and
freedom of choice might be considered for the teacher training system in Turkey.
When the prospective teachers graduate, they get a diploma in Sweden as
well as in Turkey. The biggest difference lies in the examination. The Turkish
teachers have to pass another examination in order to be appointed as “state
teachers”. The reason for this lifelong exam diet is again the number of the
applicants. The assessment and evaluation of the teacher candidates should no
longer be realized by multiple choice and standardized tests. Instead, the potential
teachers’ teaching ability and capacity should be assessed. This could be done
during the university education period by the university teachers and during the
practice period by the school teachers.
In Sweden, a ‘teacher’s licence’ is currently being discussed and will
probably be introduced within another year. The official motive for the
introduction of this is to raise the status of the teacher profession in Sweden.
It remains to be seen if this will actually be the case.
Although many changes in a positive direction have so far been made in
Turkish education, several structural problems remain, which motivate a new
start. In order to strengthen teacher education as a professional academic
qualification, teacher education must maintain a high scientific level and take
place in close contact with the school environment. It should attract the best-
suited students to the teaching profession, so that the status of both the
educational programme and the profession can be raised.
This study was limited to the comparison of the access, goals, assessment,
and courses. A further research in the comparison of the content of the
curricula can be carried out and an in-depth study of pedagogical courses can
be made. Such a study would give important ideas about the content of the
curricula in both countries.

102
References

Bologna Process (2010) The European Higher Education Area. Retrieved from
[Link]
Council of Higher Education (1998, March). Education Faculties: Restructuring
the Teacher Training Curricula [Eğitim Fakülteleri Öğretmen Yetiştirme
Programlarının Yeniden Düzenlenmesi]. Ankara, Turkey.
Council of Higher Education (2006, June). Education Faculties. Teacher
Training Curricula. [Eğitim Fakültesi Ögretmen Yetistirme Lisans
Programları]. Ankara, Turkey.
Council of Higher Education (2010a). Restructuring in Higher Education:
Bologna Applications in 66 Questions. [Yükseköğretimde Yeniden
Yapılanma. 66 Soruda Bologna Uygulamaları]. Ankara, Turkey.
Council of Higher Education (2010b). The higher education system in Turkey.
The Council of Higher Education. Ankara, Turkey.
Education Act 1985:1110 (Skollagen). Retrieved from
[Link]
Eurydice (2010, February) Focus on Higher Education in Europe, 2010. The
impact of the Bologna Process, Education, Audivisiul and Culture
Executive. Retrieved from:
[Link]
res/041_SE_EN.pdf
Ministry of National Education National education at the beginning of 2001.
“Turkish National Education System”. Retrieved from
[Link]
m.
Ministry of Education and Science (N.D.) Factsheet: A New System of Teacher
Education. Stockholm, Sweden.
Ministry of Education and Research (2003, January). Degree of
Bachelor/Master of Education (Lärarexamen). Higher Education Ordinance,
Swedish Code of Statutes. Issued in 2007 as 2007:129. Stockholm, Sweden.
Retrieved from [Link]
Ministry of Education and Research (2003.) Attracting, Developing and
Retaining Effective Teachers. Background Report Prepared for the OECD

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 Thematic Review of Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers.
Stockholm, Sweden.
Swedish Institute (2007). Higher education and research in Sweden. Swedish
Institute, July 2007 FS 83 a) Retrieved from
[Link]
Higher education in_Sweden/Higher education and research in
Sweden_FS83a_Low.pdf.
Swedish National Agency for Higher Education (2008) National
Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (Högskoleverket) in
Sweden. [Link]. 12-1429-08. Stockholm, Sweden.
[Link]
Template for national reports: 2007-2009. Retrieved from
[Link]
reports-2009/National_Report_Sweden_2009.pdf

Websites consulted
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank to Lennart Wikander who from the beginning supported
my stay in Uppsala University, organised the visits and permissions for the
research. Thanks also to the colleagues in the Department of Education, who
involved in the projects, answered questions and gave feedback. I want to
address a special thank you to my contact person, Prof. Ulla Riis, who shared
her experiences, continuous feedback and support. Without her invaluable
help and contribution, my post-doctorate project would have never been
completed.

