Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/183457 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IFN Working Paper No. 1228
Publisher: 
Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm
Abstract: 
The Swedish school system suffers from profound problems with teacher recruitment and retention, knowledge decline, and grade inflation. Absenteeism is high, and psychiatric disorders have risen sharply among Swedish pupils in the last ten years. In this pioneering analysis of the consequences of combining institutionalized social constructivism with extensive marketization of education, we suggest that these problems regarding school quality are to no small extent a result of the Swedish school system's unlikely combination of a postmodern view of truth and knowledge, the ensuing pedagogy of child-centered discovery, and market principles. Our study adds to the findings from previous attempts to study the effects of social-constructivist pedagogy in nonmarket contexts and yields the implication that caution is necessary for countries, notably the U.S., that have a tradition of social-constructivist practices in their education systems and are considering implementing or expanding market-based school reforms.
Subjects: 
For-profit schools
Marketized education
School choice
Social constructivism
Voucher system
JEL: 
H42
H44
H75
I22
I28
L88
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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