104
Appendix 1
Table 9. Courses provided for initial teacher training at Uppsala University in
Sweden
MAIN COURSES SUBCOURSES CREDITS
Children and Youth Children and adolescents in a multicultural society 7.5
Studies Children and young people's participation and agency and living conditions 7.5
Child and Adolescent era, the emergence and institutionalization 7.5
Children and young people's socialization and identity 7.5
Research method 7.5
Gender, socialization and adolescent sexuality 7.5
Gender, socialization, and young children's sexuality 7.5
Biology Aquatic Ecology, from sea to sea 5
Science Biological education courses 10
Sustainable Animal structure and function 15
Development Evolutionary Biology 10
Evolutionary Genetics 15
Physiology 15
Physiology, Nutrition and Health 10
Genetics and Genetic Engineering 15
Sustainable Development A 30
The climate, energy and modern society 7.5
In Limnology 15
Microbial Genetics, 15
Man and nature 7.5
Organisms Diversity and Evolution 15
Toxicology 15
Didactics Educational Perspectives on preschool activities 30
Educational Perspectives on language and mathematics in the early school years 30
Didactics of expertise and research in the field 7.5
Drama, Theatre and Communication 30
Film and Media 7.5
Learning Analysis 7.5
Music-aesthetic learning with children 30
School of Society 7.5
Linguistic dimensions in preschool and school activities and substance. 7.5
Swedish teachers' culture, school culture and context of the international perspective 30
Education and Communication 7.5
Teaching conditions, content and processes 7.5
Digital media Content Design of digital resources 7.5
IT support in education 7.5
Net culture 7.5
Physics Physics Teaching in practice 5
Quantum Physics 7.5
Global energy resources and use 10
Universe of culture 7.5
Orientation Course in Astronomy 7.5
Nuclear Science with Modern Applications 5
In Astrophysics 8
Energy Physics I 5
Geography Economic Geography 15
Geography A 30
Geography B 30
Geography C 30
Physical Geography 15
Political geography in urban planning 15
Social Geography A course package 30
Geography Society 15
Social Geography B course package 30
Social Geography C 30
Urban and Social Geography 15
Earth Science Earth Science - Planet Earth 30

105
History History, A Basic Course 30
Economic History History, Intermediate B 30
Economic History A, 30
Economic History B. 30
Chemistry Analytical Chemistry I 10
Biophysical Chemistry 10
Physical Chemistry 5
Chemical Physics 10
Surface and Colloid Chemistry 10
Organic Chemistry I 10
Basic Computational Chemistry 5
Thermodynamic principles 5
Quantum mechanics, chemical formation and spectroscopy 10
Spectroscopy 10
Mathematics Algebra I 5
Basic course in mathematics 5
Discrete mathematics 5
One variable analysis 10
Several Variables 10
Linear Algebra and Geometry I 5
Mathematics Education for teachers 15
Mathematics for primary school teachers, (course package) 60
Transform methods 5
Food and Nutrition Food and Nutrition: Nutrition 30
Food and Nutrition: Food Science and cooking techniques 30
Middle East Studies Arab world's modern history 7.5
Iran and Afghanistan's modern history 7.5
Music Music Theory 7.5
Popular music studies 7.5
Religious Education Religious Studies 30
Holiness daughters: Myths about women and goddesses 7.5
Arts, culture and theology 15
Myths and the Media 7.5
Ancient religions 7.5
Religion and Politics 7.5
Christian and humanist ethics 7.5
Philosophy, science and environment 7.5
Human rights 15
Civics Political Science B 30
Political Science C 30
Development Studies A 30
AB Social Studies: Political Science 15
Sociology A 30
Sociology B 30
Special Education Group processes - inclusion and exclusion 7.5
Supervision of educational activity 7.5
Historical perspectives on special educationn 7.5
Concentration Ability in Special Education 7.5
Special Education in a democratic preschool and primary school 7.5
Mathematics Special Education 7.5
Language, reading and writing process in a Special Education 7.5
Intellectual disabilities 7.5
Educational Social groups, training strategies 7.5
Sociology Education and social change 7.5
Educational Sociology, Introduction 7.5
Educational Sociology, classical and modern traditions 7.5
Education system, the emergence and structure 7.5
Cultural Sociology, central problems 7.5
Educational Sociology, central problems 7.5
Rhetoric Rhetoric A 7.5
Linguistics Second Language Acquisition 7.5
Phonetics I (Introduction) 7.5
Functional Grammar 7.5
Grammar 7.5
Linguistics A 7.5
Linguistics I (Introduction) 7.5
Semantics and pragmatics 7.5
The language, the individual and society 7.5

106
 The world's languages 7.5
Nordic Language Danish one 7.5
Literature Language and Society 7.5
Swedish Swedish as Practical Danish 7.5
a Second Language Iceland 1 7.5
Iceland 2 7.5
Supplementary Course for Teachers 30
Supplementary Course for Teachers 15
Culture and Communication 7.5
Cultural and social life in Iceland 1 7.5
Comparative Literature A 30
Literature B 30
Literature C 30
Modern Icelandic literature 1 7.5
Place names and personal names, 7.5 Swedish / Nordic languages A 30
Swedish / Nordic languages B 30
Swedish / Nordic languages C 30
Swedish as a second language A 30
Swedish as a second language B 30
Swedish as a second language C 30
Language Development of working in the classroom 7.5
Young people's linguistic practices 7,5
Scientific writing in Swedish 7.5

107
Appendix 2
Table 10. Initial Teacher Training Program in Turkey
1st Semester ECTS 2nd Semester ECTS 3rd Semester ECTS 4th Semester ECTS
Basic Mathematics 4 Basic Mathematics 4 Turkish Language I: 3 Turkish Language II: 2
I II Phonetics Syntax and Textology
and Morphology
General Biology 5 General Chemistry 3 General Physics 3 Child Literature 3
History of 5 Turkish History 4 Music 4 Turkish Geography 3
Civilization and Culture and Geopolitics
Turkish I- Writing 3 General Geography 3 Physical Education 4 Physical Education 3
Exposition and Sport Culture and Teaching Game
Atatürk’s Principles 2 Atatürk’s Principles 2 Science and 3 Science and 2
and Revolution and Revolution Technology I: Technology II:
History I History II Lab. Practice Lab. Practice
Foreign 3 Foreign Language II 3 Environmental 3 Teaching Music 3
Language I Education
Computer 3 Computer II 3 Philosophy 3 Art Education 3
Introduction to 5 Turkish II: 3 Sociology 3 Calligraphy 3
Educational Verbal Exposition Techniques
Science
Educational 5 Principles and 4 Scientific Research 3
Psychology Methods Methods
of Education
Instructional 5
Technologies
and Material
Development
TOTAL 30 30 30 30

5th Semester ECTS 6th Semester ECTS 7th Semester ECTS 8thSemester ECTS
Teaching Science 4 Teaching Science 4 Teaching 4 Teaching In 3
and Technology I and Technology II Visual Art United Classes
Teaching Reading 4 Teaching Turkish 4 Teaching Culture 2 Elective 3
and Writing Of Religion And
Moral Knowledge
Teaching Life 4 Teaching Social 4 Traffic And 2 History Of 3
Science Science First Aid Turkish Education
Teaching 4 Teaching 4 Turkish Literature 2 Integration in 3
Mathematics I Mathematics II In Republican Primary Education
Period
Drama 6 Early Childhood 3 Effective 4 Elective 3
Education Communication
Measurement 4 Society in Service 4 Teaching 10 Teaching Practice 12
and Assessment Practice Practice I II
Classroom 4 School Experience 7 Guidance 4 Turkish Education 3
Management And School
Administration
System
Special Education 2
TOTAL 30 30 30 30

TOTAL Theoretical Practice Credit Hour ECTS

134 44 156 178 240

108
AUTHOR NOTES

Dr. Songül Kilimci is a lecturer at Cukurova University, Turkey. 2007-10 she

was a guest researcher as a post doc at the Department of Education and a
lecturer at the Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University,
Sweden. She studies teacher training, comparative education, and multicultu-
ral education. She also carries out research on curriculum development.
[Link]@[Link]

Ulla Riis is professor of Education at the Department of Education, Uppsala

University, since 1996.
[Link]@[Link]

Lennart Wikander is senior lecturer of Education at the Department of

Education, Uppsala University. His research interest is international
comparative education. He is a member of the Executive Committee of
CESE, Comparative Education Society in Europe.
[Link]@[Link]

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PEDAGOGISK FORSKNING I UPPSALA
123. Gisterå, E-M.; Kimhag, K.; Magnusson, A-K.; Selander, S. & Svärdemo Åberg, E.:
Dyslexi och dyskalkyli. Utvärdering av läromedelskassetter för elever med läs- och
skrivsvårigheter. September 1995.
124. Ajagán-Lester, L.; Cramér-Wolrath, E.; Juhlin Svensson, A-Ch. & Selander, S.:
Läromedel i den decentraliserade gymnasieskolan. Slutrapport från projektet
Läromedelsval och läromedelsstöd. September 1995.
125. Härnsten, G.: Den långa vägen till föräldrainflytande. Rapport från två forsknings-
cirklar kring arbetarrörelsen och skolan. November 1995.
126. Falkner, K.: Lärarprofessionalitet och skolverklighet - en diskussion om
professionaliseringssträvandena i det senmoderna samhället. Licentiatuppsats. Januari
1996.
127. Hellsten, J-O.: Kampen mot kaos. Studie av hur en grundskola utformar elevernas
arbetsmiljö. Licentiatuppsats. Februari 1997.
128. Lindblad, S. & Pérez Prieto, H. (red): Utbildning: Kultur - Interaktion - Karriär.
Sidor av en forskningsgrupp. Februari 1997.
129. Falk, E-M.: Mötet med grundskollärarutbildningen. Tolkning av distansstudenters
texter till sina lärare. Licentiatuppsats. Maj 1997.
130. Axelsson, B.: Science Centers med elevers och lärares ögon - En observations- och
intervjustudie kring kunskaper, attityder och undervisning. December 1997.
131. Heyman, I. & Pérez Prieto, H. (red): Om berättelser som redskap i pedagogisk
forskning. En rapport från forskningsgruppen Utbildning: kultur - interaktion - karriär
(UTKIK). Februari 1998.
132. Peterson, B.: Inlärd hjälplöshet i arbetslivet. Analys av egenkontroll, attribution och
lärande utifrån två komplementära arbetslivsforskningsstrategier. Licentiatuppsats.
November 1998.
133. Holmstrand, L. & Haraldsson, K.: Kunskap i cirklar. Forskningscirkeln som en arena
för forskningsinformation. Februari 1999.
134. Hellblom-Thibblin, C.: Elevers välbefinnande och skolverksamheten. En
litteraturstudie om den pedagogiska verksamhetens roll för elevers välbefinnande.
Licentiatuppsats. April 1999.
135. Englund, B.: Läsa ord i bok eller söka kunskap? Två uppsatser om kunskapens vägar
och villkor. Maj 1999
136. Lindblad, S. (red): Om pedagogiska perspektiv i teori och praktik. December1999.
137. Pérez Prieto, H.: Historien om räven och andra berättelser. Om klasskamrater och
skolan på en liten ort – ur ett skol- och livsberättelseperspektiv. Januari 2000.
138. Holmstrand, L., Lundh, H., Haglund, E. & Wester, L.: Flax med Fenix? En
utvärdering av Fenix-projektets processinriktade pedagogik för långtidsarbetslösa. Juni
2000.
139. Frykhammar, E.: Att lära tillsammans med varandra – deltagarorienterad forskning i
förskolan. Licentiatuppsats. November 2000.

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140. Langerth Zetterman, M.: IT-stöd i distansutbildning med fokus på lärande. Nya
förutsättningar och konventionella lösningar. Maj 2001.
141. Pelttari, K.: Ringar på vattnet? Spridning av erfarenheter från skolutvecklingsprojekt
med IT-inriktning finansierade av Stiftelsen för Kunskaps- och Kompetensutveckling.
Maj 2001.
142. Samuelsson, J.: ”Det står IT, men …” En granskning av hur IT är framskrivet i 282
kursplaner för lärarutbildning. November 2001.
143. Schüllerqvist, B.: En lärares bildningsgång. En biografisk studie av ideal, tradition
och praxis i svensk läroverksmiljö. Mars 2002.
144. Svärd, O.: Högskoleingenjör 2001. Licentiatuppsats. Maj 2002.
145. Holmstrand, L. & Härnsten, G.: Förutsättningar för forskningscirklar i skolan. En
kritisk granskning. November 2002.
146. Holmberg, B.: Frihet, jämlikhet och pedagogik. Ett försök till begreppsanalys med
särskild hänsyn till Wilhelm Sjöstrands tänkande. December 2002.
147. Östman, L. (red): Erfarenhet och situation i handling – en rapport från projektet
”Lärande i naturvetenskap och teknik”. Januari 2003.
148. Östman, L. (red): Nationell och internationell miljödidaktisk forskning: En
forskningsöversikt. April 2003.
149. Pérez Prieto, H., Sahlström, F. & Melander, H. (red): Från förskola till skola –
berättelser från ett forskningsprojekt. Maj 2003.
150. Melander, H.; Pérez Prieto, H. & Sahlström, F. (red): Sociala handlingar och deras
innebörder: lärande och identitet. Maj 2004.
151. Ivarsson, P-M. & Roos, G.: Collegeutbildning för breddad rekrytering till
högskolestudier. En utvärdering av collegeutbildningen vid Högskolan i Gävle och
Mittuniversitetet 2002/03 och 2003/04. Mars 2007.
152. Johansson, K.: Coaching för arbete och utbildning – Utvärdering av projekt för
långtidsarbetslösa. Projekt Robin med ingående delprojekt: Fast Mark, Inspark, Lika
Möjligheter, Mimer och Nya Vindar. Februari 2008.
153. Riis, U. (red): Grundutbildningens kvalitet som studieobjekt – frågor, metoder och
metodvalsperspektiv. En forsknings- och metodöversikt. Maj 2009.
154. Magnusson Klint, A-G.: Sagans möjligheter och mening. En pedagogisk analys.
Licentiatuppsats. Maj 2009.
155. Francia, G.: Utvärdering av försöksverksamhet med collegeutbildning vid Örebro
universitet. Januari 2010.
156. Granberg, M.: Lärande i arbetsliv och organisationer – en teori och forskningöversikt.
April 2010.
157. Lundahl, C., Roman, H., Riis, U. : Tidigt ute med sena betyg – sent ute med tidiga.
Betygen i Europa och i forskningslitteraturen med anledning av regeringens utredning
Betyg från årskurs 6 (Ds 2010:15). Augusti 2010.
158. Riis, U. (ed): Four Essays on Educational Systems in Modern Times. The Case od
the Swedish Educational System. The Case of the Swedish Teacher Training System.
The Case of the Turkish Teacher Training System. The Turkish and the Swedish
Primary Teacher Training System Compared. Oktober 2010.

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FRISTÅENDE PUBLIKATIONER FRÅN PEDAGOGISKA
INSTITUTIONEN, UPPSALA UNIVERSITET
Wallin, E. (red): Från folkskola till grundskola. Tio forskare vid Pedagogiska institutionen,
Uppsala universitet, belyser utvecklingen under 150 år i anslutning till folkskolejubiléet.
Uppsala 1992.
Margareta Höglund & Erik Wallin (red): Glimtar från folkskolan i Uppsala län under
150 år. Ett urval uppsatser utgivna i anslutning till folkskolans 150-årsjubileum.
Uppsala 1992.
Gustafsson, C. & Selander, S. (red): Ramfaktorteoretiskt tänkande. Pedagogiska
perspektiv. En vänbok till Urban Dahllöf. Pedagogiska institutionen, Uppsala
universitet 1994.
Stensmo, C. & Isberg, L. Omsorg och engagemang. En vänbok till Gösta Berglund.
Pedagogiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet 1995.
Gustafsson, C. (red): Pedagogikforskarens roll i utbildningsplanering. Rapport från ett
minisymposium vid Pedagogiska institutionen, Uppsala Universitet 3 maj 1994
med anledning av Urban Dahllöfs pensionsavgång. Pedagogiska institutionen,
Uppsala universitet 1996.
Riis, U., Jedeskog, G., Axelsson, B., Bergman, M., Edström, R., Fahlén, L., Nissen, J.,
Pedersen, J. & Samuelsson, J.: Pedagogik, teknik eller ekonomi? En baslinjebestämning
av KK-stiftelsens kommunbaserade skolutvecklingsprojekt. Utarbetad inom projektet
Elever, Lärare, Organisationer kring Informationstekniken i Skolan (ELOIS).
Pedagogiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet 1997.
Edström, R., Riis, U., Fahlén, L., Jedeskog, G., Pedersen, J. & Samuelsson, J.:
Informationsteknik i skolan. En fråga om ekonomi och pedagogik. En lägesbestämning
via 97 svenska kommuner. Pedagogiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet. Maj
1997.
Bergman, M.: På jakt efter högstadieelevers Internetanvändning. En studie av
högstadieelevers Internetanvändning och Internet som kulturellt fenomen i skolan.
Licentiatuppsats. Pedagogiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet. April 1999.
Riis, U., Holmstrand, L. & Jedeskog, G.: Visionär entusiasm och realistisk
eftertänksamhet. KK-stiftelsens satsning på 27 ”Fyrtornsprojekt” 1996 1999 och de
pedagogiska erfarenheter som satsningen genererat. Pedagogiska institutionen,
Uppsala universitet. Juni 2000.
Nissen, J., Riis, U. & Samuelsson, J.: ”Vi måste börja där vi är …” IT och den svenska
skolan: En lägesbeskrivning vintern 1998/99. Pedagogiska institutionen, Uppsala
universitet. Augusti 2000.
Edström, R.: Flexibel utbildning i gymnasieskolan. Utvidgade klassrum och minskad
transaktionell distans. Doktorsavhandling. Pedagogiska institutionen, Uppsala
universitet. Maj 2002.

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Samuelsson, J.: Nytt, på nytt sätt? En studie över datorn som förändringsagent av
matematikundervisningens villkor, metoder och resultat i skolår 7-9.
Doktorsavhandling. Pedagogiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet. April 2003.
Gunvik Grönbladh, I.: ”Det bästa skolbiblioteket som tänkas kan…” Om
informationsvanor och förändrade gränser i Projekt lärcentra. Pedagogiska
institutionen, Uppsala universitet 2004.
Hedman, E.: Preventivt hälsoarbete inom tandvården. Ungas attityder till tobak och
munhälsa. Licentiatuppsats. Pedagogiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet.
Februari 2007.
Wikander, L., Gustafsson, C., Riis, U. & Larson, L.: Pedagogik som examensämne 100
år. Pedagogiska institutionen, Uppsala universitet. Juni 2009.

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